Services for young people

Memorandum submitted by Simon Gillard, Area Youth Worker, Devon County Council

· If we concentrate on targeted work, then how do we justify work with people who do not fit into the preferred categories of those directing youth work (usually quite detached from the youth work process)?  Any influence here is likely to be limited but the outcome will almost certainly be similar to our education system – the work will become blinkered and restricted, it will become focused on state dictated outcomes/product and not process.  Process is and always has been the foundation of good education whether formal or informal and underpins youth work.

· Focusing on groups identified by the state/other agencies as being in need of intervention can lead to marginalisation/ stigmatization.  In seeking to support/include (though include in what if we are target driven?) we run a very real risk of excluding and thus rather than addressing issues, we contribute significantly to their existence.

· Targeted work can monopolise resources that would otherwise be used in a broader social context – cf Putnam, Robert D. (2000). Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-7432-0304-6 .  Targeted work is extremely unlikely to contribute to community cohesion and social capital, which are essential for community sustainability.

· In some circumstances the agency/young person relationship is not voluntary (Youth Offending Team, social worker etc) and in these circumstances such targeted work can succeed.  For those who work with young people, on their terms and to their needs (cf Youth Work:

· A Manifesto For Our Times.  Bernard Davies, Youth & Policy Issue 88 Summer 2005), not those dictated by the state/quangos – where the relationship is voluntary, then generic work is essential.  It is here that relationships are built over time, where real trust is established and where genuine dialogue (new meanings and understandings established through clear communication) occurs.  We are superbly placed as practitioners to work with targeted individuals/groups because of our generic work.  Good youth work comes from generic work and the relationships formed therein.  Good targeted work, work that is aware of all the pitfalls outlined above and seeks to avoid/mitigate them, comes from this good generic youth work, it cannot come instead of it.  Anything else is not youth work, it is social control.

December 2010