I have worked with lots of incredible kids
in many youth work contexts.
I've worked, with inarticulate young people who often only speak through their actions.
I will sometimes greet a teenager, for instance,
with the superficial
"Hello Micky! - are you still taking the ugly pills?"
followed quickly - with a punch in - the rib cage -
or on the upper arm.
If this is returned. - spontaneously - or sometime later during the evening - there lies the start of a relationship.
Some-times very few words are exchanged -
for a long time - sometimes years, but communication takes place non-verbally.
A smile, a grimace, a stare, a twinkling of the eye,
a friendly kick!
All these are ways and means of making contact with a young human without pushing so hard that they back away from me who is trying to establish a helping relationship.
One teenage never spoke to me for two years -
not even a simple 'hello'!
Then - one evening in the Youth Club
he came up to me and said::
"Pip I am in court tomorrow. If I get put away will you give these to my Mother"?
He pulled two rings off his fingers, placed them in my open palm and walked away.
I will never forget that.
I sign of trust.
I sign of some sort of relationship.
BHP
