“I have never seen deprivation like it” one of our Youth and Community workers during the peak of lockdown. Facilitating a voluntary sector community youth project through the Coronavirus pandemic has led to both challenges and opportunities. The well-publicised disproportionate effect of Covid-19 on some Black Minority Ethnic communities feels very real here. The desperation experienced by some local families propelled them to allow access to their homes and families in a way that hadn’t been previously seen. Youth and community workers had been chipping away at trust building but hadn’t yet cracked it. Accelerated relationship making with a small but growing number of families emerged as a positive, unanticipated consequence of the Coronavirus pandemic.
You cannot work effectively with young people until you first understand the communities in which they find themselves. Qualified youth workers and youth work students on placement quickly became aware of the self-sufficiency and pride felt by such families and the discrimination experienced by these migrants judged as ‘sponging’ from the system and taking advantage of services provided.
Nothing could be further from the truth. Prior to Covid-19 many of our families were working tirelessly to keep an often very cramped roof over their heads. They were underpaid and overworked. They were not accessing the help that as human beings living in Wales they were entitled to. Why? Because they are unaware of the services available. Anecdotal evidence tells us why our families moved to Newport - economic deprivation, marginalisation, unsafe living conditions and police brutality. They chose Newport as they believe they may make a better life for their families. Here they can safely link with religious communities, access a better education for their children and experience what feels like a safer society.
We work within a large inner-city community and our project sees young people from an array of backgrounds including Gypsy, Roma, South Asian, Caribbean, White Welsh and Eastern European. Although the experiences of these young people differ they share a societal marginalisation that results in serious deprivation unseen by the general public. A strong partnership with Youth work students and staff at the University of South Wales enhances and strengthens this work.
Over the past few months we have continued to support our young people and families in any way possible. When lockdown first began, we tried to follow other organisations in digitalising our youth work and working from home. We were met by an eerie silence. It would have been quite easy to just assume that everyone was doing okay and that we could pick up where we left off when things calmed down and the new normal began. But that’s not who we are or how our organisation operates. We knew we had to get back into the thick of it. At a time where services were remote working, education became the jobs of parents and people were expected to stay home and stay safe how could we sit back knowing that our young people were some of the least likely to stay home and stay safe? They were the least likely to feel safe or be safe. With English as a second language, no access to technology and the streets being the environment where they felt most at home how were we going to engage with these young people already deemed as ‘hard to reach’? How could the messages that the Welsh Government sent out be heard by people who don’t or can’t access the platforms these messages were shared on?
We are talking about young people who even before the pandemic did not want to or could not stay at home. Young people living in cramped and isolated environments, not getting on in education, discriminated against, facing racism and trying to navigate an already complicated system. They had only just begun to trust us.
Already we began to see the surge on social media and the shift of blame. Young people described as in ‘gangs’ with no regard for the rest of society. Such dehumanisation and stigma was accelerated by societal fear. This completely disregarded the need for young people to have safe spaces, an outlet and someone to talk to. Once again young people were at the bottom of the food chain and we saw this time and time again as more and more services became temporarily suspended.
After a frustrating team discussion concerning the risk to us and our families, we decided that we needed to get back out into the community. The risk to young people was so great there was no way we couldn’t. The Police felt we were better placed to positively engage with young people and give the ‘stay home and stay safe’ message. As a voluntary sector organisation we felt able to overcome boundaries and fill gaps. In a world where youth and community workers can be narrowly perceived as people who ‘wear hoodies and play ping pong’ we would like to share with you some of the gaps we filled and needs we met. We went out and tried to spread the message in different languages. Here are some of the messages we got back:
“We’re bored” (Group of young people aged 12 to 16 years)
“I can’t stay in the house” (15 year old boy)
“School has given me homework but I don’t understand” (14 year old boy)
“I’m not doing my A levels” (18 year old boy)
“We don’t have the internet” (13 year old boy)
“I have no idea what will happen to university” (18 year old boy)
“I need to get a job so I can help my family” (16 year old girl)
“I’m shopping for my mum, she’s at risk she has breast cancer” (17 year old boy)
“We have no money to buy food” (13 year old girl)
“We can’t pay our rent” (14 year old girl)
“When’s youth opening up?” (15 year old girl)
“My dad is sick but he can’t make an appointment at the GP” (13 year old girl)
“We’re being evicted and don’t have anywhere to go” (14 year old girl)
“We don’t have any clothes” (9 year old girl)
“The landlords threatening me because I’m the only one who can speak English in the house” (16 year old girl)
“Can you help us? Everywhere is closed” (Dad of young people we work with)
“I’ve stopped eating” (17 year old girl)
“My mum has run out of milk and nappies for the baby and can’t get any more”
“We’re supposed to have free school meals, but my parents don’t speak English and we don’t have email addresses” (7 year old boy)
“My grandmother needs to visit hospital but it takes us 2 hours to walk to there. Our cars broke, we can’t afford to fix it” (16 year old girl)
“We don’t know who to talk to” (16 year old girl)
“I tried to kill myself” (17 year old girl)
These messages came from young people aged from 6 to 25 years old. We wouldn’t have heard this if we hadn’t got back out there, been out in the community, been present and been there. Without this knowledge we would not have been able to:
Provide food parcels from generous local churches
Give out sports equipment and toys
Provide one to one emotional support
Help families find out their entitlements
Navigate GP, hospital and Citizen Advice Bureau appointments
Link families to English language lessons
Refer young people to mental health services
Provide transport to emergency appointments
Link young people to employment support
Prevent the homelessness of a family
Provide second-hand clothing
Provide nappies, milk and necessities for babies
Support young people with police appointments
Keep our young people safe, knowing they have someone they can rely on
In a world where digital technology, phone calls and zoom appointments are the ‘new normal’ people underestimate the need for face to face youth work inside and out of a global crisis. This experience has shown us that youth and community workers have been essential through the crisis and will be essential through the recovery, however that will emerge.
Sarah Miller, Lead youth and community worker CYP