YES - Charlie McKenna, manager at New Routes, Bacup, Lancashire
My opinion is that youth and community work is a liberal profession, and young people come to us on a voluntary basis. However, they often don't make a conscious decision to come here, because they're excluded and don't feel like a part of the community.
More often than not, they're socially stagnated, and don't have the skills to seek help voluntarily. When they come to us, we can start building self-esteem, and then they can start making choices about whether or not they want to continue. Young people that come here often exhibit extreme challenging behaviour and we have to be able to say to them, "you must be here". I'd go even further, and say that I believe strongly we should become a statutory organisation, with more regulation and training for new youth workers.
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