Truly Connecting With The Young

'Let's take a look at the idea of "standing up" for someone or something.'

'You're at home one evening, and there's a knock on the door, or a buzz on the buzzer or whatever; you open the door and there's someone there asking you to sign a petition banning the opening of a fast-food place on your street; it's part of a well-known food chain across the country.

Would you:

• Say yes, and sign
• Say no, and not sign
• Say I would like to know more before deciding
• ...or something else? 'And why this choice?'

'When you "stand up" for someone or something it means protecting or defending someone or something. Sometimes it might mean you getting hassled, or even putting yourself in some sort of danger. "Standing up" for something is a big idea, and perhaps an even bigger action. So let me ask you: What would you do in each of these three situations:

— You're talking with friends and they start making fun of someone you all know and like, or so you thought, but who isn't there at that moment...what do you do?

—What about if the person was there, what would you do?

— Okay. This time, you're on your own. You're at a place where lots of young people hang out, and you're there having something to eat. There's someone you don't know sitting by themselves but sitting quite close to you. Two other young people come in and stand next to that person and it looks like they're threatening them, asking for something...? What do you do?' — passage from the book Frames.

— Valeria interviews Peter Slattery, the author of FRAMES: 12 fabulous ways of talking with young people

Many years ago, Peter did a B.A. in Social Science and an M.A. in Psychology. He says he thoroughly enjoyed his time at university and freely admits to having learned something. He also says that the past 30 plus years of working with young people, especially with those having a hard time of life, have taught him a lot more, and given him some ideas about how to make use of what he learned at university. Today, Peter works freelance across Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand, with occasional jaunts into Asia, North America, the U.K. and Europe. He continues working with young people in all the places you expect to find them; within all the school systems, as well as in youth refuges, rehab. centers, the many forms that youth programmers take and in juvenile justice settings. Having done this work for a long time now, Peter finds himself in demand as a trainer of workers, as a supervisor and mentor, and seems to be constantly invited to speak at conferences both within Australia and overseas. He has published extensively in both the E and the hard-copy worlds. He says he considers himself extremely lucky, and thinks of his work as an uplifting challenge, a privilege, a joy and often, just a lot of fun.

To learn more about Peter Slattery please visit his website: https://peterslattery.com/

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