Youth Work Ireland’s National Consensus Conference 2024, Youth Work for All takes place on Monday November 4th in The Gibson Hotel, Dublin.

This one-day conference will champion universal youth work, which is youth work for all young people, without exception with a focus on the vital importance of volunteer led youth work.

Achieving an Ireland of equality, access and participation for all young people.

About Youth Work Ireland

Youth Work Ireland is the largest youth work organisation in Ireland. We are an organisation of organisations, made up of 20 Local Member Youth Services and a national office.  Our mission is to support our members to deliver our Integrated Youth Services Model in partnership with young people, staff, volunteers and their communities.  This means that young people around Ireland who engage with any one of our services, can avail of a complete range of services and supports when they need them.  The active participation of young people is central to identifying, developing, and delivering our youth work. Together, we actively engage with over 76,000 young people every week through quality youth work.

Young Ireland asserts that, “…access to mainstream youth services is valuable for all young people, whatever their circumstances.” Youth Work Ireland shares this value and believes that, as a right, there must be access to youth work for all young people in Ireland without exception.  The Youth Work for All Consensus Conference, will explore all aspects of this aspiration, including policy intersections, the rights basis for it and the role of voluntary sector organisations in the youth work ecosystem, the needs of volunteers and young people and all other considerations which will help us to realise this important goal. Concrete steps to realise youth work for all going forward will be identified.

Policy Intersections

Attendees will actively contribute to a deeper understanding of policy context in which universal youth work can grow and succeed.  Youth work funding is, in the main, concerned with targeting specific groups of young people. We set out to explore the margins between universal and targeted responses, better understanding the connections between the two and opportunities for the co-development of these approaches to realise policy objectives.  The policy focus for many years now has been on ensuring that there are proper appropriate, focused and targeted supports and services for at risk young people.  This focus is to be welcomed and has borne fruit in terms of programme development and investment.  Now however, is the time to focus again on mainstream youth work provision and the legitimate needs of the vast majority of youth people who simply desire to experience the youth work offer in their communities.

A Rights Focus

The event, its speakers, contributors and attendees will jointly construct a Rights based understanding of universal youth work. The conference will set out the centrality of youth work in an integrated response to addressing young peoples’ aspirations and needs. The linkages between the realisation of rights and such everyday youth work will be explored.  The concept of a “right of access to youth work” will be developed within these discussions. In these ways, we will come to a deeper understanding of the rights basis for provision of youth work and identify meaningful steps to realise it.  Indeed, the conference will affirm the sectors long held view that targets youth work is best and more effectively delivered in the context of a mainstream youth work offer.

Championing and Recognising Volunteers

By attending, we show ourselves to be allies and champions for volunteers and their work in supporting young people. The event will feature volunteer’s experiences, including their challenges and successes. Together, we will recognise and celebrate the central role of volunteers and voluntary youth work in providing youth work for all.   According to the Youth Work Act 2021, youth work in Ireland is primarily provide by the voluntary sector.  The conference will reaffirm this delivery model and demonstrate the immense social capital and solidarity that such approach nurtures.

A Consensus Process

Young Ireland sets out the objective to “…ensure that young people have a role in the development and delivery of youth services.”  Youth Work Ireland as a membership organisation does this through bringing together our constituency through deliberate, consensus building conversations to identify issues of importance, to understand these and identify actions.

The events themes and discussions are premised on young people’s views of youth work and what it should be. Further discussions on the day of the event will purposely build towards a deeper consensus on the steps we need to take to realise youth work for all.