YOUNG PEOPLE, NATURE CONNECTION AND SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT

This study sets out to understand the current discussion around spirituality and its place in youth work. Further to this it considers whether nature connection activities are a setting where spiritual development occurs and how we can respond to this as practitioners. The empirical study used a survey with young people building on previous research to observe young people’s reaction to nature and conducted interviews with practitioners to explore the themes. The study showed that through nature connection activities many young people were able to reflect deeply on their experiences and gain a deeper understanding of themselves. Some young people equated nature activities to exploration and utilised the outdoors as emotional coping strategies. The practitioner’s interviews highlighted the need for reflective practice in relation to spirituality in order to further understand its place in youth work. The study concluded that youth work in the outdoors is an ideal setting for human development and that in a safe environment, spiritual development is part of this. Moreover we need to establish an ethical basis for practitioners to integrate spiritual development into youth work practice.