Citing research that made a tenuous link between youth clubs andnegative outcomes, Youth Matters, at one stage, seemed intent onoffering only "structured and purposeful" things to do and places to go.The rhetoric at the time made it clear that young people should bediscouraged from "hanging out".
Leaving aside young people's right to associate, this approach was atodds with the aim to engage them more in defining and determining theirown cultural lives. It also looked likely to undermine the main ambitionof the policy: ensuring that young people experiencing, or at risk of'social exclusion were more positively engaged in their communities. Thisgroup is unlikely to respond to a programme of structured sport,learning, volunteering and the arts - adult notions of a cultural life -without first having their prior need for their own time and spaceacknowledged and addressed.
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