Youth work is value based and its core principles are that it needs…

to be actively inclusive and offer equal opportunities to all young people.

This core principle relates to the fact that all young people should have access to local quality youth work. All young people having access does not, however, mean that all youth work activities should be open to all young people. There will always be a need for targeted youth work in order to reach certain groups and/or to handle specific issues. Young people will always organise themselves on the basis of ideas and interests that, in practise, exclude other groups.

What this core principle states is that if some groups, e.g. girls or young migrants, are not reached there has to be outreached youth work that actively invites them and offers them the same opportunities as the majority benefits from.

It also means that youth work that directs itself to all young people, for example an open youth centre, must secure that it does not discriminate any group of young people. Besides obvious rules for admission, etc., this also means that it has to see to that there are no forms of in-direct discrimination through the way activities are initiated, organised, marketed and carried out. All young people must, in this case, feel invited and confident that they will have a fair and respectful treatment when taking part.

Bulletpoint illustration thumbs up

Do you agree on what this means in practice?
Do you agree on to what degree youth work meets this bullet point? 
Here you find the questions you need to discuss to find out! 

If you think that this is something you need to work on, click the “Add to development agenda” button below. You will then find your agenda on your personal page and be able to start a development process. 

Please note! 
If you start a development process related to this bullet point you will find the below questions also under the page “Discuss and assess”. There you will also be able to take notes. 

Questions to discuss 

  • Are there groups of young people that local youth work does not reach?
    • Is youth work actively trying to reach out to underrepresented groups?
  • Is local youth work mainly focusing on the young people that already take part, more or less forgetting about those that are not automatically reached?
  • Are local youth work activities designed and marketed in a way that in practice exclude certain groups, e.g. are they gender stereotype and send the message that they are mainly directed towards boys?
  • What are the risks of only reaching a rather homogeneous group of young people?

References & tips