Youth Work

About Us and Youth Work

What is youth work?

Youth Work seeks to promote young people’s personal and social development and enable young people to have a voice, an influence and a place in their communities and society as a whole.  Youth work aims to help young people gain control of their own lives. Youth worker’s build relationships of trust with young people and work with young people to provide a range of opportunities, which are designed to release their potential. In Herefordshire youth workers work with young people from the age of 11-25, with particular emphasis on the 13-19 age group. Youth services can be a complex network of providers, community groups, voluntary organisations and the local authority working in partnership to deliver services for young people.  Partners could also include community safety and drugs, police, town and parish council, teenage pregnancy and many more. Youth workers will also provide support and guidance for young people around issues, which are of concern for them individually.  They also might act as an advocate on behalf of a young person or provide support to enable a young person to make an informed decision.

How is youth work carried out?

Youth work is carried out in various locations, using a range of approaches.  These include:-

• Building-based:  youth centres, village halls, community centres and clubs which are operated directly by the local authority or by voluntary and community organisations.
• Detached work:  making contact people in their own environments eg parks, shopping centres, the street etc.
• Targeted Youth Support (TYS) in schools and colleges:  youth workers deliver specialist personal support programmes to help young people integrate and access mainstream education.
• Youth forums and councils:  encouraging young people to learn about and engage in democratic processes to ensure their views form part of the development of policies.
• Specialist projects:  focussing on action projects ie the arts, photography, sailing etc.

Youth Review 2011

A review of the Herefordshire Youth Service was commissioned by Herefordshire Public Services following the budget setting process undertaken in February 2011. The purpose of the review was to:

• Identify ways in which the vision for young people’s services could be achieved.
• Address how youth work could be directed more toward targeted intervention, and ensuring the needs of the most vulnerable are met, utilising youth work skills.
• Establish how communities and the voluntary sector could be better engaged in improving universal provision, and making it more locally relevant and available.
• Identify how reductions to the current youth service budget could be achieved.

The review report and appendices are available for download below.

Respond to the Youth Review