Swampy Lowlands: Youth Work Rising

Informal Education and Developing Holistic Services for Young People

I was drawn into a discussion the other day with a professional around the ‘flimsy’ nature of youth work and informal education.  The conversation was limited by a lack of understanding of the various dynamics in ‘education’ and how powerful it can be to work in the swampy lowlands of dialogue.  The learning that can take place from the intricacy of understanding young people’s experiences that can act as a haven for flexibility and innovation.  Informal learning is the site of purposeful discourse with wider professional fields and in these important conversations we can establish the nature of roles, versatility in approaches and begin to challenge how more formal or clinically determined interactions with young people are limited by their intention and design.

I would argue that creating a professional eco-system of approaches would provide a more young person centred geo-contextual domain in which youth work would stand out as the wider slice of the pie in relation to funding and positive outcomes through advocated understanding across the professional domains. This was the basis of the discussion I was involved in and it appears that the defensiveness is based upon the divergent role specific functions and training base of the professions which whilst carrying some similarities, are indeed different in the delivery.

With our determination that Informal education is much more fluid, participant-centred, relational and at the foundation, based upon mutual respect, we stand as the only profession amongst a variety that responds in organic and responsive ways.  Considering experiential learning as a platform of understanding and removing obvious judgements and formal approaches (that operate in ways that seek to funnel young people through a system of dysfunctionality) we can seek to enable young people in meaningful ways that is founded on the simplicity of listening with intention to learn. Wider examples of practice from other professionals are not without positive intention, but become limited once the view is established of what is the correct way to resolve. This removes young people from their own power and ownership and the cracks begin to show.  Poor choices leading to disaffection and disengagement then become deficit based and blame focused.

For youth work practitioners, informal education becomes a tool to meet young people where they are, this in a literal and figurative sense. It encourages young people to take ownership of their development, emphasising the skills like critical thinking, communication, and problem-solving. Your positionality is not my positionality and the space is the operational site of learning. Unlike formal education, which often relies on a curricula guide or social work that has a series of steps to ‘another position’. It is informal learning to education, that adapts to the contextual needs and interests of young people, making it highly relevant and sourcing ongoing impact.

Informal education, by its very nature, establishes interdisciplinary dialogue. When youth workers collaborate with other professionals—such as teachers, social workers, mental health practitioners and police officers, the differences in methodologies can when managed well, spark rich conversations about approaches to working with young people. In my conversation, the tension was clear and yet through important understanding, validating and stretching the understanding the limited pitfalls of more formal approaches can be enhanced.

Promoting youth work can be difficult in multi-agency forums as the binary of ‘right and wrong’ or ‘good and bad’ have already been determined.  Effective youth work, uses Informal education to upend traditional hierarchies, by placing young people at the centre of resolutions and decision-making and whilst acting as an advocate by asserting the challenges of these traditional approaches outlined by young people. This can be at odds with more structured professions where some authority figures lead to conclusions in the moment with little consideration of the inertia of the issues.

Youth work professionals will see young people as whole individuals rather than case numbers or academic achievers and this is important to capture the holistic nature of a person regardless of their age. To develop wider more inclusive service delivery, understanding the child in the family from a social work perspective carries value as long as we equally understand the young person in their community and context, acknowledging their views, skills and attributes that work to resolve based upon their existing strengths.

In fields that rely on strict protocols, such as the Police or healthcare professions, informal education can advocate for a more flexible, youth-centred approach. The lack of flexibility which is an important discussion with wider professionals can reduce barriers and work towards collaboration, minimise misunderstanding around roles and an ability to operate using the principle of working with unstructured dialogue and reducing the conflict with outcome focused professions.

When establishing shared goals that focus upon young people’s wellbeing and growth, I have been privileged to design and facilitate joint training sessions considering strategies of harnessing both informal and formal approaches and co-designing interventions and activities. With young people at the heart of design and delivery, the developing evidence base is becoming useful to recognise and develop an understanding of the limitations of systems driven formal approaches and the ground for youth work and informal education is becoming much clearer from the depths of the swampy lowland we have been surviving in for years.

Interested in learning more? You can get in touch using the contact form on training and consultancy services, professional supervision and team development.

Steve Walker Training Consultancy (2024) The Youth Work Common Room

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