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The role of street-based youth work in linking socially excluded young people into education, training and work

This research represents the first, major, national study of street-based youth work in England and Wales. It focused in particular on work with socially excluded young people - a key target group for the Connexions service. The study investigated the geographical spread of street-based youth work, the young people it reached and its impact upon their lives.

Title: The role of street-based youth work in linking socially excluded young people into education, training and work
Authors: Joseph Rowntree Foundation
Series: JRF Findings 654
Number of pages: 4
Date published: June 2004

Key Findings

The study, undertaken by a team from the Universities of Lincoln, Luton and Durham, found:

• Street-based youth work has grown significantly in recent years: this study identified 564 projects, which had contact with 65,325 young people.

• Geographical coverage of these projects is very uneven.

• There has been a significant shift away from longer-term, area-based, projects towards short-term work with particular high-risk groups or on particular issues.

• In the majority of cases funding was short-term and this created problems with staff retention. Smaller projects were often at risk of folding.

• The projects studied were successfully reaching and working with large numbers of the most socially excluded young people.

• These projects served as an important source of information on educational and career opportunities for such young people who were often out of contact with any other agencies. The projects also appeared to be successful in reintroducing young people to education, training and employment and supporting their entry to it.

• In order to work successfully with the most excluded young people, workers believed that they had to adopt a flexible approach, based on voluntary involvement and responsiveness to the needs of individual young people. However, this was sometimes in tension with the expectations of some funders, who were concerned about single issues, the achievement of quick, quantifiable, results and the capacity of street-based intervention to control young people's behaviour.

Getting a copy

View 'The role of street-based youth work in linking socially excluded young people into education, training and work' on the Joseph Rowntree Foundation website.

Last update: 05 July 2004