Education Authority Y Box Doc

INTRODUCTION Northern Ireland has a rich tradition of positively working with boys and young men. Those such as Dr Ken Harland have been instrumental in driving research informed practice. Alongside, Professor Sam McCready, they established the seminal Centre for Young Men’s Studies in the early noughties. An important contribution was their landmark five-year longitudinal study ‘Taking Boys Seriously’ (2012) that tracked a cohort of 378 young men in schools across Northern Ireland. This study generated a wealth of evidence around the lives and experiences of young males transitioning from childhood into adolescence in the context of NI. The study was initiated in response to concerns about boys’ educational underachievement and wider concerns about their health and well-being. The publication ‘Boys, young men and violence: masculinity, education and practice’ (Harland and McCready, 2015) is a further example of how the voices of boys and young men influenced research and practice development. Subsequent studies have engaged with boys and young men using a variety of research designs to unpack the complexities associated with male violence. Several are of note. In 2020, Dr’s Colm Walsh and Dirk Schubotz from Queens University Belfast interviewed young men from rural and urban communities and found that although violence was experienced in different ways, it remained part of everyday life. This is important because we know that sustained exposure to violence is predictive of a range of negative outcomes, including more violence (Fowler et al., 2009). This prevalence was confirmed in 2020 when Professor Lisa Bunting with colleagues from QUB and Ulster University found that violence was the single most commonly experienced adversity among young people in Northern Ireland. In 2021, Dr Colm Walsh, Kelvin Doherty and Dr Paul Best took this evidence a step further and examined the case files of more than 150 young people who had spent time in custody in Northern Ireland. They found that violent victimisation was strongly associated with violent offences. In fact, victims of violence were more than nine-times more likely to be convicted of a violent offence. Several other studies have examined exposure perpetration link and found that factors such as endorsement of traditional masculine norms (Walsh, 2022) and a lack of social supports (Walsh, 2023) contribute towards elevated rates of violence. In sum, a number of observations have emerged. Firstly, youth violence is a priority in many communities in Northern Ireland. Secondly, it is often young men implicated in violence related incidences. Thirdly, the evidence points towards ‘what works’ to engage young men, reduce violence and facilitate safer communities. OVERALL AIM: To increase the capacity of practitioners to positively and constructively engage boys and young men around the issues masculinity and violence. This resource can be used as part of a stand-alone suite of activities for engaging boys and young men around the themes of violence and masculinity but are likely to have most impact when implemented as part of the more comprehensive Y-Box Framework. Practitioner observations and the voices of the young men during core component 1 should be leveraged to inform the design of score component 2. For that reason, we can only point in the direction of the skills that could be useful to facilitate. This is covered during the training events. It is for skilled and experienced youth workers to determine and design the skill-based techniques. However, examples are provided in this resource section This resource section is primarily intended to support the delivery of the multi-component Y-Box Framework. The framework, whilst providing evidence informed, methodical process to work through, it also requires the skills and experiences of the Youth Workers. They know the issues that most affect the young men that they support. They also know the methods that contribute best to the process of engagement. It intended to enhance the confidence and capacity of practitioners to engage young men in sensitive and controversial issues such as violence. It provides practical suggestions for Youth Workers to support boys and young men to move beyond their masculine masks and help unlock the assets their assets that they can use on their communities.

SECTION 2: A Y-BOX RESOURCE

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