Voluntary Sector Youth Organisations

1. Voluntary Sector Youth Organisations

2. What is youth work? • Focusing on young people – on their informal learning and personal and social development. • Young people chose to come and get involved • Joining together in groups • Friendly and informal youth workers, who act with integrity • Building trusting relationships • It’s also effective and low cost!

3. Targeted work • Young people are referred/ have to attend– becomes compulsory • Young people can be seen as ‘problems’ • Youth workers end up being focussed on targets and achievement– not about the relationship with young people. • Short-term work • Trusting relationships!

4. What is the ‘voluntary sector’? • Organisations that don’t work for profit • Includes: charities, community groups, churches, mosques, other faith groups, social enterprises... • Independent • Interconnected with statutory services • Not just volunteers.

5. Show us the money? • Grants – from government and local authority • Grants from independent trust funds • Donations and fundraising • Contracts – to do a specific piece of • work • Selling stuff! – goods or services.

6. Challenges • A lot of voluntary sector agencies will be affected by government cuts too • More competition for existing resources • Haven’t necessarily got the capacity to fill the gaps left by statutory services • If we take government funding we become less independent • Market now open to private sector or ‘large out of town’ agencies

7. For further information: • http://www.indefenceofyouthwork.org.uk/wordpress/ • http://www.ncvys.org.uk/ • http://www.cywu.org.uk/ • http://www.cywu.org.uk/assets/content_pages/187799973_Benefits_Of_Youth_Work.pdf