So.. the weekend is finally here and it's been interesting talking with young people about what youth work means to them! (or not because I spent most of the week dealing with serious issues while my staff team spoke to young people)
Thursday & Friday have been much quieter than the start of my week mainly with catching up on paperwork and helping public health with the survey a day in the life of.... speaking to young people about what their life looks like.
Looking back at the theme of this years National Youth Work Week 'youth work for today and tomorrow' I realise how much things have changed in the 16 years I've been a youth worker. I've seen Local Authority Youth Work grow with YOF funding to develop innovative ideas and projects, pretty much anything young people can come up with...and then shrink again with cuts, closures and complete repurposing.
I work with a range of young people who are amazing but while many have an iPhone in their hand and all kinds of potential, their self belief and aspirations are not what they should be. They aren't interested in helping others as they feel no one is interested in helping them (which is a real bug bear of mine but save that for another day!!) and they feel there is no hope for them. This then comes out in the form of panic attacks, self harm, self destructive behaviour such as drug taking.
So bearing all this in mind our newly formed 'targeted' service has a pretty big target audience!!!
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