This sticky giving information about how you can be involved in the campaign – notice of meetings, social networking opportunities – will always be the first item on the Blog. For the latest posting of news and opinion scroll down!
Reports from the regional meetings will be put on a separate page, REGIONAL REPORTS – click on the link in the right hand column. Try to have a look as they give a real feel for how things are growing.
LATEST NEWS FROM THE IN DEFENCE OF YOUTH WORK CAMPAIGN
Update: the videos are now available: see the new page ‘Conference Report’ on the right-hand side. Thanks to Justin for their excellent quality.
IN DEFENCE OF YOUTH WORK
Second Post-Conference Mailing
- You will find attached the WHAT WE STAND FOR statement agreed at the national conference. It has been retyped to make sure it fits onto a double side of A4 paper. However we welcome supporters playing around with the format to make it more stimulating and attractive, especially as we encourage you to circulate it widely. This said, it is important to note that various criticisms of the statement were made at the conference. On a specific level Graeme Tiffany questioned the implications of the sentence refering critically to our incorporation into the State’s agenda. More generally reservations were expressed about the language used. Given that the Statement was itself a compromise, drawing on the Open Letter, the North-East ‘Developing and Defending’ document, together with amendments from Doug Nicholls and Bernard Davies, the conference was happy to see it as a provisional, working statement, which will be open to change at our next conference. Using the statement will sharpen up its strengths and weaknesses.
- One of the important decisions made at the conference was the setting up of a working group to move forward the collection of our stories of practice. Bernard Davies agreed to coordinate this vital and fascinating project. However we’ve misplaced a list of people eager to join Bernard in the endeavour. So please get in touch with him urgently at mailto:davies@vip.solis.co.uk whether or not you were on the original list.
- Over the last couple of weeks a number of people have asked whether they could still sign up to the Open Letter. To say the least this is very much the case. So if you would still like your name to appear on the list of signatories, please get in touch.
- At the conference we touched on the issue of whether we ought to embrace the defence of Community Work. This was not sufficiently debated, but in our Statement we do underline our close working relationship with the National Coalition for Independent Action. So find below notice of a forthcoming meeting.
| NCIA Assembly – Thursday 25th March
1pm-4.30pm Supporting Community Groups and Community Action One of our main priorities for this coming year is to find ways defending and promoting the role and importance of community groups and community action. As we enter the period in which savage cuts are to be made to public expenditure and public services (whoever wins the election), this part of voluntary action, already marginalised, will find itself under increasing pressure and even less likely to be able to attract support. We need to discuss how this situation is going to impact on local communities and what we can do about it – both in our own work and by pushing others to act too. This meeting will provide us with a chance to talk all this through. We hope it will give some direction to the Coalition’s work over the next year and provide you with a chance to talk to allies about tactics and strategies. We will be especially pleased if you could think of other people – activists or others who are involved in community action – to invite to the meeting so that we can use the opportunity to extend our network. Remember that the way in which we agreed to expand the Coalition Assembly is by existing members inviting new people who share our perspectives. The meeting will take place at Canterbury Hall, 12-18 Cartwright Gdns. London WC1H 9EF. This is very close to Euston and King’s Cross Stations. Please note this is not the venue advertised in my previous email as we had to switch the location. We can help you with travel costs if this will make the difference to whether you can come (but please book cheap tickets in advance) Hope to see loads of you there! With good wishes, Andy Benson at info@penandy.co.uk |
- 5. The National Steering Group are to meet on Wednesday, March 24 from 11.00 a.m. to 3.00 p.m. in Transport House, 211 Broad Street, Birmingham, B15 1AY. It is a 10 min walk from New Street or Snow Hill train stations. Directions are attached to this mailing. Tea and coffee will be available all day. All supporters are welcome to attend the Steering Group’s open meetings. You will have to bring your own lunch or venture out into Broad Street to grab some food? If you have any proposals for the agenda , please send them to Tony or to Dan Hall at dan.ant.hall@googlemail.com
- 6. We are in the midst of exploring improvements to the web site, which will include a separate forum to encourage discussion. All being well the one site will include all the bits and pieces we need to improve communication, debate and activity. So keep visiting http://indefenceofyouthwork.wordpress.com
Finally a plea to everybody to keep sending in your news and views so that we have the fullest picture of what’s going on.
Hoping you’re in good fettle
Tony Taylor at tonymtaylor@gmail.com or indefence of youthwork@gmail.com
Well what am I going to say (you may ask)..i am not a detatched worker but I am local to the conference..your conference confilcts with a bnp national conference as well as a young peoples protest in Wigan..it doesn’t usually happen like this, but hey ho.So whilst you are theorising about emancipication of youth work (detatched?) as well as that of young people…give a thought for us lot down the road (HINDLEY GREEN) who at 12pm will be protesting against he national bnp conference in our area..
Oh and for the few..I am the one from Wigan who is not a detatched worker..but project based..I was not allowed to come to your conference because of assumption & hirerarchy of PRACTICE..
To both Tony’s..really nice to see you today..will be really nice to see you soon (lets not leave it 12yrs..ergh wor Peter is the scrap man, he is really nice beyond the facade!)
Comment by Jan — November 14, 2009 @ 12:40 am |
ergh… the comment is noT against the article. but is meant for the detatched work meeting ETAL..happy conference!
Comment by Jan — November 14, 2009 @ 1:20 am |
Here I go on a rant:
Young wonens owrk is important, its intrinsic to the praxis and thories of today’s societal thinking…it works…but so do many inforamal educational institutions
So my question must have to be…based on praxis…is whats it all about? Tony(s) …cum on..say it like it is!
Comment by Jan — November 14, 2009 @ 1:33 am |
Jan
Only just got back home after a hectic week of Defence meetings and family illness. My brain is a bit addled so I’m still trying to respond to ‘what’s it all about, Tony?’
Are you able to go to Youth&Policy’s ‘Taking Girls’ Work Seriously’ conference, February 22/23 in Leeds? Surely your management will support you going to this? Will be a good crack.
See you at the IN DEFENCE conference, February 11?
The struggle continues
Best
Tony
Comment by Tony Taylor — November 24, 2009 @ 6:24 pm |
During my attendence of the most recent conference In Defence of Youth Work and the days following I have been in conflict regarding the tone and premise of the campaign. I do not disagree with the arguments raised. However in all honesty I found many aspects reactionary. I feel in some situations we missed the point. Yet the point was elusive to me, until now. The whole campaign in my view should be ‘In Support of Youth Work.’ To defend is to define. To defend is to identify a moment in which we associate and identify as needing defending.
To promote is to explore to look forward to open up. It is to say ‘We as an organisation of professional Youth and Community Workers promote and encourage Youth Work as a recognised celebrated successful way to informally educate and be educated. In doing so we will explore & provide opportunities to develop youth work with guiding principles of voluntary participation, leading to social, economic, physical, spiritual and political emancipation and empowerment. This will allow young people to be informed, yet challenged, critical yet communitarians, contributers not consumers within their family, society, culture, country and the world in which they live.’
We do this with support of central government, voluntary aided organisations, charities, faith groups and community groups. Our agenda is Young People and the community in which they live. It is our intent to promote and support this agenda as our own and In Support Of Youth Work for today tomorrow and the future.
Comment by Andrew Seedall — February 16, 2010 @ 11:51 pm |
I have just returned from Stockholm, having accepted an invitation to speak at the Swedish street-based youth workers’ annual conference. My experience there brought home to me the point I tried to make at the recent In Defence of Youth Work national conference. Let me try to put this in words.
The Letter says: “Today it accepts the State’s terms. It sides with the State’s agenda [my emphasis added].” Now, forgive my philosophical inclinations, but what is ‘it’? The answer is given: ‘Youth Work’. But we all know that this is not a ‘thing’. It is people, the people ‘involved’ in youth work. Naturally there are many, including ‘the bosses’, so often the subject of hate. But there is no denying it is many of us too. And, as I said at conference, even if you work in the voluntary sector you are (it can be reasonably argued) part of a growing ‘shadow state’ – such is the incorporative power of a culture of contracting and commissioning.
The exceptions are identified also. The Federation for Detached Youth Work doesn’t take a red cent off anyone. Oh, the joy of setting our own agenda. Truly a product of civil society, just like The Social Work Action Network, and The National Coalition for Independent Action in fact. And those green shoots of Adult Education alluded to.
The nub of the argument is this. Take it on the chin, ‘Youth Work’ means us also. And unless we see ourselves as powerless we must accept, as Giles Deleuze taught us, that we have presided over our own power ‘to be affected’. In practice, this is precisely what it says on the tin: we have been trying to make ‘the best of a bad job.’
So back to Sweden. The vast, vast, majority of workers there are glowing in admiration for the state and the support it offers, and the respect they are given, for their work. They, like us, are the state. Simplistically then, we have to conclude, there are good states and bad states. And accept this is a matter of opinion (an opinion we will be able to bring to sharp a edge to in a month or so).
The choice then is clear: do we want a state, or not? Its ridiculous to moan about the state only when its bad. And therein the second choice: campaign for a world without the state, in the honorable and at least honest position of anarchism, or get stuck in and work for a better one.
Comment by Graeme Tiffany — March 10, 2010 @ 8:53 pm |