Getting young people reinserted into a social context by creating relationships
Michel Born’s book is addressed to educators, psychologists and social workers, but also to teachers and to all those who work with adolescents in situations that involve poor adaptation to social contexts, presenting psychological levers that can be used in interventions. Interventions that turn out to be successful tend to have the following characteristics: they provide young people with tutors, teaching them resilience; they recreate relationships, they teach young people to believe in themselves, they develop concepts of responsibility and morality, they work on skills that involve interpreting information, they develop social skills, they get young people to pursue personal projects, they instil a positive attitude towards recovery, and they commit to the long term. Social intervention, in which placement is only one aspect, is organised in terms of the following objectives:
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◊ Restoring the capacity young people have of forming affective attachments
◊ Working to teach young people the meaning of delinquent actions
◊ Teaching young people to feel shame and to take responsibility for such actions
◊ Talking and dialoguing with young people, helping them reconstruct their interior space
◊ Supporting and encouraging young people’s power to be resilient and to desist from delinquent behaviour
◊ Helping young people complete a cognitive reconstruction
◊ Contribute to young people’s social skills and their development
◊ Re-educating young people through learning mechanisms
◊ Making sure that activities match up with the particular problems young people have
◊ Maintaining a positive philosophy focused on recovery. |
Things that work
The work of Michel Born is based on three things. First, evaluation of the effectiveness of an intervention in terms of the psychological and social reinsertion of delinquent youth, which leads to the question, how can working with young people in this group on a daily basis become more effective. Michel Born insists on the importance of transfers of experience and expertise, going back and forth between research and field experience.
By insisting on treatment that is progressive and adapted to each case, the author arrives at a distinction he considers central: "It is absolutely fundamental to distinguish, in the group of young delinquents, those who are in a crisis phase, and those who are at the beginning of a career in delinquent behaviour that may last a long time, and may be characterised by recidivism and aggravated delinquent behaviour". The author also emphasises the progressive nature of resocialisation, and the reconstruction of the bond between the individual and society. ![Jeune-delinquant]( "Jeune-delinquant.")
Intervention provides a framework within which all experiences, even negative ones, can be converted into positive developments… With examples at the ready, the author develops the idea of a progressive strategy in extending privileges, based on the level of maturity of a given patient. This makes the positive development of his or her behaviour visible, for the young people as well as for educators. Sometimes this form of evaluation takes the form of a grade report or a system of points. This educational tool, which “institutes a visible timeline for development goals”, has been used too infrequently, according to Born.
