An innovation lab for youth work 2.0? Ideas for 2gether festival...

[Tim Davies]

I've just been putting together a pitch for a session at the 2gether 08 social innovation event. 2gether describes itself as:

A festival of ideas and action. On July 2-3 in London more than 300 people will gather to explore how digital technologies can bring us major social benefits.

The festival organisers have invited participants to suggest ideas for sessions and conversations at the event, and I've suggested a session called:

Towards an innovation lab for youth work 2.0 - Informal education and work with young people in a digital age

Here's what I've put down as the session objective:

To sketch out what an innovation lab for youth work and informal education might look like.

Young people (13 - 18) face more challenging transitions and challenging environments in their lives than ever before. Youth work should be there supporting young people's personal and social development in the digital realm, and using digital tools. This session is about creating a vision, and identifying next steps, to bring greater use of social technology into work with young people outside of school settings.

The session will involve some inputs about current youth work challenges (video/stories etc.) and will facilitate idea exploration around youth work 2.0.

I'm hoping that this session might provide an opportunity to bring together various conversations about ways of catalysing youth work 2.0 in advance of the unconference in September.

I'm not certain the session has been accepted yet, but it would be great:

1) To hear if anyone would be interested in helping develop and run the session if it gets accepted...

2) To hear ideas from anyone about what we should be thinking of in terms of an innovation lab for youth work 2.0:
- What sorts of innovations are needed?
- What sources of funding might be available?
- How could it be made participative and include youth workers and young people as key stakeholders?

Do pitch in using the discussion below...

[mas]

Hi Tim - unfortunately I can't make it but I have promised to try & contribute online where possible. Please feel free to use OnTheUp if that in anyway helps.

For my own thinking about Youth Work 2.0 I've been basing it on OnTheUp - I'm not sure how much info we've put out there yet but the basic plan now is to develop a series of mini applications that somehow help young people reflect on themselves & the experiences they have so that they can look forward. Still very much based around identifying and developing soft skills etc.

I'm finding this thinking helpful as it requires you to think about how it can be possible to help young people achieve awareness of what they have and what they gain from experiences + very importantly how do you motivate and support them to place themselves into situations to further this.

For the participative bit we've had quite a few offers for youth organisations to pilot things once they get going - I don't think this bits that difficult (you just ask!) - managing it however is more complex - initially it can slow things down too much to be 'too participative' and then of course at later stages if you haven't been participative enough it can become too difficult to provide opportunities. Of the two main stakeholders I suspect youth workers will be the more difficult to find and to involve.

In terms of the session some thoughts from me:
- Perhaps to clarify what Youth Work 2.0 is/isn't - eg. in my mind its an online youth service - its not youth work 'using the web'
- Identifying strengths & weaknesses - in what areas/aspects can an online service excel and in which is it not really suitable
- What would be the relationships between online & offline services?
- What will be the skill sets required to develop and then operate this kind of service and who will drive it forward?

[Tim Davies]

Thanks Mas

Will definitely use OnTheUp as an example... if you discover any of the rest of the OnTheUp team might be at 2gether - do let me know...

I'll just pick up one of your thoughts about the session for now In exploring 'What is Youth Work 2.0?' you've said "in my mind its an online youth service - its not youth work 'using the web'".

I think I would probably come from a different angle. One aspect of Youth Work 2.0 might be an online youth service / youth provision delivered primarily online - but that's only a small part of it. I would hazard that more of it is about:

1) Youth Work making use of digital tools: web, phone, consoles, whatever - to communicate with young people on their terms;

2) Youth Work being able to operate in online spaces, to run activities in these spaces, and to support young people in these spaces - but as blended facilitation with activities crossing over between online and offline - rather than being online or offline only (given young people see very little distinction between online and offline lives);

3) Youth Workers making use of the social web to build their own reflective communities of practitioners and to develop their own informal learning environments;

4) Youth Work building a toolbox of digital widgets and social web gadgets that help it in meeting its core goals/principles of: supporting young peoples personal and social development; starting where young people are at and taking them beyond that point; tipping the balance of power in young people's favor.

I would also see YW 2.0 about being more participative and user-driven. A co-creation between young people and workers and wider communities.

Would all this pass for you as YW 2.0? Or do my points above need to come under some other label? (Or indeed, are the just wide of the mark...)

[mas]

lol well I think I said in another discussion not to get hung upon the 2.0/3.0 stuff but now I reckon maybe theres a good case for it ;-/

Ignoring the definitions for web 1.0/2.0 etc. and just focussing on youth work on/using the web I think its would be useful to look at it incrementally - so something like....

1.0 Passive - getting information online but not really participating or contributing
2.0 Participating - Actively taking part and making use of social media & social networking
3.0 Influencing - Using the web in ways that genuinely influences change (either personal or in society)

I'm not sure if 'influencing' is the best term there but what I mean is the development of online services that actually lead to some sort of action in the real world - be that personal behaviours/lifestyles or wider social movements etc.

Probably also sensible here to make it clear that its 'Digital Youth Work 2.0' rather than the broader 'Youth Work'.

By that kind of definition what I've been describing as 2.0 would actually be 3.0 ie. quite a lot further down the line than where youth services are currently at (who are maybe still not quite at 2.0 ?)

Also by that definition I think all your points make sense and certainly for the use of the current social media stuff it makes sense that there is more consideration to the offline world using the online technology and that this is on different levels ie. the likes of your self & DK at Mediasnackers lobbying & supporting professionals to take advantage of social media, then hopefully workers supporting young people to use these in positive beneficial ways etc.

The next stage that I'd originally touted as 2.0 would then become 3.0 and of course this is a way off yet - this is looking forward and thinking about what technologies we think will be available, what trends there are likely to be and how youth work could take advantage of or influence the development of such.


No doubt thats horribly confusing for some people so apologies for going against my own suggestion of not getting hung up on numbers! Though for me at least it now seems quite useful and would probably make a very nice colourful future looking chart! In fact if I get some spare moments in the next few days I'll put one together & upload it (in the meantime please add in suggestions etc.)

[Tim Davies]

Ok. Here's where I've got to on an introduction to the session and resources...

If I get time this evening I'll be creating quick summaries of 'On The Up' 'Plings' and 'The Site' as inputs for the discussions...

---

Towards an innovation lab for youth work 2.0 There is a gulf between the potential and the actual us of social media and new digital technologies in youth work, participation work and informal education work with young people.

Through my research over the last six months I’ve gained a sense of cautious interest and nervous excitement about the possibilities of social technologies in youth work - but a full vision of Youth Work 2.0 is yet to develop.

This session will set out to explore and develop that vision, and to ask how we can encourage, incubate, foster and share innovations and innovative practice that moves us towards ‘Youth Work 2.0’ - youth work for a digital age.

There is no set outcome for the session. And there are no grand plans all ready and waiting to be revealed. But I am hopeful that the people coming together for it will be able to help shape ideas, and possibly take forward ideas - that help move work with young people forward.

Programme Outline
An outline of what we might do in our 85 minutes is below. This is here as a guide.

You can also download a sheet on ‘What is Youth Work’ prepared to help those new to the Youth Work field, and the reporting template we could use to capture some of the conversation.

2.15 - 2.30: Introductions
Finding out who is in the room...
Introducing the session...

2.30 - 2.45: The current landscape
A primer on Youth Work and a chance to share perspectives on the current landscape of youth work, participation, positive activities and informal education...

2.45 - 3.15: Visions for the future
Small group discussions exploring visions for one or more of: detached youth work; positive activities; information, advice and guidance; youth participation; youth volunteering; targeted support; informal education; or other aspects of youth work...

3.15 - 3.30: Getting from here to there
In small groups / as a whole group - exploring what the innovations, institutions, networks and actions are that can move us from here, to where our vision tells us we want to be...

3.30 - 3.40: Networking, recording and setting next steps
Picking up and logging other strands of conversation, recording some of what we’ve discussed (social reporting) and planning any next steps for the festival and beyond...