1. Introduction

"As a matter of fact, who are you and what do you actually do ?" This is a typical question which recurrence finally annoys. No one would think of asking this kind of question to a baker or a butcher.

Having said that, one must admit that if the question is raised, it is due to a patent lack of clarity, inherent in the profession.

No street worker escapes the challenge regarding expression through communication and the difficult exercise of having to reply to this haunting question.

If nowadays social street work holds an important symbolic asset, it is still unrecognised in its distinctive features and its essence, a handicap that it generally has in common with its public. Incomprehension and misunderstandings become therefore their daily lot.

And yet, social street work is a topic often mentioned…

The different local and international meetings that deal with the question of social street work highlight certain findings relating to the profession and to the contacted public, to their sufferings and their life conditions. More particularly, it is in the follow-up of the international forum for stakeholders on street children and street work, "Words from the Street", organised by Dynamo international in November 2002 in Brussels, that the need to endow the street workers with more adequate communication tools has been established.

As a reminder, more than 750 people from 50 different countries took part in the event. Lectures, workshops and artistic productions were in turn ensured by the youngsters and the street workers, resulting in a certain number of recommendations (see enclosure) to the attention of the local and international political authorities. The forum "Words from the Street" enjoyed the patronage of UNESCO, the support of many political personalities and the sponsorship of the Senegalese artist Youssou N’Dour.

An international network of street work

This forum was not one amongst many. It was the result of several years of reflection and actions achieved by means of a research-action, co-ordinated by Dynamo international, an international solidarity network consisting of several hundreds of social street workers throughout the world.

In drawing up the present guidebook, this network carries on with its reflections and its mobilisation.

Above its objective to raise the awareness of both the public and the political opinion, the creation of such a network also has a training target by means of an exchange of practices at international level.

This is how, to draw up this guidebook, eight countries took a more active part : Belgium, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Martinique (French province), Germany, Senegal and Nepal.

Other member countries of the network, such as Vietnam, Quebec, Haiti, Mexico, the Philippines, etc. also brought their contributions.

The guidebook, a collective process

What is at stake through this mobilisation is to create a training guide for street workers on communication towards the media and public opinion.

Several stages were necessary in each participating workshop :

1^st stage :

The street workers from different countries drew up an inventory of the situation regarding information and communication of their respective associations.

2^nd stage :

A question list was submitted to journalists, political mandate holders and youngsters in contact with the street workers.

3^rd stage :

Each workshop carried out a communication action, in order to test it and draw from the concrete reality the lessons that are needed for the contents of the guidebook. This was especially the case in Martinique (February 2004) and at Lille (France — June 2004) where two international conferences were held assembling several hundreds of participants.

4^th stage :

Collective writing and reading of the guidebook.

5^th stage :

Spreading and promotion of the guidebook.

Europe in the street

This process was enabled thanks to the financing of the General Direction of Justice and Home affairs of the European Commission, within the frame of the DAPHNE 2003 programme.

If the European dimension is here predominant owing to the number of participating European countries, let us right away pick out the implication of extra European countries such as Senegal and Nepal. They did not hesitate to bring their contribution to the project with a concern for international solidarity and coherence.

In this trend of thought, at the forum "Words from the street", Jean Blairon indicated : "It seems to me that we have succeeded in detecting that this production mechanism of the "street child" social statute, apart from huge and cruel particularities, is no doubt the same in the North and in the South. The life street children or children in the street have to endure, be it North or South, constitutes no doubt the two faces of one and the same medal : there is certainly a unity in the issue, notwithstanding the differences which are sometimes enormous.(1)"

To fight efficiently against this international calamity by means of the same profession is undoubtedly the main motivation and the strongest cement for the street workers who have to act in such distant fields as well as with very different publics and moreover not only young publics.

A practical tool

Do not be mistaken, this guidebook was not only written by street workers for street workers. It will also be a source of inspiration for many other actors such as teachers, students and other social workers when conceiving communication towards the media.

But a warning is nevertheless essential as to the limits of said exercise.

Indeed, this guide is first of all a practical tool. It is not meant to be an exhaustive and scientific treaty on communication. Moreover, it is not predominantly concerned with lobbying methods towards public authorities. Lobbying is a fully-fledged profession, even if some connections exist in the field of communication.

Neither does the guidebook treat communication of the street worker towards his public and his daily environment in detail; a wider subject which could be the subject of a later publication regarding street work methodology.

The guide is first and foremost the result of experiences in a very distinctive sector.

Many studies exist treating communication pertinently in general : they can eventually constitute a further source of information for all those who wish to go deeper into the matter.

Nevertheless, if you wish to improve your knowledge of the subject, rely on facts. Trials and mistakes in your daily practice remain an excellent source of improvement.

(1) In "Proceedings of the International Forum for Stakeholders on Street Children and Street Work" November 2002