What is global youth work really all about?

9 June 2006

Peter Landers, Chief Executive of Newport YMCA, has over 30 years’ youth work experience, and has seen at first-hand the benefits for young people of engaging in global youth work through carrying out global youth work in his YMCA in partnership with Y Care International. He has worked on international projects for over 20 years, including international youth camps, youth worker training for the countries in the Caucasus Region, and exchange project. 

Delivery and education

For me, Y Care International is about two things: delivering projects that improve the lives of young people in the developing world, and educating young people at home about development issues. It's not enough to do one without the other.

Global youth work is the name Y Care International gives to its work with young people in the UK and Ireland. I think it is with global youth work in all its elements, that we can make the greatest contribution to our work.

So what is global youth work? For me it is using global issues in the process of personal development - a process which sits at the heart of everything we do in the YMCA.

Encouragement

How do we do it? It can be as simple as encouraging young people to fundraise for people in the developing world who are less fortunate than they are - and explaining why it's important. 

It can be helping young Somalians living here to understand the context of their lives in urban Britain set against the lives of communities in war-torn rural Somalia.

It can be ensuring that all young people who take part in YMCA activities are aware of the concept of human rights and are challenged to confront abuses of human rights in their own lives and in wider society.

Challenging

It's about challenging young people to confront injustice when it is caused by politicians, multinational companies or careless young people.

It's about caring for our physical environment and seeking to challenge young people to live in a way which preserves the world for generations to come and to seek a greater equality of opportunity across the whole world.

So it's no big deal!

But to be serious, we are not saying that young people shouldn't enjoy things, do things or eat Big Macs, just that we need to make all young people consider and understand the consequences of their actions for all of the world's young people.

This is what we mean by global youth work.

Taking young people abroad on exchanges or visits is mere youth tourism if we don't understand the context of the societies we visit and look past the stereotypes to appreciate the true nature of people's lives in the developing world.

Where to look for answers

The global youth work agenda of Y Care International and the YMCA movement does not offer easy answers to difficult questions. Rather, it makes sure that young people have a clear understanding of what the questions are and, maybe, where we would look for answers.