In Defence of Youth Work This is Youth Work: Stories from Practice Published by In Defence of Youth Work Designed and printed by UNISON 3. Twelve youth work stories 2 Contents Acknowledgements 5 Beyond aggression to eye contact: Struggling for trust in a city centre drop in 26 1. Setting the Scene 6 2. Context 9 Beyond stereotype and prejudice: Developing youth work with traveller 3. Twelve youth work stories 12 young women 28 As seen by the youth worker As seen by young people Holding onto your dignity: Supporting ‘I wouldn’t be the person I am today’: Black young people harassed by the police 12 One young man on why young people need youth clubs 32 ‘On the boundary’: Three years detached work with a group of young women 15 A modest journey in self-discovery: Reflections on a mentoring ‘resi’ 33 Creative improvisation: A youth work response to ‘knife crime’ 17 Surviving, learning and growing: The youth centre as sanctuary. 34 Pen and paper youth work 20 4. Practising 37 The power of graffiti: Detached youth work in a town centre ‘hot spot’ 21 5. What future for youth work? 48 6. Campaigning and educating 49 Getting accredited: Youth work as a virtual trip ‘down under’ 23 Further information 51 Casual – or informal?: Coffee bar careers advice 25 3 3. Twelve youth work stories 4 Acknowledgements As the In Defence of Youth The young people who agreed to be The Youth & Policy editorial Work (IDYW) ‘Stories’ filmed for the DVD. collective who, having published some of the booklet material, project has throughout The workers who – in some cases readily agreed to to it being been a collective effort, through many drafts – provided republished. thanking a long list of such telling insights into youth work practice. The many IDYW activitists whose individuals doesn’t seem energy and enthusiasm have made appropriate. However, The institutions and organisations the whole initiative possible. the contributions must be and their staff who sponsored acknowledged of: ‘stories’ events and supported And last but not least the pioneers workers in writing them up. of the past, who laid the foundations for an emancipatory youth work and Heather Johnson of Regenesis today’s young people, youth workers Media for her creativity in putting and communities, who through together the DVD. their protests and struggles have shown their commitment Jethro Brice for his unique and to defending and extending this thought-provoking illustrations. democratic inheritance. The UNISON and Unite/CYWU unions and their officers who have shown such commitment to the project. 5 3.1. Twelve Setting youth work stories the scene What is Youth Work? The growing unease about this Report of the Education Select very threat to the future of open Committee into youth services For those involved in doing it, and pluralist youth work led to confirms, are leading in one local whether voluntary or paid, whatever the creation of the In Defence authority after another to the their ideological differences, there of Youth Work (IDYW) Campaign disappearance of youth work as has long been a consensus. It back in March 2009. Composed of informal education. ought to be founded on a voluntary part-time and full-time workers engagement with young people across the voluntary and state Against this tide of reaction our in their leisure time. It ought to sectors, managers, lecturers Campaign reaffirms its belief in a be informal and educational, and researchers, our grass- democratic and emancipatory youth focused on the personal, social and roots organisation has sought to work, whose cornerstones are: political awareness of the young challenge the imposition upon the people drawn to its provision. Over contradictory, creative process of n The sanctity of the voluntary the last twenty years successive youth work of its very antithesis: principle; the freedom for governments have undermined prescribed and predictable young people to enter into and these defining characteristics. outcomes. Nevertheless the withdraw from Youth Work as Armed with an often negative instrumental agenda prevails. The they so wish. view of youth they have introduced Coalition encourages an increasing an increasingly narrow raft of emphasis on early intervention n A commitment to conversations measures, whereby youth work programmes aimed at young with young people which start has been pushed ever nearer to people deemed to be recalcitrant from their concerns and within being no more than an agency of or at risk. Youth workers disappear which both youth worker and behavioural modification or the and become youth social workers young person are educated and mere provider of predetermined with a case-load of problematic out of which opportunities for ‘positive activities’. individuals in need of correction. new learning and experience To compound matters the drastic can be created. public expenditure cuts, as the 6 1. Setting the scene n The importance of association, n The essential significance of authoritarianism and a fear of the massive management-led effort of fostering supportive the youth worker themselves, unpredictable and creative. to sidestep the dilemma of how to relationships, of encouraging whose outlook, integrity and measure changes in personal and the development of autonomy is at the heart We see ourselves, whether paid or collective consciousness. Rather autonomous groups and ‘the of fashioning a serious yet voluntary, as informal educators than grappling with the question sharing of a common life’. humorous, improvisatory yet contributing to ‘the common good’. it has been easier to concentrate rehearsed educational practice Thus the need to be accountable on numbers attending or contacts n A commitment to valuing and with young people. to elected representatives, made, reassuring to insist that attending to the here-and-now management, communities and the youth work experience of young people’s experience Of course there are other forms especially young people themselves be shoehorned into forms of rather than just focusing on of work with young people, but is fully recognised, which is where engagement that can be accredited. ‘transitions’. defining these as youth work our Stories Project comes in. From In this way a mass of data has been confuses rather than clarifies the the beginning of the Campaign we compiled. However these statistics n An insistence upon a dilemmas we face. The plethora have wanted to call the bluff on that tell us little about the quality of the democratic practice, within of targeted interventions need to feigned ignorance, which claims process and fail to put us in touch which every effort is made be named for what they are: youth youth work is a bit of a mystery and with the ups and downs of working to ensure that young people social work, youth welfare work, asks ‘how we do know it’s doing with awkward, life-enhancing real play the fullest part in making youth diversionary work, and so on. any good, giving value for money?’ human beings. decisions about anything Whilst it can be argued that some of Indeed at our very first national affecting them. these programmes are necessary conference in Manchester the The key to getting a real feel for the and that they are delivered by debate focused on how we might work is to become familiar with and n The continuing necessity of committed practitioners, they all illustrate the qualitative dimension sensitive to the profusion of tales, recognising that young people share a prescribed agenda and of a youth work practice, which small and large, that make up the are not a homogeneous group an imposed relationship. The sees young people as the active youth work saga. It is hoped that and that issues of class, gender, present demise of the youth work and critical citizens essential the sequence of stories to be found race, sexuality, disability and we seek to define and defend to an authentic democracy. In below and the context provided will faith remain central. says much about today’s creeping recent times there has been a inspire a renewed debate about how 7 1. Setting the scene the success or otherwise of youth work is evaluated. Getting to know whether youth work is proving to be effective or adding value will not come about by its funders or its managers sitting passively in their offices waiting for the monthly figures of inputs and outcomes. Neither will it be resolved via the use of structured questionnaires measuring well- being, the completion of which will be mandatory for young people. It will come about only if the methods used are congruent with and indeed integral to the voluntary engagement that makes youth work so distinctive as a practice with young people. It will come about only if decision-makers, youth workers and young people enter into consistent, critical conversations with one another about what makes youth work tick. It will come about only if youth work is democratic through and through. 8 2. Context 3. Twelve youth work stories The need to spread understanding simply been ‘ceased’, they’ve been development in its current form was of the emancipatory forms of both cut to the bone - budgets for dismissed by the Select Committee youth work practice outlined in 2011-12 down by an estimated as unsupportable. ‘Setting the Scene’ and to defend £100m, jobs by 3,000 - and widely the services through which these restructured as a youth social work Though offering some positive are provided has never been more version of ‘early intervention’. The assessments of young people‘s urgent. Though the ConDem choices facing much voluntary potential and some passing government talks grandly of sector youth provision have also endorsements of their voluntary developing a youth policy, the become stark: in effect privatise participation in open-access youth June 2011 House of Commons’ as a ‘social enterprise’ and work, the Select Committee also Education Select Committee report increasingly, and uncritically, take however carried some other much on youth services made very clear on the state’s business; or cut staff less acceptable messages; in its disappointment with its ‘lack of and facilities - or go out of business.