1. Peer support in online youth workChallenges and opportunities Anniina Lundvall Department of Humanities, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland
2. Practices of onlineyouthwork Internet as a help in youth work Internet as a tool in youth work Simultaneous online youth work Lundvall, A. 2009. Nuorisotyö verkossa. Määritelmiä, menetelmiä, haasteita mediakasvatuksen näkökulmasta. How to involve peer pupils / other engaged youth to the process of helping each other?
3. Children’svoice – survey 2010Key results Particularly important for the respondents were services, where they can deal with sensitive issues concerning themselves (violence in the family, misuse of drugs, sexuality…) 35% of the respondents would have needed help or have applied for online assistance/support. More than half (55%) have experienced that they have received assistance. The most important matter for children was entertainment and talking to other children in a community. (Save the Children Finland. Children’svoice2010. N=1658, 10-17 yearsold.)
4. Otherfindings Young people who are connected to youth services within the IRC-Galleria and Habbo, have a positive attitude towards them. …but they also felt that they didn’t got enough time nor attention from the youth workers. Mikkola, H. (2009). IRC-Galleria-kysely: Nuorten mielipiteitä poliisista ja nuorisotyöntekijöistä verkossa. University of Oulu. Young people are interested to be trained as tutors in online services, but the real challenge is to get them to participate in practical training. (1000 applications> 12 participants) (Merikivi, J. (2007). Netari.fi - Nuorisotyön arvo.FinnishYouthResearchNetwork.)
5. Morefindings Young peoplethinkthatonlineservicesareonly for peoplewhohaveproblemsordifficulties in their life. There is a need to improve the servicesbytakingyoungpeople in the developingprocess. Viilomaa, P. (2010). Verkossa tehtävä nuorisotyö nuorisotyöntekijöiden ja nuorten silmin : kohtaako verkkonuorisotyö nuoret? HUMAK University of Applied Sciences.
6. Peer support in onlineyouthwork Internet as a help in youth work Update the website of youth center Writing articles and columns about various issues Send information through social media Internet as a tool in youth work Young people involving discussion forums as tutors/mentors, sharing knowledge and experiences Making online videos about issues Simultaneous online youth work Chat-member (inspirer and reliable conversation partner)
7. Currentresearch Active online participation (working title) Questionnaire and interviews 8-10 participants from Painovirhe.fi-webzine Possible questions: What kind of experiences of public you have? What kind of media-related skills you have gained? What kind of an audience you think when producing content in the webzine? How do you see your role as a ”peer-publicist”? What does it mean to you?
8. Benefits of working as a peer person (presumedresults) Confidence to publish their own opinions, Forced to justify their own opinions, Pleasure of helping, Learned skills may be beneficial in the future, Improve media communication skills, Develop information management skills, Improve the atmosphere of a virtual group, Friendship and community with other online tutors. Lundvall, A. 2011.
9. Futurechallenges What kind of problems and challenges peer persons meet when they are working in online environments? What kind of support young people need from their leaders (youth workers)? How to manage economic/social/ changes in online environments?
11. Questions for the audience What do you think: is this the future of youth work (or any kind of work with children and young)? What should we do: build up our own environments or use the one’s provided by commercial companies? What kind of online youth work methods are used in your countries?
