The Red Knob

The Red Knob is a health education resources, training and consultancy company dedicated to a social marketing, public health based  ‘what works’ approach to work with young men.

Formed in 2004, the company began as a result of frustrations around the delivery of sexual health work with young men by statutory agencies that were unable or refused to realise the potential of a targeted social marketing approach that spoke to young men in their own language; an approach that didn’t view them only as ‘young men’, but appreciated the diversity of young male cultures and the possibilities inherent in those cultures that would allow for effective communication with them.

Whilst acknowledging the concept of ‘masculinities’, and promoting a discussion and participation approach to sexual health work, the Red Knob believes that there is a lack of acknowledgement in current guidance that for some young men this is an uncomfortable experience and can open up individuals to peer group exposure and embarrassment – a challenge to some masculinities for whom the credibility cost of engagement in participation and discussion may also be too great; hence the requirement to build in other approaches to work with young men, approaches that may facilitate engagement with so called ‘hard-to-reach’ young men, and complement existing work.

Yes, we do want young men to be able to talk about sex and relationships and that this should be a prime requisite for work with young men; we also need to recognise that sometimes this needs to be on their terms and not just ours as professionals as we have a target to meet, an ethical stance to uphold - either organisational or individual, or that they are ‘too hard to reach’. No one should be hard to reach if the correct approach is applied. Our approaches complement the participation and discussion approach recommended in current statutory guidance – but also recognises youth cultural concepts that can impact on young men such as ‘authenticity’, as well as other sociological, biological, and psychological evidence bases that have been demonstrated to work.

Our resources, consultancy and training reflect our approach. To make use of a sentence used to describe the work of Lifeline publications around substance use work, it’s about

giving precedence to the views of the target audience over and above the moral sensibilities of middle England.

(from Real Life Tales of Earning – Lifeline)

This is a challenge yet to be overcome with regard to statutory services and professionals who may be culturally remote from the young men they wish to work with - in itself a barrier to engagement with them. It is Red Knob’s intention and challenge to facilitate a best practice approach to work with young men – one that is open to all approaches that work, not only the ones in current guidance or that professionals feel comfortable with, to ensure that young men receive sexual health information that is relevant to them and the lifestyle cultures they inhabit.

We fully support the work of statutory and voluntary agencies involved in health work with young people; Red Knob believes that its unique approach is complementary to work undertaken in these sectors; that different approaches work with different people in different situations.

Throughout history, a maverick (and we’re not talking Mel Gibson here) approach has sometimes been necessary to change perceptions; well, OK we might be exaggerating a little, but we truly believe in our concept of challenging and changing norms. Tom of Finland T Shirts? Try Sid the Sperm; we’re punk rockers at heart. But we do care!

Make Every Day a Red Knob Day!