Our new coalition Government speaks of big challenges, big cuts and a vision of a Big Society – but how will this affect the well-being of young people? Nigel Pimlott and Sally Nash reflect on the important role that spirituality can play in the new Government agenda for teenagers.
According to Google, there are about 250,000,000 references to ‘well-being’ on the Internet. For those not geeky enough to be fully familiar with search engine statistics, that is a lot! Well-being has become a major 21st century phenomena and industry. A consequence of this is that hardly a week goes by without some report or piece of research about the well-being of young people appearing. What is startling to us is that nearly all of these reports fail to make any mention of young people’s spirituality and its central role in the status of their well-being.
All the while there is lots of talk by politicians, the media and some adults about young people; they get blamed for taking exams that are too easy, are the cause of crime and anti-social behaviour, drink all the time, take drugs, get pregnant, are unemployed, rude and lack respect. It is hard to find a positive word about them in many circles.
At the same time, a series of research reports shows that the UK has the worst well-being amongst young people in the Western world.[1] Could it possibly be that these two factors are connected? That continual criticism, lambasting and lack of positivity and encouragement are eroding the lives of young people in a systematic and crushing manner?
Do negative attitudes make a difference?
We will probably never be able to prove a direct link and determine precise cause and effect, but we can be certain that constantly being negative about someone has never had a positive longterm effect! Some young people clearly have issues and challenges that need to be addressed and overcome, but the way to do this is surely to adopt an approach that seeks to help and build up rather than demean and destruct.
Do negative attitudes, demonisation and criminalisation inject a toxicity into the experience of young people? Rather than being a time of adventure, experimentation, determination and formation, for some it has become a time of restriction, ridicule and of being despised. Once this toxicity has got into the system it pollutes and contaminates the good with the bad, the positive with the negative and the successes the majority of young people achieve with the attributed failures of a persecuted minority.
Theologically speaking, and as a result of the Fall, there is a propensity for things to go wrong anyway. Thus any toxicity easily thrives in an environment of brokenness and potentially compounds a tendency in humanity to be less than wholesome at times. It would, therefore, seem to be a priority for the youth worker and minister to seek to combat this toxicity at every opportunity by promoting the kingdom values of shalom and the offer from Jesus of ‘life in all its fullness’ (John 10:10). We understand both of these concepts in a holistic way and it is interesting to note that although the term shalom is often connected to the idea of peace, Young’s Concordance also offers the word ‘completeness’ as an alternative in its list of over 150 biblical references to shalom. Shalom and ‘life in all its fullness’ could perhaps be perceived as two different ways of articulating well-being from a Christian perspective. Perhaps we can only dream of a Government that has the concept of Shalom at the core of its policies!
For both youth workers and young people, it can be a real uphill struggle to promote well-being as the torrent of demonisation and constant attacks damage young people and their spirits. We know that what we are currently politically doing does not seem to work and may actually be unhelpful, yet we carry on doing it because of political pressure and a somewhat perverse satisfaction that results from persisting in upholding a worldview that marginalises and blames others rather than accepts any collective responsibility for failure.
Our view is that we seem to concentrate on trying to highlight and punitively control any deviant behaviour and yet ignore the key growth dynamics and possibilities of exploration, hope, actualisation and spiritual development that, if focused upon, would significantly lessen the need for such controls. It must be hoped that the ‘Big Society’ initiative will include young people as part of the solution to our ills and not the focus of any blame.
Solutions
In short, we believe that if we focus on the positives and possibilities, we would help young people be all they were intended to be and, by default, diminish the propensity for problem behaviour. Policy makers continue to justify and rationalise their criminalising and demonising actions even though all the evidence suggests they are not working. Constantly being mean-spirited destroys well-being. It is early days for our new Government, but it is to be hoped that in the coming months that policy makers will adopt a more positive approach to young people.
It may be that things are no worse than in the past and we have simply got better at measuring such distress and young people have become more honest and open about their feelings. Even if this is the case and there has been no recent deterioration in the well-being of young people, it is not a position that we can be proud of and action is required to correct it. If it is not the case and we are facing a real deterioration in the well-being of young people then the case for urgent action to counteract such a decrease is even stronger. We think it is time for a health check that places spirituality at the core of any understanding about well-being. We believe that Christian youth work has something to offer this well-being debate, and that is its engagement with spirituality.
An exploration of ‘well-being’?
Youth work seeks to help young people answer some of the big worldview questions of life such as, ‘Who am I?,’ ‘Where am I?,’ ‘What is wrong?’ and ‘What is the solution?’ Such questions are ultimately spiritual in nature and youth workers seek to help young people explore and discover answers that work for them. Spiritual well-being involves having a worldview that gives us a sense of belonging, purpose and esteem. Often worldviews are not articulated and may be hard to verbalise but helping young people identify and articulate theirs is a task a youth worker can contribute to.
Well-being is a disputed concept, with no agreed definition and a danger of being misconstrued as happiness. Policy makers are increasingly interested in the concept of well-being and there are a variety of attempts to define and measure it, including a UK Government understanding of the concept of well-being as:
‘…a positive physical, social and mental state; it is not just the absence of pain, discomfort and incapacity. It requires that basic needs are met, that individuals have a sense of purpose, that they feel able to achieve important personal goals and participate in society. It is enhanced by conditions that include supportive personal relationships, strong and inclusive communities, good health, financial and personal security, rewarding employment, and a healthy and attractive environment.’ [2]
One of the dilemmas of such approaches to well-being is that they are devised with a specific political agenda in mind and if you do not agree with the agenda then the definition may not resonate. With this definition it is difficult to measure well-being, as words such as ‘positive,’ ‘good,’ ‘important’ or ‘attractive’ are subjective and hard to quantify. The word ‘spirituality’ does not appear in many definitions.
We believe that spirituality is the essence of our humanity and underpins our holistic development as well as being the key component in determining our well-being. Whilst this idea has not been at the heart of much of Western thinking in the last few hundred years, it is a view commonly held by many in the world and profoundly preserved in many indigenous people groups. For them, the spirit comes first and everything else emanates from, and is determined by the spirit. In such cultures, poor well-being would primarily be associated with an impoverished and poor spirit. Other factors influencing well-being would be considered secondary.
We would argue that in recent times young people have predominantly been seen as a cohort that has a host of problems that need fixing and that have to be cured rather than human beings with vast and unlimited potential that need to be encouraged, trusted, and mandated to go and flourish as an essential part of humanity. One way of doing this that is gathering credence in youth work practice circles is to develop what has become known as social pedagogy.
Working holistically
The term ‘pedagogy’ (meaning a way of teaching) is well known in continental Europe where it is understood to mean work with the whole child and includes an understanding of their connections to the broader social context. These connections are what underpin the promotion of wellbeing and rightly elevate the status of the young person.
Drawing on this work, Petrie et al have identified the following key principles that we need to be aware of in our youth work:
a focus on the whole person, and support for overall development; the practitioner should see themself as a person, in relationship with the young person; while they are together, young people and staff are seen as inhabiting the same life space, not as existing in separate, hierarchical domains; as professionals, pedagogues are encouraged to constantly reflect on their work and to bring both theoretical understandings and selfknowledge to the process; pedagogues are also practical; their training prepares them to share in many aspects of everyday lives; when working in group settings, young people’s associative life is seen as an important resource: workers should foster and make use of the group; pedegogy builds on an understanding of young people’s rights that is not limited to procedural matters or legislated requirements; there is an emphasis on teamwork and on valuing the contributions of other people: families, community and other professionals.[3]
Embracing these principles will go a long way to help a re-imagining of adolescence that will not only be of benefit to them but to society as a whole. We believe that we need to equip, empower and mandate young people to be explorers and sojourners and not just nondescript beings on an educational and outcome-driven conveyor belt that spits them out with a host of accreditations and qualifications that have little to do with preparing them for the challenges of modern life.
We want to emphasise the capacity of spirituality and religious faith to liberate young people and to build their resilience in dealing with the trials and tribulations that life brings. Achieving this may necessitate a transfer of power so that young people become more effective self-directed learners and explorers. This means that the role of the worker may have to change. This is aptly described by one local authority as, ‘…requiring a paradigm shift, one in which the agent for change—teacher, youth worker, school nurse— will walk alongside the individual in order to resource them and their situation until they are restored to resilience. The narrative of the young person will find pathways to solutions. It is their story of ‘how it is’ that determines the choice of service and any therapeutic interventions.’ [4]
This demands that there is a need to allow young people to be, to become and to belong without any preconceptions and politically inspired adult agendas. There is also a need to be careful that our discussions and disseminations do not turn into the attack on young people that we sought to counteract in the first place.
At the heart of the ‘Big Society’ idea is a process called Community Organising. This is when people in a given locality come together to thrash out ways of improving their collective situation. In its truest form, this is about local power taking real power and control over their situation. Some would argue that this is what genuine youth work has always been about and that youth workers will have a major role to play in any new plans. Time will tell if this proves to be the case.
Governments come and go and policies continually change. Young people live in a fast-moving culture that can easily negatively impact their well-being. Christian youth workers are wellplaced to walk with young people, supporting their spiritual development and helping enhance their well-being. They have been doing this for many years irrespective of which political party is in power. They will no doubt continue to do so in spite of, rather than because of, any new Government initiatives.
[1] For example: United Nations Children’s Fund, Seventh Annual Report on Child Well-being in the Wealthy Nations of the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) (2007); New Economics Foundation, National Accounts of Well-being: Bringing Real Wealth Onto the Balance Sheet (2009); Children’s Society, Good Childhood Enquiry (2009); NEF/Action for Children, Overview of Child Well-Being Backing the Future (2009); OECD, Doing Better for Children (2009).
[2] DEFRA, Sustainable Development Indicators in Your Pocket 2007 (London: HMSO, 2007) p 9.
[3] P Petrie, J Boddy, C Cameron, E Heptinsall, S McQuail, A Simon and V Wigfall, Pedagogy – a holistic, personal approach to work with children and young people, across services European models for practice, training, education and qualification. London: Thomas Coram Research Unit (Institute of Education: University of London, 2005) p 2.
[4] Wigan Council, The Mental Health Promotion Strategy for Children and Young People (Ashton Leigh and Wigan NHS, 2009).
Nigel Pimlott is the Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Frontier Youth Trust. Sally Nash is Director of the Midlands Centre for Youth Ministry. This article has been adapted from their recent Grove Booklet, Well-being and Spirituality (£3.95, www.grovebooks.co.uk).
