Youth Well-being

A report on Tuesday reported on BBC news shows that the UK is ranked 24th out of 29 on Youth wellbeing. This follows on from the Good Childhood inquiry which expressed concern about the wellbeing of children. This is really interesting since we already have significant emphasis on Children and Young People through the governments Every Child Matters and the Youth Matters agenda.

So what part does today's youth worker have to contribute to this debate? As the church is now the largest employer of youth workers, in what ways are we getting involved in making a difference to these stats? It would be easy to complain about what is happening - the key question for me is what are we going to do about it? I'd love to see examples of youth work that does make a difference to these issues.

Of course teaching the Bible is part of the answer but how much of what we do takes the broader agenda of youth wellbeing seriously?