Resumen de Extending Entitlement: Youth work and its place in youth policies in Europe
‘Youth work’ and ‘youth policy’ have, far too often and usually misguidedly, been thrust together in debates within the youth sector at a European level. It is an erroneous, though not completely inappropriate connection. My contention, as somebody very committed to the value as well as the values of youth work but also as somebody with high-level experience in youth policy development and implementation, is that ‘youth work’, however important, remains a tiny fragment of overall ‘youth policy’ considerations, even in the best instances rarely more than 1% of the resources allocated to formal education, let alone those allocated to other youth policy fields such as employment, training, housing, health or justice. Yet this paper does seek to draw attention to the growing youth policy acknowledgement at a European level of ‘youth work’, culminating in the current momentum, supported by both the European Commission and the Council of Europe, around the ‘Bonn process’ –the practical measures being taken to support the implementation of a European Youth Work Agenda–. My own personal and professional background encapsulates the so-called ‘triangle’ of youth (work) practice, youth research and youth policy. Other than being a UK ‘JNC’ nationally qualified ‘professional’ youth worker who ran an open youth centre for 25 years, I was also a youth work educator and trainer, an external examiner for a range of youth work education and training courses, a contributor to national youth work strategies and a writer on youth work issues. I wrote a column for a youth work magazine for over 30 years. Beyond youth work, however, I conducted research on a whole spectrum of youth questions, from the transition from school to work, to substance misuse and criminal justice. My ‘Milltown Boys’ trilogy, a longitudinal ethnography of young offenders over their lifetime, is a unique contribution to youth research. At a policy level, I have been involved, since the 1980s, in many aspects of public policy, within and beyond the youth sector, at a number of levels of governance: Welsh Government, UK government, the European Commission, the Council of Europe and the United Nations. This background and experience, I hope, establishes some credentials for the commentary that follows.
