what is youth work?

What is youth work?

Youth work helps young people learn about themselves, others and society, through informal educational activities which combine enjoyment, challenge and learning. Youth workers work primarily with young people aged between 11-19, but may in some cases extend this to those aged 8 to 11 and 19 to 25. Their work seeks to promote young people's personal and social development and enable them to have a voice, influence and place in their communities and society as a whole.

Youth work values.

These include working with young people because they are young people, not because they have been labeled or are considered deviant; starting with young people's view of the world; helping young people develop stronger relationships and collective identities; respecting and valuing differences; and promoting the voice of young people.

Around 60 per cent of young people come into contact with the youth service at some point between the ages of 8 and 25. They are supported by a large number of adults, working as full-time or part-time paid staff or unpaid volunteers.

Transforming youth work

During the past three years, the youth service has paid increasing attention to the 2001 consultation document Transforming Youth Work (download pdf) which sets out the UK government's view of the youth service in England and outlines a programme of modernisation to ensure that youth services deliver a consistently high standards of youth work. It identifies five key components of a good youth service which young people would want to use. Such a service, it says,

• Offers quality support to young people which helps them achieve and progress;

• Enables young people to have their voice heard and influence decision making at various levels;

• Provides a diverse range of personal and social development opportunities;

• Helps prevent disaffection and social exclusion; and

• Is well planned, focusing on achieving outcomes that meet young people's needs and priorities.

Youth services work with a wide range of other agencies, such as schools, social services, youth offending teams, leisure and health, to develop and improve provision for young people.

How is youth work carried out?

Youth work is carried out in different situations and locations, using a range of approaches. These include:

• Buildings-based work - youth clubs and centres operated directly by the Department of Education or by voluntary and community organisations. They range from well-equipped youth centres catering solely for young people to clubs based in premises shared with other organisations such as community centres and village halls.

• Detached work - making contact with young people who cannot, or choose not to, use youth centres. Detached youth workers meet young people in their own spaces, for instance parks, bus shelters, or on the street. Through developing non-judgmental relationships they work with individuals and groups to help them address the needs they identify and engage with other relevant agencies.

• Outreach work - encouraging young people to make more use of existing provision or to develop new provision.

• Mobiles - converted buses or other vehicles taken to particular localities, offering young people opportunities to meet together, take part in structured programmes and gain access to resources, information and advice.

• Schools and further education colleges - in many schools and colleges youth workers contribute to formal education programmes, particularly relating to PSHE (personal, social and health education) and citizenship education. They may offer lunchtime and after-school provision open to all young people, as well as developing programmes with specific groups of young people, especially those who are having difficulties at school. Youth workers are also involved in study support programmes - learning activity outside normal lessons which young people choose to take part in.

• Information, advice and counselling projects - providing a range of services from information about local facilities to long-term support for individual or groups of young people.

• Youth forums, councils or other projects enabling young people to learn about and engage in democratic processes, and to ensure that their views inform the development of policies and services.

• Specialist projects, targeting particular groups of young people

• Specialist projects focusing on specific activities, for instance young volunteer and youth action projects, motor projects or arts projects.

Specialist project work is intended to allow young people to share experiences and gain mutual support. It provides a setting in which young people can overcome barriers to their development and, where necessary, youth workers can challenge their behaviour in a supportive environment. Many of these projects are run in partnership with other agencies. Youth workers may therefore spend some or all of their time working in teams where the youth service is not the lead partner. Experience has shown that these kinds of cross-agency initiatives work best when the distinctive contribution of each sector is recognised.

What does youth work offer young people?

Young people choose to use youth service provision. They do so for many reasons - to meet friends, to have fun, to spend time in a safe environment, to take part in specific activities, to develop projects with other young people, to build relationships with adults, or to get help and advice. In turn, youth workers develop a programme of activities which promote personal and social development, which are enjoyable, educational and challenging, and which use distinctive methods such as educational group work. This programme - or curriculum - has four main dimensions. It connects with young people's leisure and recreational interests; it complements formal educational processes; it engages with contemporary social issues such as crime or local facilities; and it reflects the particular needs and tasks of young people as they move through the transitions of adolescence and young adulthood.

Youth work therefore offers young people a wide range of activities and opportunities, including arts-based work such as drama or video-making, the use of ICT, sport and outdoor activities, volunteering, and opportunities to take part in programmes such as the Duke of Edinburgh's Award. Specialist information, advice and counselling services help young people make sense of their lives, offering varying levels of support according to their needs. Other work, both structured and informal, will address issues relevant to young people, such as drugs, sexual health or discrimination. In many instances, youth workers support young people to gain the skills to develop and lead sessions for other young people, an approach known as peer education. Residential events provide a different and challenging learning environment outside familiar surroundings, while visits and exchanges - in Britain and abroad - offer opportunities for young people to meet others from different racial, cultural and religious backgrounds, to increase their understanding of diversity and, in some cases, to explore and resolve conflicts between different groups.

Young people take part in these activities because they want to - the youth worker's task is to ensure that these activities contribute to young people's learning and development. Through youth work, young people

• gain confidence and self-esteem while having fun and socialising with their peers;

• develop new skills and interests through group activities;

• increase their knowledge and understanding of issues affecting their lives;

• develop planning, organisation and teamwork skills through active participation;

• learn how to make use of services and information to make informed choices about their lives; and

• gain greater control over their lives through access to education and training tailored to their needs.

Youth work encourages and supports young people to take decisions and to exercise responsibility, both within their centre or project and in the wider community. As they become more confident and experienced, young people help run activities for themselves and other young people. They may also become involved in managing their youth centre or project. Looking outside the youth centre, youth action and young volunteer projects offer young people an opportunity to engage in a wide range of community-based action - from creating murals which brighten up a drab area to campaigning on issues they feel strongly about - and to gain recognition for their contribution to their wider communities.

Youth workers also play a key role in ensuring that young people are recognised as being active members of their local communities, who have a right to express their views and to be heard. They support a range of approaches which allow young people to engage with local democratic processes and help ensure that services are responsive to young people's needs and circumstances. In many areas youth workers support local groups, such as youth forums or councils, which link young people into formal decision-making structures. Youth workers also help young people have a voice in other ways, from making videos about facilities on a local estate to working together to develop youth charters..

In all these different aspects of youth work, youth workers encourage young people to reflect on what they are doing and learning and how they can build on their experience in other areas of their lives. They also work with young people to ensure that their development and achievements are recorded. This may be at an informal level, for instance through local certificates, an entry in a student progress file or through workers' professional notes, or more formally through recognised accreditation systems.

What skills do youth workers need?

Youth work starts where young people are - with their own view of their lives, the world and their interests. But it does not end there - youth work is about encouraging young people to think critically about their lives and values, about offering new experiences and challenges, about increasing young people's abilities and aspirations. The range and level of skills needed for different aspects of youth work is defined through a set of national occupational standards for youth work

Through professional relationships based on trust and respect, and an understanding of the realities of young people's lives, youth workers encourage and challenge young people to think about their behaviour and its consequences, and to question their prejudices and assumptions. They support young people to work with others and to respect and value difference. They encourage young people to take on greater responsibility for themselves and others and to work effectively as a team, judging when to stand back and when to intervene. This may mean letting young people make mistakes - but ensuring that they then learn from them.

Even when activities appear to be purely recreational or social, youth workers will draw out educational elements. A passing comment may be the starting point for discussion of serious issues. The worker's role, therefore, is to plan and provide appropriate experiences, to take advantage of those which arise spontaneously, and to foster young people's learning through using a range of skills such as counselling, advocacy, group work and community development. Reflecting on practice, both informally and formally, is also essential.

Youth work aims to help young people gain control over their own lives, while respecting the lives of others. Youth workers need detailed knowledge of the local community and the circumstances of young people, together with an understanding of the ways in which legislation and wider policy developments affect young people and youth work. Based on this, they seek to ensure that young people can gain the information that they need, in ways that they understand, to make informed choices about their lives. Youth workers are not expected to be an expert on everything affecting young people. But they do need to be aware of other local agencies and what they can offer young people, and to recognise when they need to involve people with specialist skills and knowledge, while continuing to support the young person concerned. As young people come to trust workers, they may confide details of difficult personal circumstances. In such situations it is important that the youth workers and young people are both clear about when such information will be kept confidential, and when it may have to be passed on to other people.

Youth workers undertake a wide range of roles. These include direct work with young people as individuals and in groups, designing, delivering and evaluating programmes, supervising other staff, managing buildings and resources, and liaising with other professionals, parents and community groups in order to ensure that provision and services respond to the needs of young people. While all youth workers, in negotiation with young people, plan sessions and programmes and record and evaluate their impact on young people, they may need different skills according to the setting in which they work. Youth workers based in youth centres may have considerable management responsibilities. They may be responsible for recruiting and supporting part-time workers and/or specialist instructors in music, sports, drama etc. They will therefore need to be able to carry out a range of administrative tasks associated with managing buildings and people, including complying with legal requirements, fundraising, and liaising with local groups. Inter-agency work will require all those involved to understand the contribution of different sectors and negotiate the role of each partner. For detached youth workers who are meeting young people on their own ground, the process of establishing relationships with young people may be slow and at times frustrating, but may also mean that they need to react swiftly to crises. Regular evaluation of their work is important, to ensure that they do not lose sight of their educational aims in responding to the problems of individual young people.