Riots: the aftermath!

After spending two years working as a youth worker on a high-crime, inner-city estate. Then the next three years working with 16-19 year olds in further education I feel that, although I am no expert, I have some gravitas and cultural understanding when talking about the issues affecting young people today.
In the clear light of day, it is morally wrong for politicians, the police or members of the public to make quick judgement on what happened last week. The situation we find ourselves cannot be ring-fenced by this idea that quick arrests, tough sentencing and the exemption from welfare benefits is the ultimate solution where, as soon as you introduce said measures the apathetic and disenfranchised will fall in line. The root problems of last weeks turmoil have been growing organically for a generation, the remedies, alas, cannot be found in a week.
It is easy, as some people inevitibly will, place the blame for these riots squarely on the shoulders of parents, or maybe even successive government's laissez-faire approach to school discipline and although these are mitigating probems, they are not unilateral problems. In truth we are all at fault. The reasons as to why thousands of people chose to loot and riot stems equally from our own beligerance as it does any criminality from so-called 'gang-culture'. The riots that struck last week are just a small reminder of what is at stake here. By trying to solve the reason's why we must first look at ourselves and our place in society. In short it is not so much one or two small problems that need fine-tuning such as arrests or taking away the benefits of looters but a complete cultural shift within society.


The young people who rioted last week, and this must be stressed with vigour, do not represent the entirity of young people today. It is all too easy though, even among politicians in the aftermath late last week, to once again tread the careful line of political correctness by stating that the vast majority of young people are respectful and upstanding pillars of community. Arguably, this isn't the case. Yes, most young people would never even think about looting, vandalising or rioting to the extent of some young people last week but we cannot be naive into thinking that young people are otherwise respectful of authority and rules or,more importantly, are they grateful to the opportunities given to them. The issue here, and this isn't just entrenched into the younger elements of society, is that we have lost touch with what we have to be thankful for. Respect, hope and promise are feelings that citizens have when they understand the definition of society, not just the parts that come free with it.

In my work, two things became abundantly clear over the past five years. One, for all the exclamations that violent video games and gangsta rap do not have anything to do with the current social problems, I completely disagree. Although, the youth 'rising up' against the establishment is nothing new, it seems to have taken on a much more toxic context over the past few years. Watching young people, some as young as 10, imitate the language and mannerisms of a pimp, drug dealer or thief is sickening. Teenagers in hoods, carying knives, stood with their hands down their pants, intimidating their community, this isn't how it was supposed to be. This isn't middle-England's attack on rap music, this is looking on in horror as a whole generation get seduced by the 'get rich or die tryin' attitude which seems to have enveloped the nation. This isn't the veneration of a whole genre of music, more the irresponsibility of the majority to not acknowledge that this is one of the root causes of the problem.


Secondly, we have been made to believe that even in less economically challenging times certain pockets of society have been offered nothing or to a lesser extent are not being listened to. Again, and this is ofcourse all relative, young people in this country, compared to similar developed nations across Europe, are offered more activities, more qualifications, better standards of youth services and sports organisations than any other. For thirteen years of a Labour government the answer was to throw money at trying to halt the rising tied of youth offending and although some success has been made in areas, it cannot be backed up by a resonated change in attitude. Organisations often proudly showcase their statistics but it is these very statistics, so often lauded by government, that undermine the very purpose of these youth services. In essence, young people, even in these frought economic times, have opportunities to better themselves, whether it be through education, community-driven projects or merely hobbies and interests. Unfortunately, these things go against the grain of the culture they aspire to, to better themselves, to better their communities or simply to earn their living through hard-work.


Doom mongering is not the aim here but the past week has to be seen as a marker in evolution in society that we so desperately crave. We have to teach not only our young people but also ourselves that what we aspire to cannot be consistently handed on a plate. That by doing somnething positive in your community will not only benefit your neighbours but will go a long way to halt the rising tide of alienation that they feel from the rest of the society. If young people want a stake in society, it is theirs for the taking, but they must earn that right.

A year in youth work

A year in youth work

A year last September I started a job in youth work working for an organisation based in Portsmouth aimed at engaging with young people and supporting them to access better life chances. The principle of the organisation and youth work in its most general form is to engage with young people, many of them in a disadvantaged position, to act as a guide and mentor and encourage them to achieve their potential and also to keep them away from offending behaviour. Youth work is a catch-all term meaning any type of work involved with young people but my role was to specifically work with young people aged 13-17 in a specific geographical location. Without getting down to the bare-bones of the location these areas are chosen because they have a history of youth offending, have a high ratio of young people entering the youth justice system for the fist time and the area has historically suffered from high levels of crime and anti-social behaviour. I don't want to concentrate on the location too much because that’s not what I want to focus on but it helps but this into context.Youth work has changed immeasurably over the last few years to cope with the demands of an evolving society. People have their own reasons why youth nuisance has become such a problem but youth work in its own right has had to become reactive to meet these needs and form a cohesive strategy to cope with the social problems that are related to it. Young people are more intelligent now than they ever have been and arguably ever will be but people have to steer away from this judgmental attitude that seems to have crept into society over the last few years. The public have this attitude where if they see a young person aged between 12-18 and they don't conform to the stereotypical vision of the youth in their childhood they are instantly judged to be thugs. I am not for one minute stating that all young people are angels and we are being misled by a moral-panic hungry media (ok, maybe) but what we are guilty of is stereotypifying a certain demographic and casting it upon the rest of the population just because they might be wearing a tracksuit or a baseball cap. Young people have evolved over the last few years mirroring the changes in society, they are disenfranchised, apathetic, bored and all too often being won over by the wrong role models who either know them personally or are a part of their lives through the media. Young people need the right inspiration and motivation just like the rest of the adult population by being diverted away from the corrupt.

For me it begs the question of stability. If a young person is from a stable background they are less likely to offend, obviously there are anomalies but in 9 out of ten of cases this must be true. Social deprivation and anti-social behaviour must be a significant judge of youth nuisance but if a young person has been brought up in a stable environment with a positive male role model then that young person is less likely to offend. Having a positive male role is absolutely key to that young person, more predominantly male, in ensuring that they steer clear of offending behaviour. This is why, and it’s slightly off the point, it is absolutely vital that more male primary teachers are attracted into the profession to have a valuable impact on young males from a very early age to procure these young minds. A lot of primary school children are without a dominant male figure within their lives and it is this along with the breakdown of the family group which is causing more and more young people to offend from a very early age which is why it is even more important that youth work becomes reactive both to the needs of the young people but more importantly the area in which they associate themselves.

My time in youth work has enabled me to gain a sound understanding of the needs of young people in a society that does everything in its power to provide for them but does absolutely nothing for them if they fail to take it. Neighbourhoods have to start taking responsibility for their own residents instead of blaming the very system whom they ask so much for. Parents and community members hold so much responsibility for the behaviour of the young people in whom they only want the best for. Having youth clubs and schemes in which young people can hang-out is great but these aren't generally the places in which youth nuisance is a problem. Parents and community workers have to be aligned in their objective and completely unified in their need to change the mentality of the young people from a situation where it is on most occasions ‘them versus us’. Germany, the States, Australia, Sweden, these countries place massive significance on civic pride and this is evident in the unity between residents and most significantly the attitude of the young people. We need to roll back the years to a time when we were connected to our youngsters, not enemies.

Youth work can be the most valuable weapon in the fight to curb youth offending and anti-social behaviour by bridging the gap between authority and the young people themselves. The last year or so has taught be some extremely valuable lessons through getting to know young people and how susceptible they are to influences from other people whether that be a family member, friend or worker. I guess what I am trying to get at is that youth work is extremely important, especially in inner-city areas where the need for intensive work is absolutely vital. The major paradox is this though; youth work is nothing without the shared responsibility and foresight of the wider community, it just doesn’t work. Working in places such as Portsmouth there is always going to be pockets of resistance to change and evolution and this will always be the major downfall of working in such a place. Youth nuisance will continue to be a major problem on our streets until we take it by the scruff of the neck and deal with it head on, taking away the reliance on the police as someone to blame.

This messed up and confused little isle is home to some fantastic young people with a massive amount of potential. Society needs to reinvent itself as a place where young people feel proud to be involved. Sport gives young people the sense of belonging, competitiveness and usually the ability to know how to cope with both winning and losing, but we should have so much more of it! The aforementioned countries treat sport with a massive amount of seriousness but we seem to see it more as a pastime rather than as a fundamental part of youth. This, and its no exaggeration, would go a massive way to solving some of the biggest questions that we have of young people and the problems associated with them. What a bloody great fifteen months….Tom Walters