The Youth Work Charter

It may surprise some of you to find this out, but currently the church is one of the largest employer of youth workers in the UK, with an estimated 8,000 full time employees on the books. These individuals are responsible for much positive work with young people that would not otherwise happen and make a huge difference in the lives of those they work with. The vibrant, exciting reality of Christian youth work is often very different from the gloomy picture painted by the media and pessimists in power.

The trouble is youth workers employed by churches do not have many of the safegaurds and protections that are afforded to those employed by councils, and in fact are subject to many other pressures too, such as a congregation to be accountable to as well as a line manager, a potential lack of professionalism/experience in their employers and the desire of the church to see increasing numbers in youth groups, a constant stream of conversions, baptisms and an abiliy to work 25 hours a day!

In response to these, and other issues, the Youth Work Charter has been commissioned and launched by Youthwork the partnership, a collection of various Christian agencies involved in youth work such as Oasis, Alove, Spring Harvest, YFC and Youthwork magazine, who aim to resource, support and encourage youth workers up and down the length of the UK.

According to the blurb "The Charter is meant to be a helpful way for churches to think through the key issues in employing a youth worker. It contains seven declarations churches make about these issues.

The seven areas come from the very real experiences of youth workers up and down the country: they reflect situations where youth workers, and the churches that employ them, can often find frustration, conflict or simply unmet needs."

The basic 7 points churches would commit to following are as follows

We will pray and support

We believe that our youth worker needs spiritual support in their work with young people.

We promise to pray for our youth worker and keep their needs a high priority in the church’s prayer life.

We will give space for retreat and reflection

We believe that taking time to think and pray is just as essential for our youth worker as organising events and meeting young people.

We promise to encourage our youth worker to use part of their schedule to give space for retreat, reflection and personal development.

We will provide ongoing training and development

We believe that learning the skills of youth work is an ongoing process and that it’s important to continually invest in professional development.

We promise to set aside time and money to provide this for our youth worker.

We will give a full day of rest each week

We believe that taking regular time off helps maintain our youth worker’s passion and energy for their work with young people.

We promise to actively encourage our youth worker to take a day away from their role each week to do something different.

We will share responsibility

We believe that having a youth worker does not release the rest of the church from our responsibilities towards young people.

We promise to encourage everyone to play a part in volunteering, praying for or supporting young people.

We will strive to be an excellent employer

We believe that it’s important to have clear structures and procedures for recruiting and employing a youth worker, and to provide supportive management structures.

We promise to follow good practice guidelines in the way we employ our youth worker.

We will celebrate and appreciate

To see the details in every point and find out more in general, please visit the website and have a read! There is also a campaign running alongside the launch of the document called We Love Our Youth Worker which aims to resource churches and help them put the charter into practice.

Now, feel free to call me biased, but I think this is a really positive document. I am genuinely blessed with a fantastic working environment, brilliant colleagues and plenty of support, however I am aware that this is not the case for all church youth workers. On average we burn out after 18 months, suffer from stress and many church youth workers are managed poorly due to a lack of professional structures.

Yes, the positives of the job generally outweigh the negatives, but its worth making people alert to the downsides of full time Christian youth work and how to deal with them. I believe this charter could go a long way towards that, and I hope that as many churches as possible take it up when it is officially launched on Monday...