Or you can sit with one!

Over the years, as both a mum and a youth worker, I’ve read a lot about young people.

Studies…Academic papers…Frameworks…Labels for everything.

Sometimes it feels like there’s a whole industry built around analysing young people.

Some of it is useful, I’m sure!

But after years of actually sitting with young humans…..I keep coming back to something much simpler.

Young people need our time.

Real time.

Not ‘I’m listening while I answer emails’ time.

Not program time. Not intervention time. Just human time.

Sometimes they want to yarn. Sometimes they don’t say much at all.

Sometimes they just sit there, scrolling their phone, kicking dirt, staring at the wall.

And that’s actually ok!

Because what they’re really asking isn’t complicated.

They’re asking one quiet question: Do I matter?

Young people notice the small things. They notice when you remember their world.

‘How was your sister’s wedding? ‘How did the exam go? I know you were nervous’

Those little moments say something big.

They say

I see you

I remember you

You matter

I don’t pretend to have all the answers. I’m not trying to write the next big paper about ‘youth engagement’ Ugh…that feels a bit like youth-washing tbh!

Lots of talking about young people. Not nearly enough sitting with them.

You can’t research your way into connection. Connection happens when humans show up ♡

When we invest in humans & not programs, not reports, not theories ~ humans ~ something shifts when that happens.

Walls soften ♡

Trust grows ♡

Conversations open ♡

Brains change ♡

Hearts change ♡

Humans change ♡

Sometimes all it took was someone who cared enough to sit beside them without trying to fix them.

Imagine the world we’d live in if we did more of that. Less analysing, More listening, Less judging, More presence…..Just humans investing in humans ♡

It’s not revolutionary.

It’s just kindness ♡

Love Rain x