International Men's Day: On a mission for youth

In celebrating International Men’s Day today, we are shining a light on the men in our community making a difference. Meet an amazing group of men from Redcliffe Area Youth Space.

As we sit on the stairs at the back of the Redcliffe Area Youth Space building, four of the organisation’s youth workers share their passion for helping the next generation of young men, as they struggle to overcome trauma and disadvantage, to reach their potential.

Allen Ellis, Matt Yates, Ben Vanovic and Daniel Rickard say there’s a growing cohort of young men who have never had a positive male role model in their lives and, as a result, they’re disconnected, afraid and sometimes angry.

Through their roles at Redcliffe Area Youth Space (RAYS), they are showing young men an alternative.

Allen Ellis

Allen started working at RAYS about 15 years ago and has since been involved in all the service’s programs including Work Skills, flexible education and ASHA mental health.

He has been part of the management team for about three years, looking at the services young people need and supporting staff in delivering them.

As Head of Curriculum for Edu Space, RAYS’ independent school which opened in April, he is driving change for young people aged 12-16 years with "complex and severe psychosocial, financial, systemic, clinical barriers which negatively impact school engagement”.

“I think we have the most amazing young people, but ones who present with some pretty complex trauma and come from lived experiences that would really humble people, I think, if they actually spent some time to get to know them,” Allen says.

“We are privileged to work for them and with them. We’re not expecting them to be A+ students but what we are seeing is vulnerability and trust and an ability to be more motivated to engage in learning because of the relationships (they are building).

“It’s about learning from mistakes or learning from what’s happened in your life to improve oneself over time.”

Allen hopes the school will help young people have a better quality of life, develop life skills and attain a level of education appropriate for their age. This could lead to a job or trade, a return to senior schooling or confidence in knowing they have the resources to be safe.

Allen says the absence of positive male role models is having a significant impact on young men.

“They don’t have an older male in their life who can show them how to be respectful in relationships and how to navigate that transition from child to adult,” he says.

“Instead, they have absent fathers or are experiencing domestic and family violence from men, who in their childhood didn’t have a safe father figure either. For us, it’s vital that we provide a point of difference in how we model to young men how to behave.”

He says many young men just want to be seen and to master new skills, so the team at RAYS teaches them the basics including how to change a car tyre and cook on a barbecue.

“I think our community’s changed, so there’s a real need for people to step into that space, especially safe men, who can show young boys how to do things differently, without judgement, with kindness ... a bit of a road map for them because they don’t have one,” Allen says.

“You can’t be what you can’t see.”

Matt Yates

Matt is the clinical lead who manages the Safe Space program, which is available to anyone in the community who is experiencing mental ill health or distress.

He also manages the ASHA program, which works with young people aged 12-25 years old with severe and complex mental health and psychosocial difficulties. These are young people who are disconnected and disengaged from mainstream services.

Matt says young people seeking help are predominantly young women because there is still stigma about mental health among many young men.

“It’s really hard for young boys to talk about what’s going on for them emotionally. We’re used to expressions of anger or crime or behaviours that can be deemed antisocial,” Matt says.

“A lot of the young boys we do get referred are from statutory agencies, so through youth justice or child safety. We’re trying to show them it is OK to talk about how you feel. It’s OK to hurt.

“For the young men we do work with it’s a lot about normalising their internal experiences. It’s really strong to get help and seek help.

“We’re hoping the numbers of young men accessing the program grow because there’s a lot of young men in our community particularly who are completely disengaged and disconnected. They have quite severe mental health struggles.”

Ben Vanovic

Ben has been involved in all of RAYS’ programs in the 18 years he’s been there and is now working with young people as part of the ASHA program.

“I think modern society, in particular, has gotten very good at not acknowledging just how disconnected people are and how easy it is for that to happen. We have technology and the means to look like we’re in touch and connected, but actually you’ll find people are more isolated,” Ben says.

“I believe a lot of the bridges that young people need to become adults are damaged or broken down. That’s something that worries me because that disconnection is happening earlier and the risks that young people are engaging in are happening earlier.”

Ben is a mental health outreach worker, working one-on-one with young people with chronic and acute mental health issues.

“It’s usually around finding a way to reach those people, when the traditional mainstream services either haven’t been able to or when they just don’t want to engage,” he says.

A different approach is needed for young men.

“They are much less interested and comfortable exploring their pain, they’re way less comfortable with the vulnerability of sadness and therefore they turn a lot of their sadness and grief into anger,” Ben says.

“Generally when we’re working with young men at ASHA, we tend to have to focus a lot less on the underlying cause and the trauma and a lot more around the strengths that they have, the strengths we can build up and the goals they have because most young men who are unwell just want to succeed and they want to be able to connect and to leave a lot of that behind.”

Ben also runs social inclusion groups to help young people overcome feelings of disconnection.

The team works with the community to try to create those connections through sport and other activities and if they can’t find an appropriate way to do this, they will create something.

He says forging those connections is essential and often the last blocker to helping young people re-engage.

Daniel Rickard

Daniel works in the RRR program (Remand, Reduction, Response), which provides case management to young people who are either in the youth justice system or at risk of going into the youth justice system.

“I use positive relationships to influence better pro-social outcomes with our young people. Our range is anywhere from 10-17 years, sometimes it can also go beyond that,” Daniel explains.

His role is about reducing repeat offending and helping young people reach a point where they are no longer part of the youth justice system.

Daniel supports young people through the court process and he visits detention centres and prisons, but his work goes well beyond just youth justice.

“There’s been a lot of positive outcomes. In a few clients we’ve had there has been a complete reduction in offending behaviour. Some clients have gone from being homeless, six months ago, to having secure housing and job opportunities,” Dan says.

He says it all starts with having a roof over their heads and positive change builds from there.

Allen adds: “Our community, through social media and the (mainstream) media, have been painted an illustration that young people are stealing cars, they’re dangerous, predatory, ruthless animals out there ... look out, they will get you at any given moment!

“The problem with that binary view is that it’s black and white. Statistics show we are the lowest in terms of offending behaviour (in the last 10 years).

“What Dan does makes a huge difference because these boys, who may be that very small percentile of men doing that sort of stuff, are actually no longer doing that for the most part. There’s a change in their behaviour and their sense of purpose is redirected to something positive.”

Allen wants the community to realise what they are seeing in the media may not translate to reality.

“It’s really based on fear and the work that Dan does is fearless. He is working with people who have the most complex backgrounds. We need more people backing that rather than tearing stuff down.”

What is International Men’s Day?

The day, November 19, is a chance to take part in a global conversation about manhood, masculinity and men's issues by:

• Highlighting social issues that men and boys face

• Making a difference for men and boys in your community

• Celebrating men and boys in all their diversity

• Organising events to have fun in the process

To find out more, visit internationalmensday.info