Find below Tania’s  insightful summary of the second London meeting, which I’ll leave here a few days before transferring it to the REGIONAL REPORTS page.

Why should we hide?” asked a youth worker at the second London meeting of  ‘In Defence of Youth Work’.

Over twenty people including new faces came along to Goldsmiths University on the 22nd June, with many more sending apologies. After reports on meetings around the country and the possibility of a national conference, people discussed their thoughts, actions and experiences since the first meeting.

One issue under much discussion was the challenge of finding the time and space to come along to the meetings. Some employers and managers supported their workers to get involved in opportunities to discuss critically the current state of youth work policy and practice, but many people had come along in their own time. As one person said, “I don’t want anyone telling me I can’t be here. For me to be here is primarily to get support for myself as a youth worker”. Another said, “When I went away [from the last meeting] I made a couple of notes for myself – one was to stand up and be counted! The act of me being here is a political act”.

The group discussed how to act differently in the workplace, for example ways to ‘subvert’ projects to make space for critical debate with young people, and the importance of standing up with young people against their criminalisation. Some workers noted that being critical and principled at work can threaten projects and jobs. One person reported that she and her
team of eight people had been made redundant after several years of running a successful and critical youth work project, and that in her experience it is therefore essential to gain the support of family and those around you if you intend to make a stand.

The group also had a discussion over the meeting’s title, ‘In Defence of Youth Work’. Some felt that we should be promoting youth work rather than defending it, while others felt youth work needs defending at this time. There was also debate over what is meant by youth work, as we do not want to defend everything that calls itself youth work – the term ‘critical youth work’ was mooted as possibly useful.

After lunch we split into groups according to whether we identified as practitioners, policy makers and managers, or youth work trainers /educators. The three groups discussed four possible principles and how to organise around them:

– Problems should be understood as social and structural rather than personal

– Solutions should be negotiated collectively

– Management should not have ‘the right to manage’

– Youth work practice, content and training should be democratically negotiated and not imposed or prescribed

We came back as the whole group to report back, and as ever our time together seemed to have passed too quickly. The general feeling was that the meetings should continue regularly, not as a ‘talking shop’ but as a space for workers who are trying to take action in their own workplaces, to come together, critically reflect, gain support and act in solidarity
with each other.

We decided to get together again on 20th July, Goldsmiths, 11am – 3pm (with the recognition that some workers would be committed to summer programmes). The main aim of the July meeting would be to create a statement of shared values, with clear positive and negative examples of what these values mean and do not mean in practice.

More information will be on the blog nearer the time, but for now put the 20th July in your diaries and keep in touch!