Coordinator: Arturo Marin, Spain

Resource persons : Sara Thomas de Benitez, Mexico; Daniel Stoecklin, Switzerland; Huberto Duran, Mexico; Judith Beauchemin, Quebec; Ismaël Benali, Belgium

Subject: to compare work-practices with children following a commu- nity based approach with the intention to promote the social integration of children and young people.

The so-called community-based approach refers to the willpower to act on the social, cultural, economic, political environment of the young person and often with him/her. The environment is either close (the environment understood as a series of social relations) or less close : existence of legislation or a framework of legal protection for example, or also a ”general picture“ (most often produced by the media), or also policies put into practice.

Before, the term “communal” mostly referred to actions of proximity (for example in a neighbourhood).

As for the term ”community“, it often refers to an official cultural group.

One could schematise the communal aspect as follows :

SCHEMA

Each of the three poles has the possibility of influencing the other two. But the best way to avert the risk is to consider the child as an actor, to include him in a process of socialisation so that he can evaluate his environment to be able to better protect himself.

The social dynamics should be reinforced or modified so that the rights of the children can be respected, so that their positive capacities can be reinforced instead of assisting in the development of negative and organisational capacities acquired in the street, e.g.: stealing.

Quebec/Canada

Street work is done notably in semi-rural or semi-urban environments. The following is an example of communal work that was done:

For young people, it is important to meet, to have a place where they can be together. They remained in the street but the police and security agents didn’t accept this. A revolt of these young people led to the creation of a committee for a place for young people in the city centre. The committee was allowed to express their demands and needs, which led to progress being made on this issue.

Thanks to the work of this committee, three objectives were reached:

• Promotion of the cohabitation, demystification of the relationship between young people and adults.
• Reopening of the " Belvédère " (a place for young people), which gave the possibility to young people to set up expressive activities, such as theatre plays and the creation of a festival (a good occasion to gather the whole community around a positive event), concerts, billiard tournaments, and a “clown” workshop to liven up the city centre.
• Opportunity to give the youngsters a sense of responsibility and to create among them the feeling of belonging to society.

However one should be aware of several elements when doing community work:

• One cannot do what one wants with the money of the government.
• The government wants to take the people off the streets, gather the young people so that they are no longer on the streets, there is also a desire to exercise a kind of social control over the young people
• Work in partnerships should be valued
• There is an agreement with the police, which sometimes helps the street workers, but is not the case in other countries.
• Confidentiality is very important, as well as the notion of trust.

Mexico

There are people who live in the street and others who only work there. In regard to street work, one must pay attention to the individuality of the children: from which community do they come, what and whom does their environment consist of (their family and the street).

One should work more with the families; they are often ignored in the processes that have been put into place.

Communities are mixed, the child must choose what is a priority to him: school, work, leisure, Church…There are many possibilities, it is the civil society that will decide on the relationships that will be established between the different people or the different groups. We have huge responsibilities to help them « find their place in the world ».

One should also work on the evaluation of organisations working with children; many among them start from the individual to reach society. The issue of working with health services is also raised. In any case one should find and evaluate the priorities of the children but it is a difficult task.

	H. Duran - "Moins de bureaucratie" (0'30'')
	312 Ko	580 Ko	d

En Belgique

Dynamo offers an example of communal action. This AMO (youth support service in an open environment) has collaborated in the creation of a dialogue between the neighbourhood committee and the young people that "were hanging out" in this area, which was a problem for the inhabitants. At the beginning, these young people were heavily controlled and underwent abusive arrests. This process of dialogue, listening and support for the projects of the young people has permitted to create social bonds.

En Espagne

For the organisation Espacio Europa Joven, it is ambivalent to follow an approach that goes from the individual to the communal and that can vary according to time and culture….

Questions are raised :

• Should more importance be given to the communal or to the individual?
• Should the intervention be individual or refer to a group?
• Is the social worker individualistic?
• How can one encourage teamwork and work with youngsters?
• How can one promote communal work?
• Do you consider yourself as an educator, if yes, which are the basic values that you pass on?

Tolerance is very important but one cannot accept everything, as an educator you need discipline as well as moral values and ethics, one must pay attention to the values that are passed on (solidarity, tolerance...).

Debate and conclusions

• Flexibility is needed in the guidance of young people. More time should be given to listening to the child.
• Space should be given for the opinions of young people.
• The approach of the network is essential.
• At the level of the impact, we demand some “efficiency”, qualitative indicators would be needed to assess the point of view of communal work and social dynamics.
• The importance of the evaluation should be emphasized; the social worker should also reflect on his work.
• One should pay attention to the transfer of values between social worker and the young people.
• The central axis is the individual person; the starting point should be the needs and expec- tations of the young people.
• Competition between organizations should be avoided.