History of youth work

Module One: Youth Ministry and the Youth

WorkerSaturday 24th September

Afternoon session

Learning outcomes

• 1a What is Youth Ministry? – Young people today and their context

• 1b Values of youth work and ministry – Relational Discipleship and spiritual formation

The development of Youth Ministry

BEFORE THE GREAT AWAKENING

• Slave trading – 46,000 in one year (1750)• Corrupt commerce• Inhuman punishment – 160 capital offences• Prisons – hell on earth• Children - mortality was about 74%• Alcohol – in 1751 11 million gallons of gin• Gambling – huge sums bet and lost• Cruel sports - commonplace cruelty

What is Youth Ministry?

WHAT HAPPENED?

John Wesley.

He preached 42,000 sermons, set up free pharmacies, schools, pleaded for tolerance, freedom, social justice. He rode up and down the country preaching any where he could get a hearing. He left 150,000 followers drawn into self organised groups.

He taught God loved the poorest, meanest, most impoverished. The last, the lost and least. He and his followers brought a moral revolution through personal spiritual transformation


TRANSACTIONAL TO TRANSFORMATIONAL

• Religion as transactions is about gaining some kind of satisfaction from enacting or participating in religious ceremonies.

• Religion as transformation is consciously looking for profound changes, for discernible growth, for the unexpected.


Sunday School Movement – 1780’s

• Pioneers: Robert Raikes and Hannah More• Responded to the need around them and their

Christian conviction• Informal ways of working: Day trips / sports teams• Some schemes flowed from very conservative

views, others sought radical social change. As a result, there were some tensions and conflicts between different groupings.

Links: http://infed.org/mobi/hannah-more-sunday-schools-education-and-youth-work/


http://infed.org/mobi/hannah-more-sunday-schools-education-and-youth-work/

The Youth Club...• Rev Arthur Sweatman – 1850’s• Really developed from 1880’s & 90’s,

predominately by Anglican and Catholic Priests, inc. provision for girls

• 1875 – Anglican Girls Friendly Society – purpose was to ‘unite girls and women in a fellowship of prayer, service and purity of life, for the glory of God’.

• 1885 – 821 branches in England and Wales


Uniformed Organisations – Boys Brigade

Set up by William Smith, starting in Glasgow. He wrote:

• ‘By associating Christianity with all that was most noble and manly in a boy’s sight, we would be going a long way to disabuse his mind of the idea that there is anything effeminate or weak about Christianity’.

• Around 800 groups by the end of the 19th century


http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=boys+brigade&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&docid=xjca7u7BQydwPM&tbnid=h4p73jwoeie7WM:&ved=0CAUQjRw&url=http://www.jacksonchurch.co.uk/boysbrigade.htm&ei=wRmSUanlGsmt0QXcyIDoCQ&bvm=bv.46471029,d.ZG4&psig=AFQjCNGTzLXZpOwUPik1qOJzU6o2j6d-jA&ust=1368615718852072

Scouting...

• The emphasis on drill, evangelicalism and regimentation in the Boys' Brigade worried a number of commentators, inc. Robert Baden-Powell

• Concerned about both physical and mental well-being of young people.


http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=robert+baden+powell&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&docid=9X3HPN_wrpVCJM&tbnid=1XgrnMR9DIo3EM:&ved=0CAUQjRw&url=http://www.pinetreeweb.com/B-P.htm&ei=JhqSUYbGIIKW0AXp_oG4BA&bvm=bv.46471029,d.ZG4&psig=AFQjCNEl-RYqdkKfqbB0Ynj5mKghkAbSJg&ust=1368615842726301

http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=Brownsea+Island+Experimental+Camp&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&docid=2JIRTyYQckycgM&tbnid=VdrmdYrv4obaxM:&ved=0CAUQjRw&url=http://www.scout.org/en/node_64/facts_figures/baden_powell/b_p_gallery/brownsea&ei=zBqSUf6VGsjF0QWIiYDgAw&bvm=bv.46471029,d.ZG4&psig=AFQjCNFRjlDLwCZQrKoUXHNUQCUX0D-KBg&ust=1368615997512994

Kerry Young 2006What is Youth Ministry?

Review...

• Church and Christians at the forefront of developing youth work

• Came out of people’s faith and views on life alongside identifying a recognised need / issue in their local community

• Predominately volunteer led

What is Youth Ministry

Questions

• Is our youth work in response to the needs around us, our Christian faith or both? Why?

• Are there conflicts / tensions within our churches concerning the focus and delivery of our youth work? If so, what are they?


World Wars

• Following 1st World War, stuttering towards state funded youth work

• Onset of the 2nd World War saw the start of a organised response to issues arising with and for young people.

• ‘Open’ youth clubs and ‘detached’ youth work.


Albemarle Report – 1960

• Heralded the heyday of the large youth club or youth centre

• Declared that the primary aim of the youth service should be association, training and challenge.


http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=1960s+youth+centres&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&docid=BZTNtfb5q0GUmM&tbnid=fDdhVYjm1aZBIM:&ved=0CAUQjRw&url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/brizzlebornandbred/2062123863/&ei=eBuSUb6OMYiw0AXN04D4Bg&bvm=bv.46471029,d.ZG4&psig=AFQjCNFItgPMIaicKRHbgmWY6eFd1_OiIg&ust=1368616173618858

Youth work provision decline

• 1980’s onwards – number of young people in youth centres started to slowly decline

• Growing competition from entertainment at home and other leisure activities


http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=1980s+computer+consoles&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&docid=_h63qArAbBsubM&tbnid=XlkM-8AEJ_20WM:&ved=0CAUQjRw&url=http://www.pluggedin.co.uk/article/5-iconic-computer-brands-and-consoles-we-all-loved&ei=_xuSUcOwF-X80QWQx4DgCQ&bvm=bv.46471029,d.ZG4&psig=AFQjCNEkdLUWn2LIjxeA4EEQlyWSK-bewA&ust=1368616266009639

http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=1980s+computer+consoles&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&docid=b9SwV5jy65Kt4M&tbnid=aL50n5JyGfKWoM:&ved=0CAUQjRw&url=http://www.videogameconsolelibrary.com/pg90-cd32.htm&ei=2xuSUdv6C8mN0wXVlIG4Dw&bvm=bv.46471029,d.ZG4&psig=AFQjCNEkdLUWn2LIjxeA4EEQlyWSK-bewA&ust=1368616266009639

Growing after-school provision

• More and more schools offering breakfast clubs and after-school clubs

• Connexions Service• School – exams – more pressure


• Christian specific youth work degrees• Rapid rise of paid Church based youth workers• Evidence that this has slowed the number of

young people leaving Church, but not reversed it yet

Professionalised Christian Youth WorkWhat is Youth Ministry

• Secular youth work cuts• Rise of NCS• Less full time paid Church youth work posts• Focus returning to the Lay Workers • Aurora developed in response to this context

Youth Work ‘Crisis’What is Youth Ministry

Pick 1 question...

• Are we still called to be pioneers? What does that look like in your context?

• How can we continue to respond to the needs around us and to our Christian faith?

• How do you want to use Aurora to become pioneers in your youth work setting?

Family

Technology and communication

School

Economy

Life when we were 13...Youth culture (music, language, fashion, media, ethnicity)

Globalisation

Times have changed...

Family

School

Technology and communication

Economy

Life for a 13 year old in 2016Youth culture (music, language, fashion, media, ethnicity)

Globalisation

Times have changed...

What impact does that have on how we deliver our youth work today?

Family LifeA quarter of children now grow up in single parent households More than a third of all children living in poverty are in single parent households Children living in one parent families are 1.8 times more likely to experience poverty

www.ymca.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Family-Misfortunes-v1.1.pdf

Family LifeChildren who experience family breakdown are more likely to experience behavioural problems, perform less well in school, need more medical treatment, leave school and home earlier, become sexually active, pregnant or a parent at an early age, and report more depressive symptoms and higher levels of smoking, drinking and other drug use during adolescence.

http://www.ymca.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Family-Misfortunes-v1.1.pdf

Good Childhood ReportFamily: most important topic for

children today.

www.childrenssociety.org.uk/sites/default/files/TheGoodChildhoodReport2015.pdf

Being Loved and Supported

Having freedom

Stability &

Security Mean satisfaction of 8.4 out

of 10 for 10-17 year olds

https://www.childrenssociety.org.uk/sites/default/files/TheGoodChildhoodReport2015.pdf

SchoolPupils on free school meals: 3 terms behind their peers by end of primary schoolAttainment levels: half that of fellow students by GCSE’sFewer than half of those without qualifications are in employment44% of individuals in persistent poverty have no qualificationsIndividuals without qualifications are more than twice as likely as those with qualifications to live in persistent poverty

What qualifications can we enable our young people to take? First Aid; Food Hygiene; Music Exams; Archbishop of York Young Leaders Awards

EconomyIFS Report:

• Incomes for those aged over 60 rose by 11% over the period• Aged 31 to 59: no change in incomes• Aged 22 to 30: fallen by 7%• Two-thirds of cases: children in ‘poor’ families have a person in work. •Middle income families with children: 30% of their income from the state (compared to 22% 20 years ago).

www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-36826166

Economy

Brexit

Blog about Bexit at www.nya.org.uk/2016/07/blog/

• Major decision which will affect the future

•Uncertainty – unsure of the full impact

•How can we enable our young people’s voice to be heard?

History of youth work

Art & Photos