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The NYA is the leading national charity for youth work and was created in 1964 to act as the national body for the youth work profession. Since 2010 the NYA has received no state funding to support our sector development work.
The NYA has three strategic objectives which explain the scope of our work:

1. Create opportunities for young people

2. Developing a skilled and effective youth sector workforce

3. Influencing practice [youth work] through policy and research

Our place in the system

We are very serious about youth work, the science of enabling young people to believe in themselves and to prepare for life. Educators, policy makers and employers all have crucial roles to play here.

Youth work focuses on working holistically with young people. It's about building resilience and character and giving young people the life skills (often totally misleadingly described as "soft") they need to live, learn, work and interact successfully with other people (see our definitions of youth work).

The National Youth Agency is the national body for this important, under-recognised discipline. We have taken the lead in championing it for fifty years. But as the choices and challenges facing young people get more demanding and the public funding to support them diminishes, our mission gets more urgent every day.

It's time to ramp up youth work and find better, more inventive ways to empower more young people.

And how we do it...

Our starting point will be - as it has always been - our steadfast belief in young people and their potential to shape the world, no matter what society puts in their way. Our plan then has three key elements...

Championing youth work in all its many forms -showcasing great practice, incubating new approaches, celebrating its many thousands of practitioners and winning more understanding of the value and depth of the discipline among policy-makers, educators and employers.

Professionalising youth work -training youth workers, setting occupational standards, offering accreditation for professional development and constantly researching, innovating and improving the methodologies and practice of youth work in all its forms

Enabling youth work -making it happen through our networks of front line youth work providers, our deep experience of managing complex projects and through innovative tie-ups and funding arrangements with imaginative commercial and public sector partners.
Find out more about youth work. Read more on our purpose.

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The NYA is the leading national charity for youth work and was created in 1964 to act as the national body for the youth work profession. Since 2010 the NYA has received no state funding to support our sector development work.

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Detached Youth Work | Federation for Detached Youth Work | England

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Federation for Detached Youth Work | England

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The British Red Cross helps people in crisis, whoever and wherever they are. We are part of a global network of volunteers.

We believe that all children and young people should be empowered to make a positive difference on the issues that affect their lives, their communities and broader society.

We believe in the power of their kindness to make a significant difference to people in need and are proud of the steps we have made to ensure young people voices are heard.

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The Institute for Youth Work providing a voice for Youth Workers in the UK

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The British Red Cross helps people in crisis, whoever and wherever they are. We are part of a global network of volunteers. We believe that all children and young people should be empowered to make a positive difference on the issues that affect their lives, their communities and broader society.

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The Commonwealth Alliance of Youth Workers Association (CAYWA) is brings together and supports international youth work associations and supports developing countries

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CY332 Social Policy and Analysis Assessment 2020-21

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The Community Development Challenge Management by Colin Miller, Melanie Bowles, Beth Longstaff, (z-lib.org)

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Ord and Management in Youth Work theories of management  (1)

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Mark Smith_ Creators not consumers. Chapter 1 – The ice skating trip – infed.org_

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Youth Work in Schools Coburn  Gormally 2014

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Undervalued_or_Misunderstood youth work  lifelong learning 2010

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Youth Work as a Public Good_ Older Teenagers Experiences of Yout(1)

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Yikes - Why the Youth Sector Needs a Code of Ethical Practice Hoiles  corney 2006

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Undervalued or Misunderstood - Youth Work and its contribution to lifelong learning

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Treacy - Youth works potential for social change

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Social pedagogy informal education and ethical youth work practice

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Professional_Youth_Work_Text Corney Ch 1  9

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Engaging in Conversation Heather Smith 2010

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Batsleer - Its BoringHow do Youth Workers Engage(1)

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In a desire to inform the In Defence debate we are posting on this page links to stimulating writing about the purpose and character of youth work. We hope in the midst of the hurly-burly that you might pinch a moment to scour their contents. In addition it would be great if you could suggest material for inclusion in this section.

see this piece by Pete Sims, ' A Real and Present Danger - The Youth Work Crisis', written to influence the Labour Party's thinking about youth work and the need for a statutory Youth Service.

A Real and Present Danger - The Youth Work Crisis [pdf]

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see the interview between Tony and Marilyn Taylor, 'Threatening Youth Work : The Illusion of Outcomes', a critique of the imposed agenda of prescribed outcomes upon our work and in particular the Young Foundation's pseudo-scientific Framework of Outcomes for Work with Young People.

Threatening Youth Work : The Illusion of Outcomes [pdf]

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see the following group of pieces exploring issues around the place of Ethics and Politics in Youth Work, partly written in response to the Campaign's Engaging Critically seminar, 'Ethics in Youth Work : A Retreat from Politics' held on November 5, 2013 in Birmingham.

The eloquent pre-seminar case made by Sarah Banks for 'Reclaiming and Reframimg Ethics in Youth Work'.
RECLAIMING AND REFRAMING ETHICS IN YOUTH WORK, 5.11.13
The slides Sarah Banks would have used at our November 2013 seminar in Birmingham if the equipment had been ordered in time!
Powerpoint Presentation to IDYW Politics and Ethics event, November 13, 2013
Sarah Banks's passionate post-seminar defence of ethics.
In defence of ethics, Banks 7.11.13
Howard Sercombe's powerful and nuanced argument in support of a code of ethics. Unfortunately Howard was unable to attend the seminar as intended.
Why a Code of Ethics?
Tony Taylor's contribution to the seminar - more a defence of the political?
The Flight to Ethics : A Retreat from Politics
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see Bernard Davies's 'A Manifesto for Our Times' [2005], his passionate plea for a young person-centred practice focused on process and relationships. It begins, 'Has youth work ever been so fashionable - or at a greater risk?'
youth-work-a-manifesto-for-our-times-bernard-davies
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see Graeme Tiffany's influential submission to the Nuffield Review focused on the relationship between informal education in the guise of detached youth work and the prospect of an authentic democratic education.
documents192-2-democratic-education1
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Doug Nicholls draws our attention to the trilogy of challenging books that emerged from Manchester in 2007/8 - from the Manchester Metropolitan University, Janet Batsleer's 'Informal Learning in Youth Work' and Carol Packham's 'Active Citizenship and Community Learning', and from the Manchester University, Kate Sapin's 'Essential Skills for Youth Work Practice'. Find his review of Janet and Carol in the October 2008 Rapport available at http://cywu.org.uk and his comments on Kate below.
Kate Sapin review
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In a desire to inform the In Defence debate we are posting on this page links to stimulating writing about the purpose and character of youth work. We hope in the midst of the hurly-burly that you might pinch a moment to scour their contents. In addition it would be great if you could suggest...

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CONTENTS Setting the scene
Innovation in Youth Work [pdf] edited by Naomi Stanton
Thinking innovatively about youth work
11 What Sort of Future? Tony Jeffs

18 Philosophy and Youth Work Simon Frost and Mike Seal

22 Creating Spaces for Radical Youth Work? Malcolm Ball, Tania de St Croix and Louise Doherty

26 Empowerment, Power and Powerlessness Emma Wilkinson and Paul Leonard

30 Spiritual Development and Youth Work Maxine Green
Thinking innovatively about youth work measurement
34 Anti-oppressive Youth Work with Young People with Disabilities Liz Woolley

38 Innovations in the Measurement of Youth Work: measuring success in terms of young people's wellbeing
Ian McGimpsey

44 Innovations in the Measurement of Youth Work: the contribution of qualitative longitudinal methods
Aniela Wenham
Doing innovative practice
50 Using Participatory Research: potential and pitfalls Adefemi Adekunle

54 Empowering Young People through Social Action Katharine O'Brien

58 Working with Conflict and Aggression Naomi Stanton

64 Supporting Volunteers in Youth Work Wendy Wiggins
Applying for funding in challenging times
70 The Place and Use of Mentoring with Young People Tina Salter

76 Supporting Local Youth Work: A United States perspective on developing proposals for funding
Elaine Johannes with Kali Summers

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Innovation in Youth Work : Thinking in Practice

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Innovation in Youth Work [pdf] edited by Naomi Stanton CONTENTS Setting the scene 11 What Sort of Future? Tony Jeffs Thinking innovatively about youth work 18 Philosophy and Youth Work Simon Frost and Mike Seal 22 Creating Spaces for Radical Youth Work? Malcolm Ball, Tania de St Croix and Louise Doherty 26 Empowerment, Power and...

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This page is a 'work in progress' and as such is always going to be partial, in that we will never be able to gather the vast array of online youth work resources in one site.

It is designed to provide access Sources of Information for thinking, talking and writing for, and about, youth work; and Resources for Practice, for planning, doing, reflecting on and evaluating youth work.

This page is not a reproduction of the further reading and information contained in the downloadable resource for each unit in the modules. You can check the modules and units out here.

The material is organised by alphabetical order by title under each heading. The page will soon be searchable. You can contact us at ywelp@mu.ie to update or add additional Sources or Resources.

All of the material we link to, is itself open-source and freely available by clicking the embedded link which will open on a new page.

Resources for Practice

Some Interesting Websites

Sources of Information

Open Access Journals & Practice Magazines

Youth Policy

Professional Youth Work/Youth Work as a profession

Ethics/Codes of Ethics/Ethical Practice

Benefits/Impact of Youth Work

Open Access Training Resources Online

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Sources and Resources - YouthWorkAndYou.org

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This page is a 'work in progress' and as such is always going to be partial, in that we will never be able to gather the vast array of online youth work resources in one site.

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The Ethics and Human Rights in Professional Youth Work module invites you to consider how human rights education might benefit young people in a youth work context. It encourages you to consider the vital role of ethics in youth work practice and how you might use a code of ethics to assist you to make ethical decisions when working with young people.

Professionalising the youth work sector has been a discussion point around the world in different youth work settings. You will be asked to consider the importance of continuing to professionalise the Youth Work sector by ensuring that a Code of Ethics underpins all youth work practice in your community.

The module consists of three units:

1. What are Human Rights?

2. Ethical Practice

3. Codes of Ethics

Each unit contains an interactive video along with downloadable resource material you can access on a variety of devices. All videos are subtitled in English. The video is in the region of 20-30 minutes with the interactivity and about five minutes if you watch the original video straight through without the interactivity. Both options are available below. While individual video are informative in its own right, the interactive dimension invites you to engage more deeply with the topic, to 'watch, read, reflect and act.'

The downloadable resource in pdf format delves deeper again and provides additional information and resources on each unit's topic. It is entirely up to you how to engage with the material though we suggest that there is an value in engaging with each unit sequentially.

Victoria University took the lead on this module in collaboration with colleagues in by Ulster University.

Unit 1 - What are Human Rights?
Starts the interactive video

Original Video Unit 1

Starts the interactive video Starts the interactive video
Unit 2 - Ethical Decision Making
Ends

Original Video Unit 2

Unit 3 - Codes of Ethics

Original Video Unit 3

More Sources and Resources

You will find additional Sources and Resources on this and other Youth Work topics here.

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Module 3 - Ethics and Human Rights in Professional Youth Work - YouthWorkAndYou.org

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The Ethics and Human Rights in Professional Youth Work module invites you to consider how human rights education might benefit young people in a youth work context. It encourages you to consider the vital role of ethics in youth work practice and how you might use a code of ethics to assist you to make ethical decisions when working with young people.

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Module 1 - Communicating Youth Work - YouthWorkAndYou.org

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The Communicating Youth Work module is designed to enhance your understanding of the wide range of dimensions of youth work as a profession and as a practice. It considers the distinctiveness of youth work, identifies the benefits of youth work and explores what youth workers do, not just in terms of activities, but also the context of those activities and how the workers' ethos and approach is what gives them their distinctive value.

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Tackling Youth Crime - Youth Justice Action Plan

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Questioning the Evidence of Risk  Case 2007

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Probation Journal - key article -The Greentown Crime Network

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OMahony P 2009 RFPP  Causes of Youth Crime - A Deceptively Useful Analysis

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GYDP Action Research Project Presentation(1)

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Baseline Study GYDP IYJS 2009 Full Report

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Baseline Study GYDP IYJS 2009 Executive Summary

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> > A critical analysis of informal youth diversion policy in the Republic of Ireland

Photo by Malik Earnest on Unsplash

The Irish Youth Justice Service is at a juncture where current policy is being reviewed. This article critiques aspects of current policy and uses research to explore how potential changes to policy might shift approaches in practice from prescribed purposes and outcomes to a more transformative approach.
Over the past two decades, diversionary and community based measures for youth crime prevention have gained central importance in youth justice policies across many national contexts. Despite the seemingly progressive ideals underpinning diversion and prevention as a political and pragmatic strategy to deal with young people in trouble with the law, it is important to maintain a critical distance to its various and ongoing permutations. In particular, the contemporary prioritising of designing and delivering 'value for money' interventions and investing in programmes that are 'evidence-based' and 'outcomes'-focused, deflects all too easily from engrained, complex and underlying causalities of youth crime. Growing up in neoliberal societies which demand continuous self-improvement, flexibility and navigation of various insecurities, contributes to the deep exclusion of many young people, sometimes with violent consequences.

I offer some critical reflections on currently envisaged policy changes in relation to the Irish Republic's multi-agency diversion projects, the so called Garda Youth Diversion Projects (GYDPs). Although different in various aspects, GYDPs closely resemble Youth Offending Teams (YOTs) in England and Wales. It is my hope that my analysis is useful beyond the Irish context, as it points to some of the perennial questions and fundamentally ideological decisions to be made when dealing with young people (potentially) in trouble with the law.

My reflections are partly based on my PhD research which I completed in 2013 (Swirak, 2013). As part of my research, I conducted a detailed genealogical policy analysis of GYDPs and also interviewed over 30 professionals working on 14 different GYDPs across the Republic of Ireland, about their engagement with different elements of GYDP policy. In addition, I remain a close observer of GYDP policy and practice through ongoing conversations with youth workers/youth justice workers, youth work teachers and relevant policy makers.

Background and Context

GYDPs are officially defined as '...community based, multi-agency youth crime prevention initiatives which primarily seek to divert young people who have been involved in anti-social and/or criminal behaviour by providing suitable activities to facilitate personal development, promote civic responsibility and improve long-term employability prospects' (IYJS, 2009b:2). They have grown from just two projects in North Dublin in 1991 to 106 projects in 2018, with a total annual budget spend of approximately 12 million Euro (Fitzgerald, 2017). Over 4,000 thousand young people participate on an annual basis in the projects (IYJS, 2016). In contemporary youth justice policy, which in the context of the Republic of Ireland exists in a comprehensive manner only since the establishment of the IYJS in 2005, the GYDPs now constitute an important element of a tiered approach to youth justice. This means that the level of intervention is thought to be linked to the level of risk and need of young people.

In terms of institutional legacy, GYDPs have evolved out of previously ongoing informal and local partnerships between youth work organisations and the Gardai in particular areas. As the number of GYDPs increased over the decades, voluntary youth work organisations have remained the main provider of GYDPs. At the local level, GYDPs have in most instances become embedded in youth work

organisations' wider network of service provision. In addition, several projects have become part of the wider local social policy fabric and have often been set up based on demands made by local politicians, rather than for example on the basis of local youth crime rates. The projects thus sit at the intersection of different 'service' systems for young people in Ireland, which at times contributes to apparent contradictions for policy makers and professionals working on them.

Previous research has identified that as a result of this institutional legacy, some GYDPs operate as 'generic' youth work projects, potentially resulting in 'net-widening', i.e. unnecessarily drawing young people into the criminal justice sphere. More worryingly, others seem to be operating as direct 'extension of social control' (Bowden, 2006), without formal procedural safeguards for young people participating in them (Swirak, 2013). For example, some youth justice workers routinely write reports for the Children's Court. In some cases, judges have made participation in GYDPs mandatory elements of sentences, while in other instances, youth justice workers reportedly expel young people, possibly without due process, from participation in GYDPs. All of these practices have unclear implications for young people's rights and ultimately also their continued engagement with the criminal justice system.

The first comprehensive reform process of GYDPs since their inception, the 'Agenda of Change', was initiated by the IYJS in 2009. It was concerned mainly with repositioning GYDPs towards acting as an additional layer of intervention for young people involved with the statutory Garda Diversion Programme (GDP). To achieve this, the IYJS engaged in a lengthy process of research with all local projects and introduced as one of the most important innovations, unifying reporting and planning practices. These included the introduction of the requirement of GYDPs' work plans and activities to be aligned with local youth crime statistics, the development of local crime profiles for project planning and linking to project outcomes, the training of GYDP staff in programmes aimed at remodelling young people and their parents' behaviour and last but not least the roll-out of the YLS-CMI 2.0 risk assessment tool for selection and monitoring of project participant across GYDPs (IYJS, 2009). This last element has only recently been completed (IYJS, 2016). I have argued elsewhere, that these reforms represent a radical shift in both the governance of young people and the youth work profession, and have been productive of advanced liberal youth justice work. Although interpreted differently by GYDP professionals depending on a variety of parameters, advanced liberal youth justice work is best characterised by a focus on managerialism, a privileging of evidence best- practice underpinned by the risk-factor paradigm as well as largely decontextualized and individualised conceptions of young people's offending behaviours (Swirak, 2016). I now turn to two issues currently under discussion in relation to GYDP policy, namely the rebalancing of primary and secondary target groups of young people as well as measurement of performance and outcomes.

GYDPs and targeting 'high-risk' young people

Since the GYDPs' inception, the concepts of primary prevention of young people generally 'at risk' of offending behaviour and diversion of young people from the criminal justice system already in trouble with the law, have been conflated in official project definitions and practice. GYDP policy first officially differentiated between these two target groups in a 1998 Garda Circular, defining the primary target group as those young people who had already offended and were considered likely to reoffend, and the secondary target group as those young people who hadn't yet offended, but 'because of their lifestyle and vulnerability are considered to be 'at risk' (Garda Circular, 1998: 3, cited in Bowden and Higgins, 2000: 151). To address this relatively vague definition and refocus GYDPs more tightly towards diversion, GYDP Operational Guidelines of 2009 prescribed individual projects to aim for a 70/30 participation ratio of young people from primary and secondary target groups respectively. Despite the introduction of this ratio, current figures modulate around 60/40. As a consequence, the IYJS is currently considering a revision of these arrangements and directing local GYDPs to consider a further tightened ratio of 75/25 of primary/secondary referrals. In addition and corresponding with the recently finalised rolling out of the YLS/CMI risk assessment tool across projects, the most recent thinking amongst policy makers is that young people assessed with higher risks/needs across both target groups should be prioritised for referrals to GYDPs. Policy makers' concerns here relate to the allocation of scarce Department of Justice resources, which according to the 'tiered' model of youth justice delivery, should be invested in those young people with the highest risks/needs. Given the widely accepted evidence of 'negative systems contact', the rationale of prioritising particular groups of young people for GYDP participation seems difficult to refute. Nevertheless, it is important to keep several caveats in mind.

Firstly, in my research with professionals employed on GYDPs, it became obvious that they did not always consider the practice of 'targeting' young people with higher risks/needs as feasible or as the best possible outcome for young people in trouble with the law. They expressed concern about the labelling of GYDPs as projects' for 'troublesome' young people and as a consequence losing their traction for exactly those young people, who might benefit the most from participation in GYDPs. They also suggested that GYDPs should ideally create safe spaces that mirror 'organic' and 'pro-social' communities, which requires a diverse mix of young people participating. In the absence of any research on how young people on GYDPs experience this 'interaction' of primary and secondary referrals in terms of considering their behavioural change, it would be unwise and not 'evidence-based' to introduce a prescriptive ratio, possibly even rewritten into a condition of funding receipt. Professional and local discretion should remain of utmost importance to strike the balance between distributing resources wisely, while also ensuring that GYDPs can continue to function as 'safe spaces' for young people who have previously fallen through cracks of many systems that didn't support them appropriately.

Secondly, in the context of wider provision of services for young people it is important to consider the issue of 'targeting' more systemically. In his remarks on 'net-widening' as one of the mechanisms of an expansion of 'social control' in contemporary societies, Cohen (1985) aptly reminds us of the corollary 'positive' unintended consequences. Potentially, interventions funded by the criminal justice system can therefore lead to the '...deploying of more resources along those margins, create more opportunities, and provide more services to groups who need them most' (Cohen, 1985:257). Coupled with the intensification of a 'value-for-money' culture across the Irish public sector (Government of Ireland, 2008) this is exactly what has happened with GYDPs in the Republic of Ireland. Particularly since the collapse of the Celtic Tiger in 2008, generic children and youth services have been heavily cut vis-à-vis 'targeted' services for children and young people (Kiely and Meade, 2018). In some localities, parents of young people have been reported to comment on the perceived impact of these priorities: 'does my kid first have to break a window before she can participate in a youth project'? If we take a step back and think more systemically, a further 'narrowing' of the target group for GYDPs has to be complemented by a reliable mechanism ensuring that those young people who were referred to GYDP as 'secondary target group' are supported in other types of youth provision. Otherwise, we risk merely, shifting the existing risks and needs of young people of the secondary target group, without addressing them adequately. Consideration should also be given to the transition of young people from GYDPs to other types of service provision, once their offending behaviour has been addressed. The strength of youth work organisations' local networks seems to be one of the most obvious choices.

Thirdly, it has been acknowledged by Irish policy makers, that the envisaged shift in targeting priorities could essentially alter the nature of some GYDPs, which operate on the basis of a more universal ethos, working with more 'secondary' referrals and young people at the lower end of the 'risk/need' scale. The related and implicit expectation of GYDPs would then be to affect positive changes with young people who often need more intensive supports, due to adverse life experiences and complex needs. In my research, professionals across GYDPs confirmed how 'success' with 'high-risk' young people would be volatile and often hard to document and achieve. As a consequence, professionals employed on GYDPs act as 'case managers' and advocates for young people, supporting their access to a range of specialised services that other statutory services have failed to provide. Without the provision of appropriate supports, this 'offloading' puts undue pressures on GYDP professionals, possibly setting them up for failure. Further narrowing of targeting priorities for GYDPs could therefore easily lead to undue 'responsibilisation' (see e.g. Pratt 1989 or Garland, 2001) of staff employed on GYDPs. Expectations of GYDPs and professionals employed on them should therefore be clearly reviewed in line with the levels of support that they receive from funders and their line managers.

Measuring projects' contributions and outcomes

A second significant area of currently debated policy reforms relates to the assessment of GYDPs' contributions and outcomes. GYDP policy makers are well aware of the nuances of 'success' when working with young people, the complexity of 'pathways' in and out of offending behaviour, as well as particular local contexts of GYDPs (for example the difference between urban and rural projects). As a result,

the interest to record GYDPs' contributions appear relatively sensible, particularly in relation to creating 'pro-social' opportunities for young people and supporting their resilience. However, I want to pinpoint several unresolved tensions when considering the measurement of GYDPs' contributions and outcomes.

My research with professionals has shown that in many instances, the YLS risk assessment tool is used face-to-face with young people. This is highly problematic. It is uncertain how the delivery of this clinical and risk rather than strengths focused tool impacts on the important aspect of relationship building between the young person and the youth justice worker. In addition, its delivery in the context of a voluntary intervention, raises a plethora of challenges related to procedural justice and young people's rights, particularly in the absence of clarity with what happens with the assessment results in reports for the Court. For GYDP policy, it would be of utmost importance to explicitly differentiate between the YLS risk assessment tool as an information gathering tool used in GYDPs' back offices or as a face-to-face tool used directly with young people.

Unsurprisingly, my research has also identified that the single biggest perceived impact of the 2009 'Agenda of Change' was added and changed reporting criteria. Professionals routinely observed that they are able to spend significantly less time with face-to-face work with young people, given the increased time spent on fulfilling administrative requirements. It would be important to take into account that the perceived benefits of increased accountability have to be off-set against less time available to be spent directly with young people. Most importantly however, GYDP policy could seize the moment and exchange a culture of managerialism for one that prioritises young people's voices and participation. The latter value system is already embedded in projects working according to a youth work ethos, based on the principle of young people's voluntary participation. This means that young people generally only attend GYDPs if they feel that their interests are covered by the particular project.

However, it is notable that none of the pieces of research conducted for policy formulation or instruments introduced since 2009 by the IYJS have talked to young people participating on GYDPs. In this regard, GYDP policy as it stands contradict the goals set out in the National Strategy on Children and Young People's Participation (DCYA, 2015) by effectively silencing young people's voices and agency. An important shift towards a paradigm that involves young people as co-producers of knowledge rather than as 'subjects' who are 'intervened upon', should be undertaken by policy makers. There are many well tried and tested methodologies available to include young people in assessing interventions (see e.g. Case and Haines, 2014; Cooper, 2014; Stirling et al. 2018), but first and foremost it would have to mean an explicit acknowledgement of the complexities and politics of the co-production of knowledge. The processes involved mean that evaluation of outcomes conducted in partnership with young people will be slower, more time intensive and at times challenging in pointing out the lack of success of particular activities or programmes. Despite the attention to 'local' knowledge professed by GYDP policy makers, without the voices and inputs of young people, it will by default remain incomplete and lack in texture, depth and quality.

Finally, it is important to unpack some of the terminology used in current policy discussions, as this tends to 'veil' (Goldson, 2009) some unresolved contradictions. For example, it should be clarified whether GYDPs are expected to reduce local youth crime rates, as repeatedly stated in policy documents? This seems a big ask, given the well-evidenced complexity and deeply entrenched issues, difficult to address by a punctuated intervention. It would rather make more sense to move towards a model of assessing contributions that corresponds better with the IYJS' stated commitment to support GYDPs as 'holistic' interventions. The remaining focus on the risk factor paradigm- despite an explicit acknowledgement of its pitfalls- shows how it has achieved the status of a 'truth-regime' (Rose, 1999) that fundamentally can't be questioned. More importantly, it undermines the potentially 'hopeful practice' (Te Riele, 2006) and 'revolutionary pedagogy' (Freire, 1970) taking place across some GYDPs. The link between the latter and desistance has recently been flagged (McNeill, 2018). A move away from the risk-factor paradigm would symbolise an important shift towards accepting young people as unconditionally valuable individuals.

Policy alterations in a 'carved-up' policy landscape

Many of the considerations currently undertaken by GYDP policy makers are restricted by the wider approach to services for children and young people in the Republic of Ireland. Interventions are constrained by the logic of pre-determined and specified purposes and outcomes rather than the provision of 'transformative rights' (Gray, 2011). These 'services' remain singularly focused upon the prevention of future problems such as offending as opposed to prioritising the design of unconditional and safe 'spaces' for young people (Moss and Petrie, 2002) within which they can be supported in resolving their own issues and determine their own futures. Despite the best intentions to coordinate services, children and young people remain carved up into bureaucratic and practice domains, depending on their particular needs. Given the slim changes of this regime changing in the near future, efforts to re-envision GYDP policy are all the more important

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Last Updated: 2 July 2018
References:
Bowden, M. (2006) Youth, Governance and the City: Towards a Critical Urban Sociology of Youth Crime and Disorder Prevention. Youth Studies Ireland, 1(1), 19-39

Bowden, M. and Higgins, L. (2000) The impact and effectiveness of the Garda special projects: Final Report to the Department of Justice, Equality & Law Reform. Dublin: Stationery Office.

Caes, S.P. and Haines, K.R. (2014) Reflective friend research: the relational aspects of social scientific research, in K. Lumsden (ed) Reflexivity in criminological research, London: Palgrave.

Cohen, S. (1985) Visions of Social Control- Crime, Punishment and Classification. Oxford: Polity Press.

Cooper, S. (2014) Putting collective reflective dialogue at the heart of the evaluation process, Reflective Practice International and Multidisciplinary Perspectives 15:5, 563-578,

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14623943.2014.900019

DCYA (2014) Value for Money and Policy Review of Youth Programmes, Dublin: Government Publications. https://www.dcya.gov.ie/documents/publications/20141223ValueforMoneyYouthProjects.pdf

DCYA (2015) National Strategy on Children and Young People's Participation in Decision Making 2015-2020 https://www.dcya.gov.ie/documents/playandrec/20150617NatStratonChildrenandYoungPeoplesParticipationinDecisionMaking2015-2020.pdf

Fitzgerald, F. (2017) https://www.kildarestreet.com/wrans/?id=2017-01-17a.326

Garland, D. (2001) The Culture of Control: Crime and Social Order in Contemporary Society. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

IYJS (2009a) Designing effective local responses to youth crime- A Baseline Analysis of the Garda Youth Diversion Projects. Dublin: Stationery Office. http://www.justice.ie/en/JELR/Pages/PB09000110

IYJS (2009b) GYDP Operational Requirements. http://www.iyjs.ie/en/IYJS/GYDP%20Operational%20Requirements.pdf/Files/GYDP%20Operational%20Requ irements.pdf

Irish Youth Justice Service (2016) Tackling Youth Crime- Youth Justice Action Plan, Progress Report 2016. http://iyjs.ie/en/IYJS/YJAPProgressReport2016.pdf/Files/YJAPProgressReport2016.pdf

Freire, P. (1970) Pedagogy of the Oppressed New York : Herder and Herder.

Goldson, B. (2008) Child incarceration: Institutional abuse, the violent state and the politics of impunity. In: Scraotn, P. and McCulloch, J. (eds.) The Violence of Incarceration (pp. 86-106). New York: Routledge.

Government of Ireland (2008) Report of the Task Force on Public Services, Dublin: Stationery Office. https://www.taoiseach.gov.ie/eng/Publications/Publications_Archive/Publications_2008/Transforming_Public_Services1.pdf

Gray, P. (2011) Youth Custody, Resettlement and the Right to Social Justice. Youth Justice: An International Journal, 11(3): 235-249

Kiely, E. and Meade, R. (2018) Contemporary Irish youth work policy and practice: A Governmental analysis, Child and Youth Services https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0145935X.2018.1426453

McNeill (2018) Paulo Freire's Revolutionary Pedagogy: A framework for desistance? http://blogs.iriss.org.uk/discoveringdesistance/2018/03/23/paulo-freires-revolutionary-pedagogy-a-framework-for-desistance/#.WrUG-IqSqLc.twitter

Moss,P. and Petrie, P. (2002) From Children's Services to Children's Spaces: Public Policy, Children and Childhood. London: Routledge Falmer.

Pratt, J. (1989) Corporatism: The Third Model of Juvenile Justice. British Journal of Criminology, 29, 236 - 254.

Rose, N. (1999) Powers of Freedom- Reframing Political Thought. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Stirling A., Ely, A. and Marshall, F. (2018) How do we co-produce transformational knowledge? https://steps-centre.org/blog/how-do-we-co-produce-transformative-knowledge/

Swirak, K. (2013) A post-structuralist analysis of Irish youth crime prevention policy with specific emphasis on the Garda youth diversion projects, Unpublished PhD thesis: https://cora.ucc.ie/handle/10468/1107.

Swirak, K. (2016) Problematising advanced liberal youth crime prevention: the impacts of management reforms on Irish Garda Youth Diversion Projects. Youth Justice: An International Journal Vol 16, Issue 2

Te Riele, K. (2006) Youth 'at risk': further marginalizing the marginalized? Journal of Education Policy, 21 (2), 129-145.
Biography:
Katharina is a lecturer in Criminology at University College Cork with interests in youth justice policy, voluntary sector involvement in the criminal justice system and prison abolitionism.

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A critical analysis of informal youth diversion policy in the Republic of Ireland

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A critical analysis of informal youth diversion policy in the Republic of Ireland The Irish Youth Justice Service is at a juncture where current policy is being reviewed. This article critiques aspects of current policy and uses research to explore how potential changes to policy might shift approaches in practice from prescribed purposes and outcomes to a more transformative approach.

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> > A critical analysis of informal youth diversion policy in the Republic of Ireland

Photo by Malik Earnest on Unsplash

The Irish Youth Justice Service is at a juncture where current policy is being reviewed. This article critiques aspects of current policy and uses research to explore how potential changes to policy might shift approaches in practice from prescribed purposes and outcomes to a more transformative approach.
Over the past two decades, diversionary and community based measures for youth crime prevention have gained central importance in youth justice policies across many national contexts. Despite the seemingly progressive ideals underpinning diversion and prevention as a political and pragmatic strategy to deal with young people in trouble with the law, it is important to maintain a critical distance to its various and ongoing permutations. In particular, the contemporary prioritising of designing and delivering 'value for money' interventions and investing in programmes that are 'evidence-based' and 'outcomes'-focused, deflects all too easily from engrained, complex and underlying causalities of youth crime. Growing up in neoliberal societies which demand continuous self-improvement, flexibility and navigation of various insecurities, contributes to the deep exclusion of many young people, sometimes with violent consequences.

I offer some critical reflections on currently envisaged policy changes in relation to the Irish Republic's multi-agency diversion projects, the so called Garda Youth Diversion Projects (GYDPs). Although different in various aspects, GYDPs closely resemble Youth Offending Teams (YOTs) in England and Wales. It is my hope that my analysis is useful beyond the Irish context, as it points to some of the perennial questions and fundamentally ideological decisions to be made when dealing with young people (potentially) in trouble with the law.

My reflections are partly based on my PhD research which I completed in 2013 (Swirak, 2013). As part of my research, I conducted a detailed genealogical policy analysis of GYDPs and also interviewed over 30 professionals working on 14 different GYDPs across the Republic of Ireland, about their engagement with different elements of GYDP policy. In addition, I remain a close observer of GYDP policy and practice through ongoing conversations with youth workers/youth justice workers, youth work teachers and relevant policy makers.

Background and Context

GYDPs are officially defined as '...community based, multi-agency youth crime prevention initiatives which primarily seek to divert young people who have been involved in anti-social and/or criminal behaviour by providing suitable activities to facilitate personal development, promote civic responsibility and improve long-term employability prospects' (IYJS, 2009b:2). They have grown from just two projects in North Dublin in 1991 to 106 projects in 2018, with a total annual budget spend of approximately 12 million Euro (Fitzgerald, 2017). Over 4,000 thousand young people participate on an annual basis in the projects (IYJS, 2016). In contemporary youth justice policy, which in the context of the Republic of Ireland exists in a comprehensive manner only since the establishment of the IYJS in 2005, the GYDPs now constitute an important element of a tiered approach to youth justice. This means that the level of intervention is thought to be linked to the level of risk and need of young people.

In terms of institutional legacy, GYDPs have evolved out of previously ongoing informal and local partnerships between youth work organisations and the Gardai in particular areas. As the number of GYDPs increased over the decades, voluntary youth work organisations have remained the main provider of GYDPs. At the local level, GYDPs have in most instances become embedded in youth work

organisations' wider network of service provision. In addition, several projects have become part of the wider local social policy fabric and have often been set up based on demands made by local politicians, rather than for example on the basis of local youth crime rates. The projects thus sit at the intersection of different 'service' systems for young people in Ireland, which at times contributes to apparent contradictions for policy makers and professionals working on them.

Previous research has identified that as a result of this institutional legacy, some GYDPs operate as 'generic' youth work projects, potentially resulting in 'net-widening', i.e. unnecessarily drawing young people into the criminal justice sphere. More worryingly, others seem to be operating as direct 'extension of social control' (Bowden, 2006), without formal procedural safeguards for young people participating in them (Swirak, 2013). For example, some youth justice workers routinely write reports for the Children's Court. In some cases, judges have made participation in GYDPs mandatory elements of sentences, while in other instances, youth justice workers reportedly expel young people, possibly without due process, from participation in GYDPs. All of these practices have unclear implications for young people's rights and ultimately also their continued engagement with the criminal justice system.

The first comprehensive reform process of GYDPs since their inception, the 'Agenda of Change', was initiated by the IYJS in 2009. It was concerned mainly with repositioning GYDPs towards acting as an additional layer of intervention for young people involved with the statutory Garda Diversion Programme (GDP). To achieve this, the IYJS engaged in a lengthy process of research with all local projects and introduced as one of the most important innovations, unifying reporting and planning practices. These included the introduction of the requirement of GYDPs' work plans and activities to be aligned with local youth crime statistics, the development of local crime profiles for project planning and linking to project outcomes, the training of GYDP staff in programmes aimed at remodelling young people and their parents' behaviour and last but not least the roll-out of the YLS-CMI 2.0 risk assessment tool for selection and monitoring of project participant across GYDPs (IYJS, 2009). This last element has only recently been completed (IYJS, 2016). I have argued elsewhere, that these reforms represent a radical shift in both the governance of young people and the youth work profession, and have been productive of advanced liberal youth justice work. Although interpreted differently by GYDP professionals depending on a variety of parameters, advanced liberal youth justice work is best characterised by a focus on managerialism, a privileging of evidence best- practice underpinned by the risk-factor paradigm as well as largely decontextualized and individualised conceptions of young people's offending behaviours (Swirak, 2016). I now turn to two issues currently under discussion in relation to GYDP policy, namely the rebalancing of primary and secondary target groups of young people as well as measurement of performance and outcomes.

GYDPs and targeting 'high-risk' young people

Since the GYDPs' inception, the concepts of primary prevention of young people generally 'at risk' of offending behaviour and diversion of young people from the criminal justice system already in trouble with the law, have been conflated in official project definitions and practice. GYDP policy first officially differentiated between these two target groups in a 1998 Garda Circular, defining the primary target group as those young people who had already offended and were considered likely to reoffend, and the secondary target group as those young people who hadn't yet offended, but 'because of their lifestyle and vulnerability are considered to be 'at risk' (Garda Circular, 1998: 3, cited in Bowden and Higgins, 2000: 151). To address this relatively vague definition and refocus GYDPs more tightly towards diversion, GYDP Operational Guidelines of 2009 prescribed individual projects to aim for a 70/30 participation ratio of young people from primary and secondary target groups respectively. Despite the introduction of this ratio, current figures modulate around 60/40. As a consequence, the IYJS is currently considering a revision of these arrangements and directing local GYDPs to consider a further tightened ratio of 75/25 of primary/secondary referrals. In addition and corresponding with the recently finalised rolling out of the YLS/CMI risk assessment tool across projects, the most recent thinking amongst policy makers is that young people assessed with higher risks/needs across both target groups should be prioritised for referrals to GYDPs. Policy makers' concerns here relate to the allocation of scarce Department of Justice resources, which according to the 'tiered' model of youth justice delivery, should be invested in those young people with the highest risks/needs. Given the widely accepted evidence of 'negative systems contact', the rationale of prioritising particular groups of young people for GYDP participation seems difficult to refute. Nevertheless, it is important to keep several caveats in mind.

Firstly, in my research with professionals employed on GYDPs, it became obvious that they did not always consider the practice of 'targeting' young people with higher risks/needs as feasible or as the best possible outcome for young people in trouble with the law. They expressed concern about the labelling of GYDPs as projects' for 'troublesome' young people and as a consequence losing their traction for exactly those young people, who might benefit the most from participation in GYDPs. They also suggested that GYDPs should ideally create safe spaces that mirror 'organic' and 'pro-social' communities, which requires a diverse mix of young people participating. In the absence of any research on how young people on GYDPs experience this 'interaction' of primary and secondary referrals in terms of considering their behavioural change, it would be unwise and not 'evidence-based' to introduce a prescriptive ratio, possibly even rewritten into a condition of funding receipt. Professional and local discretion should remain of utmost importance to strike the balance between distributing resources wisely, while also ensuring that GYDPs can continue to function as 'safe spaces' for young people who have previously fallen through cracks of many systems that didn't support them appropriately.

Secondly, in the context of wider provision of services for young people it is important to consider the issue of 'targeting' more systemically. In his remarks on 'net-widening' as one of the mechanisms of an expansion of 'social control' in contemporary societies, Cohen (1985) aptly reminds us of the corollary 'positive' unintended consequences. Potentially, interventions funded by the criminal justice system can therefore lead to the '...deploying of more resources along those margins, create more opportunities, and provide more services to groups who need them most' (Cohen, 1985:257). Coupled with the intensification of a 'value-for-money' culture across the Irish public sector (Government of Ireland, 2008) this is exactly what has happened with GYDPs in the Republic of Ireland. Particularly since the collapse of the Celtic Tiger in 2008, generic children and youth services have been heavily cut vis-à-vis 'targeted' services for children and young people (Kiely and Meade, 2018). In some localities, parents of young people have been reported to comment on the perceived impact of these priorities: 'does my kid first have to break a window before she can participate in a youth project'? If we take a step back and think more systemically, a further 'narrowing' of the target group for GYDPs has to be complemented by a reliable mechanism ensuring that those young people who were referred to GYDP as 'secondary target group' are supported in other types of youth provision. Otherwise, we risk merely, shifting the existing risks and needs of young people of the secondary target group, without addressing them adequately. Consideration should also be given to the transition of young people from GYDPs to other types of service provision, once their offending behaviour has been addressed. The strength of youth work organisations' local networks seems to be one of the most obvious choices.

Thirdly, it has been acknowledged by Irish policy makers, that the envisaged shift in targeting priorities could essentially alter the nature of some GYDPs, which operate on the basis of a more universal ethos, working with more 'secondary' referrals and young people at the lower end of the 'risk/need' scale. The related and implicit expectation of GYDPs would then be to affect positive changes with young people who often need more intensive supports, due to adverse life experiences and complex needs. In my research, professionals across GYDPs confirmed how 'success' with 'high-risk' young people would be volatile and often hard to document and achieve. As a consequence, professionals employed on GYDPs act as 'case managers' and advocates for young people, supporting their access to a range of specialised services that other statutory services have failed to provide. Without the provision of appropriate supports, this 'offloading' puts undue pressures on GYDP professionals, possibly setting them up for failure. Further narrowing of targeting priorities for GYDPs could therefore easily lead to undue 'responsibilisation' (see e.g. Pratt 1989 or Garland, 2001) of staff employed on GYDPs. Expectations of GYDPs and professionals employed on them should therefore be clearly reviewed in line with the levels of support that they receive from funders and their line managers.

Measuring projects' contributions and outcomes

A second significant area of currently debated policy reforms relates to the assessment of GYDPs' contributions and outcomes. GYDP policy makers are well aware of the nuances of 'success' when working with young people, the complexity of 'pathways' in and out of offending behaviour, as well as particular local contexts of GYDPs (for example the difference between urban and rural projects). As a result,

the interest to record GYDPs' contributions appear relatively sensible, particularly in relation to creating 'pro-social' opportunities for young people and supporting their resilience. However, I want to pinpoint several unresolved tensions when considering the measurement of GYDPs' contributions and outcomes.

My research with professionals has shown that in many instances, the YLS risk assessment tool is used face-to-face with young people. This is highly problematic. It is uncertain how the delivery of this clinical and risk rather than strengths focused tool impacts on the important aspect of relationship building between the young person and the youth justice worker. In addition, its delivery in the context of a voluntary intervention, raises a plethora of challenges related to procedural justice and young people's rights, particularly in the absence of clarity with what happens with the assessment results in reports for the Court. For GYDP policy, it would be of utmost importance to explicitly differentiate between the YLS risk assessment tool as an information gathering tool used in GYDPs' back offices or as a face-to-face tool used directly with young people.

Unsurprisingly, my research has also identified that the single biggest perceived impact of the 2009 'Agenda of Change' was added and changed reporting criteria. Professionals routinely observed that they are able to spend significantly less time with face-to-face work with young people, given the increased time spent on fulfilling administrative requirements. It would be important to take into account that the perceived benefits of increased accountability have to be off-set against less time available to be spent directly with young people. Most importantly however, GYDP policy could seize the moment and exchange a culture of managerialism for one that prioritises young people's voices and participation. The latter value system is already embedded in projects working according to a youth work ethos, based on the principle of young people's voluntary participation. This means that young people generally only attend GYDPs if they feel that their interests are covered by the particular project.

However, it is notable that none of the pieces of research conducted for policy formulation or instruments introduced since 2009 by the IYJS have talked to young people participating on GYDPs. In this regard, GYDP policy as it stands contradict the goals set out in the National Strategy on Children and Young People's Participation (DCYA, 2015) by effectively silencing young people's voices and agency. An important shift towards a paradigm that involves young people as co-producers of knowledge rather than as 'subjects' who are 'intervened upon', should be undertaken by policy makers. There are many well tried and tested methodologies available to include young people in assessing interventions (see e.g. Case and Haines, 2014; Cooper, 2014; Stirling et al. 2018), but first and foremost it would have to mean an explicit acknowledgement of the complexities and politics of the co-production of knowledge. The processes involved mean that evaluation of outcomes conducted in partnership with young people will be slower, more time intensive and at times challenging in pointing out the lack of success of particular activities or programmes. Despite the attention to 'local' knowledge professed by GYDP policy makers, without the voices and inputs of young people, it will by default remain incomplete and lack in texture, depth and quality.

Finally, it is important to unpack some of the terminology used in current policy discussions, as this tends to 'veil' (Goldson, 2009) some unresolved contradictions. For example, it should be clarified whether GYDPs are expected to reduce local youth crime rates, as repeatedly stated in policy documents? This seems a big ask, given the well-evidenced complexity and deeply entrenched issues, difficult to address by a punctuated intervention. It would rather make more sense to move towards a model of assessing contributions that corresponds better with the IYJS' stated commitment to support GYDPs as 'holistic' interventions. The remaining focus on the risk factor paradigm- despite an explicit acknowledgement of its pitfalls- shows how it has achieved the status of a 'truth-regime' (Rose, 1999) that fundamentally can't be questioned. More importantly, it undermines the potentially 'hopeful practice' (Te Riele, 2006) and 'revolutionary pedagogy' (Freire, 1970) taking place across some GYDPs. The link between the latter and desistance has recently been flagged (McNeill, 2018). A move away from the risk-factor paradigm would symbolise an important shift towards accepting young people as unconditionally valuable individuals.

Policy alterations in a 'carved-up' policy landscape

Many of the considerations currently undertaken by GYDP policy makers are restricted by the wider approach to services for children and young people in the Republic of Ireland. Interventions are constrained by the logic of pre-determined and specified purposes and outcomes rather than the provision of 'transformative rights' (Gray, 2011). These 'services' remain singularly focused upon the prevention of future problems such as offending as opposed to prioritising the design of unconditional and safe 'spaces' for young people (Moss and Petrie, 2002) within which they can be supported in resolving their own issues and determine their own futures. Despite the best intentions to coordinate services, children and young people remain carved up into bureaucratic and practice domains, depending on their particular needs. Given the slim changes of this regime changing in the near future, efforts to re-envision GYDP policy are all the more important

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Last Updated: 2 July 2018
References:
Bowden, M. (2006) Youth, Governance and the City: Towards a Critical Urban Sociology of Youth Crime and Disorder Prevention. Youth Studies Ireland, 1(1), 19-39

Bowden, M. and Higgins, L. (2000) The impact and effectiveness of the Garda special projects: Final Report to the Department of Justice, Equality & Law Reform. Dublin: Stationery Office.

Caes, S.P. and Haines, K.R. (2014) Reflective friend research: the relational aspects of social scientific research, in K. Lumsden (ed) Reflexivity in criminological research, London: Palgrave.

Cohen, S. (1985) Visions of Social Control- Crime, Punishment and Classification. Oxford: Polity Press.

Cooper, S. (2014) Putting collective reflective dialogue at the heart of the evaluation process, Reflective Practice International and Multidisciplinary Perspectives 15:5, 563-578,

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14623943.2014.900019

DCYA (2014) Value for Money and Policy Review of Youth Programmes, Dublin: Government Publications. https://www.dcya.gov.ie/documents/publications/20141223ValueforMoneyYouthProjects.pdf

DCYA (2015) National Strategy on Children and Young People's Participation in Decision Making 2015-2020 https://www.dcya.gov.ie/documents/playandrec/20150617NatStratonChildrenandYoungPeoplesParticipationinDecisionMaking2015-2020.pdf

Fitzgerald, F. (2017) https://www.kildarestreet.com/wrans/?id=2017-01-17a.326

Garland, D. (2001) The Culture of Control: Crime and Social Order in Contemporary Society. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

IYJS (2009a) Designing effective local responses to youth crime- A Baseline Analysis of the Garda Youth Diversion Projects. Dublin: Stationery Office. http://www.justice.ie/en/JELR/Pages/PB09000110

IYJS (2009b) GYDP Operational Requirements. http://www.iyjs.ie/en/IYJS/GYDP%20Operational%20Requirements.pdf/Files/GYDP%20Operational%20Requ irements.pdf

Irish Youth Justice Service (2016) Tackling Youth Crime- Youth Justice Action Plan, Progress Report 2016. http://iyjs.ie/en/IYJS/YJAPProgressReport2016.pdf/Files/YJAPProgressReport2016.pdf

Freire, P. (1970) Pedagogy of the Oppressed New York : Herder and Herder.

Goldson, B. (2008) Child incarceration: Institutional abuse, the violent state and the politics of impunity. In: Scraotn, P. and McCulloch, J. (eds.) The Violence of Incarceration (pp. 86-106). New York: Routledge.

Government of Ireland (2008) Report of the Task Force on Public Services, Dublin: Stationery Office. https://www.taoiseach.gov.ie/eng/Publications/Publications_Archive/Publications_2008/Transforming_Public_Services1.pdf

Gray, P. (2011) Youth Custody, Resettlement and the Right to Social Justice. Youth Justice: An International Journal, 11(3): 235-249

Kiely, E. and Meade, R. (2018) Contemporary Irish youth work policy and practice: A Governmental analysis, Child and Youth Services https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0145935X.2018.1426453

McNeill (2018) Paulo Freire's Revolutionary Pedagogy: A framework for desistance? http://blogs.iriss.org.uk/discoveringdesistance/2018/03/23/paulo-freires-revolutionary-pedagogy-a-framework-for-desistance/#.WrUG-IqSqLc.twitter

Moss,P. and Petrie, P. (2002) From Children's Services to Children's Spaces: Public Policy, Children and Childhood. London: Routledge Falmer.

Pratt, J. (1989) Corporatism: The Third Model of Juvenile Justice. British Journal of Criminology, 29, 236 - 254.

Rose, N. (1999) Powers of Freedom- Reframing Political Thought. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Stirling A., Ely, A. and Marshall, F. (2018) How do we co-produce transformational knowledge? https://steps-centre.org/blog/how-do-we-co-produce-transformative-knowledge/

Swirak, K. (2013) A post-structuralist analysis of Irish youth crime prevention policy with specific emphasis on the Garda youth diversion projects, Unpublished PhD thesis: https://cora.ucc.ie/handle/10468/1107.

Swirak, K. (2016) Problematising advanced liberal youth crime prevention: the impacts of management reforms on Irish Garda Youth Diversion Projects. Youth Justice: An International Journal Vol 16, Issue 2

Te Riele, K. (2006) Youth 'at risk': further marginalizing the marginalized? Journal of Education Policy, 21 (2), 129-145.
Biography:
Katharina is a lecturer in Criminology at University College Cork with interests in youth justice policy, voluntary sector involvement in the criminal justice system and prison abolitionism.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
A critical analysis of informal youth diversion policy in the Republic of Ireland

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A critical analysis of informal youth diversion policy in the Republic of Ireland The Irish Youth Justice Service is at a juncture where current policy is being reviewed. This article critiques aspects of current policy and uses research to explore how potential changes to policy might shift approaches in practice from prescribed purposes and outcomes to a more transformative approach.

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This page gives information on important work to develop a new national Youth Justice Strategy.

Background

The Youth Justice System in Ireland is supported by the statutory framework contained in the Children Act 2001, (as amended) and by the joint efforts of State bodies and community-based organisations.

In the years since the Children Act came into effect there has been some notable progress, including the closure of the old St Patrick's Institution and the development of a modern national detention school facility at the Oberstown Child Detention Campus. We have also seen the development of a network of 106 Garda Youth Diversion projects in which community organisations play a vital role in helping young people make positive choices about their lives.

However, youth crime and anti-social behaviour still has an adverse effect on local communities and is a cause for great concern. There is much to be done to deal more effectively with the factors that relate to the involvement of children and young people in crime and the impact on victims. This requires a concerted and collaborative approach from all agencies, working with local communities.

Steering Group

It's nearly two decades since the Children Act was enacted and it is timely to take stock, and focus on how we can do things better. Early this year, Minister of State David Stanton. T.D. who has special responsibility for Youth Justice in the Department of Justice, convened an expert Steering Group to advise and guide the development of a new national Youth Justice Strategy to come into effect during 2020. This work incorporates a review of provisions in the Children Act.

Consultations

The development of the new Strategy will include wide ranging consultations with key stakeholders and an initial draft of the new Strategy will be available to support a public consultation process early in 2020.

In the meantime, we are providing information on the development of the Strategy by posting documents that show the issues being considered and some ideas to help us in the future. These include the minutes of the meetings of the expert Steering Group.

If you want to give your views about the new Youth Justice Strategy you can send us an e-mail at yjs@justice.ie.
Youth Justice Strategy Documents Youth Justice Strategy Background Note Guiding Principles for the Youth Justice Strategy Open Policy Forum Report to Inform the Development of a New Youth Justice Strategy Youth Justice Strategy Steering Group Minutes and Relevant Documents

Consultation and Communication for Youth Justice Strategy

1. International Standards

2. Thematic Approach to New Youth Justice Strategy

1. Vision Statement for Youth Justice Strategy

2. Prevention and Early Intervention Discussion Paper

3. Prevention and Early Intervention Overview

4. Early Intervention Chart

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This page gives information on important work to develop a new national Youth Justice Strategy. The Youth Justice System in Ireland is supported by the statutory framework contained in the Children Act 2001, (as amended) and by the joint efforts of State bodies and community-based organisations.

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