Case Study: online youth work with the Gateshead Young Women's Outreach Project

Last Friday I took the long train journey up to Gateshead to meet with Joanne Jopling from the Gateshead Young Women's Outreach Project to talk about how the project could make wider use of social networking - particularly to provide online discussions spaces, and online advice and support for young women across the area. In the end, our conversations ranged right across the Youth Work and Social Networking territory - and I was so inspired by Joanne's engagement with online tools for youth work, and her clear sense of the need for youth work to get online and support young people where they are at - that I wrong up the case study below on the long train journey home. There's lots in here

Case Study: Youth Work Online with the Gateshead Young Womens Outreach Project

Joanne at the Gateshead Young Women's Outreach Project started using MSN messenger to communicate with young people a couple of years ago. After spending over two months working with one issolated young woman, and rarely being able to make eye contact or get into conversations with her, one evening Joanne used her home computer to sign on to the MSN instant messenger program and to exchange instant messages with the young woman.

Over the course of an evening's conversation, typing back and forward on MSN, they were able to exchange messages about the weather, to talk about particular challenging issues the young woman was facing, to chat about the young women's project and to have a fun conversation. When the young woman came into a group project session the next week she was far more engaged in activities, and Joanne could build upon the relationship struck up through instant messaging.

Now the Gateshead Young Women's Outreach Project makes use of a wide variety of tools - with young people able to contact staff by text message, instant messenger, and most recently, through a group on Facebook. The Facebook group is only open to young women who have been in touch with the project, and provides a space for discussion.

Joanne also has a personal Facebook profile, and allows young people she has worked with to add her as a friend. Having a profile lets her see 'status updates' posted by the young women she works with - so she can identify issues of challenges they may be facing, and, where appropriate, can get in touch. Being on Facebook has also helped Joanne to identify and address occasions when young people have shared inappropriate pictures or information. "Recently I noticed one girl had a really unsuitable profile picture. I wouldn't deal with that via a message online - but I knew she was coming into the centre on Monday, so I had a quiet word with her about it - and in fact it led to a group discussion about profile pictures and what they say about the person. If the young woman hadn't come into the project on Monday then I may have phoned her up, or even gone round to talk about it."

"Youth workers should be in these spaces, working with young people. It's just like detached work - but online. We need to be picking up issues, joining conversations and helping guide them or providing positive input. We need to help young people work out where the boundaries are online".

Joanne acknowledged that some workers may find working with young people online rather than face to face to be challenging - and if performance measures are based on 'face to face contacts' workers may find they can't easily make the time for online interaction with young people. Crucially, however, in Joanne's work, online interaction complements in-person work, providing a new way to communicate with issolated young people, and offering a new entry point to youth services for young people who may not otherwise be in contact with a youth worker or project.

Is Joanne worried that talking to young people online, rather than face to face, could put her at risk from allegations of improper conduct? Not really - as online there is a clear record of the conversations - they can all be saved. It's no more 'risky' for the youth worker, or could even be less 'risky' than detached work or one-to-one work that takes place face to face.

Joanne's experiences do highlight a challenge in maintaining a professional/private divide, and raise issues about working hours. Young people may want to chat on MSN early morning, or late in the evening, or may be in touch by text message 'out of hours', but Joanne feels that youth work is a profession where you have to take your values home with you - and if that means occasionally responding to a young person in need when they need you to - that's is what should be done. That doesn't mean always responding or being always on duty - and Joanne emphasises the importance of being honest with young people.

The Gateshead Young Women's Outreach Project are keen to develop their engagement with new technology - and exploring replacing their own website with their own Social Network build on top of Ning.com. All the professionals young people want to contact could have profiles on the site - and young people could join in discussion forums. In Joanne's experience of running discussion forums in the past, pre-moderation isn't needed - and if any issues arise then (abusive language / aggression / sharing personal details against the forum guidelines) then these can be addressed by a discussion in the forum which helps everyone learn for the future. "It's not about control - it's about supporting young people".

Joanne is also keen to explore scheduled live chats with youth workers and other professionals - both so that young people can get information, advice and guidance - and for helping young people's informal learning and accreditation. "If a young person takes part in three hours of discussion online about health - you can save the chat and you've got evidence of their contribution - and they can get one unit further forward towards an accredited outcome or award."

Joanne would like to see Youth Workers just getting stuck in and trying out new online tools - getting to know them and really thinking about how they can support positive and professional work with young people.

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If you've got your own case study of great online youth work to share, get in touch - or head over to the discussion space on UK Youth Online to join the discussion about youth work for a digital age.