Youth Work for All - National Consensus Conference
Conference Brochure
Youth Work for All Demands
Youth Work for All Proclamation
Conference Presentations
Available soon
About our event
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.
Youth Work Ireland’s National Consensus Conference brings together young people, youth workers, policy makers and researchers to celebrate and advocate for the critical importance of universal youth work. The conference is the culmination of a year of consultations and thinking with key stakeholders in order to launch our campaign for the right of access of all young people to “youth work for all” within their communities.
The conference will launch a contemporary vision for the right of access to ‘youth work for all’ that affirms and demands the resourcing of current provision to supports clubs, youth information services and other universal services and which will be understood by all.
*This event is now sold out.
Speakers and Contributors
- Dr Tobias Flessenkemper, Council of Europe Head of Youth
- Dr Niall Muldoon, Ombudsman for Children
- Liz Canavan, Dept. of the Taoiseach
- Brian Coleman, DCEDIY
- Sean Roche, Clare Youth Service
- Lee Anna Warde, Youth Work Ireland Galway & Irish Traveller Movement
- Ger Cullen, TAG Meath Autism Group, Youth Work Ireland Meath
- Brian McManus, Clare Youth Service
- Gareth Gibson, Donegal Youth Service
- Celine Martin, Léargas
- Deaglán Ó Briain, Dept. of Justice
- Eifion Williams, Tusla
- Cormac Quinlan, Tusla
- Dr Seán Redmond, University of Limerick
- Ruth Griffin, ETBI
A Consensus Approach to Youth Work for All
During the summer of 2024 Youth Work Ireland engaged with hundreds of its stakeholders across Ireland to develop a deeper understanding of what ‘Youth Work for All’ means to young people, volunteers and youth workers. The feedback and themes that emerged has been graphically depicted by artist @xkee.ly in a series of illustrations which will be on display at the Youth Work for All conference.
Background to Youth Work for All
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.
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.
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.
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.
