How do you spot a disengaged young person?
You can often spot a disengaged young person by the neighbourhood they are in and what time of day it is.
You will generally see disengaged young people during the hours of school or work. They often gather around town centres, outside shops and in other public places.
You can never judge by appearances, but you can sometimes spot groups based on the clothes they are wearing. In the inner cities, the young people tend to wear branded leisure gear and footwear.
In smaller towns, you may find other groups such as “moshers” or “skaters”, who can also be disengaged.
Often the young people you have already engaged are able to tell you where they gather from experience.
What are the best ways of engaging them?
No young person is the same, so there are no hard and fast rules about approaching them. It is all about finding a way to break the ice and building up a rapport.
It could be by showing them the mobile phone or the half decent car you have. You should have a thick skin and a good sense of humour though.
The young people you are looking to work with may be quite abusive at first, but that might be because they are checking you out to see if you are real and whether you can identify with them. It is also important to think about the way you are dressed.
Often the only adults who approach them will be from the authorities, for instance police officers, so it helps not to look too official.
How do you keep them engaged?
You need to have a level of empathy with them – that’s how you win their respect. You also have to treat young people as individuals, even when they are in a group.
When you approach a gang, it is useful to look at its dynamics and see where the influence lies. If you can reach that lead person and get them first, then you have a good chance of being able to persuade the others.
It is worthwhile engaging them in activities that they may not have been involved in but are likely to interest them. In the past, Rathbone has run everything from boxing classes to visits to art galleries.
Although many of the young people we work with can live just a few miles from the heart of a city, some of them have never been out of their neighbourhood and into the centre.
What role can different agencies play?
Different agencies have different areas of expertise and Rathbone is renowned for engaging with the most disengaged and going where other agencies will not.
In theory, we should all work together and offer our specialisms, but we should also be prepared to be flexible.
There should be no place for egos when working with young people who have been let down all of their lives. What we offer must be real – not a façade.
The key thing to remember is that the young person’s needs must always come first.
What potential issues are there?
We all know there are very limited resources at present. Funding is extremely tight and agencies are competing against each other for the same, small pots of money. In light of this, it is essential that agencies work together more to help young people.
The biggest challenge we all face, though, is making young people believe they have a vested interest in society.
There is plenty of disaffection with the way society is heading – the state of the economy and prospects for young people. They are starting to look at alternative sources of revenue such as gangs, but we must offer them an alternative to that route.
I have seen the damage becoming a gang member causes to lives and I remind young people of how destructive they are.
Trevor Grant, Pathways tutor and youth engagement worker, Rathbone Manchester
