Social Work with Street Children and Youth in Nigeria

Licencinė sutartis Nr. MRU-EDT-697

The research goal was to examine theoretically and empirically, ways social work can develop and improve the social welfare policy for street youth in Nigeria. The arising questions that this research seeks to find answers to are: 1. How can social workers help street youth in Nigeria? 2. How can social work ameliorate the social welfare policy for the benefit of the street youth in Nigeria? To answer these questions, a qualitative research was carried out in selected areas of Lagos state. Using a purposive sampling method, 6 social workers were selected based on their experience with street youth to participate in the study having expressed their willingness to participate. Over the year’s social work profession played important roles in the facilitation of social change aimed at reducing inequalities among various populations (Beckman, 2021). The findings reaffirm social work discipline, as being underpinned by the theories of social science, social work, humanities and indigenous knowledge; it engages people and structures to address life challenges and enhance the wellbeing of people. Having gotten the required foundation in social work discipline, the informants in this study have being on the field with street youth handling various cases. Each Informant has at list 5 years’ experience working with street youth in their local government areas, they are into generalist practice of social work. Some of them work with faith based organizations that have outreaches for street youth, such as shelters, health facilities, counseling etc. Social work being a multidiscipline profession enables the required skills of trained social workers to be of help in Nigeria due to the rising cases of mental health and substance abuse of street youth. The situation with street youth is particular evident as the social pressures and harsh condition makes them abuse substances as coping mechanism. It explains why there is high rate of substance misuse among this group. This fact was also noted by the Canadian Pediatric Association (2018) which states that “homeless youth are more susceptible to risk for psychological harm, behaviors with serious medical consequences such as substance abuse, sexually transmitted infections (STIs), violence and physical and sexual abuse etc”. Hence, the dangers of using these substances are associated with both emotional and physical issues; it is characterized by a compulsion to take drugs on a constant basis in order to experience its mental effects. Also, the prevalence of cases of sexual exploitation is also prevalent among the street youth and insecurity issues are some of the problems theses youth are subjected to.