The following is an excerpt from my opening chapter in Journeying Together. Growing youth work and youth workers in local communities. The book is a 144 page collection of writings looking at the practical issues effecting locally-based youth work. Although it is based around the experiences of The Rank Foundation, it will be of great interest to anyone working with local youth projects and agencies.

You can order a copy from Amazon here.

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Local Youth Work (Part 1)

Learning gets passed on. You can’t help it. A young person gets some training, becomes a youth worker and then starts the cycle again with other young people. It’s just how youth work – works!

This Chapter introduces the idea of local youth work. I begin by clarifying the meaning of the term ‘youth work’, before looking at how it grows and flourishes in a local setting.
My aim is to present the case for the importance and benefits of growing locally based youth work and youth workers.

All quotations in this Chapter are taken from conversations with youth workers.

I became a youth worker almost by accident. I had been looking for a job in the town where I grew up and saw an advert for a part-time worker at a local youth project. Although I had done some voluntary work with children and had attended a youth club as a teenager, I had no real idea of what youth work entailed. Still, I went for an interview and to my surprise was given the job.

Over those first few months I found myself getting to know a core group of young people, taking them on outings, visiting homes, wandering the streets and learning a great deal.

Now, many years later, I realise that my own experience of starting out in youth work is far from unique. Growing youth work (and youth workers) in local communities is a common occurrence:

I joined a church small group as a teenager and really liked the environment. After a while I got asked to help out with one of the groups. I found that I loved it and it wasn’t long before I became a youth worker!

Later, I will argue that these locally based youth workers are essential to the success of youth work. However, before we explore that debate, we need to be clear about what we mean by youth work.

Defining youth work
Many diverse clubs, activities and ways of working with young people are commonly described as examples of ‘youth work’. From traditional youth clubs and uniformed groups, like the Scouts, to detached work, work in schools, organised sports activities and more. The sheer variety of work with young people makes it very difficult to identify common ground.

The National Occupational Standards for youth work, updated by the National Youth Agency and Lifelong Learning UK in 2008, provide a starting point for trying to define what is common to good youth work practice. The document includes a statement that defines the key purpose of youth work. It is to:

‘Enable young people to develop holistically, working with them to facilitate their personal, social and educational development, to enable them to develop their voice, influence and place in society and to reach their full potential’ (LLUK, 2008: 3)

There is some useful information here: the terms ‘young people’, ‘educational’ and ‘society’ give some hints towards its focus. However, while this statement contains part of the puzzle, it does not give us a clear picture of the nature of the work. For example, how is youth work able to develop young people holistically? What differentiates it from other educational disciplines?

To fully understand what youth work is we need to examine some common characteristics in its practice, rather than rely on general statements in isolation. Jeffs & Smith (2009: 4-6) identify five characteristics that form the foundation of youth work practice and provide a purpose to the work. Over the next few pages I will draw upon these five characteristics, explaining their importance and interdependence.

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Part 2 will be published next week. Click here for the full series of posts.