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COVID-19: A youth worker's perspective

COVID-19: A youth worker's perspective

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 In episode 8 of the Generation Pandemic podcast, we're looking through the eyes of a youth worker at the experiences of children and young people during COVID-19.  Joining host Catherine McDonald is Declan Keenan, a youth worker at the Just Ask after-school club in Dublin. Declan explains how the pandemic affected the young people he works with and looks to the action he feels is needed as we move through the recovery.    Transcript Catherine McDonald  0:04  Hello, and welcome to Generation Pandemic, a podcast from the Interdisciplinary Child Wellbeing Network looking at the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on children in the UK and Ireland. I'm Catherine McDonald. And today I'm talking to Declan Keenan, a youth worker at the Just Ask after school club in Dublin, about the lives of the children he works with. I began by asking Declan how he became a youth worker? Declan Keenan  0:32  Well, I fell into youth work quite accidentally in the late 80s. So in Ireland in the late 80s, there was quite an economic depression, there was no work around, so I was unemployed at the time, the company I'd worked with had just gone into liquidation. So I was asked to come down on help out with the youth club. Catherine McDonald  0:51  And how old were you then? Declan Keenan  0:53  I'd been in my early 20s, I suppose around 24 to 20, maybe 22/23, something like that. Catherine McDonald  1:00  And we've not looked back, you've been doing it ever since? Declan Keenan  1:03  Well, yes. As it kind of progressed. And we were looking at some of the issues that were coming in and facing us with the young people and started listening a little bit more to them, I started to realise that I didn't have a lot of answers. And I really was out on my depth. When it came to some of the questions young people were asked me or some of the challenges they had. And I took a big risk and applied to go back to college as a mature student, and study social science, in the hope to find some answers to these questions that were constantly coming at me. Catherine McDonald  1:37  And can you give me an example of what the questions were back then? Declan Keenan  1:41  So we had young people coming in from a quite a damaged community, and they had no controls on themselves, they would just come in, they would be loud, they would be aggressive, they'd be violent towards each other, some of them would be cowering away, they were trying to steal everything, they would try to disrupt everything. When you'd speak to them about it, you know, sometimes then they tell you about just what life was like for them and the estate they lived in and coming in to the kind of youth club setting was as weird for them as anything else was like going to school or anything like that you know, some of the things they were just up to, and it kind of reminded me of my own upbringing, and a lot of the problems and difficulties I had as a child and a lot of the wildness, I suppose I would have been in me as a young person. Catherine McDonald  2:28  And so what did your study sort of bring out in you? And how did they enhance your understanding, and therefore your ability to help these young people? Declan Keenan  2:37  I think, you know, the studies, although they were great and really interesting, I found it was bringing up more questions for me than answers. But obviously, as I was going through the studies, and I was still volunteering with this club, I was maturing, and some of the answers were coming. But they weren't like bolts of light out of the sky. They were just slowly seeping into the way I was thinking into the way I was trying to change how I reacted towards young people or approach them. So I was really learning on the job. Catherine McDonald  3:10  And so fast forward, what is it 20/30 years and you're at the Just Ask, after school club in Dublin. Tell me about that club and how it started and how long you've been there? Declan Keenan  3:22  Okay, so within the same organisation, one day, this young person knocked on the door. And his opening statement was, I am stupid. So we had a conversation around that and how it probably wasn't the case. And what came about in the conversation he said was, he was always in trouble. And he reckoned at the kind of 11 years of age, that that trouble stemmed from school, that he wasn't able to concentrate in school that he never done homework for school. So he was always in trouble with his teachers. And then the notes would come home to his parents, and he'd be in trouble at home. And then he'd be fighting with everybody. And then he bring it out onto the street. And it just seemed like his cycle of negativity was just stemming from just having a negative experience in school. And we had a teacher working with us at the time. We said to him, look, we'll help you. Every Wednesday we have some time we come in and we'll do the homework with you so he said okay, well, can I bring a friend? Started ...
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