Youth Work in India: Ocean in a Drop

India has made amazing contributions to the CAYWA community of international youth development learning. Youth development happens against a backdrop of a massive and growing youth demographic, and involves innovative programmes (like the 5th Space). Check out this video about youth work in India to get a taste: Ocean in a Drop.

Advertisement

London Steering Committee Meeting

Members of the steering committee met up in London for an important interim meeting to discussion and debate our vision, mission, and objectives. It was a great opportunity to clarify the project ahead, deepen our relationships and knowledge of each other’s contexts and test our thinking. 

Massive gratitude to the Commonwealth Youth Division for their ongoing support for the professionalisation of youth work, and to Tiffany and Dharshini in particular for their hard work to bring us all together. Big thanks also to Dan Moxon who provided clarity and navigation over three big days together.

Finally, blessings to all the people and organisations who were present for the meeting and are onboard this journey to create CAYWA. We started our meeting by putting the young people from across the Commonwealth in the centre of our thinking, and are building an alliance which will ultimately serve those young people, now and into the future!

Katherine Ellis, Muhammad Shahzad, Lyn Boyd, Ashraf Patel, Sushil, Tim Corney, Andrew Tandeo, James Catania, Edward Dixon, Kethania Griffiths, Glenyss James, Anya Satyanand, Brian Belton, Dharshini Seneviratne, Dan Moxon, Tiffany Daniels, Layne Robinson

An international Code of Ethics for Youth Workers?

Another agenda item for the steering committee’s work in London at the end of the month is the potential for the Alliance to adopt an International Code of Ethics for Youth Work Practice. We’d love to hear your thoughts about how you see an International Code of Ethics assisting with professionalisation in your space.

Draft International Code of Ethical Practice 2014_v1

Establishing an International Alliance

The International steering committee of the Commonwealth Youth Work Alliance is made up of  7 regional representatives from the Commonwealth have been busy since the 2nd Youth Work Conference in Sth Africa.

We are in the process of establishing a Constitution which will identify how the first Committee will be elected and how National Associations can be members of the Alliance. We have developed a Charter that the group is currently reviewing. If you want to stay in touch then make sure you are visiting our blog because we will make all the information available here. This week we hope to endorse the Charter and the Constitution.

We are all meeting in London in June to build a strategic plan. Overall this is about our and of course the Commonwealth Youth Program commitment to the Professionalisation of Youth Work.  As soon as these pieces of work have been ratified by the Steering Group we will upload them. But don’t hesitate to contact members if you have information, opinions and/or want to contribute to our strategic direction.

Feel free to contact

Tanya Powell who is the chair at trichpowell@gmail.com

Robyn Broadbent robyn.broadbent@vu.edu.au

Anya Satayand    In New Zealand  anya.satyanand@arataiohi.org.nz

or Jane Melvin in the UK   J.R.Melvin@brighton.ac.uk

or Ashraf in India ash.pravah@gmail.com     or Simon in Malta simon.schembri@gov.mt
Shahzad in Pakistan shahzad@cdapak.org or Priyadarshai in Pakistan

Perhaps you know some of us. It is a very committed group supported by the Commonwealth Youth Program.

Youth Workers Association (YWA) – History & Overview

A History of the Victorian Youth Workers Associations

Although other Australian states have attempted to establish professional associations for youth workers (most notably Western Australia), it has been Victoria who has had the longest established histories of both formal training and representative bodies for youth workers. Since the middle of last century there have been both formal university based training courses and a number of representative organisations (Maunders 1999). Of the representative bodies the earliest was The Victorian Association of Youth Leaders (VAYL) established as a training and development arm of the Victorian Association of Youth clubs in 1945. The VAYL disbanded in the early 1950s. The second attempt was the Institute of Professional Youth Leadership (IPYL) which was inaugurated in 1957. The IPYL included the aim of developing professional standards, however, it also faded away to be replaced by the Youth Workers Association (YWA) in the 1960s (Goodwin 1990).

The YWA was established in Victoria at an inaugural meeting on the 19^th of April 1968; its achievements were significant and included the development of university training and the establishment of industrial conditions. The three year diploma in youth work was established at Coburg State College in 1977. It became the first Australian degree level course of youth work training in 1982 when Coburg College merged with Phillip Institute and later with Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology to form RMIT University in 1992, where the degree continues to be offered (Maunders 1999). The state industrial award for youth workers, long championed by the YWA, was formally recognised in 1978. It covered the salaries and working conditions as well as the qualification of youth workers. However, despite these significant achievements the YWA lost direction. From the 1980s onward governments began to fund specific issue based programs such as youth employment and youth housing. Workers in these programs began to identify and organise around these issues, starting associations for youth housing or employment workers and moving their membership away from the generic YWA (Goodwin 1990; Maunders 1999, Irving et al. 1995).

The YWA was formally disbanded in 1982. The 1980s saw the emergence of a variety of loose networks beyond the issue based associations such as the Victorian Workers with Youth and the Youth Development Workers, and also a national network known as The Nation Wide Workers with Youth. However by the end of the 1980s none of these informal networks had evolved into a formal professional association (Goodwin, 1991, Irving, Maunders & Sherington 1995).

The 1990s saw the defunding and disestablishment of the last remaining Victorian youth sector peak body, the Youth Affairs Council of Victoria (YACVIC), by the then conservative state government; however, it was re-established in the late 1990s by the newly elected state Labor government. This led to the re-establishment of a YACVIC working group to explore anew the potential merits of professionalising youth work.

The YACVIC working group on professionalisation was strongly influenced by one of its members, the then newly appointed Victorian Child Safety Commissioner Bernie Geary (2006). The result was a focus on safe practice in youth work, particularly the safety of young people and workers, and the rights of young people. The recommendations of this group were for a code of ethical practice to be drafted by one of the committee members, Dr Tim Corney, a long time youth worker and youth work academic, and for a period of consultation to be undertaken on this draft by the youth sector. The result was the Victorian Code of Ethical Practice (2007).

The Re-establishment of the Youth Workers Association

This re-established Youth Workers Association (YWA) came into existence at a meeting of the sector in 2008. It was made up primarily of graduate youth workers and was strongly supported by youth work academics from Victoria University and a number of longstanding senior youth workers. The initial focus of the association was twofold. First the focus was on pay, conditions and supporting current union campaigns;  secondly on stemming the erosion of the quality and standing of youth work training by private providers. The importance of establishing the identity of youth work as a profession and carving out a distinct vocational space within the human services sector continued to be the themes driving the YWA’s development at this time (Corney & Broadbent 2007,Emslie 2009; Corney, Broadbent & Darmanin 2009).

A key identity debate occurring nationally during this period centred on who could call themselves a youth worker and on what basis (Grogan 2004; Bessant 2004a, 2004b; Sercombe 2007; Griffin & Luttrell 2011). It was argued by some (Broadbent & Corney 2008) that although youth workers may have a similar client group to other professions such as teachers, psychologists, social workers, or religious practitioners for example, youth work practice and it’s underpinning theoretical frameworks were very different from these other professions, with specific training, practice tools and a well defined body of knowledge. It was also pointed out that these other professions, in most cases, have their own professional body or industry organisation that excluded youth workers (Corney & Broadbent 2007; Broadbent & Corney 2008; Corney, Broadbent & Darmanin 2009).

Another identity issue was the annexing of the traditional ‘practice tools’ of youth work by those working within the same space, such as recreation, outdoor adventure and the arts. These recreation based practitioners, although not qualified as youth workers, were keen to legitimise their roles with young people by offering activity based solutions to the complex issues that young people faced. Broadbent (2000) countered by arguing that recreational activity based programs act primarily as a practice tool for engaging young people, and that youth workers use these practice tools to engage young people not just with the activity but beyond, to the services and community organisations relevant to meeting both their immediate and long term needs. It was noted by Broadbent (2000) that while many young people engage in services for recreation and social opportunities before issues are identified, importantly it was the rapport that was built through the use of these tools that enables youth workers to identify young people’s broader issues and needs. As such Broadbent (2000) argued that traditionally youth work had not seen these activities as standalone frameworks or solutions but rather as enablers of youth engagement, and that this set the identity of youth work apart from others working with young people in the recreation and arts space.

The sector wide meeting held in August of 2008 led to the forming of the new professional association and the first YWA board being elected at an inaugural AGM in April 2011. Reaching this point of formality in the (re)-establishing of a professional association is the culmination of what Corney, Broadbent and Darmanin (2009) referred to as the disparate nature of the industry galvanized into action as a response to the threats to its identity and practice, its industry standing and benchmark qualifications being undermined.

One of the first tasks of the new Board of the Youth Workers Association was to review its criteria for membership. In the lead up to establishment of the YWA the initially proposed membership criteria had caused considerable consternation in the sector. This was hardly surprising as the professional association was seeking to sure up the professional identity of youth work by defining its membership eligibility criteria according to a specific vocational qualification (youth work) and to demarcate its level of membership according to level/quality of qualification. The incoming Board made no change to the generally agreed minimum requirement, full membership requiring a Bachelors Degree in Youth Work, and associate membership a Diploma. However, in a nod to those in the sector who had many years of experience but no formal qualifications in youth work the YWA Board established new criteria acknowledging there could be a number of possible pathways to full membership. This included extensive industry experience and other courses that pre-dated the current youth work degree/diploma courses, and acknowledged the synergies with community development workers and the importance of community development as a practice framework of youth work both in Australia and internationally (Corney 2004a, 2004b, NYA 2010).

Meeting the needs of YWA members was deemed to be an important role for the new association and crucial to attracting members. As such during the establishment phase an industry wide survey of members was undertaken with the focus being on Youth Work skills and knowledge. The Board with the assistance of youth work academics decided to explore what underpins current youth work education in a bid to enable industry to impact on education and training of future workers.

A History of the Victorian Youth Workers Associations

Although other Australian states have attempted to establish professional associations for youth workers (most notably Western Australia), it has been Victoria who has had the longest established histories of both formal training and representative bodies for youth workers. Since the middle of last century there have been both formal university based training courses and a number of representative organisations (Maunders 1999). Of the representative bodies the earliest was The Victorian Association of Youth Leaders (VAYL) established as a training and development arm of the Victorian Association of Youth clubs in 1945. The VAYL disbanded in the early 1950s. The second attempt was the Institute of Professional Youth Leadership (IPYL) which was inaugurated in 1957. The IPYL included the aim of developing professional standards, however, it also faded away to be replaced by the Youth Workers Association (YWA) in the 1960s (Goodwin 1990).

The YWA was established in Victoria at an inaugural meeting on the 19^th of April 1968; its achievements were significant and included the development of university training and the establishment of industrial conditions. The three year diploma in youth work was established at Coburg State College in 1977. It became the first Australian degree level course of youth work training in 1982 when Coburg College merged with Phillip Institute and later with Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology to form RMIT University in 1992, where the degree continues to be offered (Maunders 1999). The state industrial award for youth workers, long championed by the YWA, was formally recognised in 1978. It covered the salaries and working conditions as well as the qualification of youth workers. However, despite these significant achievements the YWA lost direction. From the 1980s onward governments began to fund specific issue based programs such as youth employment and youth housing. Workers in these programs began to identify and organise around these issues, starting associations for youth housing or employment workers and moving their membership away from the generic YWA (Goodwin 1990; Maunders 1999, Irving et al. 1995).

The YWA was formally disbanded in 1982. The 1980s saw the emergence of a variety of loose networks beyond the issue based associations such as the Victorian Workers with Youth and the Youth Development Workers, and also a national network known as The Nation Wide Workers with Youth. However by the end of the 1980s none of these informal networks had evolved into a formal professional association (Goodwin, 1991, Irving, Maunders & Sherington 1995).

The 1990s saw the defunding and disestablishment of the last remaining Victorian youth sector peak body, the Youth Affairs Council of Victoria (YACVIC), by the then conservative state government; however, it was re-established in the late 1990s by the newly elected state Labor government. This led to the re-establishment of a YACVIC working group to explore anew the potential merits of professionalising youth work.

The YACVIC working group on professionalisation was strongly influenced by one of its members, the then newly appointed Victorian Child Safety Commissioner Bernie Geary (2006). The result was a focus on safe practice in youth work, particularly the safety of young people and workers, and the rights of young people. The recommendations of this group were for a code of ethical practice to be drafted by one of the committee members, Dr Tim Corney, a long time youth worker and youth work academic, and for a period of consultation to be undertaken on this draft by the youth sector. The result was the Victorian Code of Ethical Practice (2007).

The Re-establishment of the Youth Workers Association

This re-established Youth Workers Association (YWA) came into existence at a meeting of the sector in 2008. It was made up primarily of graduate youth workers and was strongly supported by youth work academics from Victoria University and a number of longstanding senior youth workers. The initial focus of the association was twofold. First the focus was on pay, conditions and supporting current union campaigns;  secondly on stemming the erosion of the quality and standing of youth work training by private providers. The importance of establishing the identity of youth work as a profession and carving out a distinct vocational space within the human services sector continued to be the themes driving the YWA’s development at this time (Corney & Broadbent 2007,Emslie 2009; Corney, Broadbent & Darmanin 2009).

A key identity debate occurring nationally during this period centred on who could call themselves a youth worker and on what basis (Grogan 2004; Bessant 2004a, 2004b; Sercombe 2007; Griffin & Luttrell 2011). It was argued by some (Broadbent & Corney 2008) that although youth workers may have a similar client group to other professions such as teachers, psychologists, social workers, or religious practitioners for example, youth work practice and it’s underpinning theoretical frameworks were very different from these other professions, with specific training, practice tools and a well defined body of knowledge. It was also pointed out that these other professions, in most cases, have their own professional body or industry organisation that excluded youth workers (Corney & Broadbent 2007; Broadbent & Corney 2008; Corney, Broadbent & Darmanin 2009).

Another identity issue was the annexing of the traditional ‘practice tools’ of youth work by those working within the same space, such as recreation, outdoor adventure and the arts. These recreation based practitioners, although not qualified as youth workers, were keen to legitimise their roles with young people by offering activity based solutions to the complex issues that young people faced. Broadbent (2000) countered by arguing that recreational activity based programs act primarily as a practice tool for engaging young people, and that youth workers use these practice tools to engage young people not just with the activity but beyond, to the services and community organisations relevant to meeting both their immediate and long term needs. It was noted by Broadbent (2000) that while many young people engage in services for recreation and social opportunities before issues are identified, importantly it was the rapport that was built through the use of these tools that enables youth workers to identify young people’s broader issues and needs. As such Broadbent (2000) argued that traditionally youth work had not seen these activities as standalone frameworks or solutions but rather as enablers of youth engagement, and that this set the identity of youth work apart from others working with young people in the recreation and arts space.

The sector wide meeting held in August of 2008 led to the forming of the new professional association and the first YWA board being elected at an inaugural AGM in April 2011. Reaching this point of formality in the (re)-establishing of a professional association is the culmination of what Corney, Broadbent and Darmanin (2009) referred to as the disparate nature of the industry galvanized into action as a response to the threats to its identity and practice, its industry standing and benchmark qualifications being undermined.

One of the first tasks of the new Board of the Youth Workers Association was to review its criteria for membership. In the lead up to establishment of the YWA the initially proposed membership criteria had caused considerable consternation in the sector. This was hardly surprising as the professional association was seeking to sure up the professional identity of youth work by defining its membership eligibility criteria according to a specific vocational qualification (youth work) and to demarcate its level of membership according to level/quality of qualification. The incoming Board made no change to the generally agreed minimum requirement, full membership requiring a Bachelors Degree in Youth Work, and associate membership a Diploma. However, in a nod to those in the sector who had many years of experience but no formal qualifications in youth work the YWA Board established new criteria acknowledging there could be a number of possible pathways to full membership. This included extensive industry experience and other courses that pre-dated the current youth work degree/diploma courses, and acknowledged the synergies with community development workers and the importance of community development as a practice framework of youth work both in Australia and internationally (Corney 2004a, 2004b, NYA 2010).

Meeting the needs of YWA members was deemed to be an important role for the new association and crucial to attracting members. As such during the establishment phase an industry wide survey of members was undertaken with the focus being on Youth Work skills and knowledge. The Board with the assistance of youth work academics decided to explore what underpins current youth work education in a bid to enable industry to impact on education and training of future workers.

Today

We are a dynamic group taking every opportunity to support and build capacity in the Youth Work sector

We have a financial membership category and like all try and build funds to pay some admin to support us

Our biggest venture is our conference in July which you can find here in partnership with Victoria University

Draft Constitution and Draft Charter

 

Dear global Youth Work Associations. The Commonwealth Alliance of Youth Work Associations has developed a charter, constitution and terms of reference for consultation. Please review the proposed rules for membership and voting as this is a steering group only and next year there will be elections for the FIRST CAYWA committee.  Please comment to either your regional representative or on the blog itself.

Here are the regional representatives and their email address

1. Mohammad Shazad Khan -Pakistan shahzad@cdapak.org
2. Robyn Broadbent – Australia
3. Anya Satyanand – New Zealand anya.satyanand@gmail.com
4. Tanya Merrick-Powell – Jamaica
5. JaneMelvin – UK
6. Ashraf Patel – India  ash.pravah@gmail.com
7. Andrew Tandeo – Zambia
8. James Catania
9. <ash.pravah@gmail.com>; ‘Muhammad Shahzad Khan’ <shahzad@cdapak.org>; ‘Anya Satyanand’ <anya.satyanand@gmail.com>; ‘malavika.pavamani@gmail.com’; ‘Priya’ <priyadarsha123@gmail.com>; ‘trichpowell@gmail.com’; ‘srschembri@gmail.com’; ‘kapapafrancis@gmail.com’

CAYWA draft constitution

CAYWA draft charter (1)

CAYWA Terms of Reference

The Jamaica Story

The Jamaica Professional Youth Workers Association was established 2006 which simply means we were catapulted into the development sector carrying a banner about a concept that nobody knew anything about. In Jamaica like many places globally youth are an accepted population but one that significantly exists on the margins, which is further compounded in a developing nation socioeconomic context of heavy debt burden, increasing poverty and dwindling hope. While it would be easy to say it’s been a dismal journey, it wouldn’t be honest. We’ve grown tremendously and learnt to do much with little and to work as part of broader group of youth workers and youth serving entities, which has brought true meaning to us being an association. We’ve learned to prove the principles of our practice and in that have found some good outcomes.

We are a registered entity that has learnt the hard way that to support youth development as an approach and practice we must be resourced and this cannot solely be based on international funding from development partners. Instead we have taken on the challenge of social entrepreneurship as we have promoted among youth and are establishing the association and its line of youth development products in the form of services. This will position us to begin to innovate youth development in Jamaica and the region while we reach out to well needing youth workers many of whom go unrecognized, ill-equipped and barely remunerated.

Subsequently much time and energy has been invested by this association in convening and supporting the formation of a Youth Work Alliance; because as practitioners we’ve learnt so much from reading and hearing about the work being done in others countries as well as seeing that our challenges as a practice though separated by geography are very real. This alliance of youth work associations can through collective effort leverage the power we posses as change agents in our countries and increase the visibility, recognition of viability, resources and governments’ commitment to youth development work.

The Steering committee of the Alliance has began to put a lot of work in to set the stage for the formal election and establishment of the group and as we continue to learn how to pioneer such a global move we take many lessons from our own young people who we have enabled in doing the same thing in the form of youth leadership networks. Our hope is that as many youth work related groups as possible globally will come on board and make this alliance a power brokerage in the development sector that cannot be ignored and enables youth development to take its rightful place as a viable approach and practice in development.

 

Tanya Merrick-Powell

Director, Jamaica Professional youth workers Association

Convener, Commonwealth Youth Work Alliance

The Alliance Blog

In March 2016, youth worker organisations from across the Commonwealth joined forces to establish an international coalition to advocate for the interests of young people and spearhead efforts to professionalise the youth work sector.

The steering committee include the national voices of Sierra Leone, Jamaica, England, Pakistan, India, Australia, Malta, Sri Lanka, and New Zealand.

We’re each contributing to this blog in order to tell  our national stories of professionalisation, to feed back on the work the steering committee to our people at home, and create an international dialogue about the professionalisation of youth work. We want to share our successes, challenges and thinking as we work together to build an alliance that serves our aspirations- to raise the standard and status of youth work by connecting, strengthening and championing youth work professionalisation across the Commonwealth.