Social work with a child by streetworking: About discovering the potential and building relationships in the child’s social space

Streetworking is a way of working that allows a professional to get closer to the world of people with trauma experience. Their childhood and early years are filled with negative emotions – pain, anxiety, shame or withdrawal from social life. On the one hand, they are forced to live in enclaves of poverty and, on many occasions, take responsibility for the difficulties and dysfunctions of their biological parents; on the other hand, they try to find their own safe space where they can find peace and answers to the questions and dilemmas that arise ‒ so they take to the streets. Professionals, for whom the street has become a place of work, are ready to meet them, but they do not expect cooperation, they do not impose support, they are aware that the need for change must appear in a person who is in a situation of help. Such an approach makes them ‒ just as much as they do ‒ a tool in the process of building relationships, accompanying in games, conversations or resolving confliicts. The task of streetworkers is, therefore, to create a space in which it will be possible to show young people other possibilities of coping in life, motivating them to take up challenges, but not to teach or mentor. There are different rules of (co-)social life and a different hierarchy on the street. It has a specific charm, but it is a place where change happens continuously, and every new person is described as an enemy. A streetworker enters “someone else’s territory”, and that means he accepts the rules there and is open to the reality he will find “in the street”. Many times approaching the world of children (on) the street involves the use of unconventional methods such as provocation. Thus, this article is a reflection on the importance of the social worker’s profession in the context of streetworking. 

* Artykuł ten powstał na podstawie pracy przygotowanej przez Dominikę Curyło pod tytułem Postawy i zachowania streetworkerów w kontakcie z dziećmi i młodzieżą, Kraków 2017 (materiał niepublikowany, wykorzystane fragmenty za zgodą autorki pracy).

Streetworking is a way of working that allows a professional to get closer to the world of people with trauma experience. Their childhood and early years are filled with negative emotions – pain, anxiety, shame or withdrawal from social life. On the one hand, they are forced to live in enclaves of poverty and, on many occasions, take responsibility for the difficulties and dysfunctions of their biological parents; on the other hand, they try to find their own safe space where they can find peace and answers to the questions and dilemmas that arise ‒ so they take to the streets. Professionals, for whom the street has become a place of work, are ready to meet them, but they do not expect cooperation, they do not impose support, they are aware that the need for change must appear in a person who is in a situation of help. Such an approach makes them ‒ just as much as they do ‒ a tool in the process of building relationships, accompanying in games, conversations or resolving confliicts. The task of streetworkers is, therefore, to create a space in which it will be possible to show young people other possibilities of coping in life, motivating them to take up challenges, but not to teach or mentor. There are different rules of (co-)social life and a different hierarchy on the street. It has a specific charm, but it is a place where change happens continuously, and every new person is described as an enemy. A streetworker enters “someone else’s territory”, and that means he accepts the rules there and is open to the reality he will find “in the street”. Many times approaching the world of children (on) the street involves the use of unconventional methods such as provocation. Thus, this article is a reflection on the importance of the social worker’s profession in the context of streetworking. 

* Artykuł ten powstał na podstawie pracy przygotowanej przez Dominikę Curyło pod tytułem Postawy i zachowania streetworkerów w kontakcie z dziećmi i młodzieżą, Kraków 2017 (materiał niepublikowany, wykorzystane fragmenty za zgodą autorki pracy).