New resource pack on Global Youth Work – now it’s personal

15 May 2008
A new resource pack from The National Youth Agency gives youth workers a host of reasons to involve themselves in global youth work and a range of practical ways in which they can do so.

Press release from The National Youth Agency:
For immediate release
May 2008

Global Youth Work: Taking it Personally is geared towards practitioners who work face-to-face with young people. Joint editor Momodou Sallah, from De Montfort University, said: "it will help make the personal, local, national and global connections between ‘things out there’ and ‘things in here’."

In a foreword to the pack Malcolm Payne, Head of Youth and Community at De Montfort University, Leicester, said: "To ‘think globally, act locally’ in the words of Friends of the Earth’s founder David Brower, began to take a strong foothold in our education and training programmes for youth workers more than 15 years ago. Now, its influences can be found across the curriculum: in how our youth work values are articulated; in the approach we take to anti-oppressive practice; in examining new arenas of social policy; in the thinking we bring to our study of sociology; in the choices students make; and not least, as a specific focus of student modules. This book illustrates how thinking and practice continue to evolve."

The ten sections in the pack consider a range of issues including human values; body image; gangs and crime; the clothing industry; refugees; the war on terror; religious identity; music; and sustainable development. Each chapter discusses the topic and offers a range of related activities that aim to make global youth work more accessible to youth workers both as a philosophy and a delivery tool.

Momodou Sallah and joint editor Sophie Cooper, Global Youth Work Officer with Cyfanfyd, which works to develop global citizenship in Wales, said: "Globalisation has become of increasing significance as evidenced by the fact that Gordon Brown identified it as one of six priorities to build a ‘stronger, fairer Britain’. It refers to the world coming together due to closer economic, cultural, environmental, political and technological interactions resulting in global interdependence".

"The urgency to engage in global youth work – the process of working with young people to make the personal, local, national and global connections and, if need be take action – is exacerbated by the recognition that it goes beyond the moral and green imperatives. It is increasingly linked to the economic imperative and the security and survival imperative".

"This means that engagement with Global Youth Work can no longer be about just ‘doing the right thing and easing one’s conscience’. Of equal importance is the growing necessity to recognise the economic and security imperatives for the survival of all humankind."

Practitioners, managers, policy makers and educators will find a range of valuable resources in Global Youth Work: Taking it Personally to develop their own understanding and practice, and that of the young people with whom they work.

It is available, price £14.95 plus £2 post and packaging from The National Youth Agency Publication Sales. Tel: 0116 242 7427. E-mail: sales@nya.org.uk

The National Youth Agency is grateful to Ycare International for its support of this publication.

Notes to News Editor

For more information or to request a review copy please see The NYA website at www.nya.org.uk or e-mail Andy Hopkinson at andyh@nya.org.uk

The National Youth Agency, Eastgate House, 19-23 Humberstone Road, Leicester LE5 3GJ. Tel: 0116 242 7350. E-mail: nya@nya.org.uk  Websites: http://www.nya.org.uk/ and http://www.youthinformation.com/

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