The Loneliness of Youth Work
Sitting here now in this drab office on this drab, rainy day in May, I get the feeling that I’ve been climbing a mountain for fifteen years only to find that the fuckers have build another mountain on top, twice as big and twice as steep. I don’t think I’ve got the mental and physical energy to climb anymore.
So, metaphorically the mountain represents the daily grind of wading, chest-high through bullshit. I’ve got a mental image of the summit. The clarity is startling. But that’s just a vision. The reality is a jumbled mess of strategic clichés. There’s an enthusiastic buzz in the meeting room about a new initiative. It sits well on the handouts and the power-point presentation is dynamic. The power suits love it. They are impressed. They can wallow in that warm feeling that resembles post-coital languor. They eagerly display their new buzz-words and acronyms like kids display the labels on their designer clothes. I look forward to the meeting in 2 months time when we hear the feedback that despite the fact that they displayed the posters, posted the leaflets, spent £200 on a buffet, £80 on renting a room and £100 on hiring a scratch DJ... no one turned up. I could tell them now but that would be arrogant, negative and curmudgeonly.
So I’m looking up at the mountain. The lofty peaks of middle-class strategy; the precarious ridges of output driven work; the sheer-face obstacles of tedious bureaucracy; the harsh climate of prescribed funding.... and I think, why can’t someone just give me the money and the resources to work with marginalised young people? I’ve been doing it for the last 15 years and to be honest, it’s a piece of piss.
Does it sound treacherous to declare my contempt for the ECM agenda and everything it stands for? I have to be careful about this. I feel as though I’m offending some deeply religious principle of some deeply religious disciples. The last time I publicised my thoughts I destroyed all chances of ever securing employment with my local authority.
That’s enough for today I think.
So, metaphorically the mountain represents the daily grind of wading, chest-high through bullshit. I’ve got a mental image of the summit. The clarity is startling. But that’s just a vision. The reality is a jumbled mess of strategic clichés. There’s an enthusiastic buzz in the meeting room about a new initiative. It sits well on the handouts and the power-point presentation is dynamic. The power suits love it. They are impressed. They can wallow in that warm feeling that resembles post-coital languor. They eagerly display their new buzz-words and acronyms like kids display the labels on their designer clothes. I look forward to the meeting in 2 months time when we hear the feedback that despite the fact that they displayed the posters, posted the leaflets, spent £200 on a buffet, £80 on renting a room and £100 on hiring a scratch DJ... no one turned up. I could tell them now but that would be arrogant, negative and curmudgeonly.
So I’m looking up at the mountain. The lofty peaks of middle-class strategy; the precarious ridges of output driven work; the sheer-face obstacles of tedious bureaucracy; the harsh climate of prescribed funding.... and I think, why can’t someone just give me the money and the resources to work with marginalised young people? I’ve been doing it for the last 15 years and to be honest, it’s a piece of piss.
Does it sound treacherous to declare my contempt for the ECM agenda and everything it stands for? I have to be careful about this. I feel as though I’m offending some deeply religious principle of some deeply religious disciples. The last time I publicised my thoughts I destroyed all chances of ever securing employment with my local authority.
That’s enough for today I think.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Tania de St Croix on -
Hi Lenny,
I love your writing and your passion, and completely recognise what you are saying. If you are being curmudgeonly and / or treacherous then I think it's great to be curmudgeonly and treacherous! You are not alone. Not sure if you have already checked out http://indefenceofyouthwork.wordpress.com/ - youth workers all over the country who feel similarly to you are coming together. And don't let controlling employers or potential employers stop you. I'm not sure if I would get into difficult waters going in work time to the 'In defence of youth work' meeting in London this Tuesday, so I'm taking the afternoon as time off in lieu for all those weekends and extra hours I work. I hope you can get to a meeting, and don't stop having your say!
Best wishes, respect and strength,
Tania
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Permalink Reply by Lenny Sellars on -
Hi Tania
I attended one of the FDYW conferences a couple of years ago in Wigan. It was indeed very refreshing to meet people who were suffering the same frustrations. The pinnacle for me personally during that weekend was finding myself in the hotel bar locked in conversation with Tony Taylor. I felt very sorry for the poor fucker. I had a lot to say and very little time to say it in.
Conferences don’t work particularly well for me. I’m not a particularly good speaker and I get really frustrated if I can’t get something off my chest. Also, I have an extremely analytical personality so I spend a lot of time pondering until I come up with the “perfect” response. But there’s also the issue of time. Employers will generally refuse to recognize the value of these meetings. In fact it is, as you have alluded, contrary to their own interests. And the very little personal time I have left is generally spent convincing my wife and kids that I love them too.
Somethings gotta give. I’ve been at odds with the system for the past 15 years, in fact, we now seem to be walking in opposite directions. I’ve tried to push against it but it’s too big. I’ve even tried to ignore it but the fact is it owns the tools that I need to do my work. The system seems to have got much more aggressive over the years. It wears an imperious sneer and it keeps wasting vast amounts of money on initiatives that defy logic. And this is where I am fucked because I have one of those heads that refuses to engage with the illogical. So it isn’t that I won’t play it’s more that I can’t play.
I think one of the main problems we now have for reclaiming effective youth work is that it has been (and still is as I type) travelling in the wrong direction at 100 mph. And to be honest, there’s nothing left to reclaim. The management structures have all been recruited and constructed on the basis of their administrative strengths. They fear innovation because innovation is unpredictable. Face-to-face youth workers seem to be judged on their ability to gather information and on how much bullshit you can fit on a monitoring sheet.
So, to the creation of a parallel youth service. One which engages with real young people with real issues. Leave the more functional kids to the existing youth service. They can wallow in accreditations and create school councils for every day of the week. Have youth workers got the bollocks* to effect change? Are there enough "real" youth workers left who give a shit?
Lenny
(*that is such a politically incorrect term to use and I do apologise sincerely)
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