Early Intervention & Targeted Support
Training Workshops
Young People: from politics to protest
Targeted work with Young People
Exploring Anger & Aggressive Behaviour with Young People
Courses in this section are aimed at those practitioners supporting vulnerable, ‘at risk’ or hard to reach children and young people.
Young people: from politics to protest
This course is aimed at educators that want to engage young people in exploring attitudes to justice, democracy and the law in ways that are meaningful and interesting.
During this interactive workshop, participants will be given a VR resource toolkit packed with ideas to explore personal and cultural values around loyalty, friendship, peer pressure, blame and fairness. Emphasis will also be placed on finding positive ways to get young people’s voices heard, outside of media-fuelled concerns about youth gangs and crime, so that they believe they can make a difference.
Topics covered throughout the day include exercising the right to peacefully protest, community campaigning and the pros and cons of taking to the streets. The activities devised also invite young people to consider the moral, political and criminal aspects of civil unrest and riots, encouraging a culture of personal and collective responsibility.
Learning outcomes
This training day will:
- Equip participants with a wide range of exclusive social education resources to use with young people
- Discuss the values and attitudes of young people to crime, law breaking and justice
- Consider the meaning and ethics of justice, fairness and forgiveness
- Consider punishments, law enforcement and the legal system
- Discuss individual and collective rights to protest and ways to become politically active
Supporting Youth Work Resource Book: Young People and Citizenship
Targeted work with Young People
Traditionally youth workers have always been skilled at engaging young people considered 'hard to reach' in diversionary projects and positive activities. This workshop looks behind that relationship building process to consider risk factors that contribute to making some young people more vulnerable to criminal and / or sexual exploitation (CCE and CSE) than others. It also identifies protective factors and considers ways to build resilience in young people, enabling them to cope better with issues in their lives and make healthier choices.
Learning outcomes
Participants will:
- Consider key legislation that impacts on young people
- Identify factors that can contribute to making young people more vulnerable to criminal and sexual exploitation
- Consider the impact of individual, family and community attitudes and values on risk taking behaviour and criminal activity
- Develop an awareness of protective factors and ways to build resilience
- Consider effective ways to target hard to reach young people and engage them in youth services
Exploring Anger & Aggressive Behaviour with Young People
This practical training is a basic introduction for anyone looking to develop short anger management programmes in a non-therapeutic environment. Suitable for those working with young people in a range of settings, including youth centres, one-stop-shops and schools, the training comes complete with session plans and tools to facilitate 1:1 or small group work sessions with young people to explore anger, enabling them to express their emotions more positively.
Learning outcomes;
- How to put together a short course that explores feelings of anger and ways to express emotions positively
- Ideas for exploring with young people 'triggers' that can lead to aggression
- Ways to discuss feelings to develop emotional literacy
- Simple techniques to reduce stress and understand and express feelings
- Ways to set and review goals
Supporting Youth Work Resource Book: Exploring Feelings
Planning Targeted Groupwork
This course is for youth workers and other professionals working (or planning to work) with targeted young people in a groupwork setting. This could include NEET young people and those at risk of offending or anti-social behaviour, as well as those within the youth justice system or excluded from mainstream education.
The training day briefly explores key groupwork theories, looks at group dynamics and considers managing conflict within the group and how to challenge effectively, so that young people can express themselves positively and learn within a supportive environment.
Learning outcomes:
By the end of the course participants should have:
- Considered appropriate models of groupwork for targeted groups
- Explored barriers to group processes and participation
- Discussed professional boundaries, confidentiality and diversity
- Considered strategies for managing challenging behaviour and diffusing aggression
- Explored groupwork techniques and activities to engage young people
- Looked at ways to involve young people in measurable outcomes
- Discussed ways to close groups and move young people on effectively.
Supporting Youth Work Resource Books: Teambuilding, Evaluations & Endings