Project Plan:
This project is about meeting the needs of Anglican students to contribute to their community by being involved with Spiritus services. Through increased knowledge of social policy and community systems and structures, the project also aims to equip the students to become agents of change within their community.
Change agenda: Young People as Agents of Change in the Community
The change agenda of this project is to increase students at an Anglican school understanding and social consciousness of the injustices and inequalities that exist for homeless and at risk homeless young people in their local community. The project seeks to achieve this through developing programs that provide the opportunity for the students to work with community services associated to their school. An additional aim of the project (through this interaction) is that the students will become agents of change within their community; addressing the issues of social inequalities both in the present and in the future.
Young people are a vital resource (in the present and the future) in addressing the social inequalities and injustices that exist. The students in the project will be prepared and supported to identify ways to actively seek changes within their community. The students will be exposed to current issues facing homeless young people and educated on ways that they can progress their grievances of these issues in to action; through increasing their knowledge and skills in community values and philosophies and stratagem to execute these ideologies (Kwon 2008 pg 61).
The project is seeking to provide opportunities for students at Anglican schools (who have expressed a desire to contribute on a voluntary basis to their community) to interact and contribute to supporting young people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. The project will focus on the micro level (the local community), whilst engaging in dialogue identifying links between local issues to policies at the mezzo and macro levels that impact upon the micro level. ‘Young people’s activism is working to bring about small and not-so- small changes in their schools and communities’ (Kwon 2008 pg 72). The student’s will be encouraged to make connections to their community, and engage with their peers and the issues that they face in a significant way to facilitate their association with becoming agents of social change.
This project has considerable potential in providing on going benefits for change agendas well into the future. ‘The evidence suggests that community service preformed during adolescence is related to later civic participation’ (Hart, Donnelly, Youniss, and Atkins, 2007 pg199). The project has the capability to influence young peoples conscientiousness to contribute and participate on an on going basis in the future in civic and political areas (Hart, Donnelly, Youniss, and Atkins, 2007pg 199).
Young people experiencing homelessness are considerably vulnerable within our society and face numerous obstacles to overcome; including limited to no support from families and friends to addressing issues of poverty, accommodation, employment, education, health and mental health. ‘By performing service, a participant may become personally involved with political issues, rather than thinking about them abstractly’ (Youniss & Yates 1997; Hart, Donnelly, Youniss, and Atkins, 2007 pg 199). Providing an opportunity for school students to support homeless and at risk of homeless young people removes the distant they currently have from the issues that the homeless face on a daily basis.
Analysis of system:
Capture given history
Mapping out the stakeholders: for the context of this project the stakeholders have been divided the following three areas addressing the Micro, Mezzo and Macro levels. The Macro stakeholders are the Anglican Church, Anglican Schools and Spiritus services. At the Mezzo level is the individual schools, Spiritus Social services and local churches. At the Micro level is the individual services, students and teachers and chaplains associated with the schools.
Explore social issue
Spiritus services are under funded and inundated with demands upon their limited resources to provide support to vulnerable people within the community. Service users have limited support networks (formal and informal) on which they can rely on to address issues such as poverty, homelessness, educational, health and mental health.
School students are seeking ways to engage and provide meaningful support to those vulnerable within their community. ‘In performing community service, people may also become familiar with social problems of which they were previously unaware’ (Eyler & Giles 1999; Hart, Donnelly, Youniss, and Atkins, 2007 pg 199).The students are looking for ways to actively contribute and understand the issues of inequality and injustice.
In connecting the students at Anglican schools with service providers and service users to develop a program to work together establishes new links. It also provides the students with a new networking opportunity; where they can engage and discuss the current issues affecting the community with peers in vastly different circumstances and experiences from their own (Crystal & DeBell 2002; Hart, Donnelly, Youniss, and Atkins, 2007 pg 199).
Understand governance & policy environment
The initial relationship between the school and In-SYNC in program development was solely on practice systems of top- down, private concern and my agenda (the schools agenda) approach. The follow up from the school to this initial program has provided the opportunity to design a program that requires operating heavily in the top- down approach in its initial planning phase to meet legal requirements. However the focus is clearly to shift to bottom up practice in order to establish collective ownership of the program by the students and In-SYNC. In this second opportunity the shift has already occurred in both the your agenda- being set by the students and influenced by service users- and to public concern- looking at boarder community issues and active ways to engage the students and service users in a meaningful supportive capacity.
The students were engaged early on in the follow up program to plan and develop opportunities of ways to engage with service users of In-SYNC. The students developed the list in which they were willing to engage with In-SYNC service users. At this stage in the project the students have actively taken on the role as liaison (as outlined below in project strategy), negotiator and organiser for their school. The students are engaging with their school systems and advising In-SYNC of how this is progressing. ‘To design change for their communities, they must learn about their own community and about its interactions with other communities’ (Spruill, Kenny & Kaplan 2001 pg 106). This process in developing the students understanding, knowledge and skills both from a familiar environment and from eternal systems and involved in the interaction between the two communities.
Policy-Social Justice
The student’s willingness to be actively engaged in working with In-SYNC and its service users highlights the student’s interest in current policy issues including social justice. The students have identified that a significant part of their interest is to engage with other young people and learn from their life experiences. ‘Scholars of positive youth development and civic engagement (Flanagan 2003; Ginwright and Cammarota 2002; Watts and Guessous 2006) are recognising the importance of young people’s social and political development- their critical awareness of social inequalities and it’s potential for individual and social transformation, or what Shawn Ginwright and Julio Cammarota (2002) refer to as “social justice youth development” (Kwon 2008 pg 62).’ The interest by these students to broaden their understanding of political policy issues is an underlying motivation that has contributed to their search for ways to connect and work in valuable projects that give back to the community.
Policy- Social inclusion
In this project the aspect of Social inclusion is two fold, firstly for In-SYNC service users who are often excluded from education, employment, housing and support networks. And secondly the students as volunteers who want to contribute to their community, often in this capacity they are excluded or limited in choices and opportunities for volunteering. ‘ ….. noted that their access to established organisations was very much limited to the whim of adults, and targeted more at the continuance of apparently superficial needs than on the genuine desire to engage with young people’ (Lee- Ack 2008 pg 64). This project is formulating ways that the students can volunteer with a community agency and in ways that are identified by the students themselves.
Strategy for collective action to achieve social change:
History: Phase one
Early last year as part of a project by the Anglican schools they had a competition to raise funds for Spiritus services. In-SYNC youth services was picked by two of the schools to raise money. In July 2009 one of these Anglican schools contacted Spiritus Marketing coordinator Jo, seeking to develop a program that addressed a recent issue that had arisen within the school. Spiritus marketing coordinator Jo contacted my service to see if I could assist with their request.
I contacted the school to discuss with them what they were looking for. A meeting with the Assistant Principle and one of the teachers was arranged to further discuss their needs. In this meeting it was identified that the school required a program that addressed the impacts of bullying and the development of empathy. We discussed a few possible ways that the program could run, and agreed on visiting services and discussing the impacts of bullying on those who are vulnerable in the community. We also discussed the potential of developing the program as an on going program within the school. The program practice was heavily focused internally on both top down approach (directive from Assistant Principle) and private concerns of the school. The practice of ‘my agenda’ with the directive from the school clearly focusing on what they wanted to achieve with the students.
After agreeing to this initial idea I developed a plan on how this would evolve and sent the following plan to the school for their approval:
Pre Meeting Identify the issues with Young People and Parents Discuss learning goals Discuss the program and how it will work Discuss expectations of outcomes Set dates and times for the visits and research
Time Time: 30 mins 30 mins 1.5 hours 30 mins
Program Learning Goals Preparation work for agency visit Pre Agency visit preparation meeting Agency visit Post Agency visit meeting
Agency 1 Identify what is the difference between a practical joke and bullying.
What’s funny and what is Bullying-
Discussion with parents and brain storm a list of what they as a family believe is a practical joke on others and what is believed to be bullying. Bring list to pre meeting to discuss with others. What are the key elements of bullying behaviour
-where and how do we draw the line
-what is the difference
- Is there anything that you would take off your list that you made with your family?
Agency 2 Develop understanding of the impacts of bullying on the victim Empathy for victims- how would a person being bullied feel. Discuss with Parents and write a list of how the victim may feel. Bring list to pre meeting to discuss with others. The short and long term affect on individuals in all aspects of their lives- how does it impact? Is there anything you would add to your list?
Agency 3 Identify own behaviour and how similar/ different to others Discuss with parents the micro and macro perspective of bullying in the world, write list of examples Bring list to pre meeting to discuss with others. What are impacts of bullying in the world context and in our local community? Can I see any similarities in my behaviour or others in the micro/ macro examples?
Agency 4 Impacts of Bullying for the person doing the bullying Discuss with parents what maybe the impacts and write list. Bring list to pre meeting to discuss with others. Work place- what is acceptable joking in the work place; what is considered bullying. What are the implications of work place bullying?
How can we make good choices when faced with the situation? Is there anything that you can identify that you want to do different?
Agency 5 What is ok and what is not and how to make smart choices Discuss with parents what are good choices to make in situations at school, work, home, sport, relationships etc, write list Bring list to pre meeting to discuss with others Making choices for self- how easy/ hard can this be. Is there anything you would like to add to your list
Post Meeting 3hrs Development of kit or poster for services visited Development of a poster or Kit for the Services that visited over the past few weeks that will be used to Anti- bullying behaviour
The school agreed and time frames were set for the program to begin. The students and teachers from the school visited Spiritus services to discuss the impacts of bullying. However due to time constraints the program only ran for three weeks, and the school introduced a different conclusion to the program (fund raising for a charity organisation)to be completed by the students during their school holidays.
At the completion of the program the school again contacted Spiritus to discuss the potential to develop the working relationship between the school and Spiritus services. After this program one of the teachers at this school identified a new direction of the working relationship- students at the school were seeking meaningful ways to contribute to their community aside from fund raising.
Action: Phase Two (current)
The school contacted Jo from Spiritus Marketing early 2010 to place on to the agenda and calendar for the development of the new program- the time frame identified to begin was Easter 2010.
A meeting was organised with Schools chaplains on 12th March to develop this concept further as part of their Easter program with young people ‘We Gen’ to make linkages between the schools mission, Christian faith and actions within the community. The program would run for four days during the school holidays. The young people would be divided into two groups- one group would come to In-SYNC and the other would go to another service for 2 days of the program. Whilst this initial stage was still focused on the top- down approach – it was incorporated into the planning to initiate the planning for the bottom up practice to begin.
The In-SYNC 2 day program was developed and agreed to at this meeting:
Day 1
Morning 1. Meet Staff/ Informed about service and what we do.
2. Meet staff from foster care service
3. Learn how to use spray on tattoo machine
Afternoon Videos
1. What’s the story- the truth about Youth (by the Youth Advocacy Centre
2. Another Way- a look at 3 prisoners over 3 years who do the Alternative to Violence workshops.
Debrief the videos.
Assign homework from discuss- look up websites headspace and beyond blue- to provide information to the group tomorrow
Day 2
Morning Discuss issues facing young people today- and what options are available for them within and outside the school.
Confidentiality/ privacy what does this mean for the young person and the services that they seek assistance from.
Afternoon Look at what the young people found out about websites
Future focus- what are the ways that they would like to work together in the future? How/ who/ when can we develop these ideas to becoming realties (see below)?
Youth Day Out – on Saturday 10th April- come and attend and assist In-SYNC staff with spray on tattoo’s during the event.
In initiating a bottom- up approach the afternoon of day two generated the following ideas for future activities. These were captured by the young people on butcher’s paper. First we explored what motivated them to be involved with In-SYNC and its service users:
Chill/ share experiences/ gain trust/ raising funds/ giving of self/ fun/
Activities/ helping out/talk and meet young people- pen pals/ become
friends
The young people then examined ways on how to advance their practice. They discussed their reasons to be involved. On a few occasions I needed to address what was ideal versus real, the service has both legal and ethical responsibility to its service users and needs to ensure that their privacy, confidentiality and rights are respected. On the 2nd butcher’s paper the group identified some possible ‘real practice’ that could be advanced:
Art project to sell at up coming Art auction/ wetlands festival through schools arts committee/ Baby sitting for young mums through the schools girls’ advisory committee/ round robin lunches open to all community members held at church halls (Bulimba Anglican and Uniting Churches).
They also identified other real practice that could be developed in the future:
Voluntary work within Spiritus services which included administration and cleaning/ Development of pen pals between students and service users/ Planning joint activities which could contain a fund raising component by the school for services.
Moving these Actions forward:
Art Auction 23rd May 2010
Given tight time frame I am unsure if this will eventuate, at present the sole focus is on Art Action to see if we can make it happen:
Agenda Action Who By When
Artist for workshops Contact Christian – Aerograffix Karen 20.04.10
Response from Artist Forward response to Young People and Chaplains/ Karen 21.04.10
Response required re Christians requirements Discuss with appropriate groups within the school- Arts committee/ Boys advisory group/Grils advisory group/ Principal Young People 22.04.10
Other stakeholders Add to email list- schools local Chaplain and Jo Marketing Spiritus Karen 22.04.10
Reply to Christians questions Forward Y.P. responses to Christian Karen 25.04.10
Possible locations Follow up with Young People if approval has been given by the school to hold on their premises Karen/ Young people 28.04.10
Timeframe Follow up with Christian if timeframe is workable Karen 30.04.10
Workshops? Is it possible or not- progress plan for workshops to occur prior to the 23rd May or cancel? Karen/ Young people 05.05.10
The Art Auction concept has presented students with the chance to be actively involved in formulating their own opportunity of social inclusion. As identified as a core issue, that adults exclude young people from engaging with their communities. The art auction was identified by them as one way to contribute to their community. Thus far the students have taken on the responsibility of most of the project:
getting their art council to agree (late in their own process) to allow art work to be developed and sold at their school auction
following up with the principle and art facility for space to hold graffiti painting project
following up with arts facility/ boys advisory group/ girls advisory group for participants
In-Sync’s (my) responsibility is to liaise between the students and artist re available dates to hold the project, and assist in supervision on the day of the event (if it is possible).
Phase three- future
Babysitting and Round Robyn Lunches:
These ideas have only been advanced by In-SYNC in initiating contact with external providers as a preliminary discuss and to flag the ideas. Those contacted will be invited to a meeting with the students in the future to advance to plans further in the near future. Advancement on both of these projects will begin as soon as it is clear if the Art project is going ahead or not.
I have had an informal meeting this week with Jo from Spiritus Marketing to flag the ideas, she is keen to progress these further. Jo has identified that some of the parishes already hold morning teas with an activity attached for their local community. We briefly discussed the potential to work with these parishes re our lunch concept.
I have located a Spiritus employee, through the service manager late last week, who is trained in the babysitting course, and have had a preliminary conversation re the babysitting course involving students from the school and young mums who are service users. The manager is open to developing this plan further.
Agenda Action Who
Provide information Advise Young people of information received re lunches and babysitting Karen
Set Meeting Meeting held with Young people at school to plan agenda to progress options forward- nominate students to be on working party. Karen/ Young people
Planning Invite additional stakeholders to working party (facilitator/ parish members) planning meeting and invite to join WP. Young People/ Karen
Formalise Plan Working Party develops and present plan to all stakeholders- to be in actioned.
Dates set for babysitting training
Dates set for parish lunches Young People/ Stakeholders
Possible Risks:
There are several areas of risk to the project and they are:
Organisational management of the Anglican school or Spiritus not supportive of developing opportunities for students to work with service users
Students over committed with studies and additional external responsibilities
Service users unwilling to participate in any joint ventures with students
Safety and privacy of students and service users
Program becomes reliant on initiators of the project to keep it running (either students and In-SYNC)
Ensuring shared responsibility of program (not left with In-SYNC/ me)
Talk but no action
Currently the concept to establish strong and close links and networks across the Anglican Church entities is very much apart of the direction of the Church. This support is further enhanced by Spiritus Marketing and Services Mission, the school Chaplains and their We Gen project with students, and in this instant the senior staff of the Anglican school involved in this project.
A few of the students involved in the project and main drivers of the development of the project are in year 12 and have a busy schedule. One of the ways that the students are addressing this risk is by taking the project to several student groups within their school to share the work load of developing the project. This also goes to addressing any issues of reliance on individuals to ensure the project keeps running.
To have the project as part of the service and not reliant on me- a partnership agreement will be devised between the school/ student groups and the service to seek ways to work together on an on going basis. This will also service as a measure by both parties for accountability to meet agreed outcomes. In establishing outcomes and holding ourselves accountable we are acknowledging the change in the relationship between the Service and the students and what they can contribute to service users, the service and their community, ‘..we view youth as agents who have the potential to act and thereby play a role in transforming the conditions in the neighbourhoods and communities in which they live (Ginwright, Cammarota & Noguera 2005 pg 33).’
A Spiritus risk assessment will be completed on each proposal within the project to address any safety and privacy of the students and service users. The proposal of the Art workshop and art auction for example will be low risk and shared responsibility between the service In-SYNC and the Anglican school.
The babysitting proposal for service user’s children however will be of a higher risk. An increased element of risk does not necessarily exclude the activity, often careful planning, implementation of training, policies and procedures can address the risks. An example of this is for the student, the service user and their child to be involved in combined training of the babysitting program and on issues of confidentiality and privacy (for service users and students). And a final additional measure to address risk would be to provide support through access to In-SYNC emergency on call.
Bibliography:
Crystal, D. and DeBell, M. 2002. Sources of civic orientation among American youth: Trust, religion, valuation and attributions of responsibility. Political Psychology 23: 113- 132.
Eyler, J. and Giles, D.E., Jr 1999. Where’s the learning in service learning? San Francisco. Jossey Boss.
Flanagan, C. 2003. Development Roots of Political Engagement. Political Science and Politics 36(2):257-261.
Ginwright, S. and Cammarota, J. 2002. New Terrain in Youth development: The Promise of a Social Justice Approach. Social Justice 29(4):82-96.
Ginwright, S., Cammarota, J. and Noguera, P. 2005. Youth, Social Justice, and Communities: Toward a Theory of Urban Youth Policy. Social Justice 32(3): 24-40.
Hart, D., Donnelly, T.M., Youniss, J. and Atkins, R. 2007. High School Community Service as a Predictor of Adult Voting and Volunteering. American Educational Research Journal 44(1):197-219.
John, P. 2005.The Contribution of Volunteering, Trust, and Networks to Educational Performance. Policy Studies Journal 33(4): 635-656.
Kwon, S. 2008. Moving from Complaints to Action: Oppositional Consciousness and Collective. Anthropology and Education Quarterly 39(1):59-76.
Lee-Ack, E. 2008. Locked out, locked in: Social inclusion as a survival imperative for small community groups. Australian Journal on Volunteering 13(2):62-66.
Spruill, N., Kenny, C. and Kaplan, L. 2001. Community Development and Systems Thinking: Theory and Practice. National Civic Review 90(1): 105-116.
Watts, J. and Guessous, O. 2006. Socio-political Development: The missing link in Research and Policy on Adolescents, in Beyond Resistance! : youth activism and community change : new democratic possibilities for practice and policy for America's youth (edited) by Ginwright, S., Noguera, P. and Cammarota, J., New York, Routledge.
Youniss, J. and Yates, M. 1997. Community service and social responsibility in youth. Chicago. University of Chicago Press.
