We at Youth and Policy are delighted to share news of two free linked online workshops on 12th May: one discussing youth work under Covid, and the other discussing the benefits of writing for youth workers. These events are organised by the Citizen Enquiry team who have written four articles for us over the past months:

Citizen enquiry: the lives of youth workers

Youth work in a time of Covid

Under many pressures

The importance of our wild stories

From April to December 2020, the Citizen Enquiry into Youth Work in the Time of COVID-19 received monthly diaries from 50 youth workers, to contribute both to the Citizen Enquiry itself and to the Mass Observation archive at Sussex University. A team of citizen researchers (Janet Batsleer, Hasaan Amin, Emily Beever, Tania de St Croix, Kevin Jones, Gerry McVeigh and Christine Smith) met each month to discuss the diaries, identifying key themes, commonalities and divergence, from which the above articles arose. Further details of the two workshops and booking links are provided below.

Voices from a citizen enquiry: Youth work under Covid (morning session)

Book here

This is the first of two workshops organised on Wednesday 12th May to discuss and share our experiences during a Citizen Enquiry into youth work under Covid, which took place from April-December 2020. This workshop will focus on youth work under Covid, including a chance to hear diary-writers reading excerpts of their diaries, and a chance to discuss what a year of Covid has meant for all of us in youth work. What will youth work look like in future? How do we want it to look?

Voices from a citizen enquiry: Writing Youth Work Diaries (afternoon session)

Book here

This is the second of two workshops organised on Wednesday 12th May to discuss and share our experiences during a Citizen Enquiry into youth work under Covid, which took place from April-December 2020. This workshop will focus on the process of diary writing. Citizen researchers and diary writers will discuss writing as part of youth work practice, you will hear more about writing for the Mass Observation archive (see below), and you will be encouraged to engage in some guided diary writing (there will be no pressure to share what you write). Please bring a pen and paper, or coloured pens, or whatever you would like to use to write a reflective diary.