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Health Resources

The following listings include links to key resources in healthy youth work aimed at practitioners in non-formal education, targeted health resources and archive issues of the YW4H regular news bulletins.

Key Resources

Links to key resources in healthy youth work aimed at practitioners in non-formal education.

Substance Use

DrugScope
Drugs Guidance for the Youth Service - (This document downloads from the DrugScope website)

A range of resources suitable for work with young people are available from Alcohol Concern and Drugscope.

Sex and Relationships Education

Sex Education Forum/National Youth Agency
Sex and Relationships Education with Young People in Non-formal Settings

Young Disabled People: Sexuality and Personal Relationships Policy and Practice Guidelines

SRE policy and practice booklet form Sheffield Futures on working with young disabled people around sex and relationships (SR) work.

This policy and practice guidelines document, produced by the Stepping Stone sexual health project provides a policy, with definitions and underpinning values links both into the Human Rights Act (2000) and the Disability Discrimination Act and highlights the responsibilities of service providers to young disabled people. The second section, explores the pressures, and challenges for staff of this area of work, explores a range of ways of meeting the needs of young disabled people and balancing the needs of the young person with those of the carer/parent. The publication also includes a collection of links and addresses for resources for training and work with young people.

Young Disabled People - Sexuality and Personal Relationships - Policy and Practice Guidelines
Hard copies (@ £5.00 + £1.50 P&P) available from Stepping Stones Telephone 0114 201 2752

Teenage Pregnancy Unit
Enabling young people to access contraceptive and sexual health advice - Guidance for Youth Support Workers

Brook
Under 16s, The Law and Public Policy on Sex, Contraception and Abortion in the UK
Costs £7.50 available from Brook Publications (Quote Code G:106)

Other SRE resources suitable for work with young people are available from sexual health charities Brook and fpa.

Obesity

Children's Food Campaign
Missing the Target
In a pamphlet published by the Children’s Food Campaign, ten experts on obesity, food and children’s health tell the Government that it can do much more to tackle to health time bomb of obesity, and should start by introducing a 9pm watershed for junk food TV adverts. The pamphlet, entitled ‘Missing the Target’, explains that much more could have been done over the last few years – and can still be done now – to reduce levels of childhood obesity and improve children’s health and wellbeing.

YW4H Resources

Some useful health focussed resources for work with young people.

Young People, Youth Work and Health - NYA Survey

In early 2007 The NYA Health team gave all statutory youth services in England the opportunity to take part in a national survey on health services for young people in non-formal settings. The survey results are available below:

Young People Youth Work and Health - LA Youth Service Survey

Case Studies

A range of healthy youth work case studies are available to download at: Healthy Youth Work Case Studies - these are available to download in PDF format.

The following healthy youth work resources are also currently available:

  • Sex and Relationships Education with Young People in Non-Formal Settings. A factsheet developed by The NYA health team with the Sex Education Forum aimed at youth workers. Available to download >>
  • YW4H - Health News Summary. A weekly eBulletin summarising news, policy, events and resources. To subscribe, please email: Rita Kotecha
  • Being Healthy. A research paper examining the implications for healthy youth work in Every Child Matters. 
  • The contribution of non-formal learning to young people's life chances. This report describes in detail the impact of non-formal learning on life chances, demonstrating how its effect on self-efficacy, motivation, self-control and interpersonal skills leads to better outcomes in education, employment, health, and the local environment.  

Sexplanation!

The National Youth Agency's Youth Work for Health team has produced an updated version of the bestselling sex and relationships resource, The Grapevine Game.

SEXplanation

In partnership with national sexual health organisation Brook, the new version has been reviewed, road tested and revamped by project staff and young people across England. The aim has been to retain its timeless appeal for staff and young people, but to make sure it's fit for purpose for the current climate.

Retitled Sexplanation! the board game still aims to be a vital resource for those working with young people, opening up honest discussion about sex and relationships. First produced in the early 1990s, the game will still be promoted under the same slogan – ‘when it comes to sex, what's the safest, most reliable and most satisfying way... of talking about it?’

Read what others are saying - Children and Young People Now - review 5 March >>

Sexplanation! Is available to order at £40 plus postage and packaging.  Contact NYA Sales or visit our online Shop. Buy this item online now >>

First produced in the early 1990s, the game will still be promoted under the same slogan – ‘when it comes to sex, what's the safest, most reliable and most satisfying way... of talking about it?’

Health Activities Resource Pack (HARP)

Health Activities Resource Pack – or HARP - is the group work education resource for all who work with young people around health.

  • Voluntary and statutory sector youth workers (and other VCS agencies)
  • Connexions staff, youth justice workers , health professionals and colleagues based in targeted youth support services and
  • Further Education staff involved in health related activities

What’s included

The pack includes a briefing booklet full of helpful background information to help busy staff get up to speed, an activity pack with over 60 activities tested by young people covering the broad areas of young people’s health – healthy lifestyle; mental and emotional wellbeing; substance use; and healthy relationships and sex – and an additional photo pack, all captured in hard copy and on disc.

In short the Health Activities Resource Pack is a complete package of information, ideas and support for face-to-face-staff.

Copies cost £49.95 + £6.95 post and packing.  To order contact NYA Sales.

The Health Activities Resource Pack is supported elsewhere by a complementary e-learning programme designed to enable staff to understand and deliver health related work with young people.  For more information email health@nya.org.uk

Good Practice Guidelines For Healthy Youth Work

Good youth work has always sought to improve the health of young people and many projects address health issues with young people.

The Good Practice Guidelines provide an evidence-based and tested quality assurance tool for staff and managers in the public and voluntary sectors, commissioning bodies and other partners to assess the quality and effectiveness of this work.

Who is it for?

Increasingly, work with young people to develop their personal, social, health and emotional development takes place in a wide range of settings and by people with a wide range of job titles. We believe that these guidelines will be useful to:

  • Workers with young people in non-formal education settings, using youth work techniques and values. This could include workers in, for example, Youth Offending Teams and YIPs, Pupil Referral Units, Connexions or support staff in housing projects, as well as more ‘traditional’ youth work settings in the statutory or voluntary and community sectors.
  • Managers in services working with young people, as a quality assurance tool to assess delivery and seek improvements.
  • Commissioners of services for young people through Children’s Trusts, PCTs or other providers, to set a baseline for delivery.

By offering criteria relevant to differing levels of activity around health work, the guidelines are just as useful to a small local youth club offering two nights per week in a village hall as they are to larger centres offering a broad health based range of activities.

Hard copies of the Guidelines cost £25.00, and include a CD with the guideline sections in electronic format. The Guidelines are also downloadable.

‘health-e’ - online learning tools

health-e, is an online learning site set up to equip professionals working with young people, with the basic skills and knowledge to work more effectively on health issues.

Youth work has always been concerned with health issues. With the increasing emphasis on young people's health, often in a very negative context, workers need to be able to inform, support and advise young people in an effective way. This course aims to help you to achieve that.

These health-e modules are designed as a short introduction to the four key health areas. We hope that they will stimulate your interest and encourage you to take up further training in the future.

To access health-e you will need to register and log-in for each subsequent visit:

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