What is Youth Work/Ministry Part 1: Introduction

Have you ever thought about what really is youth work/ministry?

One of the things that really gets to me is how YW/M can be so misunderstood and therefore underrated. This is why I’m going to do a series looking at what YW/M is. First Im going to look at how the British Youth Service answer the question and how YW/M in the Church can take their answers and use them.

I should start off by saying that I have use Danny Brierley’s book Joined Up: An Introduction to Youth Work and Ministry a lot in putting this series together, its a great book that you really should get.

A little History

From its inception, statements of purpose for the youth service emphasised not only the recreational but also the educational aspects of youth work. For example, in 1951 Sir John Redcliffe Maud, the then permanent secretary at the Ministry of Education, stated that the aim of the youth service was:

‘To offer individual young people in their leisure time, opportunities of various kinds, complementary to those at home, formal education and work, to discover and develop their personal resources of body, mind and spirit and thus better equip themselves to live the life of mature, creative and responsible members of a free society.’1

The Thompson Report, Experience and Participation, expressed the view that:

‘The fundamental purpose of the Youth Service is to provide programmes of personal development comprising in shorthand terms, social and political education … The twin aims of this purpose are thus affirmation and involvement – affirming an individual in his or her proper identity and involving an individual in relationships with other individuals and institutions.’2

A number of definitions of youth work arose out of this and subsequent initiatives, including Ministerial conferences. The four core values of youth work were first defined at the 1991 Second Ministerial Conference for the Youth Service. They were termed:

Voluntary Participation
Informal education
Empowerment
Equality of opportunity.3

The youth work curriculum, Ofsted 1993, identified the four elements of the curriculum as

Educative
Enabling,
Participative
Equal Opportunities.4

The purpose of youth work is defined in the National Occupational Standards for youth work in the UK as being:

‘The Key purpose of youth work is to work with young people to facilitate their personal, social and educational development, and enable them to gain a voice, influence and place in society in a period of their transition from dependence to independence.’5

Applying the Theory

Do you initially agree with definitions above?
Would you have a theological problem in accepting these within your own practise?
Are any of these values neglected in your practise?
What are your core values that effect your work?

1 THE NATIONAL YOUTH AGENCY, 2006. Young people, Youth Work and Youth Services: An introductory guide. Leicester: The National Youth Agency.
2 THE NATIONAL YOUTH AGENCY, 2006. Young people, Youth Work and Youth Services: An introductory guide. Leicester: The National Youth Agency.
3 BRIERLEY, D., 2003 Joined up UK: SH.
4 THE NATIONAL YOUTH AGENCY, 2006. Young people, Youth Work and Youth Services: An introductory guide. Leicester: The National Youth Agency.
5 BRIERLEY, D., 2003 Joined up UK: SH.