Youth workers fear weekend projects could turn into hangouts for drunken teens under government proposals to provide more activities for young people on Friday and Saturday nights.

Read: Workers fear weekend drinking.

Its a funny old world. Many of us who have been around youth work for a while will no doubt be suprised and hopefully dismayed by the concerns expressed by Youth Workers\(?)within the CYPN article about the call for increased weekend provision. Youth Work is not and should not be a sterile environment where no cahllenge is offered with regards to young people's behaviour, conversely youth work has a long tradition of engaign the hardest to reach and having a positive impact through creative engagement. Surely the only response we would expect to hear from capable and creative youth workers in response to the governments long awaited support for our work is... Give us the resources and we will do the rest!!! PS. if it wasn't for the friday night disco at the local youth club, youth work would neve rhave seemed such an attractive career choice to come of us.

I find Susie Roberts comments slightly hilarious. At my first youth work job there was originally one club open on Wednesday evenings attended by about 13 young people. It was poorly run, volunteers wouldn't allow young people to run the tuck shop because they would steal the sweets - yet did the same themselves, the young people that attended didn't respect the facilities or the volunteers and parents in the area wouldn't allow their children to attend because of the reputation of those young people attending.

I closed it down to start afresh, spoke to young people that weren't attending and asked them what they'd like to do - disco's they answered. We talked about it further and they actually wanted to run their own disco's. We had no equipment to do so though so we started fundraising activities to buy some. At the same time I faced endless discussions that disco's are not youth work, and also that I should never have shut down the original club because those were the young people I should work with. The management committee wouldn't support the idea of disco's.

Well we persevered & to cut the story short the end result was a team of young people who met twice a week to practice running disco's - djing, hosting, organising games & activities, running the tuck shop, managing the money, buying new equipment & music and so on. On Friday evenings 100 young people would attend two disco's (for different age groups), on Saturdays 60 would attend in the function room at the local pub, on Thursdays they ran an under 18 night for the city at a local nightclub, they worked in teams so that one team was available for private functions - weddings, parties, fun days - all bringing in an income that not only supported the disco project but also supported other clubs - football teams, a girls only club, a fishing club and various residentials. They also ran the disco's for the other youth centres in the city and eventually were asked to help train up young people for similar projects in those areas.

So get off your high horse, extend your imagination a little and look at how youth workers can use those degrees to run creative projects that provide plenty of opportunity for young peoples personal development, plenty of opportunities for building and developing relationships and that can set a positive example for other young people to aspire to. It's sad that somebody representing youth services seems to be stuck putting forward the same arguments I faced 13 years ago - theres plenty of examples of good purposeful provision using activities young people enjoy so why not put some energy towards encouraging those? Isn't that the kind of example we should be setting for young people?

As a youth worker with over 10 years experience weekend working has proved difficult. Particuarly Friday evenings. I would have concerns that young people would arrive having been drinking.Whatever happens young people will drink on a Friday as they see it ahs party night - Just like adults! Youth Workers are not policemen and should not be put in a position where they may be at risk due to the drink related behaviour of young people. This is not our job.

Addiitonally, having run weekend activties at the request of young people only for them not to turn up. I would question do young people REALLY want the activties or if they just want the option of coming. just like adults may support the 24 hour drinking law because they want the option of staying for an extra pint after 11pm.

Furthermore getting staff to work every weekend is tough as they want to spend time with their families at weekends.
I am all in favour of providing constructive, varied development opportunities for young people, but they must right for all concerned not just becuase it looks bad to see young people out and about.

 Mas, I was about to say that too.  I am pretty sure that not all young people are out drinking every Friday and Saturday night and depending on what age we are talking about, the majority probably are not. But the drunk ones in the town centre are more visible (in the media and in actuality) than the many who are round each others houses, at the cinema, watching TV with their family, whatever.

It's like the idea that every teenager is having sex - people don't tend to go round shouting "look at me, look at how I'm not having sex" (unless they have signed up for some abstinence programme) so they are not visible.

indeed - something else to throw in too is that while it may be that you just have to accept that a portion of young people will drink no matter what, how many are there that may not drink if there was something better for them to do? Or to put it more frankly if your provision is so dull that not turning up or hanging around drinking is a more attractive proposition maybe you need to revisit what you're offering?

First apoliogies for previous typo's - more a conversation person myself.

I accept their might be personal reasons as to why youth workers might not want to find themselves working weekends. But in the main I guess they are just that, personal.

 The Youth Work profession has been built upon an ethic of working with young people, in places and spaces created for them, by them and in the places and spaces that they can be found. Now I accept that an increasing number of youth workers do just that on a daily basis, but when they look around they find themselves working in schools and then struggle to square the circle of informal education in formal environments. JNC terms and conditions have long reflected the unusaul working patterns and circumstances  of youth workers and the best practicioners have been grateful of that recognition.

With regards to notion that degree qualified workers should not be running friday night disco's.  If we are not willing to embrace the idea that:

 A) youth clubs are important spaces that provide opportunity for meaningful engagement with young people around iportant subjects as a result of their association then what are they for? Surely the more inventive workers can translate curriculum thinking into the weekend provision i.e friday night disco curriculum areas might be sex, drugs and rock n roll! :)

B) that when the govenment seeks to support the development of provision for young people beyond the environs of formal education, then we should collectively embrace it and make it work for them as young people and us as youth workers, (not as baby sitters soft coppers or teaching assistants).

 We should bring the distinctive contribution youth work has to make to the situation. This in my mind at least provides the best 'defense of youth work' available. Of course we should bear in mind the personal constraints our individual circumstances place upon us, this has always been so, however, as the mantra goes; who's needs are we tryin to meet?

My experience in running Friday evening youth work in a town centre based youth club is that whatever we put on does not compete with alcohol and house parties. Yes some young people do come but the majority prefer to attend 'drink night' I agree in offering the weekend provision but certainly where I am it is not being taken up. It is pretty stupid for youth workers to try and judge other youth clubs when the have no idea what they have offered and the kind of young people they are working with. we cannot put young people in a box and say that all want the same thing. Some want Friday night provison and some just don't!

@Stephen its refreshing and heartening to hear your views and good to balance that there of course good youth workers able and willing to see positive aspects to the challenges of working with young people at weekends.

@Matt the argument there's no point trying because all young people drink on Fridays sounds very much like a box to me. In your own words "Some want Friday night provision and some just don't" - so what's the problem with making provision for those that do?

The argument and discussion about alcohol and Youth Projects opening at weekends are getting rather confused - The Problem of young people drinking is neither a reason for or against Opening Projects at Weekends - it is more about Many youth workers have always done a certain amount of weekend working - but the government and certain local authorities fail to recognise this, the more worrying problem is that government in the ignorance want to continue to use it as a form of social control and in the face of increasing cuts to services across the country (despite Ed Balls insinuation that they are giving enough to local authorites to run services for young people it is not the reality)

In the preamble to the Open For the Weekends Document Beverly Hughes one of the Ministers who has now gone out of shame for her misuse of expenses states "Teenagers are no different from us - they don't want to be with their friends on Monday Mornings - Doesn't she realise at that time they are in schools ????  Can this government get anything right. The percentages of those for and against opening or not are like most figures banded about this Government and bodies like National Youth Agenncy who are complicet with taking youth services to a position where they cannot and are not being defended. The prolem is all workers have to spend their time putting in funding requests for even the most basic work eg summer activity schemes which are demanded at every level without out any guarentees - all funding is short term and illogical because the level of managament in this country at every level is abhorrent.

Give young people their due they deserve better than they are getting - the biggest drink problem is with the 19 - 55 year olds not the youth

 To be fair, Beverley Hughes said she was resigning for "personal reasons" and specifically denied that she was standing down due to the ongoing expenses scandal

This is a facinating thread for sooooo many reasons. But let us think about this. What things are there for young people in most communities (especially rural communities):

- Going around to each other's homes (well, a number of adults sadly do not always welcome young people in with open arms - my mom did, my dad did not)

- Sports clubs - sadly not often a Friday or Saturday Evening Activity, same with performing arts groups (When I was in Bedfordshire Youth Theatre, it was a midweek and Saturday morning activitity).

- Cadet Corps, Scout Movements etc. - there is a stigma sadly for people attending these (I was a proud Sea Cadet, but many of my friends dropped out because of either the commitment or stigma).

- Activities that are expensive and require transportation such as the cinema, bowling etc.

There is little left.

 But working with young people on the weekends (when real issues around family and relationship stability can crop up), is lacking in so many areas. Discos don't happen so often due to the concerns and risks. It is no wonder some young people go down a negative pathway that could be avoided.

 I have really fond memories of Michael Jackson dance offs in my local Youth club as a lad, and my wife remembers a special trip to see a new band with that cute kid Robbie, as well as Gary, Jason, Marc and co at the local leisure centre.

My most touching experience as a teen volunteer in Student Community Action was youth work, where we ran a wargames and fantasy role play society on Saturdays and a film night on the Saturday Night. The girls wanted to act, so we also had a tribute to Grease Drama project on a Friday night. During that year of those projects, teenage pregnancy, A&E admissions and offending behaviours went down. And the best thing is, I bumped into a young man in the pub when I went to a college reunion a few years ago. He ran up to me, hugged me, and asked to buy me a drink. When I realised it was one of the young people I worked with, I was amazed. He insisted on buying me a drink as a thank you. He said those weekend activities kept him off the streets, he drank and got stoned less, and it led to him getting a job on a building site. When I met him, he was actually the assistant site manager, had a wife and 2 kids (both born a couple of years after the wedding).

 To me, that is the reason for weekend services. We are here for our customers and to respond to their needs. Weekends tend to be when the work is needed the most, particularly for those on the cusp. I gladly gave up my weekends then, and I do occassionally now (in a voluntary capacity now that I am no longer on the front line).

loving that he bought you a drink for helping him drink less during his youth :-)

Can't say I've ever been convinced youth services respond to the needs of their 'customers' - they instead determine what they perceive to be their needs, seemingly oblivious to the irony of subsequent claims to be youth led, empowering et al.

mas:

loving that he bought you a drink for helping him drink less during his youth :-) 

 Lol - the big difference was he only had a couple rather than being off of his face ;-)