For Youth Workers And Youth Work - Speaking Out For A Better Future

At the heart of this book is a simple argument: that youth work is inherently political and that it is a youth worker’s duty to recognise and act on this truth.

This densely argued book is a clarion call for a revolutionary take on youth work where interactions “must be informed by ideas and consciousness that the wider picture is unacceptable and alterable”.

Nicholls cites the fact that bonuses paid to bankers last January (£6bn) would fund the entire youth service in England and Wales for 20 years and he is particularly powerful when scathing. He is brutal on “positive activities”, which he compares to the Romans’ bread and circuses; on the “casualisation” and outsourcing of youth work; and on “assessination” or the mindless focus on quantifiable results.

One fascinating idea is that all youth workers are working class because they adopt the class of the most vulnerable young person they work with. I agree, to a point: youth work doesn’t change your class but it allows you to see beyond your own class-based assumptions.

The book argues that youth work should encourage young minds to question the world around them. Youth workers, it says, should empower, but should be empowered themselves, too.
 
Reviewed by Emma Warren, senior editorial mentor, Live Magazine