RESOURCES: Classic text revisited ... In The Service Of Black YouthGus John, 1981

An England where police stop'n'search powers (the so-called sus laws) led to the discriminatory persecution of Black young people. An England where there was a need to introduce the Race Relations Act 1976 to tackle racial discrimination - and an England where the National Front polled nearly 120,000 votes in the 1977 local council elections in London.

It was this context that gave potency to Gus John's report, carried out between 1976 and 1979. This innovative action research project challenged the hypothesis that the primary role of the youth service vis-a-vis Black young people was to hasten their integration into White society and to promote racial harmony.

It said: "It is our wish that this report will encourage youth service providers as well as youth workers to examine the assumptions on which their policies and practice are based and to halt the tremendous and highly systematic disservice they are doing to young people."

The report found that the youth service had tended to see Black young people as a problem and had failed to prioritise the need to tackle racism.

John's work was instrumental in challenging the basic assumptions held by the youth service about Black young people and strongly advocated for provision that was based on their realities - "from where they stand".

Given the introduction of services such as Connexions and current governmental initiatives on social cohesion, exclusion and active citizenship, the question posed by John's work still remains: in whose interests are such programmes?

Vipin Chauhan, of Lotus Management Consultancy, and author of Beyond Steel Bands 'n' Samosas: Black Young People in the Youth Service.