a post by Beatrix Knoyves, Mary’s Youth Worker
From the moment I first stepped into my local youth club in Baia Mare, Romania back in 2016, my life trajectory shifted permanently. At first it was just a place to go after school, but then the other young people there became my friends, the youth workers were helping me navigate my teenage uncertainty, and I was understanding myself and the world around me better every passing day. I could not have known it then, but eight years later, here I am, exploring what is so special about giving young people somewhere to explore, learn, and just enjoy their adolescence.
My MA dissertation, therefore, explored themes of space and place, particularly ‘third places’ (Oldenburg 1999) and how they are created and co-created, emphasising young people’s relation of them. My research took place across two sites, two open-access youth clubs – Asociația DEIS in my Romanian hometown and Mary’s in Islington.
“Youth workers were helping me navigate my teenage uncertainty, and I was understanding myself and the world around me better every passing day”
To offer a strict definition of open-access youth work would limit, in my opinion, the variety of practices that workers develop to offer young people the best possible experiences. However, there are some characteristics from existing literature that I see as key to understanding how open access works. Such spaces are accessible for free by all young people who choose to participate, they can leave at any point, and although activities might be pre-planned, there is plenty of flexibility to adapt them to better respond to young people’s needs.
I made sure to keep these key principles in mind as I was doing my Dissertation research project part of which was to recreate each youth club using SIMS 4. As we played SIMS 4 together, we recreated the two youth clubs and the main characters (youth workers and young people) in the game, and young people told youth club stories in a creative writing workshop. It was all… fun and games!
SIMS 4 recreations of Asociația DEIS youth centre in Baia Mare, Romania to the left, and Mary’s (with our awesome sports hall and gym!) to the right
“spaces are accessible for free by all young people who choose to participate, they can leave at any point, and although activities might be pre-planned, there is plenty of flexibility to adapt them to better respond to young people’s needs“
It was interesting to reflect, first of all, on how the two spaces are run on a day-to-day basis. Asociația DEIS’s youth club is mostly led by a team of young volunteers who generate ideas, plan and implement activities, and make sure that all members who come to the centre feel welcome and comfortable. The youth workers do more work behind the scenes, supporting the young people (who might very well end up becoming youth workers themselves, like I did!). At Mary’s, on the other hand, the youth workers are the stars of the show – they ‘make’ the space, while all young people can come in and enjoy the various sessions every day of the week. Of course, young people are constantly consulted, and they can get involved with setting up sessions and helping, but that is totally up to them.
“Asociația DEIS’s youth club is mostly led by a team of young volunteers ... The youth workers do more work behind the scenes…At Mary’s, on the other hand, the youth workers are the stars of the show – they ‘make’ the space, while all young people can come in and enjoy the various sessions every day“
You can imagine how the two youth clubs offer quite different experiences for young people. However, when asked WHY they loved coming here, the answers were incredibly similar! Young people repeatedly mentioned they started coming to socialise with new people and overcome social anxiety, to find people with similar interests, to do something fun after school, or because their friends or other family members were going (a majority of the respondents first came with one or two friends who are around half and half still attending). Then, describing their youth club in three words, the two more frequent responses were fun (as well as laughter and entertainment) and friends (and social), showing that their engagement in youth work accomplished their initial goals. Other words that appeared multiple times were inclusive, homely, safe, inspiring, and creative.
“You can imagine how the two youth clubs offer quite different experiences for young people. However, when asked WHY they loved coming here, the answers were incredibly similar!“
Written by Beatrix Knoyves
SIS Project Youth Worker
