The topic of my graduation thesis is whether street based youth workers notice that youth is absent from public spaces and what are the reasons behind it. In my theoretical part, I firstly focus on the term »young people«. Afterwards, I explain the term »free time« and what are the biggest risks and challenges that youth is experiencing. Information communication technology (ICT) and its impact on youth is also included in my theoretical part, as are public spaces and factors that influence its usage. In the last part of my theoretical overview I focus on the term »street work«. I explain what the beginnings of street work was and how street work is used as a method of working with youth.
In my qualitative research I interviewed street based youth workers and asked them whether youth spends time in public spaces. My main research question was whether street based youth workers notice the absence of youth in public spaces and if so, what are the reasons for it. I also asked what kind of methods and approaches they use when approaching youth. My interest was also to find out how young people react to those methods and approaches. Most results of my research showed that street based youth workers noticed the absence of youth in public spaces. However, some reported that youth is now spending more time in public spaces and some reported that they haven't noticed any changes. The observations came from a continuous work of at least two years. In addition, observations were made in comparison with the past ten years, regardless of if youth workers were employed at that time. Reasons why youth is not spending more time in public spaces are that parents are encouraging them in ICT use or that they are too protective towards them. This is related to their permissive education. Street based youth workers also expressed themselves in ways suggesting that they noticed the lack of appropriate public infrastructure and positive atmosphere, as well as a lack of privacy in public spaces. Causes for the increased number of young people in public spaces were apartments which are too small, increased immigration, inaccessibility to ICT, less parental control, or disturbance of a sibling. My survey showed that the positive responses to street based youth work were higher than that of the negative ones. Positive responses were shown as a need for conversation, seeking help or intentionally coming for street based activities. Good results are shown with continuous work, a personal approach and a personal characteristic of a street based youth worker. Sports, food and music also bring good responses. Any kind of control, especially police control, is unwanted for youth. They may also act uninterested or demand removal from street based youth workers. Use of formal language is not wanted, as well as activities that involve a lot of conversation.
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