I am preparing an article on detached work. One of the questions I have is about the values of detached work. Many of these are drawn from notions of journey, core youth work values, incarnation, relationship theology etc. When i started christian detached work in the early 1990’s (how old am I) these values were still quite fresh and my observations were that they were not the same as i observed in many other christian projects. The growth of writing about relational youth work (Ward etc) and the growth of professional christian training seems to have moved the values I saw in detached work to being more a part of mainstream christian youth work. Is this true in your experience? Any help please?
SUNDAY PAPERS – THE SUPPLEMENT
A CO-OPERATIVE LOOK AT LIFE, MISSION, EMERGING CHURCH AND ALL THAT
have you checked out the article in this months youthwork mag? page 44 features our project.
you can get in touch for more info if you want
i’d say that detached seems to be seen as an extreme side of youthwork – i am also an A1/A2 assessor for nvq and have been told that the detached stuff can only count for a little of the assesments of the staff i am supervising.
funny, cos for me it’s much better than centre based. it is purely relational and is all about developing relationships from awareness of our existance, through acknowledgement of our presence to engagement and working together. there’s no policing or caretaking as with centre based. and no programme other than waht the young people and the workers devise through the weeks. each night is different – geographically, meterologically(!) and the quality and quantity of engagement.
i used to work for a church but am now employed as a secular detached youth worker and agree that many of the fundamental principles transfer well.
hope that helps a little – get in touch if you want more
I am currently writing up an article on “Spiritual accompaniment” as a missional approach to faith development – much of this is based upon 10 years experience of detached youth work where the accomanie sets the agenda entirely. Will post a link to blog when completed. One of the major issues for detached youth work is how one demonstrates results particularly in an outcomes culture. A a missional priest based in a parish providing I keep the congregations happy I have almost complete freedom on the mission side – no line managers checking how many come to Church!
thanks for the comments. I am interested in the rationale for the detached attracting lower counts re assessments. Particularly with the move seeing more call on detached workers and crime diversion etc. Also do you Tom notice the difference between the position you now hold and previously ie did people struggle with the of definition.
interesting question. I think you are probably right in suggesting the gap between the values that inform detached work and other areas of youth work have become closer matched. But for me the stark contrast is the expectations of the young people that we work with. This project has run detached work in the local community for years the young people can comfortably place us when we are running a drop-in but still ask questions and find it hard to understand that our job can be to “Wander the streets”. This difference in expectations makes for a very different “working out” of these values. I’m still asking a lot of questions and working this through. What power balances do we automatically bring into relationships and how are these affected by the “type” of youth work we do? What does it mean to journey with somone that has struggled with commitment and the running of day to day life? Outcomes are different with people who engage eagerly and have practice at accompanying, people that have spent their lives reaching for achievements (sport or academic). I think the values are similar but in my experience the working out of these is not.
I do quite a lot of detached with Devon CC (non-Xstian) in Barnstaple. Interesting do it in a non-xstian enviroment ofter working for xstians for about 10 years.