As an opening, my intention in this piece is not to invalidate the valuable contribution of volunteers or non professional workers involved in youth work, in fact it is appropriate to thank colleagues for an ability to manage self and provision during a sustained period of reductions in services and therefore professional roles. In relation to recent changes in staffing in youth work, the terrain has seen a shift. This is the guise of the youth support worker. The impact of reduced services over many years and obliteration of statutory sector has created a new dynamic - a need to employ through new funding routes an often zero hour contract on a fixed term basis leading to the emergence of the youth support worker on a non JNC rate. Where is the funding for professionally qualified and recognised youth workers to take on the breadth of provision within a community and how has the ideological philosophy of informal education been watered down during a period of systematic reduction in available funding around services for young people?
Initially the view that this 'new' role was similar to an old school assistant youth and community worker or part time youth worker appears not to be the case with colleagues in these positions responsible for multiple areas of play, youth and community work, agendas and complex projects. On my travels, I met colleagues acting as lead practitioners on youth work, play work, community development, social action; empowerment projects; community engagement initiatives and lead roles in diversity and inclusion work. A move to a targeted focus within detached youth work, it seems, is a responsibility for a reduction in anti-social behaviour or more complex social issues that are indicators of wider social dynamics and an unfortunate deficit based approach is evident in places. I realise that change and development is important and yet there is an important question around how colleagues are engaging in a critical discussion regarding these important practice focused questions as an internal and reflective dialogue - or if indeed funding is being chased and secured regardless of the needs for a 'calculated' outcome that is deemed a benefit.
The detached youth work project we engaged in, intended to be young people focused and aimed to carry no agenda other than to learn from young people about their experiences, hopes, aspirations, to develop effective relationships to engage in dialogue to create platform for open discussion, with the team acting as part of this community. This approach should it lead anywhere would be based upon young people’s needs, ideas and wants. Interestingly, meeting colleagues from other teams and relating purpose around ASB offered a valuable insight into the discourse surrounding role, function and purpose in some areas of youth work and how short term funding gymnastics can lead to the youth support worker often struggling to manage excessive targets with limited success on ASB. As an alternative, by creating opportunity to actively listen to young people made way to hear that young people are an outcome of ASB and not particularly a demonstrable impact of ASB and rarely a cause, that the trauma of being part of a community that is affected by economic disadvantage itself for instance and the notion of 'survival' are present when discussing with young people and a key part of their story and lived experience. This is somewhat overlooked it appears, and the blame cycle emerges alongside the issues around the social condition of youth with limited or non existent funding to address young people’s right to be safe and well in their community. Adding a contextual safeguarding lens; we observed young people being blamed for social impacts and outcomes for being merely preset and visible in their community. In a local forum to discuss the place based topics, it was unfortunate to hear that each partner organisations funding was to 'address' the surface challenges observed and not engage in a dialogue driven wider social and political challenges that were a cause - another sticking plaster on the wound which will no doubt leave long term scars in communities.
In search of the professional youth worker, we did find a scattering of pro youth workers, working at pace to hold steady the important facets of youth work and in review, I considered the early foundations of youth work and informal education and questioned if they are still in place?
The National Youth Agency discusses Youth Work as 'a distinct educational process across a range of settings' and goes on to raise the importance of;
- exploration of values, beliefs, ideas and issues
- to enable the development of voice, influence and place in society
- the acquisition of practical and technical skills and competencies to reach full potential.
Are organisations forfeiting the opening purpose of youth work by 'attending' to the needs of funding bodies calculation of evaluative data that suggests that positive impact has been made? I have seen instances of the direct opposite of the National Youth Agency opening statements on the purpose of youth work and as Fred Milsom raised, the importance of engaging in a developing and critical dialogue to examine the motives of youth workers and youth work i would suggest are not taking place and the professional compromise is perhaps not a change for the good and these valuable discussion are unlikely to be taking place.
For detached youth work as part of the overall consideration, a recognition of how teams develop their definition of their work alongside young people and the community should in my view be the foundation upon which funding is applied for and the aims and role of the detached youth work team are part of an ongoing reflective review that is not based upon the need to define 'good intent' and rather how young people have access to youth workers as an educational process, exploring values beliefs and ideas and enabling voice and agency as per the NYA purpose. The risk is the over blended multi-directional influenced practitioner. Present increase in funding direct from central Government should perhaps be utilised to secure more professional youth worker posts that have been reduced in support of colleagues development and young people's place in society using a rights based approach in order to re-align the purpose of youth work to a values based approach as oppose to striving to determine value and the attempt to put a value on the contribution that youth work offers.
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