Youth organisations urged to overcome fears of working with businesses
Neil Puffett
Friday, January 6, 2012
Scepticism over companies' motives for working with youth groups must be overcome to successfully deliver improved services, a charity central to the government's youth policy has warned.
Plans to break down barriers between businesses and the youth sector in order to provide better services were outlined in the government’s Positive for Youth policy paper, published last month.
The initiative, which is backed with £320,000 of government funding, will be developed by UK Youth, the National Children's Bureau (NCB) and Business in the Community – a responsible business charity.
Charlotte Hill, chief executive of UK Youth, told CYP Now that there is a degree of scepticism among youth organisations around the motivation for businesses getting involved, something that needs to be changed.
"Part of it is about challenging some of the suspicion in the youth sector [of businesses]," she said of the work being undertaken.
"As I go around the country my sense is that people are sometimes suspicious as to why businesses want to work with them.
"Our experience is that a lot of businesses see the value in supporting the next generation and understand their responsibility in local areas.
"The kind of skills businesses are looking for are the kind that can be obtained through youth work such as team-building and resilience. Business can get a huge amount out of working with the youth sector."
Hill added that some youth organisations already successfully work with business without fully realising it, from using meeting rooms to having food provided by local supermarkets.
The group aims to develop a simple model for brokering relationships between businesses and the youth sector at a national, regional and local level, and has revealed this will be done based on existing best practice rather than new ways of working.
This is likely to include a degree of focus on schemes including Starbucks’ Youth Action Programme, O2's Think Big social action programme and the Co-operative’s Truth about Youth programme.
A number of project supporters have been enlisted, including The National Council for Voluntary Youth Services, Clubs for Young People, the nine Regional Youth Work Units and the Private Equity Foundation.
During 2012, the group, which will meet for the first time later this month, will consult with the business and youth sectors across England and then through events and other promotional activity to raise awareness of the opportunities this kind of work presents.
The 15-month project will culminate in a regional pilot early in 2013 ahead of a planned nationwide expansion.