What is global youth work?

In the UK and Ireland, Y Care International is one of the biggest providers of global youth work, a new and emerging youth work discipline that helps young people make sense of a complex world and take positive action for change.

Global youth work is based on the principles of informal education. It starts from young people's everyday experiences and aims to develop their understanding of local and global influences on their lives. Our Global Youth Work programme is open to young people in 230 YMCAs across the UK and Ireland.

How it developed    

Global youth work developed out of traditional ‘development education' programmes run by international NGOs, which primarily worked with schools, universities and within formal education. Development education aims to raise awareness and understanding of how global issues affect the everyday lives of individuals, communities and societies and how all of us can and do influence the world in which we live.

Global youth work began through an amalgamation of youth work, informal education and development education. Youth work practitioners wanted to add an international element to their work, with the aim of building on development education and making it accessible to young people in an informal context.

Informal education

Global youth work uses informal education to help young people explore the global perspective of local issues that impact on their lives. By exploring the links between their lives and the lives of young people across the world, they not only learn about the global realities of these issues, but use these to analyse their personal and local realities too. This gives them a fresh perspective on their lives and behaviours.

Taking action

Through global youth work, YCI aims to empower young people to be aware, responsible and active. Once young people are aware of international issues, global youth work can equip them to take positive action that not only helps their personal development, but can also lead to real change in the world around them.

What distinguishes global youth work from development education is its focus on young people taking action - it empowers them to make a decision to do something positive about the issues they learn about. Actions range from raising small funds, making personal changes to their lifestyles, such as buying Fair Trade goods, to campaigning and advocating on issues at local, national or international levels.

Relevant tool for marginalised young people

The majority of the young people YCI works with in the UK and Ireland are from marginalised backgrounds - a sector of young people previously neglected by development education provision.

As these young people are not reached through the formal education sector, we believe that global youth work is a far more relevant tool than development education.

Since 2004, our work with young people in the UK and Ireland has undergone rapid development, with increased numbers of staff, activities and a higher profile. YCI is now one of the largest international development agencies in the UK and Ireland providing global youth work.