I’ll Tell You What Youth Workers Really Do!

As a contribution to the debate about the character and purpose of the work, see Howard Williamson’s sharp Opinion piece, I’ll tell you what youth workers really do

His closing anecdote about first being inspected makes me smile and cry a little.

My problem as a youth worker was being able to work out in advance what this balance of practice was going to be. It all depended on the groups of young people I was working with, what was unfolding in their lives, and the demands and requests they made of me. I realised this was a rather unpalatable position for managers and inspectors almost from the start of my paid youth work career. The first inspector to visit me asked to see a copy of my unit plan for the coming year. I told him bluntly I did not have one. He seemed to think I was joking or lying. I simply said that I would like him to judge my real practice retrospectively, not my paper practice prospectively. In a year’s time, I said, I’ll tell you what I did.

In today’s climate, try saying this and getting away with it!

Practice Revealed: The Great Moral Impasse

At the Preston meeting on Friday we touched briefly on the need for workers to tell their own stories of practice. We mourned the lack of material. However God’s Lonely Youth Worker has come to our rescue on the Children and Young People site.  Their piece begins:

I’d worked hard with the “ASBO” group. They’d been identified by the Anti-Social Behaviour Team as being at risk of becoming entangled within the criminal justice system. I liked them. They were quite an elusive little group but they had an interesting collective character.

God, did they think they were hard. Proper little tough-nuts who were afraid of no one or no thing but terrified of showing any trace of vulnerability. I had to use a lot of reverse psychology to get them to believe they wanted me more than I wanted them. I would dangle carrots but never directly in their direction. I would never, ever outstay my welcome when I met them on the streets and would always leave them wanting more.

It goes on to recount the Youth Service’s response to the development of the relationship. Already it has provoked a cracking discussion. Basically I think we should muck in and contribute our pennyworth. Excellent stuff.