Youth Work and Communities - BA (Hons)

This module aims to support you in developing an understanding and appreciation for research enquiry and knowledge in youth and community practice, leading to developing critical appraisal skills and an awareness of their role as a reflexive research-practitioner. As youth workers and community based practitioners there is a requirement for you to understand techniques for analysing qualitative and quantitative information, needs analysis, methods to involve and consult with communities, agencies, partners and stakeholders and monitoring and evaluating programmes. 

This module provides you with an understanding and analysis of contemporary youth and community practice in global perspective, recognising that youth and community development happens around the world and is core to empowerment and social justice in diverse societies. We begin by examining globalisation and global change as a central tenet in the work of all youth and community workers, including discussion of how the global effects the local and vice versa, and these notions are then used to frame the module. 

Reflexive Practice, the second of three placement opportunities during your studies.  In this module at level five we continue to emphasise, and support time spent in the field with a core focus on supporting individuals to develop their skills in reflexive practice.  

This module provides an intermediate level understanding of contemporary leadership, management and enterprise skills, with a focus on how these are embedded in, and pertain to, youth and community practice in the UK.  Starting with an outline of the main leadership and management theories, it provides an outline of how management skills are important to the design and creation, smooth running and sustaining of youth and community contexts, and sets these within an understanding of the historical development of the area. An emphasis is placed upon youth and community leadership that encourages enterprise activities (such as diverse funding and monetisation activity) to improve organisational sustainability and outcomes. These issues are all approached in relation to a range of sectors and youth and community employment contexts (e.g. public, private or voluntary/community/faith settings). 

What if learning could change and empower the world? Many youth and community workers would say it already is, and that learning in a non-judgemental, facilitative and support context enhances the power of change by including young people and other and community members who are often excluded from their own learning and empowerment. These are key issues for this module, which examines the long tradition of using informal teaching, learning and supporting knowledge and skills development in their broadest sense, within youth and community contexts. 

This module provides you with an understanding and analysis of the area of mental health, ideas and concepts around wellbeing support, and counselling approaches. We begin by examining what is meant by mental health and wellbeing, examining the epidemiology and prevalence of mental health issues in the UK. In addition, common mental health conditions and forms of distress will be examined. The public health policy focus and youth and community agenda, in relation to youth and community issues, will be presented and analysed. Then the module focuses upon the main approaches to counselling support, examining the three main different approaches – person-centred, psychodynamic and cognitive behavioural. We will also examine integrative approaches of counselling and guidance, and how counselling skills might be used on a day to day level in youth and community contexts, including digital youth and community support. 

Most people learn about crime not through direct experience of it but through consumption of media about it – for example news, television drama, film, fiction, documentaries, reality television, blogs, websites and social media. These representations are often characterised by under-representation, over-representation, misrepresentation and distortion of the crimes, criminals and victims they portray. As such, understanding the relationship between crime, media and culture is an important strand within our programme philosophy, which places an emphasis on developing a critical appreciation of the relationship between individual and social aspects of crime, punishment and victimisation. 

Welcome to the third and final placement module, Critical Operational Reflexive Practice.  In this module at Level 6 we will enable you to focus on developing and using your investigative, strategic and evaluative skills to consider how you might contribute to the development of youth and community practice. You are expected to undertake the final 300 hours of your required placement hours across this final year of study. 

This module provides you with a critical introduction and analysis of multi and inter-professional collaborative working practice in Youth and Community contexts. Working in partnership and collaboration is increasingly common and expected as policy and practice turn away from the model of the practitioner working in an isolated professional bubble. The contemporary focus in areas such as youth and community work, health and social care services and education, is on cross-professional teams, which offer the complementary skills, experiences and knowledge to support and meet the needs of a variety of service users and groups. Good practice models of co-working together with perceived unsuccessful ones will also be provided. 

This module follows on from the Level 5 Management and Leadership core module, by providing advanced level study with a focus upon leading in youth and community contexts.  In this module you will examine academic and practice understandings of strategic management and planning, and then issues of line management and supervision of real-world youth and community project management contexts. There will be a key focus on developing your understanding and practice skills, in support and motivation of groups, specifically around staff team development, in addition to individual support. Identifying stakeholders and managing the development of partnership working is also central to this module and understanding how leadership and management practices can support best practice in working in partnerships and collaborations, networking with key stakeholders and service beneficiaries and innovating through collaborative youth and community projects. 

Mediation of conflict is extremely important for the effective functioning of organizations, groups, and in individuals in relation to the social development of individuals. The way conflict is mediated is also a key consideration based on the type of violence involved. This module aims to help you develop a coherent culturally competent understanding of mediating violence and conflict. It will also equip you with the skills to communicate and identify positive approaches across a wide range of insights, differences and worldviews when mediating conflict and violence. By recognising and analysing processes involved in conflict management and violence disruption in the area of cultural mediation, you will be able to critically assess what actions are required when addressing and alleviating the outcomes of conflict and violence.  

With rising prison populations and high rates of reoffending, the problem of how to support people back into the community and thus, help them cease offending has long been ignored in mainstream Criminology. This module therefore, examines what theories might support this process. The module adopts a Positive Criminological approach considering a range of strength-based theories such as rehabilitation, desistance, therapeutic communities, restorative justice etc. and their relationship with criminal justice policy and application to practice. Aspects within the criminal justice system and wider communities that support the rehabilitation, reintegration and re-entry of people convicted of committing crime will be explored and critically examined. 

The module explores and examines the historical context which produced the Black Arts Movement in Africa and across the Diaspora. It aligns with the aims of the Black Studies degree programme as it focusses on a social movement, and discusses the contribution that artists from the African diaspora have contributed to visual culture. By engaging with a range of intellectual perspectives that contributed to the development of the Black Arts Movement, students will have the opportunity to understand how, in the case of the Black Arts Movement, intellectual thought and artistic production are symbiotic. 

This module follows on from the level 5 Counselling Module, to build a stronger counselling skills base for practice and applied contexts. The key focus is counselling and wellbeing as a toolbox of skills and competencies, used widely in youth and community contexts and providing insight and experiences of use in a safe environment. Diverse ‘helping’ techniques are introduced, to provide a springboard for further study of counselling, wellbeing and case work support in the workplace or in further study.  The development of newer techniques and approaches, such as mindfulness and mental health first aid, will be introduced, along with coverage of digital and online techniques of counselling, which have become particularly important since the emergence of Covid-19. 

Decolonised theoretical perspectives and debates within the discipline of youth and community work are seldom heard, seen, or referred to, within so called mainstream youth and community work itself. We will explore one possible explanation pertaining to this ‘invisibility’ could be because of ‘implicit biases’ within the discipline itself. It is argued that these implicit biases further reproduce and reinforce privilege of some perspectives, whilst at the same time subordinating others. This module therefore calls for the development of decolonised perspectives within the field of youth and community work, whilst at the same time addressing the wider implications on both policy and practice. You will be encouraged to reflect on your current practices and to assess how decolonised practices can enhance or impede the future of youth and community work.