December Reading List

This article  reflects on youth work and commensality, an area of study concerned with the practices of eating at a shared table explored through ethnographic studies. St Croix and Doherty position youth work as ‘a site of commensal experience for young people and youth workers’ extending the discussion around youth work and community development. The article draws upon data from a  three-year study, investigating how impact tools and processes are experienced and enacted by young people and practitioners in youth work settings. The shared experience of eating transcends the mundane, into a cultural experience embodied by being in a youth club – becoming a mode of informal education. St Croix acknowledges the tension for practitioners in articulating these experiences as holding value as an evaluative outcome. The youth workspace becomes a commensal space used to elicit trust, where young people maintain a sense of ownership and community. Commensal experiences and practices in a youth work setting are taken as extending a literal and metaphorical ‘shared table’ providing a safe space to include young people’s experiences. The article concludes by considering commensal experiences embedded into youth work practices and as a valuable foregrounding method to engage and reflect upon. 

 

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Greater Manchester Centre for Voluntary Organisations (GMCVO) has produced this easy-to-navigate  guide  to support community organisations undertaking their own research or planning to do so in partnership with other institutions. What we particularly like about this resource is its focus on how to generate high quality evidence. The golden thread running through the guide is the exploration of key issues related to ‘trustworthiness’ in the research process. To this end, Part I focuses on trustworthiness, ethics and bias, before moving on to a stage-by-stage breakdown of the research process itself in Part II, where considerations relating to trustworthiness are woven throughout. The guide also signposts to several other resources to support understanding. Our work here at the Centre prioritises collecting data that is useful, meaningful and of high quality, and supporting youth sector organisations to do the same, so this work from GMCVO really resonates with us. We encourage any community organisations considering undertaking research to put this guide on their reading list. 

 

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This article  on  Ettie Bailey-King’s Fighting Talk  website caught our eye, pointing out that stories of heroes, victims, saviours, and people who need saving - prevalent in the charitable sector - create unhelpful ‘them and us’ narratives that perpetuate inequality.  Bailey-King’s article identifies ten unintentional language traps we may fall into, such as portraying people who use or participate in provision as passive (e.g., ‘beneficiaries’) or using descriptions that blame young people for the injustices they experience (e.g., ‘hard to reach’ or ‘disengaged’). Her paper also identifies five strategies to avoid these issues. This seems a timely reminder that whilst we in the charitable sector may be explicit about our EDI policies and procedures, we may not look at our own language and behaviours. It’s not just about what we are ‘doing’ to be more inclusive but also how we are ‘being’. Paternalistic and beneficent terminology is tightly woven into our unconscious and can accidently seep out, undermining and indeed corrupting our good intentions. Perhaps you could lend a critical eye to your website or latest annual report to see how it positions you as an organisation in relation to the young people you support, so you can weed out any ‘them and us’ language. 

 

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The Rethinking Impact, Evaluation and Accountability research project, supported by  ESRC  and led by Dr Tania de St Croix and Louise Doherty at King’s College London, has very recently published two new resources for funders, policy makers and youth workers. From the briefing on  Valuing Youth Work, we took two particularly important messages: youth work should not be burdened with accountability for outcomes over which it has no direct control, and skilled, committed youth workers are youth work’s most important resource. The accompanying  practical resources  offer youth workers insight and guidance on embedding evaluative questions and reflection into their work with young people. 

 

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In this  blog,  Bond, the UK network for organisations working in international development, outlines some of its findings and advice around income generation for international non-governmental organisations (INGOs). Supported by Access – the Foundation for Social Investment, Bond spoke with experts and charities to explore whether generating income can not only help with the financial sustainability of organisations, but also support a shift in power to social activists and communities. Their insights for INGOs included ensuring income generation aligns with charitable objectives, considering alternative trading models, and learning from similar models within the domestic sector – such as  the Enterprise Development Programme.  

 

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This briefing  by HeadStart, a collaboration between the Child Outcomes Research Consortium (CORC) and the Evidence Based Practice Unit (EBPU) at UCL, funded by the National Lottery Community Fund, reviews models of participation to understand young people’s participation in school and community programmes, and help decision-makers advance leadership opportunities within activities for young people. The briefing examines different models of participation that currently exist within systems of care and support, their strengths and drawbacks, and offers valuable insight into the roles, power dynamics, and motives for stakeholder involvement that should be explored when developing and maintaining authentic youth participation. A good read for anyone looking to review or strengthen their youth programme design. 

 

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This  article from Youth & Policy, by Sandra Vacciana, provides a rich and fascinating insight into the process of peer research as part of a project exploring “what else should we be doing to address the social conditions which undermine the life chances of young people with minoritised and racialised identities, triggering their need for sustained resilience?”.  Vacciana shares detailed and evocative descriptions of how peer researchers and staff embarked on a shared inquiry, as both ‘researchers’ and ‘the researched’. The research methods focused on reflective practice, and iterative training and co-design. The research both confirmed some well-known themes (like the importance of networks and connection in young people’s lives) and surfaced some things that were previously ‘unseen’ or ‘unspoken’ (like the assets and processes that help young people from racialised communities develop inner strength). Vacciana ends with a call to action to subvert research orthodoxies and gather stories rather than collect data, alongside training participants to become co-producers and thus fully recognising them as ‘holders of knowledge’. 

 

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This article from Research in Practice has some great reflections on  embedding evidence-informed working in social care and beyond, and is a great opportunity to learn from peers in the social care sector. In the blog, Sophie Christian (currently Organisational Development Consultant for Diversity and Inclusion at Wiltshire Council) provides some helpful and practical examples of how she has supported colleagues to use and apply resources and develop their evidence-informed practice over time. Christian shares a range of important considerations – from different methods of learning and disseminating resources, and tailoring content for different teams, to the importance of invested senior sponsorship, and monitoring engagement with resources, for example through online site visits. Simple but effective channels for sharing content, such as regular newsletter features and proactively bringing resources to forums and meetings, have also enabled Christian and her colleagues to support staff beyond social care teams; presenting a ‘one team’ organisation perspective, she reflects that "at the end of the day, we all work to support our community though our interaction with children and families. We found these evidence-based resources can be useful for customer services staff, librarians, refugee support teams, and so many more”. 

 

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In  this article on the Common Cause Foundation blog, Ruth Taylor explores why we should build power for new narratives in place of relying on old ones that can draw attention away from systemic solutions. Using climate change as an example, Ruth sets out how traditional approaches – such as nudge theory – and a dominant narrative of individualism ‘bypasses the need to invest in the process of revising the systems in which individuals live’ and ‘undermines the prospects for policy responses to a range of injustices’. Ruth demonstrates how this then influences public perceptions of individual and collective power and influence, alongside the risks of unexamined, untested dominant narratives ('keep[ing] the powerful in power, always at the expense of marginalised communities and our living planet.’) These points speak particularly to campaigning organisations, but I think there are a number of helpful prompts for us to consider when reflecting on the narratives that we use to talk about young people and communities in the design and evaluation of work across the sector. 

 

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For those interested in the way in which (young) people process emotions, Toleikyte (2020) provides a useful starting point in her work on neuroplasticity and changing behaviour. As she explores the cognitive processes that affect the way we think, it becomes clear that the ability to self-regulate is a complex and challenging process.  
Difficulties in regulating behaviour and emotions in social situations will be evident to a range of practitioners working with young people, especially those who have missed out on opportunities to develop the socio-emotional skills required to navigate the world around us. The idea of the ‘neuroperson model’ provides a helpful lens for thinking about the way in which young develop cognitively. Toleikyte is optimistic in the brain’s ability to learn and change, which can be seen in the strategies she provides - a positive reminder that relational pedagogies like youth work can provide the right conditions for all to grow and flourish. 

 

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This podcast series  ‘Talking Racism and Mental Health in Schools’  from the Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families explores racism in formal settings, and how experiencing racism can affect young people’s mental health and self-esteem. Alongside guest speakers including the Honourable Stuart Lawrence, and Eve Doran, researcher at Black Learning Achievement and Mental Health (BLAM), the podcast highlights racism and efforts to tackle it as a ‘school’s responsibility’ and the benefits of embedding an anti-racist approach within its structure. Each episode discusses a different concept or approach to further anti-racism in schools; involving the whole school community in anti-racism initiatives, the impact of racism on self-esteem, the importance of representation in staffing and the curriculum, and inclusion of Black British culture and language in schools. 

 

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There are some great practical and simple tips in  this short reflection on moving research from ‘insights to action’, by Kendra Thompson-Dyck and Deven Wisner (Assessment and Research at the University of Arizona) over on the  AEA365 blog. The piece talks about taking research and evaluations out to those who have agency or power to effect change, as well as (crucially) creating space for different communities to ‘provide unique insights and/or provide member-checking on the insights you’ve derived from the evaluation.’ As the authors point out, intentional reporting done in this way takes time, funding, and patience; as well as providing advice for working in a smart and efficient way when taking research into the community – for example, creating a master slide deck that you can adapt for different audiences (the article also links to a handy Google Docs template that you can adapt to collect real-time feedback), they also emphasise that these processes need to be factored into the evaluation plan right from the start. 

 

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Read all of our monthly reading lists from 2022 here.