It can be hard to judge what is actually going on in some youth work projects and practice. And anyway, what are we trying to count: reach, numbers, types of young people, quality of relationships, nature of engagement and involvement or outcomes?
It is the latter, of course, that has become the mantra of our age. It is almost as if we do not care about the rest: the paramount arbiter of effectiveness and cost-effectiveness - and therefore the "quality" of the work - will be the outcomes that have been produced.
There are, inevitably, thorny questions about how to measure some of the outcomes on which youth work is expected to deliver and over what period of time it is reasonable to try to measure them. But as we look forward to a new year of practice - one in which there is likely to be a host of mergers of one sort or another in the arenas of youth work, youth support, youth justice, youth information and so on - it is also worth looking back.
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