As I sit on this train from Hampden Park (in Eastbourne) to East Worthing via Brighton, I am having to calm myself with swigs of bottled water in order to contain thoughts. I probably shouldn't be trying to construct a blog post, instead mind-mapping my enthusiasm in big letters.
I've just come out of a meeting with a very helpful and generous member of the Safe East Sussex Team - a former youth worker and police officer, she now leads on anti-social behaviour, hate crime, extremism and domestic violence education, policy and strategy with swathes of communities in East Sussex (a huge county). I was joined by always possible associates, Denis and Teresa.
We talked for an hour on values, projects, gaps, cuts, hope, despair - looking at where schools and local authorities sit within the cycle of policy and government diktats on issues such as the prevent agenda and local initiatives to tackle hate crime.
East Sussex is not currently a target 'hot spot' for extremist activity, and therefore is not of direct interest to the Home Office, whereas Crawley (in West Sussex) and Brighton & Hove are high up the list due to recent high profile cases and a big increase in police referrals. Much of the feeling is, however, that if something frightening happened in Hastings sometime soon it might not surprise too many people.
At the core of our talks, of dispossession and youth alienation (what do these mean? where does this come from? where do we start with it?), were the recurring theme of human values, ethics and principles of community life. In schools and colleges the PHSE and PSD curricula are still unsteady, often unsure of how to tackle some of the big issues creatively - or, more realistically, some providers do it well and some don't do it all and everything in between.
Teresa, Denis and I are interested in how conversations with young people can be structured to have impact and understanding over a long period. Even quick-fire workshops, that may have been energetic and dynamic, are a thing of the past with schools and regional agencies reluctant/unable to spend money on commissioning creative projects from outside facilitators. But we are looking at how - over time - story telling can be used to unlock some of the massive social, cultural, health conversations that teenagers NEED to be having with empathetic and open-minded adults (and each other). There are big gaps that schools, the police and social agency teams just can't fill - gaps where some of the more vulnerable (and most are in some way) 11-19 year olds should be debating what it is to hate, to respect, to be fearful, to seek comfort in online spaces, to offer friendship to strangers etc etc. Many young people don't have the benefit of a kick-ass youth worker or a family with time to just talk and think about the bigger things without prejudice.
My brain is fizzing because it wants to create. A BIG cross-county project with schools and FE providers, with film, web, theatre, debate, stories - asking big questions and getting under the skin of hate, bullying, power, otherness, the romance of ideology. Kids can cope with these conversations. There are ways of hosting and facilitating them; different approaches for different young people. I want those that feel utterly marginalised to get the most out of it, because they might start to understand why - and that knowledge is power, and that can be used for good.
My working title is The Human Values Project.
Watch this space.
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