The National Occupational standards for youth work say:
"The Key purpose of youth work is to work with young people to facilitate their personal, social and educational development, and enable them to gain a voice, influence and place in society in a period of their transition from dependence to independence"
Now I broadly agree with this, altough I'd want to throw in spiritual development too. But what do we mean by independent? Are we talking about growing into adulthood and responsibility?
If you drive past a Renault garage at the moment you'll see a large slogan proclaiming,
Grow up, why bother?
and I think this quote from Robert Elms has a lot of truth:
"Nobody is a teenager anymore, because everyone is"
I once heard it said that there are only three ways to teach, example, example and example! Young people get a hard time for being the teenagers they are, while society isn't really modelling an alternative! Discuss
"The Key purpose of youth work is to work with young people to facilitate their personal, social and educational development, and enable them to gain a voice, influence and place in society in a period of their transition from dependence to independence"
"The key purpose of youth ministry is........ discuss