Digital youth work in a pandemic
The Covid-19 pandemic is having a significant effect on all dimensions of young peoples’ lives.
As the pandemic persists, so too will its confirmed impact on adolescents’ mental and emotional health, their access to education and leisure, and young adults’ ability to secure dignified employment.
Therefore, the role of youth workers as professionals committed to supporting the experience of young people is more critical than ever.
Immediately, youth workers in Malta responded to the pandemic’s limitations by building upon virtual resources. For a while, online interaction with youth organisations served as a lifeline for some young people. New platforms were developed, including informal networks for sharing information and making contact, alongside national spaces provided by Aġenzija Żgħażagħ for young people to share their experiences regarding Covid-19. Making the best use of digital tools, at a time of heightened stress, has been a necessary and valuable adaptation.
However, not all youth workers, especially those engaged in informal or detached forms of youth work, have been able to make the transition. In this regard, the latest data from the European Commission is especially troubling. A December 2020 report authored by the European Steering Committee for Youth, Advisory Council on Youth, and Joint Council on Youth, states that “very few organisations managed to move their activities online to have a significant outreach to young people – especially to those with fewer opportunities.”
The rapid transition from traditional service provision into newer formats has created a potentially toxic vacuum, further endangering young people already at considerable risk. A 2020 study published by the European Union in partnership with the Council of Europe spells out this “digital gap” as a space of increasing marginalisation and exclusion. The digital gap has affected young people and youth workers, experiencing serious difficulties due to a lack of equipment, lack of competencies, and lack of support.
Addressing the pandemic requires specific measures from both governmental and non-governmental organisations, willing to collaborate on energising the youth sector. Doing so necessarily means developing coherent measures to tackle ongoing challenges to young people’s wellbeing. Increasingly, policy is being supported by tailored research produced by academic stakeholders and the Faculty for Social Wellbeing is one such institution, encouraging the production of evidence-based research in the area of youth work, while affirming transparency in policy.
In terms of policy priorities, another measure being proposed by the European Union-Council Of Europe partnership is the crucial need for governmental and private sector investment in youth work. Civil society NGOs are thriving environments for youth work, especially with young people who slip through the net of larger national institutions. Promoting the sustainability of local youth organisations is therefore implicit in addressing the serious challenges to their activities, due to shortcomings in funding.
While virtual youth work has tapped a rich vein of innovation and creativity, it runs in parallel to the obvious paradox of encouraging online engagement, when Malta (along with most of the world) had begun to seriously discourage device dependence pre-Covid-19. Reasons to remember these concerns, and the long-term effects of addiction and device dependence, are being borne out in the data from youth workers.
In the 2020 report ‘ Covid-19 and Youth Work’, the National Youth Council of Ireland describes a troubling “loss of the young person’s voice and agency” in the transition to digital media, along with a lack of online safeguards. The following observation, shared in the report by a youth worker, captures the dynamic. “It was a novelty to young people doing everything through Zoom for a while, but it’s definitely wearing on them now and they really miss that physical contact... It’s the socialising as well – a huge part of youth work is helping them to positively socialise with each other and that’s next to impossible to do through Zoom.”
Ultimately, the importance of innovation and experimentation in youth work is essential, to ensure that barriers to young people’s digital engagement are lifted; access to technology and digital poverty are addressed; and online engagement is structured in a way that compliments but does not overwhelm or replace developmental work and experiential learning. While there are clear arguments for the potential of e-learning and the need for investment in digital competency, emphasis must be on a blended approach that balances digital and face-to-face realities.
Current students being trained in the Department of Youth Work and Community Studies, Faculty for Social Wellbeing, are increasingly aware of the virtual components of their work. Monitoring the implications of these changes in practice are essential, to maintain the profession’s flexibility towards the evolving needs and aspirations of young people. Issues of mental health will continue to be a great concern for young people and youth workers, as the long-term damage to youth wellbeing and development due to the pandemic become more urgent. Clearly, addressing the concerns and needs of young people must demand a concurrent investment in all forms of work that support and sustain young people, both during and after the pandemic.