JOQ - Social Action and Sustainability

YOUNG PEOPLE DEMAND ACTION TO PROTECT THEIR FUTURES AT COP26

 

This was the headline from day six of the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference - or COP 26. Although young people will ultimately inherit the effects and challenges of a changing climate, it is only in recent years that more space and attention has been given to their voices within the conversation, most notably after young activist Greta Thunberg started a movement of school strikes for climate action in 2018. In the midst of this, what role does youth work have to play, and how is it shaping the experiences of youth workers and young people within the sector?

 

Youth practitioners do feel that youth work has a role to play in relation to climate issues, with the majority of those surveyed believing that this is primarily about being able to  ‘support young people to take action in any way they choose’, or to ‘raise young people's awareness about climate change & social justice.’ Just 2% felt that youth work held no particular role.

 

This is in line with the values and principles of youth work, as a process that starts from where young people are at (their interests, goals and experiences) and that can react to issues or needs identified by or with young people directly. The environment and sustainable development is also a core component in the Youth Work Curriculum, which states that youth work can help young people to consider the environment and sustainable development by:

 

• Enabling young people to consider their impact on their environment
• Implementing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in their own practice
• Offering opportunities for young people to develop their creative responses to areas of interest; and
• Supporting young people in taking collective action, including linking with and signposting to other groups.

 

The 12th SDG is specifically about ensuring ‘sustainable consumption and production patterns’ - and almost a third of #justonequestion participants feel that making youth work practice more ‘green’ (e.g. reducing waste) is an important priority. Just over a quarter of respondents also feel that youth work should encourage young people to change their own personal behaviours. One practitioner shared that:

 

​​”[Young people] are very mindful of wasting resources and challenging us all the time.”

 

Tackling climate issues is a complicated challenge and for many respondents, youth work can and should play multiple roles:

 

“All of the above. It is a complex issue, youth workers should be supporting young people to develop critical thinking skills enabling them to do their own research and make their own conclusions. Youth workers should also support young people to take action to address the issues they think [are] most important, be that personal behaviours or lobbying for systemic change. And finally, youth workers should be demonstrating best sustainable practice through waste reduction, ethical sourcing, using green and sustainable energy.”

 

With climate activism hitting the headlines more frequently in recent years, one practitioner also noted that it was important to “[find] ways to engage that are legal and productive and increase their knowledge and skills.” 

 

Building on this, 59% of respondents told us that they feel very confident or confident supporting young people to take action on climate issues, whereas 16% are not confident or not at all confident.  Interestingly, 19% do not know how confident they feel. For some, this is because they don’t ‘push’ a lot of environmental issues at their organisation, or perhaps because ‘helping [young people] to realise that they need to take action is the main difficulty.’

 

“It doesn't seem that climate is on their radar - COVID is a far bigger worry.”

 

For others, a lack of confidence comes from the breadth of issues that sit within climate change conversations and the fact that there is not always time to research and gain knowledge of the specific concerns that young people bring to the table. From the most recent survey, some of young people’s top concerns currently include more extreme weather events, threats to people’s homes and livelihoods, threats to oceanic life, and air pollution.

 

The extent to which climate and sustainability is factored into youth work provision also varies. Some practitioners noted a clear commitment to the issue:

 

“There is a lot of information out there - time for action.”

 

“I work in an organisation called [name] and that is our focus so we are working to develop environmental values.”

 

However, this personal commitment is not always met at an organisational level:

 

“I am super confident in this area because it was my MA dissertation focus. The reality is that my skills are not always compatible with the agenda of my employer and this has to be considered and balanced. I think it re-visits the old questions surrounding youth work.”

 

With a fresh commitment to placing climate change at the heart of the formal education curriculum, it will be interesting to see if and how this becomes a greater priority within non-formal and informal youth provision in coming months and years - and how this can be done in a way that aligns with the core values and principles of youth work.

 

Quality social action opportunities for young people

 

Supporting young people with their ​​leadership, civic engagement and participation is a core part of youth work, including and extending beyond environmental issues. One way of putting this into practice is through providing opportunities for ‘social action’ - activities that young people do to make a positive difference to others or the environment. Social action can cover a wide range of activities, from campaigning to volunteering, fundraising, or supporting peers. The first week of November marked #iwill Week 2021.

 

The #iwill Fund launched in November 2016 to support more organisations in providing social action opportunities for young people. At the heart of the Fund sits six quality principles. For #iwill Week 2021, we were interested to find out how confident practitioners are feeling about implementing these six principles within their practice.

 

 

Having a social impact and ensuring that activities are youth-led are where practitioners are feeling most confident (83% and 78% respectively), although there are some questions about the community impact side of social action - which is a theme reflected in the work of the wider #iwill Fund Learning Hub.

“...Making a change in the community presumes that the change was wanted or that it is seen as positive by everyone. E.g. creating a skate park may be perfect for benefiting young people and give them something to do but people whose homes overlook it may object to what they may see [as] the loss of their quality of life.”

 

The areas of least confidence are around enabling young people to reflect about the value of the activity (which might relate to the point on community impact above) as well as embedding social action into a young person’s life - although 55% and 57% of practitioners still indicated that they are feeling confident in these respective areas. One person shared a note on the ‘embedded’ principle:

 

“To have social action "embedded" in a young person's life suggests that there is some way of measuring years later whether the volunteering is something they continue to do in adulthood. I have my own experiences of working with young people with whom my work has seemed to have failed but then discover that a decade or two later they have made a positive change which they ascribed to learning from their mistakes and good memories from when they were at a youth activity. How to capture and evidence that will always be difficult.”

 

Measurement and evidencing both impact and quality was also flagged by several respondents, with one person noting that the other four principles (be youth-led, allow progression, be challenging, have social impact) ‘lend themselves to more objective measurement of outputs and outcomes’ and that they would, therefore, be the main focus of their efforts. Has this been your experience of delivering youth social action in line with the six quality principles? We’d love to hear your thoughts at hello@youthimpact.uk. 

 

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If you work or volunteer for an organisation working with young people, you can take part in our Just One Question series here. Special thanks to Finlay from our Young Evaluators Panel, who helped us to shape this month’s question on the climate change issues that are most concerning young people!