Youth clubs are an essential part of society Youth
John Harris is right to suggest that youth clubs address the issues of loneliness, phone addiction and isolation that increasingly affect young people (Youth clubs in Britain have been quietly decimated. What is most telling is that few of them seem to care, October 12).
I see this every day in my role as CEO of youth charity OnSide. Whether you’re watching a teen celebrate with a youth worker after climbing a climbing wall or proudly sharing a meal cooked in the center’s kitchen with their friends, our network of youth clubs – known as Youth Zones – build the real-life connections and social skills teens need to succeed.
Austerity has led to the closure of hundreds of youth clubs and the loss of thousands of youth workers, devastating communities. Our experience in building a network of 16 youth zones, supporting 50,000 young people annually, has shown us that government funding alone is not enough to compensate for what was lost.
Instead, our model combines public investment, philanthropy and business support, along with hundreds of volunteers, to create a sustainable and growing network. In the next 18 months, we will be opening six more youth zones in cities including Grimsby, Crewe and Barnsley. As Harris says, youth clubs are not just throwbacks, they are essential parts of society.
Jimmy Misraff
CEO of OnSide
John Harris was right to draw attention to the unrecognized importance of youth clubs and the damage caused by austerity. Anyone who works with teenagers will know that the only thing they want in their lives is a “third space,” a place neither home nor school where they are in charge of their own time. How can we expect them to grow up if we don’t give them a place where they can practice being independent adults?
But it’s also worth noting that because these venues are staffed and managed, cuts to youth clubs have a particular impact on teenage girls. The only third spaces available to teenagers are outdoors and unsupervised, meaning they often end up being dominated by boys. more than 90% Outdoor facilities for teenagers in the UK are either a fenced playground, skate park or pump track, and are used by boys and young people on average by 90%.
Girls and other researchers tell me over and over again that they hate “bedroom culture” but have nowhere else to go. So, yes, we need to invest more in youth clubs, but we also need to build better public spaces that are safe and welcoming for all teens.
Susanna Walker
Frome, Somerset
Young people are becoming adults amid a mental health crisis, growing economic inactivity, social isolation and division. How to address these problems? Evidence suggests that youth work is key. Youth clubs and trained youth workers reach young people in ways that formal education, through a rigorous curriculum and focus on examinations, cannot. The UK has Scouts and Guides, but uniformed movements are not suitable for everyone. The starting point for skilled and professional youth workers is to listen to children and understand their complex lives and context.
In youth clubs, school-averse teens can explore creativity, ideas and skills at their own pace or set their own agenda. The government and local councils must view them as a valuable reproductive resource, not an economic drain.
Vivian Jackson
Walthamstow, London
Almost everything John Harris writes about youth clubs could also be said about Sure Start centers for children, which were crushed under the weight of George Osborne’s austerity policy. The “need for communication” he refers to is our global evolutionary heritage, something well-funded councils can restore. What we have now is the privatization of childhood and youth, which is a miserable and lonely condition.
Dr. Sebastian Kramer
London