CONFERENCE + FINAL THOUGHTS

I feel as though we could've prepared a lot more for the conference and being given the report the day before wasn't really fair

I feel as though the whole trip was misrepresented massively, which is frustrated because I feel like we worked to make change for no reason and everything has gone to waste

I didn't understand the conference or the reasoning behind many presentations that were delivered on the day, I feel as though both groups: Amsterdam & London should've been given the opportunity to outline how the trips went for those who didn't participate and let us reflect on what learning came from this and what should happen in the future to push more learning

At the start of this journey it seemed as though positive change would commence but due to lack in communication and understanding it is now up to us as individuals to make sure the work we first set out to do, gets communicated and implemented effectively!

BRIXTON

This was a day where the Dutch group really felt at home, they all related to the Brixton area and felt very welcomed and happy as soon as we got there

We first went to Brixton Soup Kitchen and spoke about what kin of work happens there and talked about how it was first set up

The stereotypical "hood boys" saw a need for change in their area and wanted to set up something positive to make this change

We then went over to the Black Archives and retrieved a lot of information from there 

This day was slightly frustrating because everyone was so excited to be in Brixton and explore, they didn't want to continue with the tour and learn more about how the culture came about

We then went to the adventure playground in Lewisham, which was a bit more relaxed - we got to meet a lot of young people that use the service and they presented to us a little bit about themselves and how the service helped change their life

This was a great end to the programme and everyone got a chance to reflect on the two trips and really re-unite!

Up to North London

Went to the community centre and talk about the history of the black community being developed in that particular estate and it was interesting as I got to learn things about the black community in North London that I didn't know before

There was a discussion about institutional racism and how young people react to how police treat them

We informed the Dutch about police brutality resulting in the London Riots and how this was due to young people being angry and not wanting to put up with anymore inequality from the police

A question arises: Is there any similarities in the Dutch communities and London communities?

Do we as youth workers have the responsibility for that? If so, what is the first action you would take?

We then went over to KORI and spoke with the young people there who work with Talent Match, part of the organisation London Youth - which encourages young people to create their own businesses 

Goldsmiths, University of London

We had a very informative session about conflict resolution and how it is important in youth work today

There was also an icebreaker carried out to make us reflect on stereotypes and how we subconsciously judge people

A discussion was opened up about refugees and racism although it seemed difficult for some of the amsterdam participants to translate and really understand the nature of the conversation

Dutch team met goldsmiths students and everyone shared a little about their backgrounds and the time of work that they do

We then went to riverside youth club and spoke to Merv (service manager within the area for Lewisham council) about youth work and what the main problems are in London and why adventure playgrounds have been set up for young people

It was very interested to see how much this engaged the non-UK participants 

AMS >< UK

The Amsterdam group finally arrive in London!

We met up to discuss how we felt emotionally about the visit to Amsterdam

We were then split into different groups, my team were the red team and our role was to look at how the visit went from a creative perspective

We got a chance to reintroduce ourselves and re-gain focus on what the programme is about and what we set out to do

In this meeting I lost focus of the programme aims a little due to being excited about the Amsterdam group coming over to the UK

But overall it was difficult to look through a limited sense in terms of describing how the trip to Amsterdam went

First meeting back in the UK

Everyone shared their thoughts and feelings about the trip to Amsterdam

The feeling was mutual that everyone was happy we were able to come together as a group from both countries and it was a very challenging experience

We were given a question: Is the work less good because of the emphasis of the work they do with the African diaspora? & What is the impact of not seeing the "Africanness" of your clients?

These were very deep questions, that I still need to think about and explore further...

Day 4 in Amsterdam

Visited the city hall:

We were informed that the highest population of youth crime is in Amsterdam

The job of the workers at city hall is to take this information about violence in south east and think of ways to address it and tackle how these problems have affected the community and any people that have been directly affected, seeing how they can change negative impacts

There are no youth centres, only community centres due to cuts in funding - this has caused tension between different generations of people. The general approach is that theres no diversification 

It was mentioned that everyone is scared to directly name the community that is causing the most problem in society e.g. africans are majorly involved in crime more then the duetsch - this is a generalised focus

Otmar spoke about the importance of teaching African heritage to our young people

We also had a big discussion about the duetsch aims for the programme and the London participants aims and what the actual learning objective is

The duestch seemed to think that the focus is just about best practice in youth work and the young people involved just happen to be 98% black

Whereas the London groups focus was based on the AFRICAN diaspora youth in both countries

The London group are concerned about how the research will conclude and if it will address what we initially set out to learn

Everyone wants to know where do we go from here?

It seems as though the main focus of the group as a whole is that we are researching diaspora youth