Digital Tools, Spaces and Places - Mediators of Youth Work Practice

Whilst working with youth work staff from Premier League community football foundations in the UK recently, I asked them to build collages that reflected six issues that they felt were important for young people in 2017. Without fail, their depictions showed aspects of the digital world and social media as an issue that not only presented challenges for youth workers, but also opportunities for learning. They saw this as something that was really important, but also something that they felt ill-equipped to deal with. They described not having the hardware, being bound by strict policies which often ban social media usage as a tool for youth work completely, and working on programmes that did not allow them the time to have in-depth conversations about young people’s digital needs or to give the support that they felt necessary....