I was incensed when I watched the BBC News recently. There was a report on the rising number of young people who are unemployed. For some reason they decided to show video footage of young people, all dressed in hoodies pulled over their heads and some even with face masks! Presumably the editor felt this was a reasonable portrayal of unemployed young people. I felt it was outrageous stereotyping!

There is a strong, human urge to label people; to group them together as if identifying a biological species; to put them in a box and attach vague generalities – often in a discriminatory way. It seems to make us feel safer. We now know what we are dealing with.

We do this with ‘league tables’. Do we naively think that a school’s performance can be judged on how many students pass 5 GCSE’s grade C and above? In fact, do we really believe that a child’s intelligence can be assessed by how many qualifications they attain? But it’s easy, isn’t it? At least, it’s easy for those making the judgements. It becomes quite different when you are the one being judged!

Some of the young people that we support at Guildford YMCA have been labelled; homeless, chaotic, young offender, drug addict, stupid, etc. They’re identified by their problem and if we’re not careful our relationship can be characterised by that problem.

As a Christian organisation, our starting point is a belief that everyone is part of God’s creation and therefore, undeniably, has unique gifts and abilities. Our starting point is to find what these are and then encourage and support them to develop them. It takes time and patience and sometimes we fail. But when young people do succeed, and discover their true, real identity, it’s the greatest buzz in the world!