Fictive Kinship, Participation and Belief

Abstract

Belonging is connected to young people’s wellbeing, and understanding how youth workers perceive belonging can assist youth work practice. Belonging in youth work is promoted through fictive kinship, in the context of Christian faith-based youth work practice, it is also connected to how young people construct belief. This research was conducted as an instrumental case study to explore Christian faith-based youth workers’ biographies, experiences and perceptions of belonging, and relationship to their youth work practice. Themes emerging from the findings suggest that participants connected belonging to fictive kinship notions of ‘family’, and as a result sought to create a sense of family-like kinship relationships in their practice. Christian faith-based youth workers (cfbyw) also connected kinship and a sense of belonging to participation, including having a role, a voice, and a right to be part of a community, which can be seen in the setting as pointing to the potential presence of belonging. This article contributes to a conceptual understanding of faith-based work with young people and the implications for youth work practice through investigating the place of belonging in Christian faith-based youth work, its relationship to belief and the role of fictive kinship in youth work.