Reflections

We come to a Youth Club for our practice. As for the building itself it consists of a big common room, a gym, a computer area, playstation area, offices and kitchen.The establishment has some land that they plan to use. The building also has a music room. There are 14 adults working here, the 3 of us being "extra-hands". In the most crowded days there are about 40 children coming here. The Youth Club opens at 12 PM, but everyday from 11 to 12 the staff has a meeting and some breakfast. The kids stay until 5 PM but on Thursday they stay until 9 PM. The kids get a snack at 2 Pm and a dinner on Thursday. We will continue with each one´s opinion on this, having more than one point of view.

SHIRLEY : I was very surprised the first day when padagogues explained that there are not many rules here, kids are free and can spend the whole time as they want. One of the questions i asked the staff was about the role they have with the children. Answer : "We have to be here, to listen to them if they want to talk". Another question for me is if i could work in an institution like this one, and i can not really answer because i don`t feel really helpfull here but i know the fact i don`t speak Danish is one of the reasons. Children are afraid to talk to us in English and i think the time of the work placement is too short to have a relation with them.

STEFAN : As for me, it is a bit hard to get everything in because i did not come across a place like this before. I can understand thea reason for this place to exist but i think we came in a bad time. I say this because all the kids know the adults and the trust and respect and attention is already here so everything goes smoothly. Sometimes i feel a bit in the way because we can not really get involved beacuse of the language and the short time we are here. Even if there are only a few rules the respect is mutual and the kids behave realy nice. But i absolutely love one thing, and i know this from Lars : never say NO, always try to help and do the things the kids want. Coming from Romania, things look great, and they are, but unfortunately everything i learn here will never be used outside my personal life because clubs like this do not exist back home. All i can do is observe and play the same thing they are playing but i can not get too close to the kids beause of the language and because they do not know me. And there is another thing that concerns me : does the school have any expectations from us? Another good thing is the fact that we talked to a "street worker". He told us about how things work in the street and what he had to do. I think that his work is very important as well because he is the first to come in contact with reality. He explained how the system works and what it means to try to balance a good relationship with the kids on the street and expectations and ways of approach by the police and the state. My observations will continue this week and i will keep you updated as often as possible.

MATEJA : My first impression of the place was that it is realy big. I started to compare it to similar places we have in Slovenia. We have only 2-3 rooms, not the whole building. Also here there is a lot of materials available for kids to use. It surprised me how meny possibilities they have, they can do a variety of things. Also i found it interesting the level of the freedom they have here. Kids are responsible for themselves, they need to choose wnat they want to do and they can also run around the place, be loud, scream, something you would not see in our youth club institutions where kids go after school. We allways want to give them activities during the day and pedagogues decide today where are going to do this, next day this etc. Kids do not have to participate in activities, we do not force them but pedagogues try to include kids eveytime. About relationships pedagogues have with kids - it is realy relaxed and based on friendship, what i realy like, because i agree that it is easier to work with kids on this level and it is easier to talk to them about problems if both sides see they are equal. About our work here, i have problems sometimes because i do not know what to do. There is allmost no structure, only lunch and dinner are served allways at the same times, and i am used to working in organizations where structure is very important. So i found that realy hard at start and now slowly i am getting used to this sistem they have here.