Youth work in schools

Photo by moren hsu on Unsplash Youth work has been wrapped up with schooling since its early days. We explore practice over the years. There is a tendency in much of the literature to set youth work against schooling. Youth work is based on relationships voluntarily entered into, schooling, for the most part, is compulsory. …

The case for youth work

What is youth work? Where has practice gone wrong, where is it thriving? Looking to association and social capital as a way forward. A presentation by Mark K. Smith to the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit, September 2004. contents: the nature of youth work • state-sponsored youth work loses its way • the renaissance in church-based …

Larry Parsons: Youth work and the spark of the divine

In this piece Larry Parsons reflects on his philosophy of youth work – and the fundamental significance of the spark of the divine that he believes is in everyone. (First published as a Rank Foundation/YMCA George Williams College pamphlet) contents: foreword • introduction • human nature • youth work • conclusion • christian youth work home …

From youth work to youth development. The new government framework for English youth services

In this (2003) piece Mark K. Smith outlines some key lines of critique around the government specification for English youth work; explores the drive to youth development; and argues that there is hope for alternatives. It was first published in Youth and Policy 79. contents: introduction · some issues and problems · from youth work …

Part-time youth work in an industrial community

Subtitled ‘an analysis of some underlying assumptions and theoretical and political implications’, this booklet by Bernard Davies (published in 1976) provides us with a wonderful exploration of youth work – and the impact it had upon its practitioners. It reveals youth work as a deeply personal and political experience and practice. contents: preface · introduction …

Effective youth work. A report by HM Inspectors

Published in 1987, this piece by HM Inspectors is one of the last English government reports to promote open youth work – albeit with an emphasis on activity, planning and personal and social development. It drew upon a series of inspection reports to provide a series of examples of what they then deemed to be …

Moving forward. A strategy for improving young people’s chances through youth work

The Scottish Executive’s (2007) National Youth Work Strategy displays many of the same concerns (and weaknesses) as those revealed in the English and Welsh strategies. Surprisingly, given the concern with community learning in Scotland, the document fails to locate youth work fully within civil society and doesn’t fully get hold of youth work as a …

The purpose and content of the youth service

This Report of the Youth Advisory Council appointed by the Minister of Education in 1943 (and published in 1945), provides a classic statement of youth work as non-vocational group work. contents: preface · foreword · chapter 1: background · chapter 2: purpose · chapter 3: content The first report of the Youth Advisory Council, published …

Transforming youth work – resourcing excellent youth services

Published in December 2002, this is the English Department of Education and Skills’ specification for youth services. It continued and refined the government’s ‘modernization’ attempt to alter the character of youth service work. Download the report [This is a very large file – 3249kb – if you have problems connecting please let us know via …

Youth sports and non-formal education: Social justice, or social control?

Youth sports and non-formal education: Social justice, or social control? In this piece, Ioannis Costas Batlle explores youth sport as non-formal education and its relationship to neoliberalism, social justice and social control. contents: introduction | youth sport as non-formal education | youth sport: “war minus the shooting”? | non-formal education, youth sport, and neoliberalism | …