From the Frontline - The net has boundless opportunities for us
Mike Amos-Simpson
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
One of the most misused words I hear is "empowerment" - often used without consideration to what "power" we are able to hand over. More recently "participation" is the shiny terminology used to express how committed we are to the involvement of young people, but here too I wonder how much thought staff give to how they participate in their field or what opportunities they have to influence policies, projects and so on.
There has been much discussion recently about young people's use of the internet, but there hasn't been so much talk about how the internet can be a useful resource for youth workers too. What discussion has taken place has tended to focus on how practitioners can be trained to best protect young people online.
Useful as this would be, the youth sector is missing a trick by not looking to take advantage of the opportunities for professionals to collaborate online. Instead of simply being secondary guardians for young people, youth workers should be skilled in using the internet for professional purposes.
Some youth workers have already taken steps into the digital world by creating their own blogs and setting up online social networks where they can share ideas and information. It will be interesting to see how this develops - it could, potentially, transform how the sector works.
Youth workers have often looked to the internet for information, but online collaboration offers far more. The modern web is all about interaction - commenting, sharing, uploading and building relationships.
Imagine having an idea and being able to organise a meeting that included managers, fellow practitioners, funders, consultants and young people. By using the internet it is possible to organise that meeting at any time. That's the potential.
But there needs to be a strong online community, with more professionals in the youth sector familiarising themselves with the online world.
We need more ideas out in the open and, crucially, we need more interaction. Only then can the sector look to effectively empower young people to make full use of the internet and begin to explore ways in which workers can participate together with young people to make changes - not just in our own organisations, but across the sector.
- Mike Amos-Simpson is director of development at YoMo, a community interest company that provides a range of resources and training to support young people to make positive contributions to society.
