The value of youth work

There seems to be an increasing agitation among youth workers that the profession is moving away from the values upon which it was formed. I base this on the following articles which appeared in youth work magazine CYPNow:

• Youth workers launch campaign for a return to core principles.


• Give youth work freedom to deliver.


• Youth work's values under threat

The use of youth workers to run these courses is what is causing the most consternation as they argue they are moving from enablers to enforcers in their role.

Now this government is not really big into trusting the professionals to do their jobs, as the NHS and teaching prove - however forcing the profession to undertake roles which fundamentally oppose the voluntary relationship between young person and youth worker, effectively is an immoral abuse of the role youth workers play in engaging young people the formal involuntary education system has let down.

In effect this creates a compromised form of youth work, and if the government continues down this path, then the only professionals working to the principles of informal education will be those not in receipt of funding from the government; in the private sector; or in the very place where youth work has its roots. Churches.

Now before those who work for Churches or Christian organisations sit smugly in their chairs - think on this. The policies which are being pushed by government to move youth work into a formal process are not so different to some of the 'expectations' in the faith based sector.

The following quote from CYPNow suggests where the annoyance comes from: The shift in policy signals

(...) a wider frustration that government policy of recent years has undermined youth work's core principles - namely, of young people's voluntary participation; and the importance of young people building relationships with youth workers on their terms and with their peers so they get provision that meets their needs. These are under threat, the argument goes, because of the emphasis on accredited outcomes and targeted interventions...
CYPNow - 23 April 2009

Does this sound familiar? Does the vocation of youth work in the Churches and related agencies really work to meet the needs of young people as they themselves identify them, or does it work to the needs of young people as perceived by the agencies in question?

Are the Churches (etc) already working in the way that government is trying to manipulate the statutory sector into? Who is doing the better youth work?

It's probably unfair to compare like for like, but the uncomfortable question remains, what do churches and even government seek to gain from youth work by employing youth workers?

What is their dividend from the 'experiment' of informal education?

I have a question - is it simply another method to try to engage young people into establishments or regimes which have no relevance to young people as they themselves identify? (Church or community cohesion).

Are youth workers simply being used because they bring a new method to engagement? If so then are the organisations employing them willing to also adapt to a new method of measuring 'success'?

If not, then those who employ youth workers to engage young people through informal education deny the fundamental principle behind it if they have a pre-defined goal already in place to measure the value of their investment.

This is not only ethically corrupt, but morally deceptive to the young people they are reaching out to.

The value of youth work is built upon relationship and when we put conditions on that relationship we risk damaging not only the relationship already built up with the young person, but we run the very real risk of damaging the very understanding of 'relationship' full stop.