Trust and respect trump targets and outcomes

He faced enormous organisational pressures to construct a credible account of his success in doing so, when in fact he was achieving little on that front, though arguably a lot in terms of building relationships and establishing stepping stones that might eventually lead to those outcomes. In the way, however, was the cultural resistance of the young people concerned. They had had a bellyful of local initiatives that ultimately gave up on them. Educational measures, training programmes and real jobs were for others; over generations, they had cultivated different ways of living.

A European youth work conference on working with such vulnerable young people was held recently in Antwerp, Belgium. The views of the youth workers who attended resonated remarkably closely with those we had expressed in our article. Working with vulnerable and often disadvantaged young people in economically deprived communities does require a special form of youth work. The conference participants were very clear about some of the core themes that informed their work: acceptance of all young people (if not approval of some of their behaviour); respect for the person (and not a preoccupation with their problems); and the need to display patience and work at the pace of the individual.