Youth and Community Work: Practice, Roles, and Inequality

This report provides a comprehensive overview of youth and community work practice, focusing on the UK Youth care center. It begins by examining key legislations such as the Children and Social Work Act 2017 and the UK Youth Policy, highlighting their importance in guiding youth work. The report then describes strategies for ensuring the development and contribution of youth and community workers, including early intervention and education. It explores the utilization of youth and community work by local initiatives, emphasizing the responsibilities of workers in various capacities, such as active participation, implementing programs, and risk management. The report further analyzes the value of a multidisciplinary approach, discussing its benefits in terms of creative practice, expertise, and support. It also addresses challenges related to inequality, such as conflicts and inappropriate organizational culture, and their impact on social cohesion. Finally, the report assesses the impact of these key issues on the development and well-being of individuals, particularly focusing on decreased confidence and mental pressure. The report concludes by emphasizing the importance of addressing these issues to foster a supportive environment for young people.

SUPPORTING
INDIVIDUALS IN
YOUTH AND
COMMUNITY
WORK PRACTICE

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
P1. Key Legislations to Youth and Community Work Practice.................................................1
P2. Description of ensuring development and contribution of youth and community workers. 2
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................2
P3. Description of utilisation of youth and community work by local community initiatives...2
P4. Explanation of responsibilities of different youth and community workers.........................3
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................3
P5. Description of responsibilities of youth and community workers in multidisciplinary
teams...........................................................................................................................................3
P6. Explanation of value of multidisciplinary approach.............................................................4
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................5
P7. Description of range of key issues of inequality and their impact........................................5
P8. Analysis of impact of key issues on development and well-being.......................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Community work refers to appropriate and effective work of several social groups and
clusters towards supporting individuals throughout different phases of their lives (Sanders and et.
al., 2015). The report below is based on UK Youth, which is care centre within the United
Kingdom. The assignment deals with exploration of approaches towards youth and community
work practice. Moreover, it also covers description of roles and responsibilities of youth and
community development workers in facilitating community initiatives. In addition to this, the
report emphasises on review of role of multidisciplinary teams in enabling youth and community
work practice. Exploration of impact of contemporary issues of inequality in society on young
people and role of social and community work in addressing the same.
TASK 1
P1. Key Legislations to Youth and Community Work Practice
It is highly essential to understand and implement certain youth and community work
practice legislations, which would provide an insight on certain guidelines required to be
followed by the youth care home in relation to ensuring effective youth and community work
practice. Some of these key legislations with this respect is mentioned below: Children and Social Work Act, 2017: One of the most prominent legislation is
associated with welfare of young children, along with extending support for promotion of
their safeguarding and well-being (Children and Social Work Act 2017, 2019). As per
this act, the youth centre is required to act in children's best interest, along with providing
emphasis on their mental and physical health., through providing appropriate care.
 UK Youth Policy: In addition to the legislation above, there are several policies too
which govern youth and social work practice. For example, the national youth policy
within the UK has governed several legislations and practices which covers aspects like
social inclusion of their youth, promoting a positive culture and creativity, enhancing
their education and so forth. Hence, the care home is required to adhere to this policy, in
relation to ensuring accomplishment of their agenda in an appropriate manner (Coady and
Lehmann, 2016).
The importance of the above legislation could be reflected by the fact that it provides
effective guidelines to youth centres like UK Youth of how best to involve them into practice.
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P2. Description of ensuring development and contribution of youth and community workers
Youth and community workers within UK Youth are required to implement certain
strategies that enhance development and positive contribution of young people towards the
society (Wong and et. al., 2015). Hence, to attain this purpose, some of the existing strategies are
described and evaluated below: Early Intervention: One of the most evident and effective strategy adopted by the care
home is early intervention, which refers to the process that is associated with intervening
at a very early stage towards activities that are affecting youths negatively. This strategy
is quite effective to determine the areas that are vulnerable. However, its implementation
could be improvised through enhancing the practices in terms of inclusion of peers and
society to enhance their multidisciplinary approach and develop an appropriate care
network.
 Education and Training: This strategy is is prominent to ensure contribution and
development of youth towards the society. However, since the people have been excluded
from schools, it is highly essential to first develop a culture towards societal involvement,
through appropriate inclusion of the children.
TASK 2
P3. Description of utilisation of youth and community work by local community initiatives
Youth and community could be appropriately utilised in relation to bringing positive
outcomes to young individuals through several local community initiative. For instance, the
initiative taken by UK Youth in relation to re-engaging young individuals into the management
team of the centre must be appropriately evaluated in order to determine as to whether it
maximises the input of youth and community workers in order to enable positive outcomes (Ord,
2016).
The community initiative mentioned above does not only include support to children,
however, it works towards families as well. In addition to this, this initiative would also be
appropriate in development of a prominent culture and involvement of individual towards their
personal development, as well as appropriate management of the youth centre, which would be
enhancing their input towards the societal practices and ethical behaviour, which would
definitely be contributing towards positive outcomes from the initiative.
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P4. Explanation of responsibilities of different youth and community workers
For any community initiative, there are certain responsibilities within the organisational
practices, which are necessary to be performed in ethical manner in context to support the
initiative well (Canda, Furman and Canda, 2019). Hence, several responsibilities of youth and
community workers in context of the responses are discussed below: Active Participation: One of the most prime responsibilities of the community workers is
to appropriately participate in each and every activity which is contributing towards
achieving the initiative. For instance, there must be appropriate participation in relation to
gathering and reviewing information related to young individuals requiring support.
Along with this, they must also participate in their education and training programmes to
ensure that positive outcome is generated effectively. Implementation of Workshops and Programmes: Another appropriate and effective
responsibility of youth and community workers is related to implementing several skills
workshops, along with certain substance abuse and behaviour management programmes,
which would be influencing young people towards adoption of ethical behaviour.
 Risk Management: This responsibility is related to protecting the interests of initiative
against any risk which could likely be present within the same. One of the best manners
through which this could accomplished is to implement and provide crisis intervention
programmes and emergency shelter services to the individuals.
TASK 3
P5. Description of responsibilities of youth and community workers in multidisciplinary teams
Multidisciplinary approach relates to inclusion of individuals and facilities from multiple
disciplines in context of providing better and effective solutions to specific problems. Hence, this
could be said that it appropriately refers to involvement of different professionals of distinct
fields together, which helps in providing better services to the individuals (McInroy and Craig,
2015).
In relation to youth and community workers, there are several responsibilities or these
individuals while working in multidisciplinary teams. For instance, there are chances that the
service users be subjected to inequality. Hence, in relation to the same, while working in
multidisciplinary setting, several responsibilities are explained below:
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 Diversification: One of the major appropriate and effective responsibilities of youth and
community service providers is diversification while working. This would be beneficial
in relation to ensuring that different team members, along with service users are included
within the care approach irrespective of their social or cultural origin. This would
enhance effectiveness of the workers towards the young individuals, as well as their
multidisciplinary teams. Leadership: Another appropriate responsibility of youth and community service worker
is related to leading the overall teams towards providing appropriate and equal treatment
and social services to all. This would allow in establishment of equality, as well as ethical
practice, that is one of the prime requirements for multidisciplinary care.
 Team Dynamics: While working with others, an individual is required to appropriately
contribute and essentially evolve their skills in relation to ensure harmony and
effectiveness within provision of services. Own work and professional development in
regards to enhancing team dynamics would help in implementing coordination and
effective management in delivery of services which would contribute in effectiveness. Of
the same (Pullen Sansfaçon, Robichaud and Dumais-Michaud, 2015).
P6. Explanation of value of multidisciplinary approach
Multidisciplinary approach could be very much appropriate and effective for the scenario
above, as it involves certain appropriate advantage, with respect to working in such team while
providing support to the organisation. Some of these advantages with respect UK Youth are
mentioned below: Creative Practice: One of the major advantages in relation to working with
multidisciplinary teams is that it helps in enhancing creativity within the approaches. This
would further enhance the effectiveness in provision of services as dynamism could be
ensured and innovation within the approaches would further develop better alternatives to
provision of services (Garcia-Reid, Peterson and Reid, 2015). Expertise: Another importance which reflects the value of multidisciplinary approach is
that experts from different fields come together and integrate their efforts in a way which
would be providing better and enhanced practice towards supporting young individual in
the youth practice.
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 Support: Youth and Community Service workers would be gathering effective support
from professionals of various disciplines. This would help them in ensuring minimisation
and eradication of risk. Moreover, they would be gaining support in areas related to their
health, education and overall welfare. Moreover, in relation with multidisciplinary
approach, these could appropriately develop competence in relation to providing better
care and support to the young individuals. Hence, multidisciplinary approach is very
important in the context of UK Youth.
TASK 4
P7. Description of range of key issues of inequality and their impact
With respect to dealing inequality, youth and community work members could face
several challenges in implementing equality within the youth centre. Some of these challenges
are very much explained below: Conflict: One of the major challenges that have been faced within the youth and
community work is conflicts. This could be reflected by the fact that there were times in
which particular professionals in multidisciplinary care refused to provide certain
treatments due to saving cost for their personal interests. This induced a conflict that was
very much challenging in relation to addressing the inequality within the youth centre and
persuading the professionals in keeping up their interests aside and providing the scope of
improvement.
 Inappropriate Culture: Another challenge with respect to addressing inequality is that
the organisational culture at the youth centre was quite inappropriate to support equal
practices. This is because the management was very much ineffective in relation to
supporting equality within the workplace. The reason for this was because the practices
adopted by the professionals were very much biased and promoted by the senior
management. Hence, formulating a culture which includes equality in practices has been
very challenging for youth and community workers.
However, these challenges had quite an impact towards social cohesion. The reason for
the same is that both these factors above were very severe to be handled, which reduced the
cohesion level within the organisation. This is because the cooperation level reduces when
conflicts arise and culture becomes against inequality.
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P8. Analysis of impact of key issues on development and well-being
The key issues identified above have severe impacts on the individuals who have been
admitted to acquire youth and community services within the youth centre. Similar had been the
case with the individual who was suffering from inequality in services. Hence, such impact
within the person in question is analysed below: Lower Confidence: One of the most appropriate and effective impact in relation to the
individual is that due to such repeated issues and enhanced conflicts, the confidence level
of the individual decreases, due to experiencing major inequality in services and
opportunities for development.
 Mental Pressure: Another impact on the person suffering inequality is related to high
mental pressure. Reason for the same is because they approached the youth centre for
support and well being. However, not acquiring the anticipated services could enhance
the level of mental pressure and emotional stress, due to being ineffectively included in
services provided by the youth care (Kapoulitsas and Corcoran, 2015).
CONCLUSION
Thus, it is concluded from the report above, that youth and community work is an
essential aspect to be followed within a society. It is essential to understand and adhere to key
legislation for this factor and even important for youth and community workers to enable young
people. In addition, local community initiatives must utilise community work to ensure positive
outcomes, along with taking up of responsibilities for these initiatives. Furthermore,
responsibilities of youth and community workers must be determined when working with
multidisciplinary teams and value of such approach in youth and community work. Lastly,
description of range of key issues of inequality and analysis of impact of the same is very much
crucial to be understood.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Canda, E.R., Furman, L.D. and Canda, H.J., 2019. Spiritual diversity in social work practice:
The heart of helping. Oxford University Press, USA.
Coady, N. and Lehmann, P. eds., 2016. Theoretical perspectives for direct social work practice:
A generalist-eclectic approach. Springer Publishing Company.
Garcia-Reid, P., Peterson, C.H. and Reid, R.J., 2015. Parent and teacher support among Latino
immigrant youth: Effects on school engagement and school trouble avoidance.
Education and Urban Society. 47(3). pp.328-343.
Kapoulitsas, M. and Corcoran, T., 2015. Compassion fatigue and resilience: A qualitative
analysis of social work practice. Qualitative Social Work. 14(1). pp.86-101.
McInroy, L.B. and Craig, S.L., 2015. Transgender representation in offline and online media:
LGBTQ youth perspectives. Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment.
25(6). pp.606-617.
Ord, J., 2016. Youth work process, product and practice: Creating an authentic curriculum in
work with young people. Routledge.
Pullen Sansfaçon, A., Robichaud, M.J. and Dumais-Michaud, A.A., 2015. The experience of
parents who support their children's gender variance. Journal of LGBT Youth. 12(1).
pp.39-63.
Sanders, J., and et. al., 2015. The role of positive youth development practices in building
resilience and enhancing wellbeing for at-risk youth. Child abuse & neglect. 42. pp.40-
53.
Wong, C., and et. al., 2015. Evidence-based practices for children, youth, and young adults with
autism spectrum disorder: A comprehensive review. Journal of autism and
developmental disorders. 45(7). pp.1951-1966.
Online
Children and Social Work Act 2017. 2019. [Online] Available Through:
<https://www.basw.co.uk/resources/get-act-children-and-social-work-act-2017>
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