A few statutory units are scattered around the periphery but it is the only youth work agency in the central area. Most, I guess, would describe it as a success. Indisputably it offers services and opportunities for young people where little else is available. It has an annual budget of around £450,000 secured from 37 discrete sources. The sums range from £70,000 to £2,000 while time spans vary between three years to one. Some must be applied for annually, others bi- or tri-annually, some are one off. All must be chased, except the few that drop from the sky when a funder has spare cash towards the end of the financial year.
Therefore staff are increasingly on short-term contracts to be jettisoned if a funding stream dries up. Most bids are unsuccessful. Consequently, between a third and a half of the senior worker's time is spent chasing money. He admits pursuing money distorts the focus of the work. Survival means doing what funders want, rather then responding to the needs and wishes of users. Long-term planning becomes impracticable because experience tells him income streams often vanish overnight.
It would be an imprudent person who wagered on this project surviving another decade. A few failed bids, an inconvenient staff illness, funding transferred to the Olympics, a knee-jerk response by government to a moral panic and, like others, it will close.
Therein lie so many of our current problems regarding youth work. Funding is a lottery taking scant account of need or effectiveness. Discouraging staff from committing to projects, young people and communities. Funders may today need a project to help them meet a target but lack any incentive to ensure their survival. Consequently, without reform of our chaotic funding structures it is futile investing in new capital projects or promising young people a realistic input regarding the style and shape of provision.
- Tony Jeffs is a member of The National Youth Agency executive board and teaches on the postgraduate youth and community programme at Durham University.
