Although inspired by the true events taking place within the youth service, the following blog has had all names, dates, times and some details changed to protect the identities of any person or event.
What Are They Like?
We had had a problem with the young people choosing to smoke a different ‘type’ of tobacco around the outside of the building, and as a staff team we decided to have ZERO TOLERANCE (don’t know why but think this should be said in super hero style voice!!). Anyway we were doing well and the amount of young people was definitely reducing but as usual there are those young people who want to be little scamps and not adhere to behaviour expectations. On this particular evening the group that are affectionately called our ‘Stoners’ (endearing term) showed up on mass all declaring that they hadn’t been smoking, so of course (after turning into a police sniffer dog, I think my senses are now that good that I could have told you the soil content of where any substance has been grown) I welcomed them with open arms and in they came. The group engaged with the staff and joined in a couple of the activities so I began to feel pleased with myself that the efforts the team had made had started to pay off.
My joy was a little premature, one of the young men (lets call him John) came to me while I was serving in the ‘Snack Shack’ and asked if he could make his own hot chocolate. This is not unusual as apparently there is a consensus that neither Chris nor myself can make good hot chocolate (although mine is definitely better than his!). As I looked up I met the gaze of 10-15 young men all stood looking from me to John then John to me, all of them with those silly grins that really does highlight that something is going on. With my suspicions aroused I then began to pay more attention to what this young man was doing, he showed me the cup with the dry chocolate in and since my face was naked (didn’t have my glasses on) I couldn’t see anything strange. As he poured the hot water in I grabbed John’s cup poured its contents down the sink and began apologising profusely for giving him a dirty cup.
“I could have killed you John with the amount of fungus that was in that mug. Here have a fresh one”
As I said this, the colour quickly drained from John’s face and one of the onlookers shouted that I just poured his ten bag away. I turned to him and asked if indeed he had put something in the cup he slouched his shoulders and replied no. John spent the rest of the night sulking in a corner, being ribbed by his friends of course I have no idea about what! But how could I have lived with myself giving him that dirty mug?
June 5, 2008
Categories: Funny, Stories . Tags: Cannabis, Centre, Chocolate, Funny, Work, Youth . Author: oursaywblog08
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Hi Sue - Like the story, reminded me of being on expedition in Africa and a young person brewing up some ‘local’ tea……which I thought was a bit strange but didn’t really click til later in the week when various issues were cropping up!
Hope alls going well with the zero tolerance
Hi guys,
Love the blog keep it up, which i know is often more difficult to do than say in our game.
“Herbal” tea is an issue that we get to deal with and i just love the way you handled this, as with all great youth work i will happily steal it, claim it and teach it LOL.
Is it bad practise to off load the snaks that are going out of date soon on detached project with YP’s that have the munchies. I claim it as “relationship development” and just say “Maslow said it was the first step”
Have a good one.