Living, Learning and Building Youth Work Practice: A Summary
Professor Robyn Broadbent | Youth Workers Australia | Board Member
Effective youth work calls for a sophisticated blend of lived and learned experiences. Equipped with a theoretical understanding of practice, youth workers can deploy evidence-based frameworks that enable personal narratives to be effectively incorporated into broader social strategies. This approach enhances youth workers’ professional capacity by broadening the knowledge they can bring to bear on the pursuit of empathetic and strategically sound practice.
In a paper, Living, Learning and Building Professional Youth Work Practice, I set out how combinations of lived and learned experiences can enrich youth work practice. In this summary, I have included some key points from the paper and sign-posted to some useful resources for grounding lived experience in a wider evidence base.
Key Points on Living, Learning and Building Youth Work Practice:
Theoretical Frameworks and Evidence-based Practice: The paper underlines the importance of grounding youth work in solid theoretical frameworks that are supported by empirical research. This approach helps translate personal experiences into actionable policy and advocacy that can address broader social issues.
Lived Experience as Reflective Tool: While the lived experiences of youth workers and young people are invaluable, they need to be contextualised within a broader theoretical framework. These experiences provide deep insights and personal narratives that are crucial for reflective practice but should not be the sole basis for developing professional practices.
Balancing Lived and Learned Experiences: Effective youth work requires a balance between direct, personal experiences and academic learning. This balance helps practitioners make sense of individual experiences in a wider context, allowing for more informed and comprehensive practice strategies.
Narratives and Empathy: The paper discusses how narratives derived from lived experiences can foster empathy and provide a personal touch to professional practice. However, it cautions against these narratives overshadowing the need for a structured, research-based approach.
Critique of Neoliberal Policies: The paper criticizes neoliberal economic policies for their focus on individual responsibility over collective support, which can disproportionately affect vulnerable young people. It advocates for a theoretical understanding of systemic barriers to effectively challenge these policies.
Research, Advocacy, and Professional Training: Youth workers are encouraged to engage continuously with both current and historical research to enhance their practice. Professional training should also include elements of reflective practice to prevent the perpetuation of personal biases and enhance the efficacy of interventions.
Power Dynamics and Empowerment: The paper calls for an understanding of power dynamics within youth work, advocating for practices that empower young people by actively including them in decision-making processes that affect their lives.
Building an Evidence Base:
Locating certain forms of evidence can be challenging when you don’t know where to look. This can be especially true regarding ‘grey literature’ (reports from credible think tanks) that is not always available of Google Scholar. Here are some tips to quickly find a variety of papers:
Try looking at Connected Papers https://www.connectedpapers.com/ for academic papers
Analysis and Policy Observatory https://apo.org.au/page/about-apo for all credible reports, evaluations, reviews, audits on every topic public policy.
Australian Research Alliance for Children and Youth. Think tank, advocate, professional development and research https://www.aracy.org.au/
Centre for Excellence in Child and Family Welfare https://www.cfecfw.org.au/ Research and PD
Alcohol and Drug Foundation https://adf.org.au/ Has its own library with a search engine.
Conclusion
Youth workers have been developing practice-informed frameworks for decades. By drawing on these insights, youth workers can push beyond the narrow confines of their own lived experience and ensure their work is ethical, empathetic and evidence-based. I hope this summary is useful and encourages you to read the full paper HERE
Emeritus Professor Robyn Broadbent is a Professor of Youth Work at Victoria University and sits on the Board of Youth Workers Australia