A day in the life of Stuart

10 July 2007

Stuart Wroe is Y Care International's Senior Campaigns and Global Youth Work co-ordinator. Here Stuart talks about how during his time with Y Care International, there has been a huge increase in the number of local YMCAs in the Midlands and northern England engaging with global youth work.

Stuart Wroe is Y Care International's Senior Campaigns and Global Youth Work co-ordinator.

Before joining Y Care International in 2002 he used his background in development and youth work to design and lead several international youth projects.

In Stuart's time with Y Care International he has seen a huge increase in the number of local YMCAs in the Midlands and northern England engaging with global youth work.

Can you describe a typical day?

Sorry, I can't. The majority of the week, and quite often the weekend, I am out and about in the region I cover - which contains over 80 YMCAs - either busy planning global youth work activities and workshops, or working with groups of young people and their youth workers in local YMCAs.

Like Y Care International's partner YMCAs in developing countries, YMCAs in my patch of England respond to the needs of their local communities with youth-focused work that also benefits the wider community. As each independent YMCA's work differs from the next, the global youth work I engage in with them is also different. This makes for a varied and interesting day!

What do you enjoy about your job?

Firstly, it is always enjoyable if your job corresponds with something you firmly believe in. Y Care International's mission is to work in partnership with young people worldwide through the YMCA movement to help them enrich their lives and to build a more just world, free from poverty. Not many people have a job that involves building a more just world, free from poverty. What a challenge though!

In working in partnership with young people in YMCAs in England, it has become clear that they have a natural empathy and resonance with disadvantaged and excluded young people in YMCAs throughout the developing world. What's more, they build on that empathy and start taking action to address some of the inequalities in this world.

And when a group of young people in a YMCA campaigns on behalf of imprisoned young people in Honduras, fundraises for communities devastated by the December 2004 Tsunami, or stages an exhibition to explore globalisation and the lives of young women in Colombia, it's the best feeling in the world.

Why do you think it's important for youth workers to get involved in global youth work?

Global issues are part of young people's and youth workers' lives in so many different ways. Television, the internet and streaming news channels bring the world into our everyday lives.

For many young people globalisation has brought greater opportunities than any previous generation, and it provides a tremendous range of ways for youth workers to start exploring young people's place in the wider world. We eat food from other countries, our mobile phones and clothes are often made outside the UK, and our communities are increasingly multicultural.

Yet for millions of other young people, globalisation has led to greater inequalities that disadvantage them in every aspect of their lives. One in five of the world's population still lives in extreme poverty. Global poverty impacts negatively on us all, and knowing more about global issues is important for helping young people make choices about how they want to lead their lives.

How is your job and involvement in youth work different from a teacher's?

Teachers already do a lot to promote the global dimension in schools - for example through the National Curriculum's citizenship programme, which is statutory in Key Stages 3 and 4. Y Care International's global youth work in local YMCAs is complementary to this statutory provision, but global youth work, as provided by voluntary youth work organisations such as the YMCA, is about enhancing the personal and social development of young people through their voluntary participation in global issues.

Also, YMCA youth work is less formal and structured than the National Curriculum and, crucially, young people themselves are involved in designing, planning and delivering global youth work. Another key difference from the work of teachers is that through Y Care International's global youth work, we seek actions to bring about greater fairness and justice in this world.

I don't believe I'm an expert in global youth work as each time I help facilitate young people and colleagues in local YMCAs to engage in this area I learn something new alongside them. If the few local YMCAs in the Midlands and Northern England not currently engaging with global issues want to help me learn some more, they know where I am!