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• Earlier CAP Reports

Paul Holland - Joss Street Hall Association in Invergordon

The Task: Assisting the youth workers to deliver their Summer programme to young 10-18 year olds whose lives were touched by serous social issues.

Paul’s report: Being sent up to the Highlands of Scotland for my Rank placement was a real opportunity for me; the area in which I was working was a thoroughly different area of the country to my home town, and so presented a radically different culture and way of life to that which I was used to. From the outset I expected the placement to be a chance to engage with young people who have had an entirely different experience of life.

I thoroughly enjoyed the nature of the work I was involved in. My placement coincided with an activity programme that was being run by the Joss Street Hall Youth Centre. So for the fortnight I was involved in a huge range of outdoor activities: I, got to have a go at ‘weaselling’ and rafting, gorge walking and tree climbing, as well as many walks around the beautiful landscapes of the highlands. My role within the group was usually in support of the person instructing the activity, which meant I was involved in a leadership position, whilst being able to take part in the activities along with the young people themselves. Over the two weeks, the young people only took part in those activities which attracted them most and the instructors for the particular activities changed. I, however, did everything, so my time there was pretty exhausting!

The greatest challenge of my time there was trying to maintain the balance between leading the group and engaging with the young people by being part of the group. By the end of the placement I had got to know several of the young people fairly well, though because I only saw them on a handful of the activities there was not much time to develop the more relational aspect of the youth work at which the youth centre excels. I found that the obvious cultural differences between myself and the young people whom I was with did not present too much of a barrier. There was always enough common ground to get into conversations with them, even if it was our differences about which we spoke.

What I’ll take away from the placement is the knowledge that even between people from the most disparate regions of the country there is more that unites us than divides us: cultural differences become insignificant when we engage with people as they are. I thoroughly enjoyed my stay in Scotland and left with far more confidence in relating to new groups of people from very different circumstances.