The Talking Youth Work Podcast

Coyote Magazine with Mark Taylor, season 2 episode 5

Hello dear listeners,

"To create community, we need channels where different stakeholders share their points of view.” Mark Taylor

 Here is another episode that was a lot of fun to record. This time with Mark Taylor, editor of the only European online magazine focused on youth work: Coyote Magazine.

We wondered if youth workers live too much in their own bubble. This view - of youth work as a closed system - generates a dual thinking regarding youth work: on one hand the sector wants and needs more resources but, on the other hand, it doesn't always want to open up to the world.

Coyote Magazine as a channel of communication closes some gaps between actors inside youth work but also aims at opening youth work to the outside, by having writers from the political sphere, researchers and practitioners that work in the field, who share their stories, their experiences, their knowledge and their insights.

Coyote Magazine plays an important role at European level, in creating a place for ideas to spread, a place for different actors to discuss, collaborate and create a movement to make things move forward.

It's very important to have different points of view to create a broader and more inclusive image of what youth work is, and what it could be

 If you want to read Coyote Magazine here are the links:

Coyote website https://pjp-eu.coe.int/en/web/coyote-magazine/home

Coyote Archive since 1999 https://pjp-eu.coe.int/en/web/coyote-magazine/previous-editions

Like and follow Coyote youth work magazine on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/CoyoteYouthWorkMagazine/

Any ideas, comments and suggestions, email us at talkingyouthworkpodcast@gmail.com.

First published on Tuesday Apr 07, 2020

The Power of Non Formal Education with Jo Claeys, season 2 episode 4

First of all is good to be back!

In this episode we talked with Jo Claeys, a youth worker and a trainer who together with Denis Morel and Simona Molari, developed the training "The Power of Non Formal Education".

We tried to better understand what is non formal education, how it relates to other types of education, the contact points with formal education, schools and what makes this type of learning so powerful.

Jo has a lot of experience and a curious point of view, as someone that is eager to explore all the potential of non formal learning.

This open approach to learning can help a lot of people that have difficulties with more formal types of trainings and education, it can become an exploratory experience where we take what we need instead of just passively accepting what is presented to us.

Where the freedom – and the responsibility – for learning is really in our hands.

 

Here are some resources that Jo shared with us, so that we could share with all of our listeners.

Video tutorials for less experienced in NFE

A approach on explaining the differences between formal, informal and non formal education

A comprehensive description of NFe with plenty of links to usefull educational resources

Any ideas, comments and suggestions, email us at talkingyouthworkpodcast@gmail.com.

First published on Wednesday Mar 11, 2020

Dragon Dreaming with Virgílio Varela, season 2 episode 3

We are joined in this episode by Virgílo Varela, a consultant in Social and Community Innovation that talked to us about one of his main skills and passion: Dragon Dreaming.

Dragon Dreaming is a systemic design process, a philosophy and a methodological framework, to create collaborative and sustainable projects, something that a lot of youth workers struggle with. For some, it's difficult to have everyone dreaming in the same direction, and for others it's hard to make the projects sustainable. Many times, both.

The process is composed of four steps: Dreaming, Planning, Doing and Celebrating.

We talked about the importance of celebration: if we don't celebrate, our energy and motivation starts to get depleted, and we lose heart, we fall out of love, we start doing, for the sake of doing, and the output is much less creative, energizing, and innovative that could be otherwise, if we would make celebration as much as a priority as doing, or planning.

It was a really a wonderful conversation, hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

Give us your feedback to the email talkingyouthworkpodcast@gmail.com

http://www.dragondreaming.org/

First published on Monday Dec 16, 2019

Embodied learning with Sandra Gojic, season2, episode 2

In this episode we talked to Sandra Gojic, an educator passionate about movement and creating spaces where young people can express themselves.

The way Sandra explores this is through Embodied Learning: an educational method that has been around for a while.

In our conversation our guest shared her story, how is it was difficult for her to express herself through her body, something many of us can probably relate to.

There is a tendency to talk about feelings, thoughts and emotions, from our heads, we rationalize. Yet, we all have had times that our bodies, through our senses, helped us understand more about the world. Maybe ignoring our bodies’ wisdom doesn't serve us very well.

Embodied Learning shows us that we can learn more and better about ourselves and how we relate to the world around us if we use ou body as a multi-sensorial platform of perception.

While working with young people there are a lot of benefits of this approach, and it doesn't have to be complicated, our bodies can serve as tools to navigate all the information that is being throwned at us, by paying attention to it, by contacting with all the sensations that run through us.

Amazing conversation about the advantages of being in our bodies, the most present and grounded place we can be.

Links and books, and resources mentioned in the podcast:

The Embodiement Conference

Embodied Change, KA2 project

Embodied Facilitator

The Embodiement Podcast

The Art of Somatic Coaching: Embodying Skillful Action, Wisdom, and Compassion by Richard Strozzi-Heckler

The Embodied Teen by Susan Bauer

Moves: a sourcebook of ideas for body awareness and creative movement by Katya Bloom and Rosa Shreeves

Dance Improvisation: Warm Ups, Games and Choreographic Tasks by Justine Reeves

First published on Monday Nov 04, 2019

Europe Goes Local with Judit Balogh, season 2, episode 1

Hello dear listeners!

For the kickoff of our second season we talked with Judit Balogh, she is the project coordinator for "Europe Goes Local" a strategic partnership to support municipal level youth work.

It was a very interesting conversation where we explored this approach to international youth work: thinking long term and on local level, creating a network of municipalities that support each other, and in doing so have a more sustainable impact.

This partnership envolves 200 members, 120 municipalities in 23 european countries. That's amazing!

Hope you enjoy this conversation as much as we did.

First published on Thursday Sep 26, 2019

Season One Finale with Anita Silva and Rui Branco, episode 17

For the last episode of season one, it’s just Anita and Rui and...you. We talked about how the first season of Talking Youth Work was for us, all the amazing people we talked to, and the biggest takeaways from each episode.

There will be a Second Season of 10 episodes, and we are looking for a way to support it.

If you have any ideas to fund the next season, please send us an e-mail, to talkingyouthworkpodcast@gmail.com, our brand new e-mail where you can reach us to suggest guests, share cool stories about youth work, and whatever else you feel like. Hope you enjoyed season one of the podcast, and we also hope we can count with you for the next season.

“See” you in September.

First published on Tuesday Jun 25, 2019

Entrepeneurial Mindset with Thomas Gold, episode 16

In this podcast Thomas Gold talks about his research on measuring the entrepreneurial mindset and how that work can inform the initiatives of youth workers. The findings from his research on entrepreneurial mindset can be found in Measuring Entrepreneurial Mindset in Youth: Learnings from NFTE's Entrepreneurial Mindset Index.

Thomas Gold is a researcher and consultant with extensive experience in the United States and Globally. He started his career conducting research on political change in Italy as a Fulbright fellow. For the past 18 years, Dr. Gold has held leadership positions focusing on research, measurement and evaluation in higher education, local government and nonprofit institutions. The policy reforms that were implemented as a result of his work have impacted the lives of millions of youth and young adults in low income neighborhoods and communities of color. His work has ranged from leading major studies in New York City’s public schools to spearheading the thought leadership and research efforts of a leading entrepreneurship education organization in the United States. Dr. Gold has written extensively on urban education, entrepreneurship and European politics. He received his BA from New York University and his Ph.D. in Political Science from the New School for Social Research.

First published on Monday Jun 03, 2019

Questioning Innovation with Jon Ord, episode 15

Our guest this time is Jon Ord, Professor at the University of St Mark & St John, Plymouth, UK. During our conversation – besides the unavoidable Brexit theme and its consequences in UK Youth Work - he mentioned that some of the youth work that is still being done today is meant to “keep youngsters off the streets”, “keep them busy”, from a time when the streets were a danger. But times have changed. Now, many see a danger in screens and online activities. Young people have changed and so must the paradigms and the practices in youth work. Jon Ord also has a very interesting and critical point of view about what really means to innovate in youth work, he refers to it as a complex and multidimensional concept, and a very contextual one. Something that might be innovative in France might not be in Spain, and vice versa. For him, the definition of innovation is very much tied to business, to products and services, but youth work has still to find a better definition of innovation to suit its own needs. Another great talk to help us think how to improve our approaches. Let’s Talk Youth Work?

First published on Monday May 13, 2019