Europeace Youth Ltd Vulnerable Children and Families Brian De
Lord - CEO 21/22 nd March 2013 Team Teach Conference Slide 2 Roles
of Brian De Lord English and Drama teacher Teacher I/C of Sanctuary
Unit Senior Neighbourhood Youth and Community Worker Photography
tutor Adult Education Teacher in charge of EBD Students School
Counselor Senior Project worker University Lecturer Chief Executive
Head Teacher Slide 3 History of PPP Southall Riots Small Fragmented
Local Authority Response Expansion of Services in West London
Educational and multi-disciplinary support for children, families,
and communities creation of a pedagogy the Framework Registered
Not-for-Profit Social Enterprise Ofsted registered Independent
school International work and partnerships Slide 4 The Range of PPP
Interventions: Teaching and learning Ofsted Registered School
Curriculum innovation RSA Curriculum Therapeutic support; 1:1,
group therapy, family therapy Vocational Education Community
Support Advocacy Mentoring support volunteers, families.
Residentials Slide 5 The Clients: Vulnerable young children, their
families and their communities. Young refugees, new arrivals,
migrants and unaccompanied foreign minors NEETS, youth offenders,
prisoners and their families The Training: Mentoring, Supervision,
Group work, working with Families, building and maintaining
networks, Non- Oppressive Practice, Europeace Youth Framework, 21
st Learning Characteristics & Partnership working. Slide 6 The
PPP Projects Europeace Youth in Action Breaking the Cycle of
Violence - Daphne European Dimension EC Freedom, Security &
Justice, Juvenile Gangs in the UK Mental health needs for Young
offenders Daphne II E-Learning for All e-learning for vulnerable
learners. Residentials Children in Need Anti- Guns, Gangs &
Knives Home Office funded ITACA EC Fundamental Rights &
Citizenship, Juvenile gangs in Europe & S. America Creating
spaces of Experience Grundtvig, Emotional learning blocks
Vocational Footprints Leonardo, Making vocational education
sustainable Exploring the Legacy of Oppression - Grundtvig Youth in
Focus Big Lottery, with Action Acton West London Focus Skills
Funding Agency, with CfBT Engaged in Education DfE, with Catch 22
Teaching Trainers for Migrants & Roma Grundtvig Net for U EC
Freedom, Security & justice, Unaccompanied Foreign minors Slide
7 Home Office Project Targeted at young people in danger of
becoming involved in gang activity Partnership with Ealing Youth
& Connexions Service and Diagrama UK Recruit mentors with
experience of gang activity Train them in mentoring skills &
attachment theory Slide 8 Assessment and identification Children
who have experienced and have carried out random acts of violence
or public humiliation have experienced and have made use of terror
techniques such as bullying, threats or assault are both victim and
the perpetrator of aggressive behaviour are unable to demonstrate
signs of empathy with their victims are unable to express emotions
or show signs of their own vulnerability feel an inappropriate
level of debt, either emotional or financial, to family or friends
have extreme reactions to outside challenges and swing between
being calm and traumatised find it hard to reconcile conflicting
feelings of love and hate are unable to develop emotional defences
against experiences of shame and humiliation about gang culture
experience or act out violence as a necessary form of self
preservation Slide 9 Strategies to combat the lure of gang culture
Create a safe environment Ensure someone is always available/ Work
closely with the family/ Work collaboratively Develop and sustain a
trusting relationship Encourage an initially dependant
relationship/ Establish a nurturing relationship/ Be accessible at
all times and engage consistently/ Demonstrate and model empathy/
Listen actively Teach emotional awareness Advance emotional
learning by encouraging self reflection, empathy and accepting
responsibility/ Demonstrate honesty, humility, humour and humanity/
Understand and explore the source of violent feelings/ Raise
awareness of negative patterns of behaviour Find strategies for
coping with frustration Demonstrate and develop language to replace
violence as expression of emotions/ Encourage communication/ Avoid
punishment and reward strategies but raise awareness of social
norms and boundaries Develop viable strategies for sustainable
change Through individual and group mentoring raise awareness and
acknowledgement of negative patterns of behaviour/ Help develop a
shame shield by exploring the concept and consequences of shame/
Explore positive life changes and plans for the future/ Support
family members to ensure that changes are sustainable Slide 10 8
Essentials for Combating Gang Crime 1. Nurture; a nurturing
relationship is the key to rebuilding a young persons self
confidence and ability to positively negotiate their environment.
Initiatives taking place around the country to deal with gangs and
youth crime are valuable but can be improved by including nurture
and attachment learning 2. Empathy and integrity; Mentoring is the
best way of tackling gang related behaviour in young people,
however it was stressed that mentoring must at all times be honest
3. Family work; supporting parents properly is absolutely key to
helping young people move away from the influences of gang culture.
4. Community; working with young people in isolation will have
limited success if the entrenched problems within their wider
community are not properly taken into account. 5. Mental health;
must be taken into account in any strategy that deals with their
behaviour 6. Legacy of oppression; PPP believe that the legacy of
oppression, of any form and to any community, must be adequately
understood and explored when dealing with young people who are
involved in gang crime 7. Specific Learning Difficulties; At least
60 % of young people involved in serious crime have specific
learning difficulties 8. Remain optimistic; gang crime among young
people is extremely complex, emotive and causes immeasurable
suffering for the people who are involved. However in London, of
the 1.8million young people, less than 1% is involved in crime. The
problem must not be ignored or over-exaggerated, but kept in
perspective. Slide 11 Staff Self Aware Vulnerable Humble Nurturing
Creative Curious Courage Experimentation Focused on exploring
potential rather than mapping limitations Slide 12 Framework
Introduction The framework can be broken down into the following ;
The practices The qualities The theories The application The
environment Slide 13 The Practices Reflexive Practice: The ability
to analyse ones own practice against a variety of benchmarking
frameworks. This would build connections with: emotional literacy,
self-awareness, motivation, systemic influences including parental,
cultural, societal, economic etc. There are two aspects of
Reflexive Practice worth highlighting: Non-Oppressive Practice :
the use of relevant theories & concepts to actively expose and
transform prejudice both in ourselves & others.
Inter-Disciplinary Practice: the ability to use a variety of
professional disciplines in thinking & behaviour to enable the
service to become more accessible. Deliberate Practice: The ability
to step out of our practitioner comfort zones and experiment with
new interventions and theories. Slide 14 Human Qualities 4 Hs;
Honesty, Humanity, Humour, Humility Integrity Trust Accurate
Empathy Respect Care Curiosity Courage and Risk taking Loyalty Hope
Love Resilience Slide 15 The Qualities - Process Honesty Humanity
Humour Humility Integrity Trust Accurate Empathy Respect Care Hope
Love Resilience Deceitfulness Insularity Superficiality Arrogance
Prejudice Insecurity Identification Fear Defeatism Judgemental
Defensiveness The qualities, generally taken for granted, cannot
develop without actively exploring the oppositional nature of the
conflicts listed above. Slide 16 The Theories Attachment - The
importance of a positive significant relationship between child and
carer. Attunement - The Wave Trust; Emotional trigger for violence.
Reparenting / Empowerment - Do vulnerable children need a re-
parenting experience or empowering? Perhaps both? Neurology
Discoveries around Brain function, and The impact of
oppression/oppressing on physical brain growth. Education /
Learning Styles - Appropriate curriculum, accelerated learning,
learning power. Adult and Community Education - Capacity building
for voluntary / community groups and individuals. e.g. Peer
Activists, Roma Assistant Teachers, training prisoners as mentors.
Slide 17 Theories continued Person-Centred Psychodynamic Cognitive
Behavioural Multi-Cultural Therapy Gender Continuum Cultural
Identity Theory Gang Culture Language and Communication
Difficulties Specific Learning Difficulties e.g. dyslexia, ADHD etc
Partnership / Networking Individualism / Collectivism Importance of
Context i.e. Families and Communities 21 st Century Learning
Characteristics This is not an exhaustive list of the possibilities
and should be used when appropriate. Which of these theories are
oppositional and which are collaborative? Slide 18 The Application
Experience / practice Training Self learning Peer group learning
Professional Boundaries Risk Management Supervision Team Building
Management Partnership Evaluation These facilitate the relationship
between the other three, and contribute to the quality of service.
How do we navigate the conflicting experiences we have during this
process? Slide 19 The Environment Partnership/Networking
Collaboration not Manipulation Service delivery structure organised
around the needs of children, families and accessibility. Target
Setting The variation in socio-political contexts across Europe The
Media Social capital How do we use these concepts within the
contexts of: the individual, the family, the wider community, the
national and international communities, in partnership with other
statutory and voluntary agencies? Without a supportive environment
most innovation will eventually retreat into habitual behaviour.
Slide 20 Summary It is a model that emphasises the Why and How
rather than the What. We feel that an enormous amount of ideas are
generated around different types of interventions in an effort to
initiate changes of behaviour in this client group. An equal focus
on our motives and devising more effective ways of delivering
services would generate greater success. The model is based on a
foundation of three practices: Reflexive Practice: The ability to
consider a variety of influences in decision making, including
personal history. Non-oppressive Practice: being able to approach
all relationships with an awareness of possible prejudices.
Multi-Disciplinary Practice: The ability to think and act
professionally in a variety of disciplines. The model then
emphasises the importance of human qualities, such as Honesty,
Integrity, Trust and Resilience, that are critical to service
delivery and yet not the focus of any practitioner or policy maker
training. Theories devised by academics, researchers and
practitioners around the subject of children and families also
deserve consideration. Theories such as attachment, attunement and
brain development should shape the delivery of services. The model
focuses on the application of the above, underlining aspects such
as evaluation, training and professional supervision. Finally, the
model underlines the importance of appropriate service delivery
structures and other contextual influences to ensure effective
outcomes for vulnerable children & families. Slide 21
Implications for Individuals Practitioners have to be emotionally
literate. They need to respond rather than react. They need to have
a wider knowledge base than their professional role suggests. They
need to actively cultivate human qualities and demonstrate them
within professional boundaries. Slide 22 Implications for
Individuals (2) They need to understand the benefits of working in
a non-oppressive manner. They need to feel confident about exposing
their vulnerability around inherent prejudice. Some of them need to
aspire to become a new type of professional the multi-skilled
practitioner. They need to be responsible risk takers. Slide 23
Implications for Organisations What would an emotionally literate
organisation look like? Provide access to knowledge, training and
structures that would support the practitioners. Create a work
environment that is sensitive to practitioner vulnerability and
insecurity yet still insists on personal & professional
development. Create a training structure that produces the
multi-skilled professional. Create ways of bench-marking the new
cross-disciplinary competencies. Manage staff against a firm
theoretical and practical model. Slide 24 Implications for Policy
Makers Create service delivery structures that incorporate the
multi-skilled professional into teams supported by other
practitioners that may well be specialists. Create networks for
collaborative partnership work to evolve, whilst having integration
as an ultimate goal. Investing in specific types of training to
support the new structures, philosophies, theories, and practices.
Highlight the differences and relationships between targets and Key
Performance Indicators, in order that it is the work that is the
focus, rather than the diversion of meeting targets. Slide 25 Quote
"I feel with some passion that what we truly are is private, and
almost infinitely complex, and ambiguous, and both external and
internal, and double- or triple- or multiply natured, and largely
mysterious even to ourselves; and furthermore that what we are is
only part of us, because identity, unlike "identity", must include
what we do. And I think that to find oneself and every aspect of
this complexity reduced in the public mind to one property that
apparently subsumes all the rest ("gay", "black", "Muslim",
whatever) is to be the victim of a piece of extraordinary
intellectual vulgarity." Phillip Pullman Slide 26 The Future.
Europeace Youth Org Double Helix Slide 27 Client Group Europeace
Youth Schools Complementary/ Alternative Post 16 Services Further
Education Colleges Vocational Centres Refugees & New Arrivals
Youth Offending/YOIs Fostering & Adoption Services NEETS
Prison/ers Long Term Unemployed Local & National
Education/Health/Social Services Assessments: Educational
Therapeutic In conjunction with Family/Community and other Agencies
Involved. Slide 28 Negotiate Service Response E. P. Y. Student
Family Referrer Choose Appropriate Menu for the Student Individual,
Family & Community Assessment, Engagement & Therapeutic
Support Teaching & Learning Qualification E-Learning Mentoring
Advocacy Key worker Employer/Voluntee r/Community Mentor Using the
wider existing network Review & Response of initial Assessments
(3 per Yr) Slide 29 Implementation of the Menu Employers: Training
Participating Progression Work Experience Research Interviews
Shadowing Colleges & Universities Progression Resources Source
of mentors Prisons Progression Resources Source of mentors Wider
Network: Tried and Tested Collaborations National Organisations
Consultants NGOs and Community Groups Slide 30 Output Key worker
Employer/Voluntee r/Community Mentor Supporting 60 Children/ Young
People/ Adults Transition to Further Education, Appropriate courses
(including devising them) Employability,Higher Education or
Training, Slide 31 Underpinning this Methodology Europeace
Framework Training and Supporting of Staff & Volunteers
Creating and maintenance of Networks Devising new methods and
interventions Slide 32 Double Helix Double Helix is a newly set up
not-for-profit company, designed to work in close collaboration
with its sister charity, Europeace Youth (EPY). Whilst EPY will
focus on delivering innovative and transformational services to
vulnerable young people and their families, across the UK &
Europe, Double Helix will design, manufacture and market products
that will be used by practitioners and students connected to EPY
and other organizations working with vulnerable client groups.
Slide 33 Examples of DH Products Life Double Helix Learning Double
Helix Oppression Double Helix The Triangle of Interaction Im a
Client: Get me out of Here Slide 34 Thank you very much and please
stay in touch Brian De Lord CEO Europeace Youth
[email protected]
