National Youth Work Week
Next week – Monday 4th to Sunday 10th November 2024 is National Youth Work Week. This is an annual campaign that celebrates all things youth work related, and the theme for 2024 is “A right to youth work for all – delivering positive futures for young people.”
Backed by the National Youth Agency, which is the national body for youth work in England, the aim of National Youth Work Week this year is to highlight the many ways in which youth work spaces are made accessible to all, and how they enable young people to explore and celebrate their own identity and values.
On the run up to National Youth Work Week, the National Youth Agency is inviting young people to take part in their Art of Youth Work campaign. The campaign is supported by Gifted Young Generation protégée Britain’s Got Talent finalist Harrison Pettman; actor Tienne Simon, whose character, ‘Bishop’, was supported by a youth worker in the BBC 3 series Grime Kids; and also BSL Poet Laureate, Ismael Mansoor.
The campaign provides an opportunity for young people accessing youth work to work collaboratively to create artworks, music or other performing arts which they can unveil as part of any Youth Work Week celebration.
The brief is to create art which illustrates the richness of diversity within your youth clubs and projects including gender, race, disability and cultural identity.
Earlier this year, the National Youth Agency conducted a survey, seeking responses from 16-19 year olds from across England and receiving over 1,000 replies. The results told an interesting story, with a quarter of respondents saying that they had not heard of youth work before. Most young people reported feeling that their local area did not have enough youth club options. Less than half of young people responding said that they felt like they were a part of their local community.
You can see more details about the results of the survey at the National Youth Agency website – nya.org.uk.
