YMCA College launches five-year youth work strategy

The YMCA George Williams College, which merged with the Centre for Youth Impact last year, has published the strategy, sharing its renewed focus on “evidence, quality, learning and improvement, and socio-emotional skill development in the youth sector”.

The plan, which will shape the organisation's work until 2028, includes a re-launch of the college later this year, followed by re-establishing its academic youth work offer by 2026 and rebuilding international partnerships alongside a new evidence base in four-years time.

• Analysis: Study reveals most effective ways to measure impact of youth work

• Analysis: Youth work cash crisis prompts call to action

The strategy states that it is “published amid a challenging backdrop for children and young people across the UK: the cumulative impact of cuts to the sector, the Covid-19 pandemic, the surging cost of living, and reduced support and opportunity has left many young people without access to youth services and relationships with trusted adults at a point in their lives when they need it most.”

Bethia McNeil, chief executive of the George Williams College said: “We know that high quality provision for young people - characterised by equity, safe spaces, and engaging and interactive opportunities to learn about themselves and the world around them through relationships of trust – can have a profound impact on not just young people but the communities in which they live. 

“Transformational support, which is informed by both evidence and practice, can in turn support a sector-wide movement toward better understanding, improving, and advocating for the impact of our collective work. This is where the college will focus all its energy and commitment over the next five years.”

In a bid to meet its goals, the college has created three “centres of expertise”.

These include the Centre for Youth Impact, now sitting within the College, which holds responsibility for “the design, testing and championing” of practice to measure the impact of open access resources, research, and training for all those working in informal and non-formal youth provision. 

A new Centre for Quality Practice will provide resources and educational opportunities that have a focus on holistic development and relational support for young people. 

Meanwhile, a new Centre for Youth Voice, supported by the National Lottery Community Fund, will advocate for the role of youth voice in shaping youth work provision and its evaluation. 

The five-year strategy builds on the organisation’s existing work, supported by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, including free to access impact measurement tools, digital learning hubs, training and improvement programmes, and a data portal.