Resources

NEWEST RESOURCES:

Podcast: The It’s Just Research team at ECS hosted us for an episode of their podcast, “Defending the Spirit of Youth Work”, where we discuss our recent article Embers and Fragments, on the ghostly aspects of policy making in youth work and accountability, as well as reflecting on the creative, collaborative approaches we attempted to take throughout the research – search ‘It’s Just Research’ (with the apostrophe!) on your podcast app, or try these links: Acast , Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.

Embers, and fragments’: social haunting in youth work, impact measurement and policy networks was published in 2024 in Journal of Education Policy. This article discusses elements of contestation and doubt in the context of a policy agenda around impact measurement in youth services. Drawing on our interviews with policy makers, influencers and critics, it combines analysis of a policy network with theories and methodologies of social haunting.

FULL COLLECTION OF RESOURCES:

As part of the project we have developed a series of resources, from practice and policy resources to academic articles. We hope youth workers, youth work trainers or lecturers, managers, funders, policy makers and others in the sector may find them useful. We welcome feedback and encourage continued discussion.

Practice resources

Our short film made by young people, linked to the research, is available here: The Value of Youth Work

Our practice resource raises questions for reflection to support youth workers and organisations to develop their youth-centred, participatory, anti-oppressive evaluation practices. While it is primarily for youth workers and youth work managers, practitioners working in related settings may also find it useful, as well as students, trainees and trainers. It includes:

Policy briefings:

Valuing youth work – Seven-evidence based messages for decision makers on youth work and evaluation

Making youth work work – Fifteen recommendations for investing effectively in youth services

Academic peer-reviewed articles:

‘Capturing the magic’: grassroots perspectives on evaluating open youth work was published in the Journal of Youth Studies (2023). This article argues that evaluation encompasses more than measuring outcomes. It draws our original qualitative research with young people and youth workers to argue that evaluation and accountability processes must be practice-informed, youth-centred, and anti-oppressive. While young people and youth workers had often participated in evaluations they found meaningful, some approaches to impact measurement were experienced as too formal, intrusive, insensitive and burdensome. While those of you who know our work will not be surprised by the findings (as we have tried to share these accessibly throughout the study) this article is the fully evidenced, peer reviewed version of the main findings of our study in relation to evaluation in open youth work.

‘It’s a great place to find where you belong’: creating, curating and valuing place and space in open youth work was published in 2023 in Children’s Geographies. This article focuses on the value of youth work, with a particular focus on its spatial aspects.

Embers, and fragments’: social haunting in youth work, impact measurement and policy networks was published in 2024 in Journal of Education Policy. This article discusses elements of contestation and doubt in the context of a policy agenda around impact measurement in youth services. Drawing on our interviews with policy makers, influencers and critics, it combines analysis of a policy network with theories and methodologies of social haunting.

There’s a cupboard full of pasta! Beyond sustenance: reflections on youth work and commensality, in Concept (The Journal of Contemporary Community Education Practice Theory) (2022), discusses the importance of collective cultures of food as part of youth work in the context of food inequalities.

The everyday and the remarkable: Valuing and evaluating youth work was our first article from the study, published in Youth and Policy in 2019.

Re-imagining accountability: storytelling workshops for evaluation in and beyond youth work was published in Pedagogy, Culture & Society in 2020; although not directly drawing on data from the Rethinking Impact study, it relates closely to the themes and policy context.

Youth work, performativity and the new youth impact agenda: Getting paid for numbers? was written and published prior to the study in 2017, but provides the underpinning context, drawing on Tania’s previous research with part-time and volunteer youth workers.

Podcast, blogs and other resources:

Podcast: The It’s Just Research team at ECS hosted us for an episode of their podcast, “Defending the Spirit of Youth Work”, where we discuss our recent article Embers and Fragments, on the ghostly aspects of policy making in youth work and accountability, as well as reflecting on the creative, collaborative approaches we attempted to take throughout the research – search ‘It’s Just Research’ (with the apostrophe!) on your podcast app, or try these links: Acast , Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.

We are excited to share this blog written by our amazing placement student Sorele Cohen: Reflections on Rethinking Impact: Acknowledging the magic of youth work by rethinking its evaluative frameworks

And here is our 2019 blog post for Policy Press: Valuing young people, valuing grassroots youth work.

Our project was featured here in a Children and Young People Now special issue on youth work impact. 

Tania has also written blog pieces on youth impact here and here. 

Here is our KCL webpage.

In press / forthcoming:

We have written a chapter for an edited book on youth work, youth music, measurement and evaluation – watch this space!

In progress: youth work evaluation training resources

Evaluation reading list: We have started to compile a reading list on evaluation in youth work, for youth work students, lecturers and trainers. To kick start this, we asked across our networks for recommendations- some of the initial suggestions relate specifically to youth work and others speak to evaluation in community settings more broadly. We will not curate this list and hope it will continue to evolve into a useful resource.

Evaluation slides: We are working on a shareable/editable slide deck that suggests ways to use our data and the short film as part of a youth work training sessions.

Presentations:

We shared our research at many academic, practitioner and policy events. Here we share the ones that are available online:

September 2018: Louise and Tania presented the research and discussed its international relevance at the Transformative Youth Work International Conference 2018, in Plymouth. You can listen to it here.

Do let us know if any links are not working, or if there is anything you are unable to access: tania.de_st_croix@kcl.ac.uk