Social Media Training for Youth Professionals

For the last 2 years I have been researching and developing methodologies and polices in the practical application of online social media platforms to gain the views of vulnerable young people. I have successfully engaged and enabled young people to express their views online and participate with local decision makers in Devon to contribute to the delivery of Devon Children's & Young peoples Plan. Relevant information/links and docs have been uploaded to my webpage http://www.katiebacon.co.uk

Youth Practitioners can not ignore the impacts of the Internet and social media on young people’s lives. Social media can amplify the positives and negatives of everyday life, and can expose young people to new opportunities and new risks. There are undoubtably both positive and negative aspects to social media – but what ever our views – Youth professionals need to understand the online activities and environments young people are engaging with. Explore both how to support young people as they engage in these environments; and how to use social media to support young people to make informed decisions and develop reliance to respond to online activities.

On Friday 4th Dec I delivered the first 1 Day Social Media Training course for Youth Professionals, this course was co-developed with Tim Davies and myself over the last 4 months. There were 16 attendees including Youth Professionals and Managers from the statuary and voluntary sector. Below is some comments/feedback I received:

"This was an excellent course. I learned loads of practical tips on how to implement social networking and got loads of advice on issues around safety, consent etc. I feel really inspired and enabled about taking this forward in my orgainsation and would recommend the training to anyone who engage with young people."

"I already knew quite a bot about SNS from a personal point of view but it was good to look at the with a different perceptive . I learn how easy it is to make a film clip, upload to Youtube then add annotations, I had not done this before."

"Really liked the practical aspects of the course, using busbis then uploading it to the web. As a complete beginner I found everything really interested and very useful."

"It was very accessible for someone like me who has no experience of SNS. I can also begin to think about introducing it to colleagues/manager and how to use it to increase communication with clients."

Below is the course content (the course is due to be certificated by CPD - Continuous Professional Development)
Learn how young people use social media
Explore how new social media approaches to engage with young people could be used within your practice/organisation
Develop practical skills in the use of social media tools (the afternoon session will be dedicated to getting ‘hands –on experience’
Identify practical ways to support young people to be safe online
Find ways of applying your professionals skills and values to new digital environments.

Learning outcomes:
Aware of how young people are engaging with social media;
Aware of a range of different methods for using social media in work with young people
Aware of the key issues to consider when involved in digital work with young people
Confident to explore and pick up new practical skills for digital work with young people
Strategies for taking forwards the use of social media in your organisation

Tim Davies and I have co-written a training manual 'Practical guide for youth practitioners in utilising social media with young people to supplement the training course.

For Tim Davies and I it was VERY important that the course was practical so each person could 'play' with different tools and think outside of the box. Also that there was time for people to think and reflect on their next steps, who they need to involve in the future and start preparing a business case to utilise social media within their practice/orgainsation.

One of the main criticism from attendees was that the course needs to be delivered over 2 days to cover all the various topics and relevant information. This has been taken in to consideration and the course will be extended to a 2 day course for the New Year.

How to register for training course in new year:
Please complete a course application form, available from http://www.lecp.org.uk/training/
Return your completed form to:
Training & Development, LECP, 4th Floor Solar House, 1-9 Romford Road, Stratford, London E15 4LJ
training@londoneastconnexions.co.uk
Tel: 020-8536-3630, Fax: 020-8534-2830

ALSO - for training about online safety - FREE

CEOP Thinkuknow Training
This training allows you to directly deliver CEOP’s 11-16 year olds Thinkuknow programme to young people however you can not cascade train other colleagues unless you complete the CEOP ambassador full day training. The training will not only teach you how to deliver the product to young people but will also take you through many of the most popular applications young peoples are using in the online and mobile environment.
http://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/teachers/training.aspx