"But why"

Something very interesting came out in a conversation today. Sat around three tables are a group of adults who have been around the circuit for a while, in a number of roles and guises, and right now are potentially considered the "leading thinkers" in their field.

So having an after dinner discussion about how we can develop good youth involvement practice is a fairly standard exercise and one which most in the room are used to. Conversation bounces around the different models and methods, bats between the idea of governance and programme, and dances across tokenism. Standard values are shared in the room; the usual conversation emerges. Some people throw in some hand grenades to gauge a reaction or challenge a standard, but for the large there is good discussion about progression along the route of youth involvement.

One point did grab my attention more so than any other, and it was this:

"but why?"

A good question. Why are we investing so much money, resource, and time into youth involvement? What is the point? Is this just something we can put on our CV that we can tick this box?

As a youth worker, I am constantly challenged, and actually thrive from being questioned as it encourages me to step back and engage in the reflective practice which is so highly regarded and rarely utilised.

Why do we want to do youth involvement? Yes it is aspirational. Yes it ticks the box that Article 12 of the UN rights of a child set out for us. Yes it looks good.

But what will we benefit from doing it? I have no facts to answer this question so will use my experience as a guide.

By engaging young people in youth involvement (under all guises - asking a simple question to sitting at a board table), we are creating intergenerational dialogue. Dialogue between an adult who is in a trusted position of responsibility, with a young person. Adults in this position have the key to be able to change lives through their interactions with young people, and I believe that the core of quality youth work is voluntary participation. This essentially means that a young person makes a choice to engage or not, and cannot be forced. The magic key that fits alongside this is building positive relationships.

Let's use an example of a youth group leader, they could easily have a growing provision which works well and young people come to (and indeed keep coming back to). But for me, the thing we are analysing here is not numbers, but impact. Take the same group, but the leader takes time to consult their participants with what they want to do - the programme is then tailored to meet the needs of the group and young people. In meeting their needs, we are actively promoting their development through one way or another. A young person could suggest they want support around finance and budgeting - the leader provides a game or intervention that gives that young person the chance to explore finance in a safe way, and then leaves that experience having developed in some way.

Another reason for youth involvement is that by opening the dialogue to become a two way conversation we are setting an example of listening and responding. If we listen to what someone wants and then provide it for them, we are building a relationship of trust - for some young people, this may be the only positive relationship they have with an adult.

If we stretch the conversation further, and actually work with a young person to develop something that is tailored to meet their needs, and is actually delivered by themselves then they have the chance to learn a whole range of skills which are not taught in school - learning by making mistakes, developing confidence, learning to plan an activity and complete risk assessments.. It could be anything, but these skills are distinctly lacking in a school curriculum where young people are fed information in a didactic manner. Opening a conversation allows for challenge and development.

In my opinion, it is worth identifying why we are doing something to justify the expense before we do it. Having a purpose to hang our good intentions off helps, but regards youth involvement it is the outcome and not the number that is the key here. If we get it right we will reap the benefits of growing a provision at an even bigger rate, because the quality of delivery and the topic of delivery infill be improved. We also run the risk of "skilling up" young people who could then become leaders themselves and give something back. Then we will be able to count numbers.

To me, for an organisation that promotes the personal, intellectual, social and spiritual development of young people - youth involvement seems like an obvious next step.

However, unless we try we will never know. Maybe now is the time to take a deep breath, and get on with it.