Youth work that's outside the box

The demands placed on the youth sector's workforce leaves little opportunity for staff to take on duties that would usually be carried out by professionals such as teachers.

But as this month's cover feature about Coventry's Shadow Project (see p14) shows, there is amazing scope for youth workers to make a difference where others have struggled. In Coventry, the council has handed over nearly all its responsibility for young people's health education to the youth service and primary care trust. The result has been a 10 per cent fall in the number of teenager pregnancies and increased knowledge among young people about a range of health issues. Allowing specialist youth workers to take sessions about subjects such as sexual health, drugs and general wellbeing has benefited both the young people and teachers, many of whom admit they felt uncomfortable running such sessions before.

This way of working may not appease traditionalists who believe youth work should be kept firmly out of the classroom, but it does offer a salutary reminder of how youth workers can make a breakthrough where others have failed. In these days of multi-agency working, the youth sector is ideally placed to make a difference in many aspects of young people's lives. It just requires vision and the confidence to let youth workers do what they do best: communicate with young people in a way that they respond to. And, of course, it requires funding.