Championing London’s youth workers

From poorer mental health, access to education and an uncertain job market caused by the effects of the global Covid-19 pandemic, young people now face a cost-of-living crisis that is impacting their access to food, shelter and warmth.

Youth work, as it did during the pandemic, is crucial to helping rebuild lives and providing stability for young people at a time of national challenges. We’ve heard from youth workers in London that the cost-of-living crisis is the biggest issue facing the young people they work with. It’s putting pressure on at home with young people needing to contribute to ever increasing bills, while for some, youth workers are having to dip into their own pockets to provide food. 

The role youth workers and frontline practitioners play in a young person’s life can often be life-changing. That relationship for young people living in London and in the greatest need of support, has never been more important.

It’s why London’s Violence Reduction Unit champions youth work across our city. It’s why we invest in youth work in the capital, it’s why we fund programmes to develop youth workers and it’s why we’re working to embed youth work in everything we do.

Youth work is crucial to helping knit together the very fabric of our communities and it’s absolutely right that the work they do for our young people is celebrated during Youth Work Week.

But for the VRU and others who work to support a sector so badly damaged by the impact of austerity, that work must continue not just for a week in November, but all year round.

Youth workers go above and beyond to build and maintain life-long trusted relationships with young people. They need to be supported and invested in, and crucially, taken seriously as a vital frontline service.

After listening to youth workers, what they told us is that whilst many bring significant lived experience and commitment, the work they do is not always sufficiently recognised and makes it difficult to take up more senior or strategic positions.

So, together with London Youth and our three partners, we funded and developed the Rise Up programme, which builds on leadership skills in order to better support vulnerable young people in London. Over the last two years, we have invested in developing the leadership skills of nearly 200 youth workers, and we’re recruiting more. If you’re a frontline youth practitioner in London, you can sign up here Rise Up Youth Practitioners’ Leadership Programme - London Youth.

Alongside this, we invest in youth workers in hospitals and police custody suites. Evidence shows there is a reachable moment for a young person at points of crisis in their lives – whether that be following arrest or having suffered an injury or wound caused by violence.  

Skilled youth workers engage with young people at a time when they are most receptive to changing their behaviour.

We know that initial reachable moment requires longer-term work and is why we invest in youth work in communities through our MyEnds programme and specialist mentoring with young people in pupil referral units.

We’re so committed to supporting good quality youth work and mentoring that we’ve taken further steps to embed youth work in our approach to reducing violence and supporting young people, families and communities. The VRU has this year recruited 10 frontline youth workers to form its first Youth Practitioners’ Advisory Board, to provide frontline expertise and learning and influence how decisions are made. There is a breadth of experience across the group, with some working in schools, alternative provision education, prisons, hospitals and voluntary and community organisations.

We’re proud to support and celebrate youth work in London, now and always. And whilst we face shrinking budgets, both for individuals, for councils and other public sector organisations, we can’t risk the economic crisis reversing progress we have made in tackling violence and supporting young people. Now is the time to stand up and protect those who help support, guide and protect our must vulnerable in society.

Lib Peck is director of London’s Violence Reduction Unit