Youth work set to receive image boost

“Pool table” is something of a dirty term among youth workers. Along with table tennis, the National Youth Agency’s chief executive Fiona Blacke says such activities represent an outdated impression. “They don’t convey the transformative effects of good youth work,” she says.

To counter such perceptions, the NYA has launched a campaign and competition that asks youth workers to submit short videos about the value of their work by 30 June to the agency. These will be available for all people to view online.

Blacke hopes that by improving the public’s understanding of youth work, the campaign, Transforming Lives, will prevent further cuts. “We need to get people to understand what youth workers do and why their contribution is so important,” says Blacke. She says funding problems and the profession’s public profile are holding back youth work, and wants the government to address them, even though the Education Secretary has said youth work should be a purely local matter. “There has to be a policy commitment at a national level that recognises youth work as a priority because of its protective, educational and transformational impacts.” But other sector leaders suggest youth workers should bring improvements closer to home.

Poor communication
Gill Millar, regional youth work adviser at the South West of England Regional Youth Work Unit, says youth work has been poor communicating what it does for three reasons. The first is that few organisations have budgets for marketing and PR.

“Youth work organisations almost always prioritise funding for face-to-face work with young people,” she says. “In a time of reduced budgets, it would be hard to justify spending on marketing.”

Second, Millar says the disjointed nature of youth work provision means individual organisations are in competition for funding and do not unite to represent the sector. “Regional units try to do this in their regions, wi