Youth work is facing a crisis – just when young people need help the most

According to Jonathan Haidt’s book, Anxious Generation, the great rewiring of childhood - through the use of digital devices (in particular smart phones) - is causing an epidemic of mental illness among young people.

Much research, including the Children’s Society annual Good Childhood Report backs this up. Since the survey began in 2009, young people’s sense of wellbeing has declined sharply. Shockingly, the UK’s 15-year-olds had the lowest average life satisfaction in Europe, with almost a quarter reporting low levels of wellbeing.

Pre-Covid, around ten per cent of pupils were regularly absent from school. Now that figure is closer to 20 per cent.

An existential crisis

Against this backdrop, we might think that investment in young people would be going through the roof and many more people would be being trained, employed and deployed to work with them. But general youth services, typically funded by local councils, have instead experienced large funding cuts over the past two decades. In London alone, around 30 per cent of youth clubs closed between 2010 and 2019.

England’s education and training standards committee, which reports into the national youth agency, say fewer and fewer youth workers are entering the field. The numbers enrolled on training courses are 50 per cent lower than just a year ago. It’s not an exaggeration to say youth work is facing an existential crisis – at a time when young people need help and support the most.

In the Church, the story is not much different. During the 1980s and 90s, partly in response to the decline in young people engaging with church, professionalised youth ministry grew. But sadly, it didn’t stem the tide. Despite pockets of growth and good news stories, the number of young people in church has continued on a downward trend.

Facing the challenge

The Institute for Children, Youth and Mission (CYM) recently surveyed 2,000 people to find out how they felt about children’s, youth and family ministry in their setting. One of the key findings of Taking the Pulse was that, while there is immense passion, commitment and dedication in churches across the UK to support young people in their faith journeys, it is evident that this area of ministry often feels overlooked, under appreciated and misunderstood by the wider church.

In my own work as a youth and children’s ministry consultant, and as founder of Paraklesis, the Association of Children’s, Youth and Family Ministry, there are clearly many challenges surrounding paid and voluntary youth work.

Employed youth ministers often say they feel blocked, hindered or isolated in their work. Connections beyond the local church - whether for peer encouragement, training or support - are often left to the individual worker to arrange for themselves.

It is interesting that some, who identify their role as a calling not a career, do not expect progression opportunities. But progression is about professional and personal development, not just climbing the career ladder. Continuing professional development enables paid workers to grow as reflective practitioners. This also prompts the question: “Am I able to flourish and grow in this ministry?”

Retaining volunteers also seems to have become harder post-Covid. The challenge of simply finding enough people to run or maintain existing groups and activities often means there isn’t time to invest in those volunteers – training and equipping them, sharing vision and developing a sense of team. This, in turn, means volunteers do not always feel properly valued.

Finding solutions

This all sounds depressing so far, but what can we practically do? These are just a few suggestions:

1. Set a high bar

We need to set a higher bar for volunteering, with more commitment and regularity. It can lead to a higher calibre of volunteer – those who really want to serve children and young people, or it can also lead to fewer team and willing volunteers, often with limited time. This remains a constant challenge and tension.

2. Make connections

There needs to be a greater connection between training institutions, denominations and the reality on the ground as local churches struggle to recruit, adequately pay those they employ and equip and train volunteers.

3. Take ownership

The autonomy of the local church means that salaried workers are often employed in isolation. If responsibility was shifted away from the local church and denominations or networks took the employment of salaried children’s and youth work ministers as seriously as they do ordained ministers, this could bring about the kind of change we need to see.

4. Shared responsibility

Ultimately, we need to see a wider responsibility for training and recruitment, and broader understanding of where the needs are.

Signs of change

There are some positive signs that things could be shifting. Youthscape’s recent national youth ministry weekend sold out; The Church of England is investing millions as it seeks to recruit an additional 3,000 children’s, youth and families ministers as part of its 30K project. Youth workers are reporting a hunger for Jesus in the young people they work with that they have not seen before.

Having been involved in children’s and youth ministry for 38 years, I know there are no quick fixes or projects - national or otherwise - that will see things change in the short term.

Serving young people is a joy like no other - but it is also hard work and takes time. Young people are not an experiment; they deserve the best we can offer. Investment needs to shift towards decades long commitment. Short term contracts won’t make up for years of neglect. It is time to get serious.