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Report
from the
UK
Federation for Detached Youth Work, May 2010.
The
UK Federation for Detached Youth Work has been working hard recently. A new
executive committee, voted in at last November’s annual conference, has agreed
a range of actions that they hope will advance the cause of detached and
street-based youth work both at home and abroad.
A
particular focus is to build upon the immensely successful national conference
of 2009, which aimed to promote more positive attitudes to the street. The
conference agreed that a context of La
Securité did little to support young people’s personal and social
education, especially in public space. A range of workshops identified the
positive value of pro-social interventions
and the capacity that street work has to support young people’s involvement in
community development and political decision-making systems.
The
desire for optimism was tinged with a realisation that bureaucratic systems
continue to inhibit progressive practice and the flexibility and mobility that
are the hallmarks of effective interventions. Members of the Federation have
been contributing to an information-gathering process designed to expose the
debilitating extent to which workers have to record and account for their work
on the basis of narrow systems of measurement and monitoring. A call was made
for a celebration of evaluation and accountability, as concepts by which street
workers were happy to be judged by - ways of viewing the world that are
sympathetic to the subtleties of detached youth work.
Further
afield, the Fed. made a contribution to the recent EU conference ‘Mutual
Learning on Active Inclusion and Homelessness’ in Brussels alongside
Dynamo International
lynch pin Edwin de Boevé . Reporting back on the outcomes of Project Progress,
it made recommendations about future European youth policy.
Speaking
of policy, this is an important time. The Belgian Presidency of the EU has
identified ‘youth’ as a focus. The forthcoming international conferences in
Pamplona
and
Brussels
will be attended by
UK
delegates, keen to contribute to a dialogue on how best to influence policy
makers. Likewise, the July meeting of youth work historians in
Ghent
represents an opportunity to inform the future through the exploration of the
history of European Street Work.
A
recent visit to
London
from street work colleagues from
Germany
proved another wonderful example of the value of cross cultural and mutual
learning. A number of those present will be working together, it is hoped, on an
EU funded research programme into street work interventions into combating and
preventing street violence. Projects from
England
,
Germany
and
Austria
have invested a lot of time in putting together a bid to the Daphne III
programme and look forward to a positive response from commissioners in the near
future.
The
UK Federation for Detached Youth Work continues to exist on a shoe-string but
takes heart from the revenue it makes from well attended conferences and the
sale of guide books it has produced detailing good practice in detached youth
work. At least it is free to think and act, to a large degree, outside of an
oppressive culture of funder prescribed outcomes.
In
sum, the Fed. is in good shape, optimistic about the future, and continues to
celebrate the positive benefits of engagement with colleagues in other countries
- and the contribution this makes to improving services to young people in our
country.
A
final comment about the commitment many detached youth workers in the
UK
are making to their own professional development: many, many, are embarking on
post-graduate training. Knowledge is power; a luta continua!
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