Youth work has long made a contribution to combating social exclusion and to building social capital. It endeavours to enable young people to secure good jobs, live in a safe environment, build strong social networks, pursue healthy activities and manage their lives effectively.
The set of papers in the booklet aims to help demonstrate such benefit, seeking to place a value on what is gained through good youth work both with individuals and for the wider community.
While government and other funders are the principal claimants for such measured outcomes, young people themselves also deserve to know what benefits they can expect from their engagement in youth work and staff will also wish to see the value of their work. The collection contains three papers.The first, by Professor Peter Jackson, of Leicester University, sets out some of the key theoretical underpinning for performance measurement (and performance management), especially in public services.
The second, by Tom Wylie, chief executive of The National Youth Agency, suggests some outcomes and related performance indicators for youth work.The third, by Carolyn Oldfield, of The National Youth Agency, draws together some recent research and evaluation studies to offer evidence of "what works".
"With greater clarity about the benefits to young people and their communities can come a closer relationship with strategy and with performance management towards ends which are both clear and helpful", the introduction concludes.
- Managing for Better Outcomes in Youth Work is available, priced 3.50, from NYA Publication Sales. Tel: 0116 285 3709. Fax: 0116 285 3777. E-mail: sales@nya.org.uk.
