6 Country Reports on Youth Work - Jugendpolitik in Europa
6 Country Reports on Youth Work - Jugendpolitik in Europa
6 Country Reports on Youth Work - Jugendpolitik in Europa
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from the street culture that def<strong>in</strong>es the leisure and recreati<strong>on</strong>al pursuits of young people <strong>in</strong><br />
Ireland. Traditi<strong>on</strong>al forms of youth work such as youth clubs or scout<strong>in</strong>g are be<strong>in</strong>g severely<br />
challenged by young people’s desire for freedom and aut<strong>on</strong>omy. There is a c<strong>on</strong>nect<strong>in</strong>g<br />
thread <strong>in</strong> the <strong>in</strong>terviews with experts that po<strong>in</strong>ts the way forward though engagement with the<br />
ideas that young people have about the modern world. Instituti<strong>on</strong>s like Dáil na nÓg are seen<br />
as not c<strong>on</strong>nect<strong>in</strong>g with young people, because they are adult ideas taken from the adult<br />
world. But there is also a sense that a paradigm shift is beg<strong>in</strong>n<strong>in</strong>g to take place <strong>in</strong> youth work<br />
practice. <strong>Youth</strong> cafés are emerg<strong>in</strong>g as a symbol of youth work’s desire to modernise its<br />
practice. Professi<strong>on</strong>alisati<strong>on</strong> also has a major <strong>in</strong>fluence <strong>on</strong> modernisati<strong>on</strong>. Irish youth work,<br />
n<strong>on</strong>etheless, rema<strong>in</strong>s a qu<strong>in</strong>tessentially volunteer service with all the strengths and<br />
limitati<strong>on</strong>s that entails.<br />
The future will be excit<strong>in</strong>g and productive if the Irish state is prepared to <strong>in</strong>vest <strong>in</strong> its youth<br />
populati<strong>on</strong> by expand<strong>in</strong>g its youth service. It appears that it is beg<strong>in</strong>n<strong>in</strong>g to do so, but there is<br />
a lot more to do before there is an adequate youth service. Overall, young people need to be<br />
heard <strong>in</strong> all their diversity. They are citizens with full rights, and they represent Ireland’s<br />
future. There can be no more important public policy issue than the future of a nati<strong>on</strong>’s young<br />
people. Civil society, <strong>in</strong> the shape of a committed voluntary sector, took resp<strong>on</strong>sibility for<br />
youth work dur<strong>in</strong>g the 20 th century. Hopefully, the state will need to be more actively engaged<br />
dur<strong>in</strong>g the 21 st century.<br />
11.6 Italy<br />
The experts <strong>in</strong>terviewed <strong>in</strong> Italy were<br />
124<br />
� a pers<strong>on</strong> <strong>in</strong> charge of the school statistics from the Department of Educati<strong>on</strong>,<br />
� two members of local associati<strong>on</strong>s,<br />
� a ECAP employee,<br />
� a youth desk <strong>in</strong>formati<strong>on</strong> employee,<br />
� a pers<strong>on</strong> <strong>in</strong> charge of Eurodesk, and<br />
� a pers<strong>on</strong> <strong>in</strong> charge of the local employment centre.<br />
Different issues arose from the semi-structured <strong>in</strong>terviews.<br />
A topic outl<strong>in</strong>ed by all <strong>in</strong>terviewees is that data <strong>on</strong> youth work accord<strong>in</strong>g to the <strong>in</strong>dicators<br />
provided by the project is not available. However, this lack of data is a general problem; it is<br />
due to <strong>in</strong>complete <strong>in</strong>formati<strong>on</strong> technology systems as well as to the fact that although a<br />
culture of data collecti<strong>on</strong> is rapidly ga<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g ground, it still does not cover all public and private<br />
sectors. At the moment, a lot seems to be happen<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> the area of youth work at different<br />
levels: there are many <strong>in</strong>itiatives and many <strong>on</strong>go<strong>in</strong>g public and private programmes, but at<br />
this stage there is little available data to give more <strong>in</strong>formati<strong>on</strong> about them.