11 year old Mike Tyson's

So yesterday me and three of my team mates stand attempting to engage a group of fifteen 7 - 11 year old boys in a game of basketball.... The result two fights and a mis-understanding of the term non-contact. In fact a non-contact sport just doesn't exist with these kids becuase everything they do is about peer dominance, more so than i've ever experienced before. So when they play sport, they really go for it arms flying everywhere, kicking, shouting.... It's like a battle field. To introduce them to basketball was therefore an interesting experiement which resulted in one kid recieving two punches to the face and another in tears becuase of the constant abuse he was recieving. I think it's perhaps the most difficult peice of youth work i've ever done becuase i really struggled to bring the situation under control. Despite their being four leaders we had to fight for control becuase the boy's were just kicking off all over the basketball court.... as soon as one situation was resolved another began.

I ended yesterday feeling very tired but a 'good' tired. By good i mean i had worked hard, i had expereinced a new level of youth work.... urban youth work where kid's are probably going to go on and join gangs. We always try to have a discussion with the kids about a constructive issue with a film clip as a tool (finding nemo as an example). Yesterday we were watching the lion the witch and the wardrobe and one of the kids just came out with "did you see that kid that got shot outside Macdonalds?" the rest of the group responded as if they had heard of it. Then the kid said "well, that's what you get for snitching man!". The story goes that a young man was shot outside Macdonalds, he was in a gang and basically had helped the Police in an enquiry and becuase of this he got shot. The boy (11 years old) in the youth club was well aware of this story and was well aware of the fact that if you tell on people you get shot for it..... it's a culture so unknown to me. But i'm having to learn quickly, the language the raised level of aggression as examples....

Despite the culture all the young people are great, similar to every young person i've ever come across... full of potential. It's so great to be part of an organisation that believes in encouraging all people to fufil their potential. That means often we work with people who are least likely to be included by society. The Church.co.uk centre aims to have an advocacy service up and running by christmas and i've been given the reigns to get it going. A wonderful opportunity which at times scares me. But the other day i was asked to help a man that wandered into the centre to write a letter. He was from Turkey and could speak little english. We sat down and using the few words he knew put together a letter to the council. We then had a cup of tea and he left with Letter and envelope in hand. Prior to that meeting i had struggled to see how our advocacy service would look. After meeing this man it was so clear that if we could just create a well advertised space for people to come it would be used.

The opportunities here are endless.... and so are the talent's. By turning a church into an organisation there is a wealth of skilled people who can meet the needs of all people. On our team we have builders, computer technicians, musicians who have sold hundreds of records, skilled coffee makers, designers, trained counsellors, nurses, doctors, professional speakers and so many more.