Get in touch with Martin Purcell if you want to participate.

Martin Purcell

Lecturer, Applied Community and Youth Work Studies

University of Manchester

School of Education

A1.11 Ellen Wilkinson Building

Oxford Road

Manchester M13 9PE

Tel. (0161) 275 5795

www.manchester.ac.uk/

IN DEFENCE OF YOUTH WORK

ENGAGING CRITICALLY: A SERIES OF SEMINARS

ADVANCING YOUTH WORK IN TIMES OF AUSTERITY

LOCALLY, NATIONALLY AND INTERNATIONALLY

A TRANSATLANTIC CONVERSATION with DANA FUSCO

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 19 FROM 1.30 TO 4.30 P.M.

AT THE UNISON CENTRE, EUSTON ROAD, LONDON

Over the coming period our campaign is committed to encouraging an open and pluralist debate about the state of youth work today. In our view there has been a conspicuous lack of collective discussion about the dramatic shifts in the landscape of work with young people. Given youth work’s claim to a reflective and self-critical tradition this is more than a touch ironic.

We are delighted to embark on this process in the company of Dana Fusco, Professor of Teacher Education at York College of the City University of New York. For the past twenty years her research has focused on youth development and after-school intervention leading to national and international recognition. Fascinatingly, given our own emphasis on story-telling, Dana recently was writing with colleagues on the ‘Squeezing of Youth Voice and Agency during Out-of-School Time’, calling for stories and testimonies. Dana’s most recent work is the acclaimed ‘Advancing Youth Work: Current Trends, Critical Questions’, of which she is editor. And as we write she is seeking contributions for a forthcoming book on Youth Work and Inequality – see our web site for details.

The afternoon will see Dana’s central contribution sandwiched between sharing experiences in small groups, a wider Question and Comment session with an emphasis on building links with each other – across towns, cities, countries and oceans!

As ever with IDYW the cost will be kept low – Unwaged/Students £2, Waged £5. In doing so we are grateful to UNISON for their support in providing the venue.

To book a place, contact Tony at tonymtaylor@gmail.com

Dana Fusco June 19 flyer – please circulate around your networks

APOLOGIES FOR THIS POST BEING CRUSHED!! WILL TRY TO SORT OUT LATER!

Unite is calling for an end to unpaid internships in the voluntary sector and the re-introduction of paid entry level jobs.

Our report ‘Unpaid Internships in the Voluntary Sector’ demonstrates that unpaid internships are on the increase. They are becoming the fastest growing source of abuse under the National Minimum Wage regulations. Unpaid internships aren’t just wrong but in many cases they are illegal. Under employment law, people who work set hours, do set tasks and contribute value to an organisation are “workers” and are entitled to the National Minimum Wage but many employers in the voluntary sector are paying their interns nothing.

We need your help to stop this, and to help the thousands of unpaid interns. Click here to sign your support to this campaign and tell us how your organisation treats interns.

We are also strongly urging all reasonable employers who care about their workers to sign up to a voluntary code that pledges they will end unpaid internships and pay all interns at least the National Minimum Wage. Please ask your employer to sign up to this pledge which you can view here.

Young people can do great things…

CSV launch poster design competition to champion young people

This spring, young people are being challenged to show off their artistic talents in a poster design competition – #giveachance – run by the charity CSV (Community Service Volunteers).

The competition revives a nationwide poster competition run by the charity in 1984, which carried the strapline:  Young people can do great things… if you give us a chance.

Keeping the original 1984 strapline, we want 2013’s generation of young people to show us their artistic talents by designing their own posters, championing young people and the great things they are capable of achieving.

As in 1984 young people are under attack. The increase in tuition fees, the prevalent culture of unpaid internships, and sky-high youth unemployment all make it hard for young people to shine.

CSV has always worked with young people to highlight their unique contributions to society, from its Springboard projects helping young people into work and training, to providing volunteering opportunities to help others.

Entering is simple. We’re inviting people to tweet their designs mentioning @CSV_UK and using the hashtag #giveachance, or upload to Facebook mentioning CSV’s page (www.facebook.com/CSVUK). Alternatively designs can be emailed to web@csv.org.uk

Catherine Flood, Curator of Prints at the Victoria and Albert Museum and author of British Posters: Advertising, Art and Activism, will select the winning competition entry and all entries will be displayed on the CSV #giveachance Pinterest board. The winning and commended designs will be displayed at a special exhibition at Springboard Hackney, and the winner will also receive a signed copy of British Posters.

The competition launches on Monday 13th May 2013 and closes at midnight on 10th June 2013.

About the campaign:

The poster competition is part of CSV’s ‘Volunteer Champions’ campaign, celebrating the role volunteers play in changing lives everyday across the UK.

How you can get involved:

Please show your support for the CSV #giveachance competition by writing about is on your blog or encouraging your social media followers by either tweeting on Twitter using the hashtag #giveachance or sharing our campaign on your Facebook timeline.

For more information visitwww.csv.org.uk/postercompetition

For competition promotional images please visit our dropbox folder.

Contact:

For more information or images please contact Alice Haworth-Booth

-       Email: alicehb@gmail.com

-       Tel: 07854928926

To be honest we are a bit slow in catching up with the following National Youth Agency initiative, taken in late March.

New commission into the role of youth work in education

The National Youth Agency has launched an independent commission to assess the value of youth work within formal education across England and Wales.

The commission is being chaired by former Children’s Minister Tim Loughton MP and made up of key figures from both the youth work and education sectors including: 

• Fiona Blacke, Chief Executive, National Youth Agency
• Baroness Beverley Hughes
• Rosina St James, Chair of the British Youth Council
• Mark Carriline, Executive Director of Children’s Services, Bury Council
• Damian Allen, Director, Children and Young People Division, Children’s Society
• Ndidi Okezie, Executive Director – Regions, Teach First 

The National Youth Agency’s initial research has identified that the emphasis on a set of core academic skills has the potential to squeeze out another set of skills – how to think creatively, collaborate, empathise at the very time when they are needed more than ever.

Youth work has a key role in helping young people develop these abilities, as some schools have started to recognise.

The commission is keen to gather evidence and involve as many stakeholders as possible, including young people. Contribute your views by filling out our short survey.

To view the commission’s launch press release click here.

Our provisional response is as follows :

A discussion about the relationship between formal schooling and informal youth work is always worth having. However in the present climate we fear that the Commission’s predetermined desire to define interventions as youth work, which previously might have been called, for example, Personal and Social Education, Careers Advice, Pastoral Care or even Remedial Education is another moment in the continuing dilution of youth work as a distinctive educational practice founded on a voluntary relationship with young people. Youth Work as informal education in the service of young people must retain a clear independence from schools. It is external and complementary, not internal and supplementary.

And, given the NYA’s scant regard for history, it is necessary to note that a debate about this relationship is nothing new. Educational fashions come and go. Merely as an example, the issue was at the heart of tensions in the 1969 Milson-Fairbairn report. Bernard Davies in analysing the report points out the general feeling held over forty years ago maintained that “secondary school curricula and methods needed to become more responsive, especially to pupils reluctant to stay on. A more strategic youth service infiltration into formal education was thus seen as having great potential benefits for schools.”

In addition see our post Youth Clubs in Schools, which includes a link to a very relevant piece by Bernard on ‘Extended Schooling : Lessons for Youth Workers’.

 Have a look at the NYA stuff, complete the survey and let us know your thoughts.

We’ve received a note from Dana Fusco, Professor of Teacher Education at the University of New York and editor of ‘Advancing Youth Work : Current Trends, Critical Questions’.

Seeking practitioners whose work passionately reflects addressing youth inequality and who are interested in writing about it for an upcoming book on the topic! We are accepting abstracts of 250-500 words that should draw heavily on the practice context. Final decisions for submissions will be made by September 2013. Email abstracts to dfusco@york.cuny.edu by June 1st. Please share widely as we are aiming for broad global reach. 20 chapters from around the world. We will take three or so from U.K.

If there are any of our supporters, who feel they have something to say, but are somewhat intimidated by the thought of writing a chapter, get in touch with Tony to chat things through. And you are not alone if you are a touch anxious. In truth there are more than a few across our ranks, who are brilliant at articulating their thoughts in speech, but freeze at the sight of a blank piece of paper!!

This is an appropriate moment also to flag that Dana will be the keynote speaker at our next IDYW seminar on the afternoon of Wednesday, June 19 at the UNISON centre, Euston Road, London. More information to follow, but put the date in your diary. And, while we’re at it, given our parochialism and often ignorance of youth work outside our shores, here is the link to an informative and challenging piece by Dana about youth work and youth work education in the USA,

Working in youth serving organizations: The sphere of professional education

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Meanwhile closer to home it is heartening – given the shifting landscape in defining youth work -  to see the following statement in the initial job details for a Senior Lecturer : Youth and Community Work at the Manchester Metropolitan University.

The successful candidate will have experience of and commitment to critical approaches in informal education in community settings. S/he will have used creative approaches and will have experience of participatory approaches to youth and community work practice. S/he will have explored and experienced the power of critical dialogue in work with community /youth groups. S/he will have experienced what it means to be part of a ‘learning team’ and have engaged well with a range of communities such as are found in diverse and fragmented urban contexts.

Further details here. For an informal discussion regarding the requirements of the role please contact Janet Batsleer (j.batsleer@mmu.ac.uk)

As I noted in the post Thatcherism and Youth Work key to the neo-liberal  political strategy is the assault on the very idea of collective solidarity. In the eyes of the ‘free marketeers’ we must become self-sufficient, ‘resilient’ individuals beholden to nobody but ourselves. Of course this is absurd. We are first and foremost social individuals dependent on each other in a myriad of ways. Thus on International Workers Day we need to remember that our social and political gains are a collective legacy and that without solidarity they can and indeed are being taken away from us. We need to renew that understanding of autonomy, which affirms, ‘ I can only be free if you are also free’. As youth workers we need to turn words into action. Our claim in the Framework of Ethics that we are committed to social justice means nothing unless our practice is rooted in a creative and collective struggle against injustice.

May Day Greetings – as the old slogan goes, ‘an injury to one is an injury to all!’ Never mind we’re all in this together………….

As something of a welcome antidote to the persistent propaganda about commissioning/competition in the world of youth work, here’s a chance to hear another side of the story.

Fionn Gregg of Voice of Youth gets in touch to say:

I am emailing you as I think you may be interested, or at least know others who are interested in this event and our workers co-operative. We are a youth workers co-op based in Hackney, East London. We run two youth clubs and do detached work, much like any other youth organisation… however, we are set up and run differently – as a co-operative! We believe in the following principles:
1. Young people choose whether and how to become involved with our groups and work.
2. Our work starts from the needs and wishes of young people in Hackney and all funding bids will reflect this.
3. We involve young people in taking action to improve their own lives and the lives of their communities;
4. We promote equality and challenge oppressive structures in society, institutions, groups and individuals, including in our own organisation.
5. We promote co-operative decision making in our own work, in our youth groups and in the communities where we work. …and that to work in this way with young people, it is important to work in a co-operative, equal manner as an organisational structure. Hence the co-operative!