It’s a bit of a standing joke at Venture Scotland when someone says to me, ‘Have you seen……’, as my answer, 99% of the time, is no. I don’t watch a lot of television, so I tend to miss the latest dramas, films and reality shows. I don’t have Netflix, Amazon Prime or Sky, so again I tend to miss out. And as I generally visit the cinema about once a year, I’m not exactly clued up on the latest blockbusters.
However, at the beginning of this year, it felt like wherever I went, be it work, conferences or meetings, everyone was talking about one show, Adolescence on Netflix. I appreciate that I live and work mostly within my own algorithm (i.e. I generally surround myself with like-minded people who have good hearts and care for others), but there seemed to be a real buzz about this drama across the board. People also seemed to speak about it in hushed tones, as if the drama had made a real impact on them and left them with questions they wanted to discuss with others.
And so, I took the plunge and subscribed to Netflix for a month. Needless to say, after watching the first episode, I couldn’t stop watching and binged it! It made a huge impact, but I felt I missed a lot of the more subtle dialogue the first time I watched it, so I went back and watched it all again.
Speaking to people afterwards, it clearly had a big impact on both people who work with young people and those who don’t. Most parents were definitely impacted. I also noticed that when I asked people which of the four episodes impacted them the most, the answers were often directly related to people’s lived experiences. Police, teachers, mental health staff and parents all had their ‘own’ episode.
So, I guess it’s no surprise that the third episode impacted me the most. The episode focuses on the interview between the young boy and an independently appointed psychologist acting on behalf of the courts. This was their 5th and last meeting. I understand this episode was done in only two takes, which lays huge credit on the quality of the two actors. I know I spent most of the episode holding my breath!
I relate to this because the team at Venture Scotland spend a considerable proportion of our time working one-to-one with young people. We have all worked with young people who are struggling to understand and moderate their feelings and emotions. We’ve seen young people using negative, but deeply ingrained, coping strategies like anger, frustration, self-pity, coercion, flattery, bribery, the list goes on.
And as youth workers, what do we do? Very similar to the psychologist in the drama, we sit with the young people, we meet them wherever they are on their journey, we actively listen to them, we ask open questions, we help them make sense of their world and who they are, at their own pace with compassion and empathy. This is what youth work is all about: walking alongside young people and supporting them, whatever they are going through and being there for them again and again and again.
And it’s a tough and emotional job, and I definitely ‘felt’ for the psychologist at the end of the episode, when they had a wee cry. Were they crying because they were scared, or because they had built a bond or because they cared deeply for the young person they were being asked to assess? I think everyone who works or volunteers for Venture Scotland has been there. We care deeply for every single young person who engages with us.
While episode three impacted me the most, there was a very small section of episode two that filled me with joy and hope. This episode is based around the school and throughout the episodes, we see that the detective who is conducting the case is struggling to connect with his son. We see him trying to connect several times without success, however, just as he’s about to leave the school, he tells his colleague he’s not going back to the police station, and instead, he goes to meet his son. There is a beautiful moment when he says, ‘I’m hungry, are you hungry? I need some chips.’. All of a sudden, he’s stopped trying to be the dad, he’s stopped telling the young person what to do, he’s being authentic and meeting the young person where they are and he’s trying to do something ‘with’ his son, not ‘to’ his son. The young man agrees, and his dad lets him choose where they go for the chips, giving him the agency. As viewers, we see the first step towards building of trust and respect in their relationship.
And that is what youthwork is. Little step by little step, we build trust, give respect, create a sense of belonging, offer compassion and by doing so, we empower young people to work out who they are, what they want and how to start making sense of the world around them.
Our young people are surrounded by negative influences, poor role models and societal pressures that no other generation has had to deal with at such a young age and as predicted over a year ago when I said our young people are facing a crisis, we are starting to see more and more issues with young people acting out on the streets. This is NOT their fault, this is OUR fault. We have given them social media, we locked them up during covid, we are forcing many of them to live in poverty, we gave them smart phones at too young an age and 24/7 access to the internet with so much harmful and hateful material on it. We have cut the funding to youthwork, removing the support young people need. We have created a world where suicide is the biggest single killer of our young people.
So, as we go through 2025, you will see more and more headlines demonizing the actions of young people. I urge you to look behind the headlines and to support Venture Scotland to reach more young people, to save more lives and to build a better society for young people to grow up in. If you can support us in any way over the next year, even if it’s in a very small way, please help us to continue to change lives.
As always, thank you to all our amazing supporters, volunteers, funders, trustees and ambassadors.
David Brackenridge, CEO
