Connecting with Young People in Trouble

Andi Brierley

Description

A powerful critique of existing youth services which spans lived experience, theory and practice. Contains first-hand accounts of relational change and sees youth crime via a refreshing new lens.

Sujets

• Sociologie, société et politique
• Social work

Informations

• Publié par: Waterside Press
• Date de parution: 16 mars 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781909976900
• Langue: English

Extrait

Connecting with Young People in Trouble
Risk, Relationships and Lived Experience
Copyright and publication details
Connecting with Young People in Trouble: Risk, Relationships and Lived Experience
Andi Brierley
ISBN 978-1-909976-89-4 (Paperback)
ISBN 978-1-909976-90-0 (Epub ebook)
ISBN 978-1-909976-91-7 (Adobe ebook)
Copyright © 2021 This work is the copyright of Andi Brierley. All intellectual property and associated rights are hereby asserted and reserved by the author in full compliance with United Kingdom and international law. No part of this book may be copied, reproduced, stored in any retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, including in hard copy or via the internet, without the prior written permission of the publishers to whom all such rights have been assigned worldwide.
Cover design © 2021 Waterside Press: www.gibgob.com and with the kind assistance of Tamara Gomez.
Main UK distributor Gardners Books, 1 Whittle Drive, Eastbourne, BN23 6QH. Telephone [phone]; [e-mail] ; www.gardners.com
North American distribution Ingram Book Company, One Ingram Blvd, La Vergne, TN 37086, USA. Telephone [phone]; [e-mail]
Cataloguing In-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book can be obtained from the British Library.
Ebook Connecting with Young People in Trouble is available as an ebook including via library models.
Published 2021 by
Waterside Press Ltd
Sherfield Gables
Sherfield on Loddon, Hook
Hampshire RG27 0JG.
Telephone [phone]
Online catalogue WatersidePress.co.uk
Email [e-mail]
Royalties from the first 1,000 copies of this work go to support Martin House Hospice Care for Children and Young People (Charity No. 517919).
Connecting with Young People in Trouble
Risk, Relationships and Lived Experience
Andi Brierley
Foreword Lisa Cherry
Table of Contents
Publisher’s note vi
Acknowledgments vii
About the author viii
Foreword 9 The Who, the Why and the Context
My own journey 12
Fresh insights as a professional 13 It Takes a Village to Raise a Child
Relational poverty 19
Offending, relationships and identity 21
Attachment, authenticity and other crossovers 29
Some concluding comments 35 Don’t Judge a Book by Its Cover
Implicit bias 41
Identity, condemnation and redemption 46
Labels, relationships, inequality 49
Risk Relational Paradox 50
Summary 56 A Unique Perspective of Relational Justice
How do practitioners build relationships? 60
Facilitating change 63
Getting the balance right 66
The system itself 69
Further thoughts on best practice 76
Challenges on multiple levels 78
Avoiding the cycle of abuse 82 The Risk Switch
More on child exploitation 86
The need for attachment and relationships 89
Ineffective penal consequences 91
The ‘Risk Switch’ in the form of a diagram 94 Joint Enterprise
Life experience 107
Lived experience 108
Living experience 108
Lived experience professionals 109
Three interviews 109
Analysis 125
Postscript 131 Youth Crime and Trauma
The ACE studies 134
Toxic stress and exposure to other adversities 136
The impact of ACEs 137
Parental incarceration and exposure to criminality 139
Potentially harmful youth justice processes 140
ACEs and social inequality 144 Relationships: The Key Components
Presence, attunement, resonance and trust 173
Replacing ‘resonance’ with ‘connection’ 174
Connection 178
Trust 180
Finally a Desistance PACT 182
References and Bibliography 183
Index 192
Publisher’s note
The views and opinions in this book are those of the author and not necessarily shared by the publisher. Readers should draw their own conclusions concerning the possibility of alternative views, accounts, descriptions or explanations.
Further disclaimer
The author states: ‘Although I am currently an employee of Leeds City Council, this book is a collection of my personal views and experiences combined with research readily available for public consumption. The ideas, views and perspectives are not endorsed or collaborated in by my employer in any way and therefore do not reflect Leeds City Council’s objectives, values or operations.’
Acknowledgments
Many people have contributed to this book, either wittingly or not. There are so many professionals that have provided me with insights into their work and knowledge and, without them, I would not have been able to learn, develop and provide these considered reflections or observations and make a hopefully positive contribution to youth justice practice. Dr Daniel Siegal, Dr Sean Creaney, Dr Nadine Burke Harris, Dr Gabor Mate, Dr Bessel Van Der Kolk, Dr Bruce Perry, Dr Karen Treisman and Lisa Cherry have been instrumental in my own personal and professional development. Also, so many Leeds professionals have supported me in one way or another after providing me with the opportunity to make a difference to the lives of young people caught up in my previous life circumstances. Thank you to Katie Wrench, Denis Lewis, Steve Walker and Trevor Woodhouse, as well as so many others because, to me, Leeds is the best city for inclusion and investing in people. Several other inspirational people have supported me throughout this journey such as James Docherty, Darren Coyne, Kevin Neary, Dr Beth Weaver and Alex O’Donnell. All have shone their light on me and I can’t thank them enough. Last but far from least in terms of youth justice, Andrew, Atticus and Luke ( Chapter 6 , ‘Joint Enterprise’) for their incredible insights and contributions.
I would also like to thank Martin House Hospice Care for Children and Young People to which I have donated my royalties from the first 1,000 copies of this work.
On a more personal note, I would like to thank my wife Tamara who has supported me throughout the production of this book during the Covid-19 crisis. I had wanted to write of the thoughts and reflections I have had for some time and share my practice experiences of relationship building. Writing this book has taken the most toll on Tamara and our daughter Isabelle. My mind being focused on it alongside working full-time in a children’s home while tackling the pandemic means the sacrifice has been as much theirs as it has mine. They are my rock and motivation and for the next few years, at least, no more additional work projects, he says with a smile on his face.
Andi Brierley, January 2021
About the author
Andrew (Andi) Brierley is a Youth Justice Specialist and former prisoner. He has 15 years of experience gained from working with some of the most prolific, serious, vulnerable and complex children and young people involved in offending behaviour, building trusting relationships and connections with many young people that have been identified as ‘hard to reach.’ He has a track record of making a difference using his own personal experiences mixed with professional knowledge and insight. His lived experience of complex trauma and adverse childhood experiences (which unfortunately for him and others developed into his care experience, school exclusion, drug addiction, criminal exploitation and incarceration) now shape his practice and connections with children and families. He is the author of Your Honour Can I Tell You My Story? (Waterside Press, 2019), his autobiography in which he was driven to write about those experiences, and which has already made a difference for other children, young people in trouble or incarcerated and professionals working with them. Connecting With Young People in Trouble: Risk, Relationships and Experience builds on that earlier work so as to allow readers to far better understand the relational issues many such youngsters experience — and how they can ‘bounce back.’
Foreword
Once it is truly understood that humans are interdependent and need one another, then there become resounding consequences for service policy, provision and practice; the knowledge that we thrive on connection, attunement and resonance should be at the centre of all we do. Ultimately, this is Brierley’s call to action as he takes the reader on a journey around the impact of relational poverty, the importance of the quality of ‘the village’ and the consequences of toxic stress. He calls upon all those working in all aspects of criminal justice to be curious, to look beyond what is standing in front of them and to become relational activists in our approach towards the young people who need us to work towards diminishing harm rather than be part of a system that adds to it.
This book sits at the intersection between personal lived experience and professional practice and as such this makes it a hugely valuable contribution to the discourse. In recent times, an expectation that the voices of children and young people in care are taken into account, and that there are platforms for the voices of adults who are care experienced, has grown. This is not the case for young people within the criminal justice system and, should they intersect with also being a child in care, they are less likely to be among those who are invited to, or would seek out to attend ‘participation’ settings. This is even less so for those working within the system with a criminal justice background whose silence might be fuelled by shame around those experiences, fear of upsetting the employer or concerns about blurring professional boundaries.
This intersectional lens offers insights that are often left unarticulated yet Brierley not only contextually articulates his experiences, but seeks to provide a new framework through which youth justice can effect change.
Times have changed and the model of ‘mad,’ ‘bad’ or ‘sad’ is outdated and ignores the extensive evidence, research and wisdom that we have to hand. The real question then has to be, will we choose to use it? Will we be committed to going deeply within ourselves to harness an empathy that can truly cre