• Looking back, what do people value about their involvement in open youth work?

• What is the long-term impact of open youth work on people’s lives and communities?

• How can we evidence aspects of ‘impact’ that are difficult to measure, perhaps even difficult to explain?

If you are interested in discussing these questions and in shaping future research to inform youth work knowledge, policy and practice, you are invited to take part in this research design workshop.

What: A workshop to explore the long-term impact of youth work and to shape a future research project.

Where: Online (a Zoom link will be sent to you after you register). Each workshop will focus on youth work in the particular context of a region of England – this workshop focuses on the North East region and is organised in partnership with Youth Focus North East. However, you are welcome to come to any of the three workshops even if you are not from that region.

Aims: The aims are:

(1) to provide space for youth workers to reflect critically on the long-term impact of youth work;

(2) to discuss and share relevant research and evaluation methods;

(3) to shape future participatory research on this topic, including discussing how youth workers and young people would like to be involved and what would enable this.

Who is invited: The workshop is aimed at youth workers (including volunteers, students and trainees, part-time and full-time workers), especially if you are from the North East of England.

(NB there are separate workshops focusing on Devon - dates and times tbc - and London, Thursday 16th July).

If you are a manager / senior youth worker, feel free to come along and please invite your face-to-face youth work colleagues. Anyone else with an interest in youth work and its long-term impact is welcome including current and former youth work participant. There will also be separate workshops aimed specifically at young people in these three regions (get in touch if you are interested in these).

Preparation:

You will be sent a web link to the online workshop and a two page summary of the planned research nearer the time.

The organisers

Dr Tania de St Croix and Louise Doherty are qualified experienced youth workers working at King’s College London. We are currently researching young people’s and youth workers’ experiences of evaluation and impact in youth work (see www.rethinkingimpact.com).

Thanks

We would like to thank Youth Focus North East, Space, Partnership for Young London, London Youth, Centre for Youth Impact and National Youth Agency for their collaboration on these workshops and the future research.

For more information please contact Tania.de_st_croix@kcl.ac.uk

Long-term impact of open youth work: Research design workshop (North East)