Managing and developing youth work

If managers are to manage youth work effectively they needed to understand its occupational culture. Key features of that culture include a concern with person-centred approaches, a belief in the need to promote active involvement in decision making and the notion of the worker as an activist and campaigner. Gill Millar discusses ways whereby managers can ‘take people with them’ in building effective youth work organisations. This means looking beyond ‘systems’ approaches towards a management model sympathetic to the values and culture of youth work.