Young People In Focus

YOUNG ADULTS TODAY - KEY DATA ON 16-25 YEAR OLDS TRANSITIONS, DISADVANTAGES AND CRIME
Kerry Devitt, Lucy Knighton, Kevin Lowe, Young People in Focus 2009

This new publication from Young People in Focus is the first of its kind. It brings together key data on young adults, 16-25, exploring topics such as: health and wellbeing; education and employment; family life; social life and crime, with a specific focus on vulnerable young adults and those within the criminal justice system. This publication is packed with up-to-date facts and figures, and will provide policy makers and practitioners with authoritative information and commentary about young adults today.

KEY MESSAGES INCLUDE:

• Britain's young adults are polarised between a university generation and a NEET generation. While three times as many go to university as did in the 1970s, 1 in 6 are trapped outside of education, employment or training
• As the recession bites more young adults are staying at home with the family and regardless of background are twice as likely to experience unemployment compared to mature adults
• Mental health issues are significant for all young adults, with those from vulnerable backgrounds considerably more likely to suffer from problems
• Young adults commit more crime and are more likely to be victims of crime than any other age group

Ensuring that socially excluded adults are offered the chance to get back on a path to a more successful life is a government priority. A focus on young adults is crucial. But you need to be clear what the issues are - this publication provides the 'hard facts' that policy makers and service providers needl

Naomi Eisenstadt - Director, Social Exclusion Task Force

90pp (ISBN: 978 187 1504 972)

KEY DATA ON ADOLESCENCE 2009 (7th edition)
John Coleman and Fiona Brooks Young People in Focus 2009

This book is recognised as the most authoritative guide to young people today

Youth worker, North London

The 7th Edition of this popular publication is a collaboration between the Young People in Focus and the Association for Young People's Health (AYPH). There is a strong emphasis on health, with two chapters devoted to physical health.

Key Data also covers family life, education and employment, sexual and mental health, and crime.

KEY MESSAGES INCLUDE

• 1.8 million children and young people in the UK live in workless households
• The numbers not in education, employment or training (NEETs) remain stubbornly high
• Healthy eating is on the increase among English pupils
• The significance of wider support networks
• Alcohol consumption among the young has doubled since 1990
• Teenage pregnancy rates continue to fall

Very interesting to read, many of the issues concerning our lives are brought up in this book should be at the very least talked about in school

Joshua Scott age 17

100pp ISBN 978 1871504 859

REDUCING RISKS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE IN FOSTER CARE: A UK STUDY
By Dr Stephanie Stace and Kevin Lowe
Trust for the Study of Adolescence, 2009

The research described in this report was undertaken as part of a wider TSA project made possible by a grant from the Big Lottery Fund. TSA interviewed 49 young people aged 13-16 plus their foster carers and social workers to explore key issues related to monitoring and supervising young people in foster care.

ISBN: 978 1871504 996

PARENTING INSIDE AND OUT TOOLKIT
Bringing the outside in -Developing a family-based approach to supporting young parents in custody
Sarah Lindfield, Young people in focus

The Parenting – Inside and Out (PIO) project has focused on the development of family-based parenting support for under 18 year-old young fathers and mothers in custody. What we have found out from this project is mixed. There have been some very positive findings about what young parents want from parenting support and how this can be offered. This toolkit describes what we have found out during the project and we suggest ways of building on the positives we have found, as well as addressing some of the barriers.

Aims of the Toolkit
This Toolkit aims to assist colleagues in developing family-based parenting support involving:

• Young fathers and young mothers in custody
• Their parents/carers
• The other young parent of their child
• Other key parent supporters

We hope that the learning from this project will help support:

• Secure establishments to `think parent’ and `think parenting in the whole family`
• YOTs and the secure estate to provide parenting support to the family network
• Agencies to reach `through the gate both ways to join up their services
• Community-based agencies to deliver their services `inside’ establishments.

EMOTION WORKS
Eddi Piper and Sue Shaw, Young People in Focus

This resource is based on the work of the Youth Voice Peer Power programme at Young People in Focus. The worksheets have been developed with young people who have shared their ideas, thoughts and feelings about emotional health and wish to pass on their experience to help others. This pack includes a CD rom containing a collection of easy to use ‘worksheets’ to print out, together with tips and suggestions on how to use them.

GUIDE: USING DIGITAL STORIES - YOUNG PEOPLE AND ALCOHOL
by Dr Lester Coleman and Josephine Ramm, Young People in Focus 2009

Funded by Alcohol Education and Research Council (AERC)

This guide outlines a promising intervention used in Caerphilly County in Wales aimed at influencing young people’s (Year 10) attitudes and behaviour in relation to binge drinking.

The publication covers what digital stories are, how to make them and ways of using them with young people.

It contains useful references and contacts. Digital stories can be used to explore a range of topics.


ISBN: 978 187 1504 958

TEENAGERS AND ATTACHMENT
Helping Adolescents Engage with Life and Learning. Edited by Andrea Perry, Worth Publishing

This highly original work on teenagers and attachment will be essential reading for any professional working with this age group. There has been so much written on the attachment needs of children, but this is the first book of its kind to address the attachment needs of adolescents.

The book will be a vital support, so that instead of fighting with adolescents or withdrawing from them, giving up on them or shutting down their own capacity to feel and think, professionals who work with troubled teenagers will feel empowered to engage and connect. The contributors to this book firmly believe that we can meet and work with them where they are, enable them to slowly build trust in us and themselves and help them to develop hope and optimism for their future. These leading practitioners have a profound belief in the power of authentic relationship to steer adolescents' onto a new, more secure track. Their existing and innovative ideas will offer hope to those on the 'front line' in schools and beyond, who want practical strategies that really work in this most challenging field.

TEENAGE PREGNANCY: THE MAKING AND UNMAKING OF A PROBLEM
Lisa Arai

This book exposes an unhealthy relationship between the media and policy making, leading to the distortion of research evidence. Lucid, analytic and controversial, it is a must-read for policy makers in the present and future.

Professor Rachel Thompson, Faculty of Health and Social Care, The Open University

Teenage Pregnancy examines who is likely to have a baby as a teenager, the consequences of early motherhood and how teenage pregnancy is dealt with in the media. The author argues that society's negative attitude to young mothers is likely to marginalise an already excluded group and that efforts should be focused primarily on supporting young mothers and their children.

INTER-PROFESSIONAL APPROACHES TO YOUNG FATHERS
Jane Reeves, M&K Update Ltd

This book draws together contemporary research evidence, social theory and policy which can affect the way practitioners, students and academics conceptualise and work with young fathers. Each chapter illustrates its subjects with discrete evidence from that particular field. A summary of this literature and evidence, provided in each chapter, makes this book very 'user friendly'.

THERAPY TO GO
Gourmet Fast Food Handouts for Working with Child, Adolescent and Family Clients

This collection of handouts provides a wide range of ready-made activities for all kinds of therapists working on a professional level with adolescent clients and their families. The handouts provide creative approaches to a variety of presenting problems, including anxiety, anger, depression and family issues.

GRIEF ENCOUNTER
Grief Encounter Project, by Shelley Gilbert

Grief encounter is a workbook designed to encourage conversations about death between children and adults.

Extremely well written, accessible in its language and approach, with strong appeal to ordinary parents and children faced with bereavement. There is nothing scary about this book; it is hands-on, user-friendly and full of useful ideas to help a child understand his or her feelings. It will also help the parent/guardian to understand the child and find a way to bring comfort together. I wish I had been given the guidance of a book like this, to show me a way to open up and share my feelings of bereavement as a child.

Helen Levene, Editor Puffin Books.

The Grief Encounter Project supply bereaved families with a free copy of this workbook please contact them if this applies to you wwww.griefencounter.com

LETS TALK: FEELINGS - Games for Talking

By Sue Nicholls. Speechmark Publishing, 2009

Cards to enable people to become more aware of their feelings The cards are divided into 6 sections:

• Give an example of when you felt . (Try to be specific)
• Situation cards. How would you feel? (Emphasise that different people respond in different ways to the same event; some might be excited, others nervous. There is no 'right' feeling, but being aware of our feelings can be helpful).
• You are feeling How would you show it? (Talk about and demonstrate body language, facial expressions and discuss the actions which might result from emotions. Discuss how people show their emotions in different ways).
• You are feeling What would help you to deal with it? (People deal with their feelings in different ways. For some, it helps to talk; others need time by themselves; others find it useful to write down their feelings.)
• A friend is feeling How could you respond to be helpful? (Talk about how we can help each other to deal with our feelings, by talking and listening).
• Situation cards. How might the other person feel? (We are not responsible for each others feelings, but we can take responsibility for our actions and the consequences. Discuss what it means to be considerate).

Contents: 78 cards plus instructions and ideas, boxed.

POSITIVE IMAGES - POSITIVE EFFECT
Paul Lee and Louise Bishop, Russell House Publishing

Creativity can solve almost any problem. The creative act, the defeat of habit by originality, overcomes everything.

George Lois

Positive Images - Positive Effect contains over 100 activities; each designed to increase young peoples' positive views of themselves.

They are fun, easy to use and will make a positive difference to your work and in their lives.
It explains how to facilitate these activities and how to improve your own skills in practive. The book encourages you throughout to focus on the positive aspects of young people and to seek to appreciate the good and the worth in them.

167pp

YOUNG PEOPLE AND SEXUAL EXPLOITATION (NEW)
Jenny J. Pearce, Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group

The author draws on young people's voices to explore the difficulties that arise for researchers and for practitioners when working with sexually exploited young people. While child protection interventions must guide social work, she argues that other agencies such as health, education, housing and training each have a role to play in supporting a sexually exploited young person.

This book will be essential reading for anyone interested in preventing the sexual exploitation of children and young people. It will be particularly relevant for academics, students, practitioners and policymakers in the fields of social policy and social work, child and family work, child protection and youth work.