BUILDING THE CAMPAIGN

Involving Young People

Norman Maines in his message of support for the In Defence campaign raises a classic dilemma, often sidestepped within Youth Work. To what extent do we ever relate to young people as equals in arguing about and doing something about the state of Youth Work? My suspicion is that we shy away from involving young people directly in the defence of jobs and services  for fear of being accused of manipulating them to serve our own ends. Certainly in my own experience the one time I got formally disciplined was in respect of my support for an embryo youth council, which didn’t play by the rules, within which  young people sought to question and criticise on their terms. The thrust of the Council’s and management’s argument was that I had put young people up to no good. Certainly this estimate was deeply patronising to the young people themselves. Indeed they put out a newspaper, which closed with a back page announcement that its contents owed nothing to the young people themselves and everything to the youth workers clouding their minds! Sadly, yet predictably, the irony fell on closed ears.

In this context it would be illuminating to hear your views on how young people might be authentically be our partners in the Defence of Youth Work?