Values of Youth Work
|
The youth work in Ke Informal Education – youth workers enable
young people to gain skills, knowledge and attitudes needed to make the most of their rights and responsibilities as members of society. Youth work is responsive to the needs and interests of young people and involves both planned and spontaneous interventions. Equality of Opportunity – youth workers help
young people to identify and challenge oppressions such as racism and sexism and all those that spring from differences of culture, ethnicity, language, gender, disability, age, religion and class. Youth work celebrates diversity and challenges discrimination. Empowerment – youth workers support young people to understand, and act on, the personal, social and political issues which affect their lives, the lives of others and the communities of which they are a part. Youth work promotes the value of young people. Voluntary Participation – young people and youth workers enter into a voluntary relationship in
which young people are active partners in the learning process and decision making structures. Youth work cannot involve compulsory attendance. Incarnation – the incarnation of Christ inspires those engaged in youth work and ministry to
enter the world of young people with sensitivity and vulnerability. Youth workers and ministers go as guests into young people’s worlds, respecting their conversations and symbols. This sometimes calls practitioners to make difficult choices about how they work. The youth work team are predominantly relational and seek to holistically encourage the young
people in all aspects of their lives. God is a relational God, as embodied in the trinity. This means we have to take relationships very seriously, for they are a place where we can find God, and grow in our relationship with God. In addition, through our relationships with others, we can help them discover God in their own relationships; consequently helping them grow and mature. Relationships are crucial throughout youth ministry, as we seek to nurture faith, including our own. Before we are able to engage in ministry with someone, we need to have developed a trusting and equal relationship with them, otherwise any programmes we run become little more than entertainment. Christian faith is itself communal and relational; therefore such a model is seemingly most effective and appropriate.
|
ynsham believes in the following common youth work values;
