Choose Youth

Young people’s services
change lives

National Rally for the future February 12th, 11.00am-4.00pm, West Midlands.

Book your place now on http://www.chooseyouth.uk

Stop the cuts to Young People’s Services

Vital services that support young people are being pulled apart by the devastating cuts in public spending.

At the centre of this new focused assault on young people’s services is the potential demolition of the youth service and youth work. The youth service was created 50 years ago when the national debt was much higher but when there was a political consensus that society needed quality public services and needed to treasure the voice of the young.

Now, with around a million young people officially unemployed and many more in need of support, the very projects and programmes that bring hope to our young people are being broken up.

Youth clubs, youth programmes, Connexions centres and youth counselling services – to name but a few – find themselves on the frontline of cuts. In fact, 95 per cent of local authority youth services face disproportionate budget cuts this financial year, many are proposing to completely dispose of their youth services. 82 per cent of voluntary sector youth groups anticipate that they will have to close whole projects.

But these services are vital to the future of the nation. They help to broaden young people’s horizons and help them negotiate the tricky path to adulthood. They do this  by meeting young people on their own ground, building trusting relationships with them and working informally with them on their own concerns and interests. They convey a universal right of young people to open access provision.

Importantly, they can reach out to young people on the margins of society when other agencies have failed.

Central government argues that the cuts to services for young people are down to local government. But local government blames national government for not giving it enough money to fund services properly. We say governments at all levels should take responsibility. There is a choice. We say Choose Youth, it is a false economy to cut young people’s services.

Join us

A national rally will be taking place in on 12 February in the Midlands.
The event will show why these cuts are deeply damaging and unnecessary.
Celebrities, entertainers and most importantly young people and their youth workers’ and organisations will be there.

Make sure every councillor, budget holder and MP knows that we mean business and that services for young people are not for closure or sale. Our young people deserve better. To book a place online, visit http://www.chooseyouth.org. (Please note that spaces are limited.)