Message shared on behalf of Janet Batsleer and colleagues:

 

We are hosting a Citizen Enquiry through the community-based youth work sector concerning what is happening for youth workers and for young people involved with youth work in the time of Covid. See our previous call for participants here.

We invite diary writers to join us and submit diary entries on a monthly basis. In addition, we invite short reports (memos)  on the following themes:

Vulnerabilities and Precarious lives

Who is missing?  How is outreach work happening?

Crisis points and meeting basic needs

What is happening online? 

Improvisation?            Emotions?

Community networks? 

Fears  and hopes for the future of  your organisation/youth project ?

 

In response to what has been written so far we have added the following themes:

Political events and trust in Government/authorities

Unlockdown

Transitions: for young people and also for workers  eg from furlough; from online to face to face.

Youth workers’ mental health and coping strategies.

 

We do not only want to document youth work but also to provide a snapshot into the every day lives of both youth workers and young people during this time. Entries can be as short or as long as people choose. They can include : the weather, the atmosphere, the food, the music, the mood and emotions, bodily experiences of both pressure and relaxation….whatever seems important to you.  We will be making a contribution to the wider picture of what is happening via Mass Observation (www.massobs.org.uk).  Mass Observation is committed to documenting people’s everyday lives and started in the 1930’s by a group made up of a radical academic, a filmmaker and a journalist and we want to contribute to this.

A group of citizen researchers from the youth work sector (the signatories to this letter) meets monthly to consider what has been submitted in their area and discuss what to enquire into further.

This is an independent citizen led research project with 40 members so far. Diary entries will be submitted to and held by the Mass Observation archive at the University of Sussex  at the end of the project in December. Those involved are invited to use the ethical processes associated with Mass Observation and guidance of this is given when people join the project. We would be delighted to have further contributors as schools return, we move into the autumn and our experience changes once again.

Janet Batsleer, Manchester    J.Batsleer@mmu.ac.uk  (please contact me to join)

Christine Smith, Hull

Tania de St Croix, London

Kevin Jones, Manchester

Emily Beever, Edinburgh

Gerry McVeigh, Belfast

Hasaan Amin, Manchester