Fiona Blacke, chief executive of The National Youth Agency posted an interesting article on the Children & Young People Now website yesterday: ‘The National Youth Agency: Comment – Youth work-universal? Targeted? Who cares?’
In a time of resource constraint where hard choices have to be made about who gets what, there is no question for me that youth work should be targeted: targeted at the marginalised and disenfranchised; those living and growing up in the poorest communities; those at risk of becoming caught up in the criminal justice system; those involved in risky behaviours; those who are being failed by the education and training systems; those who are marginalised because of their ethnicity, gender or disability.
Fiona is inviting comments on her article and can be contacted at fionab@nya.org.uk. I posted a brief response on the CYPN website.
6 responses to “Comment on targeted youth work”
thanks for the pointer – have left a reply. Does she really expect replies though? (most of those who write for CYPNow don't seem to engage a great deal)
As you will note from my own post – I strongly disagree with making youthwork a profession that targets just the marginalised and disenfranchised. How can a youth worker be a voice in the community if they do not engage with it? How can a youth worker be that bridge for those on the edges if he doesn't have a foot on one side of the river?
I know that it is important to reach out to those who are 'lost' and to bring them back into the fold. Yet as youth workers we are individuals who are sometimes King Canute sweeping back the tide. If we see our work as something we do on our own, perhaps with a team of other like-minded workers who are spread out across a wide area and spectrum then we are never going to make much of a difference. If we see our work as engaging others to want to make that difference with us then we will be much more effective.
Hi Chris, thanks for your comment. I agree that it's dangerous to focus solely on one demographic – whether that's the marginalised or the affluent. Youth work should inform and inspire all aspects of life and society which is why it is such a diverse and wonderful vocation.
You referred to your own blog, but didn't leave the link. Can you add it here?
Sorry Chris, found it! You commented on the original article at CYPN
I think its a very narrow minded approach I've had experience of proving that an all inclusive approach has better results if done in mind that it is still the minority that take up the most of your time.
I'll be very surprised if expressing these views will make any difference though or in fact if they even get noticed. Good to hear like minded views though 🙂
I think these comments are really interesting – as a youth worker I find that the targetting of youth work brings its own benefits and problems at the same time; benefits being something along the lines of Fiona Blacke’s comments, however I have also found a few that have arisen from the targetting of youth work. One major problem being the pidgeon-holeing issue attached to identifying young people who are potentially at risk – I feel we need to maybe revise how we’re doing this – for example when I worked for an early intervention psychosis mental health team and part of the role involved identifying ‘at risk’ young people within schools, or alternatively a friend of mine who works for a sexual health service is tasked with identifying ‘at risk’ young people for her service (in other words young people who are developing early/hitting puberty sooner.)This as you can imagine is a hugely sensitive issue and I believe that the way we identify ‘at risk’ young people deserves more thought. Also I would be really interested if anyone could post any links that detail any research/statistics on the success rates of targeted work vs generic youth work. ta