Reflections on three decades of youth work

So when Youth Work Now asked me to write on the changes I have seen during that time, I thought what a great idea. But this is harder than it looks. In fact, it suddenly seems more daunting than opening up short-staffed on a wild Friday night.

So what has changed? Everything and nothing. The world, the kids, their families have all changed beyond recognition. But the youth service itself is pretty much the same as it always was. It is still the Cinderella service, still under-resourced and still not meeting the needs of our most marginalised young people.

In general, I would say that young people face less poverty, but they are leading poorer and more difficult lives. I was quite shocked when I first met the kids that came to the club; they were clearly very poor indeed. Obesity was not a problem, but undernourishment probably was - there was not a spare ounce of fat in the entire club. Another thing that struck me was that at least half of the young people who attended wore their school uniforms in the evening. That was because their school uniform was their only set of clothes.