Youth work in a digital age

Young people are growing up in a digital world. Blogging and video sharing platforms give young people the chance to access and publish content in ways literally impossible just a few years ago. Mobile phones and games consoles are increasingly internet-connected. And with more than 80 per cent of 11- to 25-year-olds using one or more social networking sites, according to research consultancy NFP Synergy, high-speed digital communication has become an essential part of most young people's lives.

Some people have seen the digital world as a threat to youth work as we know it - but digital technologies offer youth workers a whole new set of tools to work with, and create opportunities that youth work cannot afford to miss.

Digital youth

Over recent years many young people's use of digital media has shifted from consuming entertainment and information, to creating and sharing content, being in constant communication with peers, and participating in online communities. With the right support from informal educators, digital media offers the tools and platforms for young people to move from consumer to creator.

While some young people are actively joining online communities around their interests, publishing music they have created on MySpace or getting involved in campaigning through Facebook or Bebo - many young people's interaction with digital media is still based around the websites of commercial brands or is the digital equivalent of hanging out.

Promoting activities

With young people increasingly hanging out online, the web is the place to go when you need to promote positive activities. Facebook pages, or Bebo and MySpace profiles can provide a powerful free platform for promoting projects and activities to young people.

Tower Hamlets Summer University has created a Facebook page to promote the work it does. Denise Drake, web and social networks editor at Tower Hamlets Summer University, updates the page weekly with photos from events, video clips and news from across the project. These updates get featured in the newsfeeds of more than 250 people who have signed up as "fans" of summer uni. Fans can comment on updates, and when they do, their friend networks get to see the update and comment - so something originally seen by just a few people can quickly spread across peer networks on Facebook.

Drake explains: "We used the page as part of the recruiting for our summer programme. While we can't always tell if young people signed up to activities because of Facebook or some other route, this year our programmes were oversubscribed."

Letting young people discover an activity online is only the start. For reminding young people to turn up, West Sussex-based youth worker Jon Jolly has found SMS messaging brings great returns. Jolly bulk buys messages at around 3.5p each and sends them from an online tool to announce times, venues and activities for his weekly club. Using SMS reminders has seen regular attendance at the club double from 40 to 80.

Of course, one of the greatest potentials of digital media is the ability to show young people what's on offer, rather than just telling them in text. You can use a digital camera, mobile phone or digital video camera to capture clips of what happens at your youth project, and then upload them to YouTube or another video site that allows you to edit your clips online. With a video clip young people can see a project before they turn up. Short and engaging online clips can grab attention and give a great sense of a project - where static flyers and posters fall flat. Often a rough-and-ready clip works just as well as one that's professionally made - and young people can get involved in making them.

When you upload a video to the web, it becomes easy for young people to share it with their friends via a social network, and for them to add comments and feedback on the video or activity. Sometimes projects try and switch off all the interactive features of digital media they publish online, but if you try promotion without participation you're likely to be disappointed. As local authority communications expert Simon Wakeman recently explained in an interview on the Plings promoting activities project blog (http://blogs.plings.net). "It's two-way communication - having a one-way dialogue just doesn't work," he says. "Social media blends communications and consultation. You can't start using social media without being prepared to have conversations online."

Supporting young people

Young people need support to make the most of the opportunities of digital media. With the recent government calls for a "Digital Britain", youth work has a role to make sure young people are not excluded from social circles now, and the job market in the future, because of a lack of digital access or skills. But young people also need support to navigate the risks of digital media - from avoiding internet or mobile phone scams, to knowing what to do if bullying spills over onto the online environment.

Young people need the opportunity to talk about their online lives in peer groups. Group discussions about what photos or videos young people should or shouldn't share online can get young people to think before uploading inappropriate images, and can encourage groups to think about creating a positive online self-image. Young people need to know they can talk to their youth workers about digital media issues that concern them. And they need to know how to report bullying, offensive content, or inappropriate contact from adults to service providers or, in serious cases, to the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (www.ceop.gov.uk).

Organisations like ThinkUKnow.co.uk provide online safety education materials that can provide useful starting points for sessions, but for youth workers the important thing is to understand digital media as part of young people's everyday life, and to seek youth work responses to digital media challenges.

When you use any online tools in your work think carefully about how it can be a chance to educate young people about the opportunities and risks of digital media. It's important to risk-assess digital media activities in the same way you would any other activity.

Free youth work tools

There are hundreds of free online tools you can use - from online offices like Huddle to hold discussions with a youth forum across a large rural area; to interactive video tools that you can use to make "choose-your-own-adventure" video stories on topical issues. You can also make use of digital tools in your own professional development and reflective practice. Most tools are very flexible - and their potential is limited only by your imagination.

Blogging

Blogs are a great example of flexible digital media. Sign up to Wordpress.com and within minutes you have your own free publishing platform. You can use it to share news about your project and details of upcoming events - with the added bonus that your updates will quickly start appearing in search engines, and people can subscribe to follow the latest from your blog. Or, like Hilary Mason, Jon Jolly and others you could use a blog to talk about your own youth work practice and to share ideas. Mason was one of the first youth work bloggers from the statutory sector, and for her, being able to explore both digital tools and youth work ideas through maintaining a blog (http://ukyouth blog.wordpress.com) is key.

Mason has also been able to draw on her experience of blogging to help young people share their thoughts on youth exchange trips to China and India. As you can see from the India trip blog at http://wsysinspireindia.wordpress.com young people used the blog as a way to reflect on the trip and to tell friends and family back home their news. The benefit of blogging was not just to the young people themselves. Mason explains: "There was a knock-on effect in the local community - with parents and grandparents who would normally not be using a computer reading and commenting on the blogs. The messages of affirmation to young people coming from family back home with written comments saying 'I love you' or 'I miss you' were very powerful."

West Sussex youth service is now exploring how it can further develop blogging in local youth councils, and is looking at how other digital media tools could be used with young people in the future.

Going digital

If you're not already using digital media in your youth work then it's time for some concerted action. The digital world is moving forward at a phenomenal pace and youth work has some catching up to do.

Start from your core purpose, and think about how digital media can help you. Work through the safety issues carefully. Address any barriers that might come up, remembering they can, and in other organisations have been, overcome. Join forces with others interested in digital media in your organisation - and get involved in the YouthWork Online network of practitioners at www.youthworkonline.org.uk. Try out different tools and give yourself time to explore them. Start experimenting with tools for professional development, then think about them as youth work tools. Borrow ideas from others. Talk to young people about how they are using digital media - and explore the possibilities for promoting what you do, or engaging with young people in the digital spaces where they spend time. Most of all, share your own practice, ideas and thoughts through YouthWorkOnline or by setting up your own blog and be part of the conversation that will shape the future of youth work in a digital age.