Paper short abstract:

This paper argues that grassroots youth work practice offers a fertile site for the development of youth agency and solidarity, by exploring the organisational processes and practices that support the development of youth agency and solidarity through group work and dialogue.

Paper long abstract:

Recent policy literature highlights the urgent need to address human insecurity issues in the Anthropocene by building solidarity and agency (United Nations Development Programme, 2022). This paper argues that grassroots youth work practice offers a fertile site for the development of youth agency and solidarity, exploring the questions, ‘What are the organisational processes and practices that support youth agency and solidarity development?’ and ‘How do these processes link with the wellbeing capabilities that young people have reason to value?, by drawing on data from a recent research study with young people and youth workers.

For youth in low-income neighbourhoods in Scotland, crises related to the COVID-19 pandemic, rising cost of living (JRF, 2023) and lack of affordable housing (Resolution Foundation, 2023) have deepened existing poverty and inequalities. The educational attainment gap between rich and poor has increased (Scottish Qualifications Authority, 2022) and 16.2% of young people now fall into the category of ‘not in employment, education or training’ (Scottish Government, 2023). These factors put a strain on relationships and reduce capacity for agency, profoundly affecting young people’s wellbeing and outcomes (White, 2018). Alongside this, a third of young people report that their neighbourhood is not a good place to live (Scottish Government, 2023). Youth from low-income neighbourhoods are often pathologized and further marginalised for their lack of economic and civic participation (Bečević and Dahlstedt, 2022), while wider policy discourses divert focus away from structural inequalities and frame unemployment and a lack of qualifications as individualised moral problems (McPherson, 2021).

Grassroots youth education provides a lifeline, building individual capabilities including criticality, trust and confidence. While youth organisations capture individual outcomes , evidence on their potential to build collective strength is limited (Fyfe et al., 2018), despite a strong focus on dialogical, group-based activity. Recent research suggests three levels – personal, social and structural levels – at which grassroots youth work organisations can play a unique role in supporting collective youth capabilities (Ward et al., 2022). Understanding the dynamics of agency and solidarity and how it can be measured and supported through groupwork will enable grassroots youth organisations to extend their social justice outcomes and highlight the unique value of their contribution to the wellbeing and security of disadvantaged young people.

The paper is based on a research study in Scotland, working with young people and youth workers across three youth organisations, using participatory video, zine making and in-depth interviews to understand the collective processes and practices which enabled youth groups contributed to act (agency) and support each other (solidarity). Scotland was chosen as a focus for the study due to a favourable policy environment for rights and empowerment following recent legislation (Community Empowerment Act (2015); UNCRC), and intermediary level interest by CLD Standards Council in demonstrating the wellbeing capabilities of youth work. Drawing on a combined Theory of Change approach, the study surfaced and tested a logic model on the contribution of grassroots youth organisations to youth agency and solidarity.

Young people in Scotland cite their top three wellbeing priorities as ‘having a safe and warm place to live, food and clothes; having positive relationships with family and friends; and feeling safe, at home, in the community and online’ (Ward, Bynner and Bianchi, 2021). Grassroots youth organisations offer the chance to achieve these individual wellbeing goals for young people unable to achieve them through school, family or employment. They also nurture solidarity, critique and resistance amongst young people through collective processes of ‘conscientisation, conciliation and collaboration’ (Ibrahim, 2017; Ward, McBride and Watson, 2022). They offer an important focus for epistemic justice (Fricker 2015), where young people can contribute to wider society by securing their rights to democratic dialogue, deliberation and representation in a trusted, long-term and local setting. The study explored the processes of youth work practice that operate as conversion factors for capability achievement in youth agency and solidarity. By surfacing and testing the change mechanisms, the study aimed to offer clear and robust measures to demonstrate the contribution of youth work to youth agency and solidarity.

The study found that youth work starts with local issues that are meaningful to the young person’s life and supports a series of steps towards taking action for change, enabling young people to build skills and confidence over a period of years within a collective group work setting. These steps are often created via participatory creative arts such as video and TV, music projects, festivals and events, which offer a vehicle for creative expression for young people and a contribution to local cultural life. Based on responsive, trusting relationships, young people were supported to explore relevant local issues, such as housing and employment, identity, transport and safety. As they deepened their understanding of local issues, they built political identities, creative responses to social inequalities and took action to improve their lives and those of other young people. Youth work was focused on a central practice of collective dialogue, informal education and action, which enabled young people to build confidence in their voices, engage in diverse views and experiences, share meaningful connection with others, plan action and initiate dialogue for change with those in positions of power.

These findings suggest that youth work organisations offer hopeful spaces for young people to work collectively towards agency and solidarity, through dialogue and group work. They promote understanding in and between communities and offer tailored, holistic and trusted support to young people in crisis. Despite this, youth organisations operate on precarious funding streams and contracts, facing eroded budgets and competition for resources. By framing the value of youth work in the context of human security and by using the Capability Approach in combination with theory-based evaluation to measure the conversion factors to youth agency and solidarity, the paper seeks to contribute to Capabilities scholarship on the contribution of informal education approaches to youth wellbeing, and to shore up support for grassroots youth organisations as unique spaces for democratic participation.