Written evidence submitted by Linzi Neil
1. The Youth Service is and should be available
to all young people, regardless of gender, ethnicity, religious
views etc. It is a universal service to enable all young people
to meet their goals, feel free from oppression and is not targeted.
Participation is a major struggle for some young people, yet features
highly in the work that the youth service carry out with them.
2. The youth service has an outstanding and effective
programme for working with volunteers. Voluntary work encourages
volunteers from all backgrounds, working with them to address
issues and concerns raised and to help them to become involved
in positive choices in their lives. Volunteers often praise the
youth worker that they have been in contact with for the positive
input, support and guidance, highlighting the fact that their
personal outcomes may have been very different without this support.
This surely is where the embrace of citizenship for some begins.
3. National Youth Agency published documentations
Act by Right and Hear by Right, which many youth service provisions
use. These documents enable and encourage young people to enjoy
and participate in Service delivery as well as the organisation
of programmes being offered and delivered.
4. Youth Workers strive to ensure that the programmes
they deliver are of excellent quality, with this, the majority
of them study for their JNC professional qualification in Youth
work. The JNC qualification is recognised nationally and the training
that candidates receive ensures that youth workers are continuously
updated with new policy and procedures.
5. Youth Forums are being established nationally,
giving young people a voice with support from workers to make
significant changes in their own communities. The effectiveness
of these forums is outstanding for the young people, achieving
accredited outcomes for the work that they are involved in. There
is more than sufficient evidence for this type of work to remain
prevalent and be delivered and supported by the youth service.
6. The youth service is a unique organisation
as it remains at the forefront of encouraging participation, development
of positive relationships, encouraging young people to be assertive
and is a main factor of informal education, which many young people
NEED access to. Some young people move location on a regular basis,
it remains the one service that these vulnerable groups of young
people have in common and should be able to access in all areas.
7. Public spending sector cuts will have a derogatory
effect on the youth service, with many local authorities already
being casualties of this. Is it not a statutory right for Local
governments to provide provision for young people?
8. The effectiveness of the youth service can
be assessed on so many levels, the positive changes in young people
when associated with youth workers and groups, the encouragement
of empowerment, equality, informal education, becoming positive
role models and the principles and values held by the youth service.
The building of positive relationships is of a nature that, without
all of the above may be hard to access. It is an anti-discriminatory
and anti-oppressive service, where no coercive methods are evident
throughout. Without question, young people want this service,
and will fight for their right for it to remain.
December 2010
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