All Youth Work Lab articles
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Article
Why asking for help is not the sign of weakness we think it is and how do it more
I’m an American, and we sure do love our self-sufficiency. But we’re not alone in this reality. In the world of leadership, self-sufficiency is seen as a sign of strength (and sadly, ministry leadership is not an exception to this).
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Article
Don’t give up on assemblies just yet
Education matters. This monthly column looks at God’s work in schools: through schools’ work and in children’s education as they think Christianly about what they study
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Article
A new year with endless possibility
Mark Griffiths and Rachel Turner’s monthly look at NexGen ministry
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Article
Spectacular v Significant
Mark Griffiths and Rachel Turner’s monthly look at NexGen ministry
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Article
Let’s not forget the lost sheep!
According to the 21st Century Evangelicals survey undertaken by the Evangelical Alliance, 54 percent of the present UK Church cited growing up in a Christian home as the primary reason they are in church today. That’s why faith in the home is a significant factor in future church attendance.
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Issues
Youth Work Lab: Parents
Sometimes they don’t engage at all, sometimes they criticise the things you say and do, sometimes they speak an encouraging word and it lifts you for the rest of the term. Youth workers may focus on the young people with the core of their roles, but the role of family in youth work should never be under-estimated. Young people remain the focus of our work, but neglecting the role families can play in the ministries we are a part of can result in missed opportunities to see greater wholeness.
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Issues
The Youth Work Lab: Participation
Welcome to the Youth Work Lab: the place where key youth work theories are tried and tested by on-the-ground practitioners. Each month,
the team from StreetSpace selects and explores a piece of youth work theory, and puts it to the test in creative and pioneering ways -
Issues
The Youth work Lab: Mentoring
Welcome to the Youth Work Lab: the place where key youth work theories are tried and tested by on-the-ground practitioners. Each month,
the team from StreetSpace selects and explores a piece of youth work theory, and puts it to the test in creative and pioneering ways -
Issues
The Youth Work Lab: Leadership
Welcome to the Youth Work Lab: the place where key youth work theories are tried and tested by on-the-ground practitioners. Each month, the team from StreetSpace selects and explores a piece of youth work theory, and puts it to the test in creative and pioneering ways.
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Issues
Youth Work Lab: Self-directed learning
This year we’ve seen the Youthwork Summit, Youthwork the Conference and SoulNet all take time out from their regular slots in the Christian youth work training calendar. These conferences work hard at offering spaces that resource, inspire and challenge a nation of youth workers and they will be missed.
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Issues
Youth Work Lab: Mindfulness
Mindfulness has gone mainstream, even making the cover of Time Magazine. Over the last 20 years, mindfulness has stepped out of its religious roots, been secularised, simplified, and gone mainstream, to meet the need of the Western context. Mindfulness is fast becoming a go-to solution in the health service, occupational health and, increasingly, in education. There a number of resources, books, training courses and projects promoting mindfulness-based interventions and approaches.
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Issues
Youth Work Lab: Starting something new
Cuts, cuts and more cuts. We all know that the youth service, both statutory and voluntary, is being squeezed on a scale not seen for 50 years. There’s probably a youth service in your area which has had to reduce capacity or disappear altogether. We hear the constant refrain in the press that austerity has hit young people the hardest: youth unemployment is at an all-time high, as is the likelihood of young people living in low-income households (almost half a million of secondary school age young people live in poverty and poverty experienced in childhood is likely to carry on into adulthood).
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Issues
Youth Work Lab: Singing
Before youth work and youth ministry got off the ground, one key way of traditional churches involving young people in the life of the faith community was through a church choir. Early church choirs weren’t only about worship, they were also a place of education. Here young people, mainly boys, would be taught to read both music and words.
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Issues
Youth Work Lab: Gaming with young people
The gaming industry is huge. No longer a niche market aimed at those who enjoy it as a hobby on the side, it’s now an all-encompassing beast. With the development of smartphone technology, we can all carry a whole host of games in our pockets.
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Issues
The Youth Work Lab: Empowerment
Welcome to the Youth Work Lab: the place where key youth work theories are tried and tested by on-the-ground practitioners. Each month, the team from StreetSpace selects and explores a piece of youth work theory, and puts it to the test in creative and pioneering ways.
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Issues
The Youth Work Lab: Group Dynamics
Welcome to the Youth Work Lab: the place where key youth work theories are tried and tested by on-the-ground practitioners. Each month, the team from StreetSpace will select and explore a piece of youth work theory, and put it to the test in creative and pioneering ways.
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Issues
The Youth Work Lab: Faith Development
Welcome to the Youth Work Lab: the place where key youth work theories are tried and tested by on-the-ground practitioners. Each month, the team from StreetSpace selects and explores a piece of youth work theory, and puts it to the test in creative and pioneering ways
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Issues
Youth Work Lab: Branding
A young person I work with recently pointed at my shoes and exclaimed, ‘What are those?’ Unaware of the current meme (look it up) I was about to reply, when I realised the question wasn’t looking for an answer, but rather was to publicly call me out the fact that my choice of footwear was not relevant to this young person, and as it appears, many young people in the youth club. Not having the right brand, in the eyes of the young people, made me a target of ridicule. Branding can play an enormously important part in the lives of young people.
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Issues
The Youth Work Lab: Boundaries
Welcome to the Youth Work Lab: the place where key youth work theories are tried and tested by on-the-ground practitioners. Each month,
the team from StreetSpace selects and explores a piece of youth work theory, and puts it to the test in creative and pioneering ways