The biggest centre I visited was Kips Bay Boys & Girls Club in the Bronx, New York. The centre has a huge social area with seven large pool tables and three table football tables. There is also a fitness suite, two basketball courts, a dance studio, as well as many other truly amazing facilities.
With all these spaces, it is easier to deal with large numbers of members across a wide age range. But in the UK we have no such facilities. The organisation I work for, the Salmon Youth Centre in Bermondsey, is pretty unique in that it cost £10m to build, but even then there is no way we could replicate what's on offer in the US.
With the formation of children's trusts, there is a very real risk that the distinctiveness of youth work will be lost in the homogenous lump that is work with young people. The situation is not helped by an obsession with validation and measurement of everything. Traditionally, youth work has engaged with young people closer to the edges of society, who may not be so interested in being involved in more formal programmes. At least certainly not until relationships have been established with youth workers.
But now that programmes are time-limited and tied to outcomes, it is preferable for workers to take the easy option and work with the younger, more motivated age groups and hit their targets. Consequently, work with children and young people at the top end of the primary school age group now falls fairly easily into the youth work category.
Call me old fashioned, but youth work takes place with young people who are at least 13 and goes up to 25-years-old, although the top-end age range of youth work seems to get lowered further and further.
When we were raising funds for the new building at the Salmon Youth Centre, we could easily have applied for Sure Start funding as it was in plentiful supply a few years ago. But this would have been mission drift for us. We are a youth centre and our primary focus is developing youth work programmes for young people.
Of course, we will do some work with the younger age group, but our focus will always be helping young people of youth work age.
