This is the first of the single regular weekly posting ‘Sustenance for the Senses’ promised in yesterday’s news that I’ll only be working one day a week for IDYW – Tony Taylor denies doing an MA in Entrepreneurial Philanthropy and being headhunted for a CEO Third Sector job.
As of now, the posting will appear on Tuesday as the site statistics indicate that the highest number of visits occur on this day. Why? I haven’t a clue.
An impressive, thoughtful and thorough briefing London’s Lost Youth Services 2018 [pdf] produced by Sian Berry, Green Party member of the London Assembly.
Since 2011, the cumulative amount not spent on services for young people in
London is now more than £145 million.
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Opening Words by 42nd Street’s youth co-researchers [on what I think is an exceptional piece of work TT]
We became involved in the research to learn more about youth loneliness because we are passionate about giving young people a voice – as experts in our own lives. We knew intuitively from our own experiences and those of our friends and family that youth loneliness is a really important but far from understood issue; we knew that it was a complex issue, with a whole host of causes and even wider implications on young people’s lives.
LONELINESS CONNECTS US: YOUNG PEOPLE EXPLORING AND EXPERIENCING LONELINESS AND FRIENDSHIP [pdf]
Janet Batsleer (MMU), James Duggan (MMU), Sarah McNicol (MMU), Simone Spray (42nd Street)
Recommendations:
- Develop new ways of thinking and talking about youth loneliness, beyond medicalised discourses of epidemics and towards more expansive understandings of youth and more inclusive ways of belonging.
- Arts-based and creative methods create spaces and relationships where young people can find connection and navigate painful forms of loneliness.
- Restore threatened youth work provision and fund a plurality of options so that all young people have someone who knows and accepts them for who they are.
- Re-imagine interventions beyond individual funded projects and towards commons spaces and social movements to bring into being more co-operative and convivial communities.
- Youth-led social action is necessary to develop the practical and political change, benefiting youth participants and their peers.
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Spring Policy and Practice Seminar Programme – FREE Registration Via this Link
The Association’s FREE national, collaborative ‘Policy and Practice’ seminar programme continues to expand, and we have been delighted with the response. Registrations have topped 200 delegates (52 academics; 107 practitioners; 57 students) across the seminar programme. The aim of these seminars is to foster greater levels of collaboration between higher education institutions and practice agencies in the profiling of challenges and opportunities facing youth and community work policy and practice across the UK. Follow the link above for a full listing, or the unique links for each event found below (please note the ‘post-strike’ revised dates for Glasgow and Dumfries):
- Friday 20th April (Worcester) ‘Youth and Community Work in Transition’
www.policyandpracticeseminar-worcester.eventbrite.co.uk
- Friday 4th May (Carmarthen) ‘Young People, Resilience and Wellbeing’
www.policyandpracticeseminar-carmarthen.eventbrite.co.uk
- Tuesday 15th May (Newport) ‘Young People, Resilience and Wellbeing’
www.policyandpracticeseminar-newport.eventbrite.co.uk
- Wednesday 16th May (Glasgow) ‘Developing a Charter for Post-Brexit Youth and Community Work’
www.policyandpracticeseminar-glasgow.eventbrite.co.uk
- Thursday 17th May (Belfast) ‘Revisiting the Value of Faith-based Youth Work’
www.policyandpracticeseminar-belfast.eventbrite.co.uk
- Tuesday 22nd May (London) ‘The Changing Context for Youth Work Practice’
www.policyandpracticeseminar-london.eventbrite.co.uk
- Thursday 24th May (Dumfries) ‘Developing a Charter for Post-Brexit Youth and Community Work’
www.policyandpracticeseminar-dumfries.eventbrite.co.uk
- Friday 25th May (Derby) ‘Youth Work and Inter-Professional Practice’
www.policyandpracticeseminar-derby.eventbrite.co.uk
Given IDYW’s emphasis on both narrative and critical practice we can’t wait to get our hands on a copy. We quite fancy making the launch, but you can’t have everything………
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IN DEFENCE OF YOUTH WORK 