November 2007 Archives

Youth Work and Social Networking Survey

How are youth workers using online social networking tools themselves and in a professional context? And what is the role of youth work in supporting young people's interaction with online social networking?

Those are two of the questions we're hoping to get a little closer to answering through this online survey.

If you are a Youth Worker in England and you can spare up to 25 minutes of your time, then please do head over and complete the survey online before the 21st January 2008.

Your answers will inform a series of focus groups and action research projects running between February and April, and will feed directly into the final project report due in mid 2008.

We hope that the end results of this research will lead to new resources and shared best practice examples that help youth workers and youth work managers support young peoples in their engagement with online social networking. We'll be sharing some of the early results on the project blog here as we go along.

Go straight to the survey >>>

Content Centric Connectivity photo by Anonymonk (http://flickr.com/photos/anonymonk/1403378488/. Creative Commons Non-Commercial Attribution Share-Alike licensed)Social networking is big right now. And it's not going away.

It's difficult to avoid hearing stories in the media almost daily about
YouTube, Facebook, MySpace and other social networking websites. Many of those stories focus on young people and social networks,
and a lot express concerns about the risks of online social networking
(although a few do touch on the many opportunities online social
networks present as well).

A lot of work is going on right now to research how young people are engaging with online social networking.

Youth Work
Youth Work is about empowering and supporting young people to navigate risk and make the most of opportunity. Youth workers have historically supported young people to engage positively with a wide range of life experiences.

Youth Work and Social Networking

How, then does youth work best support young people to manage the risks and make the most of the opportunities presented by social networking technology?

That is the question being asked by the Youth work and social networking research project being carried out by Practical Participation for The National Youth Agency. And this is the blog where we will be sharing updates on the research between now and April 2008, and where we will be inviting your input.

Welcome.