January 2024
Written by
Liz Ackerley, University of Manchester
In their book Informal Education, Childhood and Youth, Sarah Mills and Peter Kraftl argue that “informal educators experiment with the hopeful, if not utopian, potentialities of everyday practice in order to raise the consciousness of young people so that – if only in a minor way – the seeds of social or political transformation may be sown” (p.11). Throughout my PhD research with the Manchester-based youth-informed equalities organisation RECLAIM I saw many examples of hopeful, everyday, transformative practice. This came through in the ways that young people talked about change-making, as well as through the relationships of care and solidarity that exist between staff and young people. In this short blog I share some reflections on how the young people I spoke to described and engaged in activism, as well as the importance of intergenerational relationships for supporting young people to create social change. I finish with some reflections on the challenges posed by years of austerity measures, and what this means for youth work services and the young people and adults who make them.
Turning first to the question of what activism is, in discussing this young people frequently drew on examples that could be described as ‘quiet’ and/or personal political actions. Activism was depicted as something that happens across a variety of different scales; it’s something that’s found in care towards others, such as standing up for a friend, as well as directly engaging with more formal political spaces such as through government lobbying. As one young person, Sally1, 15, explains:
“So I feel that activism can take place in your everyday life, in the simple things that you take part in, but it can also be something big, something that’s organised, something that’s set apart beforehand. Or even something that someone could do by telling a friend when they say something offensive about someone else, saying oh that’s wrong, you shouldn’t say that, you should be respectful towards that person […] there’s also demonstrations, protests, things like that, or speaking in government lobbying different things that you can do on a larger scale for different things.“
In terms of where and how activism happens young people described ‘activism’ as a more hopeful and less exclusionary space than ‘politics’ for young people to challenge inequalities, reinforcing the idea of activism as care with and for others:
“[…] in my opinion, so activism is best effective at ground level. So in communities, in the…certain levels of society, I think it really works and it builds sort of togetherness, sort of hope, those types of things. But I think, when it comes to like political things and like when it comes to policies and things like that, I generally agree, if the Government don’t want it to change, certain things won’t change.” (Leah, 18)
As Leah notes, there is a tension between community and grassroots activism, and change at what could be described as a ‘formal’ political level. However, what is clear from both quotes is the importance of everyday relationships and acts of care for creating change in the lives of young people and those around them. Leah however raises an important point about the disconnect between those making more formal political decisions, and the changes young people might want to see and are working towards at a community level. Her point highlights therefore how important political representation is, and the changes needed to ensure that those making large scale political decisions understand the needs and desires of the communities they serve2.
Continuing with the theme of care and connection and how this supports young people’s activism, throughout the research relationships of care between young people and former and current staff at RECLAIM were described as hugely important. These relationships supported young people to feel a strong sense of equality between themselves and the staff members, as Chloe, 18, explains:
“[…] if anyone had an idea for a campaign or just like a workshop, it was definitely listened to […] I just felt very heard when I had an idea or an issue or anything like that, so… And it was always sort of like adult to adult almost […] it never felt like there was sort of us and them with the staff ever.“
Young people also described a sense of intergenerational class solidarity which supported them to feel at ease within the organisation, as well as giving them a vocabulary with which to discuss their experiences of being a young working-class person; Leah, 18, elaborates:
“I don’t think anybody had ever sat in front of us and said like, you are working-class young people, and that’s nothing to be ashamed of. But it is something that in life, that it’s…you automatically, you’re a couple of a steps behind those that aren’t […] And it made us start looking at the world and dynamics of the world, and actually seeing, oh, yeah, that is unfair, that is unjust.“
Strong relationships of care supported young people to develop critical thinking skills and fostered feelings of capability and power to fight for social change, as well as increasing the likelihood of young people remaining engaged with RECLAIM and activism. These relationships however are under threat in the current economic context. Austerity policies enacted since 2010 have involved deep spending cuts to public services such as welfare, health and transport services, as well as to youth work services. Whilst funding for youth work doesn’t only come from local authorities, research from the YMCA has shown that local authority spending on youth services in England and Wales was cut by 70% from 2010 to 2020. This has decimated youth work provision for young people, particularly for the high proportion of racialised, working class, and low income young people who use youth work services across the UK. One of the key ways for young people to develop and voice opinions and challenge inequalities is through youth groups and organisations, a mechanism that becomes much harder within a limited funding context.
There is a tension therefore to the idea and practice of youth work as transformative and hopeful, and the extent to which this becomes possible within a hugely squeezed funding context3. Over the last decade many youth work services have been forced to close, or are currently facing risk of closure. How then can youth work spaces continue to support young people to dream of and create alternative worlds in an economic context that impacts young present lives in disproportionate and uneven ways, as well as impacting on the wellbeing and financial stability of those working within youth work services? My research demonstrated that throughout the challenges created by years of austerity, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the cost of greed crisis, RECLAIM continue to support young people to engage in critical thinking, develop ways of sharing their thoughts and opinions and advocate for change at multiple levels, and that this has an important and transformative impact on young people throughout their lives. Staff and young people in youth work services however should not have to hold the worry they do about the future of youth organisations and youth work, nor experience the loss or risk of loss of these spaces. We must therefore continue to highlight the important and invaluable impact youth spaces have for young people and communities, and push for increased and sustainable funding models to ensure the continuation of spaces like RECLAIM.
If you would like to support the development of more youth-led projects for working-class young people and to push for a class-inclusive society please visit RECLAIM’s website and support their work via their Just Giving page.
1 All names are pseudonyms
2 For an example of how RECLAIM are supporting young people to have a say in how policies are put into practice see this blog on young people’s involvement in shaping social housing policy in collaboration with housing provider Bolton at Home.
3 See Youdell and McGimpsey (2014), ‘Assembling, disassembling and reassembling ‘youth services’ in Austerity Britain’
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