Dalston Youth Project - European Community Safety Award Winner
Three groups of 10 pupils, considered most 'at risk' by their schools in Hackney, London were offered three 2-hour sessions a week with alternative education and behaviour management skills as well as a weekly contact with an adult Mentor for a year.
Training Attention set out to set up an arrangement that trained the young people with full respect for the skills and behaviour patterns that they had developed in response to their environments and to create a place where people could speak straight, where no-one was humiliated, where all skills were appreciated and where the pupils were given the opportunity to share their skills and then to develop new ones. The hypothesis was that no-one liked failing at school, all skills were useful in one context or another and that no-one learns when they feel bad.
Creating a self-modelling, self-correcting learning group
The Home Office Mission: What did they want to have happen?
Take ten of the most disruptive year 9 students, ‘at risk’ of becoming offenders, from a ‘failing’ school in Hackney, East London and persuade them to voluntarily attend 9 hours of after-school tuition to address their educational and behavioural needs. The longer term aim being; that they rejoin the mainstream education system and realise their potential
What did the students want to have happen?
For some it was about not getting blamed for fights that they got involved in, for some it was not getting blamed for things they hadn’t done but most wanted to read and write and do maths.
Caitlin set herself up as a ‘Brain Coach’ and telling them that they she was going to help them to understand their own patterns; how they thought and how other people thought so they would be more aware of what was going on around them and have more choices available to them.
Develop sensory acuity
The students played games that taught observation skills, simple memory games, games with beat and sound – to predict what notes came next to engage their senses.
Detect patterns in self and others
Then they investigated their own and each other’s models for spelling, adding up, times tables. By asking each other clean questions, getting metaphors, building up the sequence and the structure everyone in the room understood how each person did a very basic task. It was important to be just as interested in models that didn’ t work as those that did so that they became used to enquiring into their own systems and patterns without judgment.
By using one another as the models they were learning, they became an expert in their own right. Whoever’s pattern was being investigated became the expert for that lesson. While they were learning they were also gaining self-esteem.
In doing this they started to notice how to trigger one another’s patterns – either to wind people up or to get people to feel good. There was a really big turning point when they could do this deliberately. They could trigger Caitlin to get angry, happy or embarrassed at will. They became coaches for one another, helping each other to shift their patterns.
When Mary-Lou said, ‘When Naomi learns it takes a long time for her to get it, but when she does, she remembers it forever whereas I learn quickly and forget quickly, I need to slow down a bit like her. Naomi learns like carving in stone whereas I learn like writing in sand – hers takes ages but then she always remembers, I do it quickly but with the next bit of information it’s all wiped away, I need a more permanent way to learn.’
They had all the resources they needed to return to mainstream education. Individually and as a group they had become a self-learning system.
Modelling anger to create choices in behaviour
What follows is an excerpt of an article written for Resource Magazine by Caitlin Walker.
It is the describes the process
of modelling anger with students engaged in the Dalston Youth Project.
(the colours indicate different speakers)
Right lads, who here hit someone this week?
Me miss, what you chatting about miss? A’ve been in nuff trouble. Me miss. He can miss, he had a fight yesterday … Ah haven’t been in trouble for ages etc.
Ok, Ok, before you hit someone, how do you know it’s going to happen? What happens just before you hit someone?
I just switch (snaps fingers) miss
I go red
Nah, ya don’t go red, everything just goes quiet
Ok, so you switch (snaps fingers like him) you go red, everything just goes quiet, who doesn’t do that?
Me miss, I don’t generally lose it, I get all (feet tap and shake) and I just get away before I explode.
So you get all (points to feet) and get away before you explode. You go red, you switch (snaps fingers), everything just goes quiet, so when it goes quiet what kind of quiet?
(Puts hands near ears with movement like old fashioned horse blinkers) like shutters miss, it all goes quiet, like I can’t hear anything in my head and it’s like I can only see the one in front of me, like everything else shuts off and the next thing I know is people are shouting, someone’s lying on the ground and I’m in trouble.
That’s what happens to him.
What about you, when you go red, what kind of red is it?
Blood red (gestures vaguely towards chest)
So, you go blood red, (Points to his chest), everything goes quiet for you, like shutters, you get all (points to feet) and you switch (snaps fingers) What kind of switch (snaps fingers) is that?
I’m fine then someone just looks at me wrong and I switch (snap fingers near his left ear) and I take them out.
So you’re fine, then someone looks at you wrong and you switch (snaps fingers towards his left ear), and as they look at you wrong, what kind of switch (snaps fingers towards his left ear) is that?
There’s no choice, it just happens.
We’ve got no choice here, blood red here (points), shutters here, and you get all (points to his feet) and get away before you explode.
And when you get all (points to feet), what happens just before you get away?
I can feel it rising (feet tap frantically and he gesture to his legs)
I’ve seen him do that when he’s vexed miss, his knees shake and he just goes, just walks off.
Yeah but it takes a long time before I have to leave and I always leave before I explode
True miss. He never gets in trouble for fighting
Is that why I get done for fighting miss, cause it happens so fast?
I don’t know; let’s find out a bit more and we can work it out. I’
ll ask you some questions to find out what happens before you get vexed or hit someone;
See if we can get the steps before. Like slowing down a video until you’ve got each
frame rather than the speeded up fight sequence.
You know you go blood red (gestures at his chest), what kind of blood red? Just here
(gestures by top of chest with one hand as though something’s rising and the hand
is holding it down)
It just gets red and I get so angry, like my blood’s boiling.
Before its boiling as it gets red here, what happens before it’s blood red and boiling?
It’s cooler!! (Said as though this is stating the bleeding obvious)
So when it’s cooler, it’s cooler like what?
Its – (looks around and points to maroon on a poster on the wall) like that, and its here. (Points an inch lower on his chest)
And it’s (points to maroon colour) and it’s here points to lower on chest)
and when its here, what happens before it’s here.
It’s purple (points to solar plexus)
And before its purple, it’s like what?
Cool blue, like the sky, like my mum (whole physiology shifts, he looks –uncharacteristically
- upwards and smiles a gentle relaxed smile. No-one in the room comments)
And cool blue, like the sky, like your mum, then purple here (points to solar plexus)
then here (points to chest) then blood red and then like your blood’s
boiling and then what happens after bloods boiling?
I get raj (enraged) and attack, then it’s out of me and I run and look at the sky
and think of my mum and breathe in blue until the red’s gone.
Ok so we’ve got one sequence here from start to finish, I’d
like each of you to notice if you lose your temper before next lesson, how early can you spot
that its happening, get the main sequences down and find out what happens after –
how you get out of it.
And off they went.
Next lesson
So who noticed what?
You know I go red? Well yesterday I felt it happening. I get up in the morning blue and
relax then I put dirty clothes back on, red! (Points to belly), my Dad’s
dead drunk and no money for bus, red! I’m cold and I’m late for school, red!
I get to school and get detention and my blood’s already gonna boil and anyone says anything
and I’m off!
So, I thought – what if I walk to school past the duck pond and I stop and look in the water,
cause that makes me blue and if I breathe in blue and think of my Mum. I could get purple before
I get to school and then I won’t boil so fast, do you think that will work miss?
I don’t know, try it this week and let us know. What about the rest of you?
What the participants noticed
Parent
- 'Since being at DYP my son Damien has become more confident. He was withdrawn and quiet and now his self esteem has improved and he is open to discussion and communicates well. Before, he wouldn't attend classes he didn't like, but now his attendance is good and he has even gone up a class in maths which was one subject he used to avoid. Damien has changed as a person. He used to be so serious and when you spoke to him he responded in one word answers. Now he laughs a lot more, is chatty and if he believes in what he is saying he will hold his point. Damien now seems to understand that school is important and he believes in himself.'
Mentor
- 'It’s given me a true sense of purpose and fulfillment - being able to help somebody, who is in a position now that I was in a few years back. It has helped me to develop patience and given me an idea of what it is like to work with young people who have problems and confirmed for me that it is what I want to do. DYP has been a hands-on experience, building on meetings week after week.'
Pupil
- 'One of the things I have learnt at DYP is how to control my temper. I realise that different people have different ways of controlling their tempers. Some control their temper by thinking of something that relaxes them. With me it’s different, when I am not angry the colour of me is light blue, however when I am angry, I feel red. It takes me a long time to go light blue again. But sometimes I can take a deep breath, or think of my mum and I feel calm again.’