The Clubs for Young People Blueprint for 21st century youth clubs is released this week and gets coverage in the Guardian Society section today. Cadence worked on this project over the last 18 months and while the final version is very much their version, we are pleased it is now out.
The article focuses on the lack of funding for small clubs and points out the new Home Secretary's recent obligatory (for all new Home Secretarys) announcement of a new anti-social behaviour clampdown ... the feature says:
- Half of the country's youth clubs are surviving hand to mouth, attempting to provide services on less than £10,000 a year funding.
- Calling for greater local authority funding for the myriad small youth clubs run by charities, the report argues that these clubs offer a clear way of addressing the root causes of antisocial behaviour.
- The CYP report stresses that the work of youth clubs is especially important in the current financial climate. "Finding ways of sustaining the hope and energy of young people during the 'credit crunch' is arguably one of the greatest challenges for youth work in general, and for the youth club sector in particular," it states. "If past trends are anything to go by, young people will be severely disadvantaged by the current recession. This may have far-reaching consequences for families and local communities."
The point about the recession being a real threat is real. Youth and leisure budgets are always top of the list for cuts, which some might say is likley to result in building a bigger (and more expensive) problem for the future.
The government and opposition parties both hope the voluntary, community and faith (VCF) sector can help them tackle the causes of youth crime, but if they think that they will be able to do it cheaper they may be in for a shock. Our work on the VCF review in Sheffield suggests that the relationship between the statutory and voluntary sector is at a delicate stage and much of the tension is around understanding the role of grants and contracts. Or as Julia Unwin puts it getting the right blend og shopping, investing and giving (from The grantmaking tango).
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