A challenging piece from Annette and Sinéad on at least two levels.
Our own ‘is the tide turning?’ discussion paper ignores Brexit. Why?
They continue to suggest that many of us, despite our claim to be reimagining the future, are hampered by a fear of the unknown.
We should seek to address these criticisms in next month’s debates.
The UK having voted to leave the EU, Annette Coburn and Sinéad Gormally consider potential problems and possibilities for youth work within post-Brexit Britain, with a focus on Scotland in particular. They outline how youth work has reached a ‘tipping point’ in its evolution, where austerity measures have consistently undermined it. They examine the potential impact of the further loss of EU funding. Recognising that it is entirely uncharted territory, they assert that despite the inherent concerns, Brexit could also be a catalyst for re-imagining youth work as a creative and resistant practice within social and informal education.
Some of these events have created their own flyers and I’ll post these during the week. In addition, more gatherings look likely in other parts of the country plus a number of institutions are building into their courses discussion on the paper. More news as soon as it is available.
It does look promising and we hope very much you will be able to participate in the debate.
Last weekend Sheffield was warmed by autumnal sun and the joy emanating from those gathered at Sue Atkins’ 80th birthday party. Crossing the festooned threshold of the venue was to be thrown into a melting pot of humanity – youth workers past and present, the very young and the quite old, the toothful and toothless, folk from a diversity of cultures and backgrounds, All were thrust together through their shared respect and affection for a remarkable woman, who has devoted much of her life to a form of youth work, that aspires to be ‘volatile and voluntary, creative and collective – an association and conversation without guarantees’, informed at every turn by a genuine love for young people.
For my part, I met Sue first at a tumultuous Community and Youth Service Association [CYSA] conference in around 1980, out of which through the power of caucusing emerged the Community and Youth Workers Union [CYWU], of which she was to be a future President. Of her lengthy sojourn within youth work many a tale could be told, which suggests much sooner rather than later, an interview with Sue would be fascinating and revealing. Indeed it would shed light on why in the late 1980’s, in a memorable phrase, she described me, amongst others, as ‘a shite in whining armour’. Watch this space.
For now it’s sobering to note that she continues to be a leading light of the voluntary organisation, Youth Association South Yorkshire, a member of the Education and Training Standards Committee (ETS), the body that provides professional validation for youth work qualifications in England, on behalf of the JNC for Youth & Community Workers, not forgetting her formidable presence on our very own In Defence of Youth Work steering group.
Amongst the variety of tributes made during the day a highlight was the heartfelt rendition of this clever rewriting by Julia Lyford of a Flanders and Swann ditty, ‘The Gas Man cometh’. I suspect its lyrics will strike a chord with many a youth worker visiting these pages.
The Youth Worker Cometh
(With acknowledgements or apologies to Flanders and Swann)
In June of 1940 a circular was born
It spoke of building character, for brains but also brawn
It hoped to foster places where young people chose to be
Both physical and social, or just for jamboree
And it all made work for the volunteer to do dum dum dum…dah dah dah
The fifties kept on building up the recreation show
The teenager was born, discovered coffee and Bongo
In uniforms or sports strips or in drama, choir or dance
Communities and charities took up a moral stance
And it all made work for the youth leader to do dum dum dum….dah dah dah
‘Twas in the 1960s that Albemarle was cool,
It led to flashy centres, to arts labs and to pool
The dawning of Aquarius gave pace to drugs and sex
And self-determination meant that most of us were wrecks
But it all made work for co-counsellors to do dah dah dah…dah dah dah
The Seventies saw people start to recognise the gaps
To notice gender, race and class and reach for the detached
Nintendo loomed, and numbers fell, young people stayed away
So issue – based and project work began to have their day
And it all made work for the activist to do dum dum dum dah dah dah
The Eighties saw the riots, young people were ‘at risk’
From HIV or pregnancy or other kinds of fix
The Union fought the cuts and tackled section 28
We had to look for outcomes, with process out the gate
And it all made work for youth officers to do dum dum dum dah dah dah
From YTS to work – or not – young people bore the brunt
The nineties went thematic and put learning at the front
We taught in schools, had casework loads and tried to join it up
We ended with Connexions, aspirations all amock
And it all made work for personal advisers to do dum dum dum dah dah dah
The Noughties said ‘Youth Matters’ and we ended up in Trusts
We raided health and care funds and pretended to consult
We safeguarded the vulnerable but not so much ourselves
We got bogged down in paperwork or starting stacking shelves
And it all made work for the volunteer to do dum dum dum…dah dah dah
So – in the twenty-tens Sue’s raised us all up in Defence ……
She’s given us momentum, to let youth work re-commence!
FOR THE TUNE!!
And, just to close by observing that to say Sue has been an activist for 80 years seems to be stretching a point. Yet I can just imagine Sue emerging from the womb with a half-apologetic, searching question already on her lips. So eighty years it is and long may it continue.
A Long Read for the weekend about how we achieve mental wealth. It is a welcome shot across the bows of professionals, including youth workers, who act as if the dilemmas are individual rather than social and political.
In his address to a Labour Party conference fringe event, Paul Atkinson examines the social and political forces at work in our society’s current approach to psychological distress and asks what we need from a new government to support and nourish the nation’s mental wealth.
For whatever reasons – reasons that I think are very important and need to be explored – the emotional and psychological difficulties of living in this society are becoming increasingly visible and alarming: in our families; in our schools and colleges; in our local communities; in the attention drawn to mental ill health by (social) media, charities and celebrities, as well as politicians and social policy makers.
Should we think of this growing attention to mental health and the emotional conditions of contemporary life as a sign of growing awareness of the pain and suffering that has always been with us, hidden away in the private closet…
Message from Tracy Ramsey, University Professional Tutor Department of Social Work, Care and Justice Liverpool Hope University
Palestine Fundraising – Path of Hope 2018
I would like to take this opportunity to ask for your support for the Department of Social Work Care and Justice big fundraising event this year. We have been hosted by families in Palestine for several years now and our students have been offered amazing hospitality by some of the poorest families in the world. We want to offer something back bringing 12 young people over here for the Global Youth Congress that is the Big Hope 2 next year. The young people will be able to tell young people from all over the world, what it’s like to live in a refugee camp in the West Bank in Palestine, their hopes for peace and how the global community can support Palestinians rights.
Here’s a short video about it on Youtube with Michael Lavalette Head of Department and one of the students who has been one a previous trip.
We are building a laser etched segmented steel path where larger contributors can have their name, company logo or a message of hope on a piece of the path which will be on display at the conference and then will be theirs to keep and a symbol of what we hope to achieve. Bringing young people together and letting them show the way forward to the rest of the world.
We have less than 35 days to go on our Crowdfunder appeal and would ask you to think about helping in any way you can to help us reach the target of £25,000 we have to raise.
Can you think of any family, friends, small business, or people you follow on twitter and other social media sites with whom you can share and ask for a pledge. If they can persuade someone else as well then the sky’s the limit.
Please circulate the above as a pdf – 
