What will Youth Work 2.0 look like in a digital age?

Mike Amos-Simpson over the the Late Breakfast Society blog has been asking what Youth Work 2.0 - youth work for a digital age, might look like:

What I was wondering is whether or not there will become a service dedicated to supporting young people to actually using the web effectively, and to deliver informal education through the web? I know to a degree this may already happen in face to face sessions but what I was thinking more about was a service of people skilled in working with young people but also highly skilled in using web technology. An online team that young people can turn to when wanting advice about using services or wanting to set up their own blogs, upload and edit films, deal with cyberbullying etc. etc. - a little bit like detached youth work going out on the streets to work with young people where they’re at, only this would be going online into the spaces where young people are.

Then again maybe there will be online virtual youth centres?! If so what would these be and how would skilled workers take advantage of young peoples interest in the web to deliver informal education?

Mike's reflections suggest a number of really interesting models for youth work in a digital age.

1) The internet, social media and social networking as 'positive activity' foundations for youth work approach - in the same way that youth work has often embraced arts and sports as tools to engage young people in positive activity, informal learning and critical reflection, youth work can make use of digital opportunities to engage young people - both online and offline.

Research by Ofcom (PDF) in 2007 found that internet related activities have "a role re-engaging some of the educationally disengaged, as they enjoy the control and fun of working with a PC" - and the opportunities for communication, social interaction, identity exploration and creative expression presented could provide a strong foundation for positive youth work.

2) Work to support young people's online interaction - helping young people to deal with cyberbullying, risks or lack of skills to exploit opportunities online. In our research we found that many of the skills to provide this sort of work exist within the youth work workforce - but distributed between staff - so that not everyone has all the skills and knowledge they need to know how to respond to concerns raised by young people online.

In a fortnights time I'll be trying out a possible model for staff training around online social networks - designed to equip youth workers to respond effectively to young people's online interaction.

3) Detached youth work online - where (1) and (2) are about youth workers using and responding to technology in the settings where they already work - detached youth work online is really something new. Rather than setting up information websites for young people to come to - it could involve youth workers browsing and following links across social networking spaces, adding posts to message boards, contacting young people directly, noticing community needs and developing online projects to meet them (for example, identifying negative peer norms in a particular social networking community and so suggesting online and offline projects to deal with this), and other means of online interaction with young people.

This sort of 'pure' online detached youth work is both contentious and complex. It needs to work out how to deal with geographical boundaries, and with personal-private divides. It needs considerable technical skills from a youth worker, and experience of operating in online communities to understand their different rules and structures.

However, a form of online detached work - where youth workers are actively observing, and informally participating in local online social networks and communities may be less contentious and may still have a lot to offer. For example, young people may already be expressing online their views about a local area - and if youth workers can have a finger on the pulse of geographically local online discussions - and can factor in what they are hearing as part of their community mapping (and indeed, if they can join in conversations in online spaces with young people to explore possible responses) - then a lot of positive projects may result.

Over the coming months we'll be exploring how youth participation projects can engage with this rich online dialogue - and what the policy and practice implications of such engagement could be.

4) The 100% virtual youth centre
Some workers we've spoken to as part of the Youth Work and Social Networking project have explained that whilst they use online social networks as part of their initial contact with young people - they like to move to offline contact and conversation fairly quickly. Few workers suggested a model of youth work delivered 100% online, and one of the opportunities of social network sites is that they do create far more localised online communities which can easily connect with real-world spaces.

However, Mike's discussion about suggests the idea of virtual youth center - which could be 100% online youth work provision. There are some 100% online youth projects, such as the Princes Trust for Carers YoungCarers.net which makes very active use of forums, blogging and web-chats - and there are many youth focussed online community sites such as TakingItGlobal.org - but these are far from 'universal youth work provision' (YoungCarers.net is very focussed on support for young carers and TakingItGlobal.org on global social action). The nature of online community is that it needs something to group around - which may be a local area, or it may be a shared interest or issue.

Issue based online youth work provision may have a role (and I'll be asking Ewan from YoungCarers.net a bit more about how that project works to share on this blog soon...) - but universal and general 100% online provision may yet need some working out....

What do you think YouthWork 2.0 will look like?
How does youth work engage in a digital age? Can you provide a few line sketch of what you think might be the future? You can use the comments below to share you ideas - or get in touch with me: tim@practicalparticipation.co.uk