Each entry will consist of a collection of 3 pictures of sufficient quality to be printed on paper and sent as JPG files.

More information will soon be available here.

Verbo Jean Julien

What does being part of a Haitian Social Street Work Network provide?
JR.C: The concept of street work arrives into Haiti in 1990 after the Great Forum held in Montreal, where I met Edwin, from Dynamo, and started working on the issue of child protection on the streets. Personal work is for us the only way out for social work in a country like Haiti, with such a weak economy, where social work structures have been necessary. That is why social workers come to replace the lack of institutional structure of the state. It is a social work perspective according to the reality of a country considered underdeveloped.
V.JJ: When you work in a network things are easier since exchanges are made between organizations and thus, together, we can all advance the cause of children in the country in order to reach the creation of a law for child protection. I also think that it gives the government an opportunity to think that children are persons entitled to their own rights. All children in Haiti should benefit from the rights and possibilities offered by a law that protects them.

And what about the fact of belonging to the International Network of Social Street Workers?
JR.C: When you work in an international network have the support of many people, especially at the political level and it protects you in a country like Haiti where democracy is always changing.It is very positive and need to have a backup external solidarity.
V. JJ: It represents an opportunity for cultural, educational and professional exchange. Being part of an international network should be an example not only for Haiti but for the entire Caribbean region, because there are many children in a difficult situation and being part of this network advances the cause for children.

During the meeting, members of the workshop Navarre Non-Formal Education that attended the Second International Forum “Paroles de Rue” held in Brussels on 2010, presented the book which summarizes the proceedings of this international meeting, attended by 700 street educators from more than 40 countries, and reported their experience in this international event.

Educators from different NGOs of Navarre, such as Oihana Hernández and Amaia Barrena de Umetxea, Ibai Aranburu de SiñarZubi and Montxo Oroz from Medicus Mundi in Navarre, moderated by Jon Etxeberría, from Navarre’s New Future association, met in order to present and reflect on the challenge that represents the fight for social exclusion on a worldwide basis.

Thus, Ibai Aramburu (SiñarZubi), stated that “street workers may find him or herself defenseless quite often; his work is long in time and he or she can only count with his or her own made personally devised techniques to approach the young population”. In the same line, Oihana Hernández, educator from Umetxea, added how when working with young people and starting new activities, one must hear first what interests them. Both educators participated in the Second Forum “Paroles de Rue” that was held in Brussels in 2010.

Moreover, Montxo Oroz, professional from Medicus Mundi, said that “we, street educators, fight against poverty and social exclusion in a non-formal fashion: we do so on the streets, so it is important to share spaces and to apply ourselves in networking between the different organizations”.

The book of minutes from the Second International Forum “Paroles de Rue” will be presented in all countries represented in the International Network of Street Educators.
 

During this year, two specific projects that were selected from among the members of our network will also be carried through: a work on the gypsy population from the viewpoint of different countries and an action research on the growing area of male prostitution. Finally, the department will produce training materials, organizing training modules and create a digital platform to begin managing knowledge also on an online basis.

The publications are: Dossier report of the international network of street educators, Proceedings of the Forum Paroles de Rue (Brussels Oct. 2010), Handbook for the Defense of the Rights of Children in Europe, Recommendations against poverty and social exclusion and a skills profile for street education training.

We present the statement that was carried in this forum by the Mexican Alliance of Street Population.

The English project, in turn, is a research project focused on the evaluation of street work. The methodology is characterized by different approaches (quantitative and qualitative). It is necessary to understand some of the impacts of street work: reviewing the literature on street work methodology (through meetings of experts in the field with experience in street work evaluation), explanations of the reasons for the given methodologies in street work, the compilation of figures, a shift towards more quantitative than qualitative forms of assessment. This project is part of a continuous improvement on the transfers of values (financing) to a value that is to provide data to justify funding. The evaluation is based on figures, on results. The impact should be measured, but also the process, the route. Many street workers would like to humanize the monetary project. The qualitative aspects are very important because they reflect the complexity of the nuances of all street work activities. Evolution is important, but we must build rich tools. The results of these two projects will be available in the next update of our website.

Cécile Cacheleba, social worker, DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo):
We have spoken about collaborators who do not ask for certain things in a limited period of time; there are times when this prevents us from working, there is much to do and we don’t want to rush. Donors impose on us a calendar which results too narrow.

Patrick Goikalanga, trainer, RDC:
I know the International Network of Social Street Workers through CATSR, and it allows us to get in touch with the streets, which helps us to rethink our strategies, our language, our attitude to the children living on the streets. These people are stigmatized, they are rejected by the population. Educators must be trained to understand themselves and to understand people who have chosen to live on the streets and to understand their real problems.

Benoit Albert, trainer, Belgium:
The International Network of Social Street Workers enriches us; it is an added value to assess social work and it helps us to convey to our students that social work has a meaning in some place and at the present time, and that its practice must be confronted with other realities. The network represents a commodity; its goal is to share good and bad practices. It’s useful to build new practices with new issues and new approaches. And this exchange allows us to enter a perspective to perform a critique on social work, without a need to consider it dogmatic. The street is part of the city, a place of expression, an undefined space. Typically, the student believes that, the way social work exists, there is only one road, one highway; but no, there are several routes. Street work is polymorphic, and allows students to give up their beliefs and be open to new possibilities. We must be civilized and let go of some of our certainties. We must refocus social work; we must specialize and adopt an individual, collective and community address to our problems. This orientation is what street work teaches us.
 

At the heart of the book are twelve stories of youth work practice which start from young people's voluntary participation and from their interests and concerns. Each gives a vivid picture of youth workers painstakingly building and sustaining trusting relationships with young people, striving to open up new and sometimes unexpected opportunities for them to develop personally and collectively, and supporting them in facing testing challenges in their lives.

The book outlines also some of the features of this practice, particularly the importance of what seems to be no more than chatting and conversation as a way of stimulating argument and reflection. All of these combine to make youth work such a distinctive way of working with teenagers. Furthermore the book outlines how it might be used to resist the attacks on this style of work and on the services which provide it.

Though youth work is a practice run through with uncertainties and contradictions which can offer no advanced guarantees of 'success', on the video (a group of young people explain why they have so valued their involvement with it and the positive ways it has affected their lives. The DVD also contains narrations of each of the twelve stories.

At a time when nearly one million 16 - 24 year olds - 20% of the age group - are unemployed and as the current onslaught on public services continues with youth services facing hugely disproportionate cuts, the need to defend provision like youth work has never been greater or more urgent. We hope This is Youth Work will help you explain to politicians, policy-makers and senior managers as well as to the wider public why the work it describes is so needed, why young people so value it and therefore why it should be safeguarded, indeed nurtured in these critical times.

Tony Taylor [on behalf of the In Defence of Youth Work Steering Group]