I've only just read this "open letter" by Tony Taylor. Spot on! An excellent reflection of the tragic state of youth work today. It’s as if Tony has stood up from the heaving crowds and pointed out that the Emperor is in fact in the buff and looks a right t!t.
It’s a fantastic battle-cry, Tony. The problem arises, of course, when you look around to find the crowd have continued cheering the Emperor and ignore your very existence. When you ask people to stand up and be counted, I have a sinking feeling that our minority status may well have reached a state of statistical impotence. As I’ve said before, youth work (“real youth work”) is a lonely place to be.
I wrote a paper in 1999/2000 as contribution to the work being carried out by Blunkett’s Skills Policy Action Team. It was largely an empirical piece focused on the particular barriers facing working-class young males entering into education, employment and training (sound familiar?). The conclusions I came to at the time were that youth work was aspiring to the same dizzy heights of the Social Services – loosing connection with the world outside whilst wallowing in the esoteric ambience of Über-professionalism. I was quite bitter back then. Of course, when Blunkett’s response was to create the bewildering marble temples of the criminally irrelevant Connexions Service... well, I almost imploded.
One day, when it is far too late, someone, somewhere will listen to the very basic laws of nature. It doesn’t matter how much you polish and decorate your systems, your procedures or your policies, it is the relationship between worker and young person that is the most essential factor for effective youth and community work.