RAP (Raising Awareness of Power) highlights the subject of power dynamics in youth work, helping and supporting relationships and the good use of non-oppressive empowerment and accountability practices with the aim of helping professionals to manage this issue of power dynamics.
We can define "Power Dynamics" as an aspect of every relationship. "Power" can be defined as the capacity to somehow affect the world. Should this impact be good or bad, it can be re-examined.
As Foucault (1978) states, power is everywhere. It becomes diffused throughout the whole network of social relationships with each one a potential source of domination and subordination, established and confirmed in the method of discourse and language.
Power can be used in different ways. It can be used to oppress or to empower people and this can happen at personal, cultural and professional levels. If power is everywhere, we should also see how the youth workers themselves apply their power and if and how they apply oppressive practices towards their young clients.
A youth worker, since he/she is considered as an expert, has a great impact on a young client. There may be an imbalance of power in the relationship because the youth workers are considered to be experts. So, we at RAP, aim to help youth workers reflect on the type of impact they have on youth. Youth workers need to have instruments and tools that help them reflect upon their own power and how they use it in working with young people. They need to reflect on their social background, their personal and professional experience and the impact that this will have on their involvement with their clients.
Youth work is widely recognised as a “caring” profession, but services that work for one person may not work for another or reflect the sensitivity required to work with another. There may be a “care vs control” issue. Where there is care, there is responsibility because of the youth worker’s role as a “professional”, “expert” and “adult”. Where there is responsibility, there is control and power which can lead to exclusions (Humphries, 2004). Thus, through their work, professionals may cause a form of oppression by maintaining discrimination and inequality within their young clients, most of times without even being aware of acting like “dividing practitioners” (Foucault, 2000).
By training youth workers to reflect upon their position of power, RAP Workbook contents, materials and processes help them to establish accountable relationships with their young clients where the youth worker is clear about his role in the power structure, what the scope of the mandate is and what mutual obligations flow from the relationship. This, in turn, invites young people to become active members of the relationship and consequently enhances their personal responsibility and promotes their personal autonomy.
The RAP Workbook is available in English, Frencha, Italian & Spanish. You can download it from our website.
https://rap-powerdynamics.org/how-can-rap-help-you/