Paul Savage is a young men’s mental health project worker in Barnsley. He runs BRV, an initiative by the young people’s empowerment project Chilypep. In his role he tackles issues from misogyny, toxic masculinity, racism and mental health predominantly with young white boys. By offering them a chance to speak their mind, he also creates opportunity to change it.
“We work with lads to break down barriers. We talk about men’s mental health, masculinity, how to ask for help and to challenge the stigma towards men asking for help looking weak. We talk about what it is to be male and what masculinity or manliness means. There is a lot to unpick.
“Barnsley itself is not that racially diverse. We meet lots of white boys and young men with extreme right-wing views and channelling a lot of anger, and we open up the space for them to talk about their views and challenge them.
Paul Savage,
Chilypep
We encourage them to delve more deeply into why they think the way they do too. Other settings like schools often aim to shut down the conversation, but we encourage debate and exploration of certain mindsets.
From anger to understanding
“There’s lots of homophobia too, but they don’t realise it’s just tied to their idea of what a man is.
“It is ingrained into you from a young age. What a man’s job is and what a woman’s job is. And people police their gender without even knowing they are doing it. ‘Don’t cry. Don’t be like your sister’. ‘Why are you screaming when you fell over?’
I once worked with a lad who said he doesn’t feel any emotions. He was smiling and I said ‘happiness is an emotion’. His reply was, ‘yeah, but that’s the emotion I’m allowed to have’.”
One of the biggest issues Paul faces in Barnsley is poor mental health for young men.
“Often struggle is shown through bad behaviour, and so these young people get written off. Truanting, violence, substance use; we need trusted people to get to the cause of the behaviour. We see many young men that when you ask them how they are, they’d say ‘I’m alright’, but that same day they’d been punching holes in a wall. That isn’t someone that’s alright.
“In one week, I had four different young men tell me they were feeling suicidal. I’d never even met them before. For them it was the first space that felt like it was designed for them, a male environment to open up in.
“We’ve got an older group which is 16- to 25-year-olds and they are so welcoming and open. They know each other, they’ve gone through our groups and they make it so open to new members. The new ones might try and be really macho and put on an act, but the ones who’ve been for some time reassure them ‘you don’t need to do that here’, but they also understand that was them only 6 months ago.
“You can see the importance of youth work with every young person you work with. Young people need a place where they can thrive, need a place where they can try things, but also need it not to be entirely goal based or entirely structured to allow them a chance to develop themselves.
“My hope for the young people that I work with, is to be happy. I want them to do whatever they want to do. I want them to be able to start talking to each other. I want them to thrive and do well, whatever that looks like for them.“
