Youth Service About Us
The Youth Service exists to support and encourage young people to mature and reach their potential as valued individuals and responsible citizens. It is educational in the sense that it provides a social education within the context of a broad spectrum of diverse activity. The policy aim of the Youth Service is:
- to ensure the provision of opportunities for children, young people and young adults to gain for themselves knowledge, skills and experience to reach their full potential as valued individuals; to encourage the development of mutual understanding and promote recognition of and respect for cultural diversity.
The associated target in the Programme for Government (PfG) is that, by 2008, the membership of Youth Service organisations, as a percentage of the youth population, will have increased to 42 percent. It is also incumbent on the Department of Education (DE) to ensure that, as far as possible, the policy is carried out with uniformity across Northern Ireland.
The Youth Service is composed of a statutory and a voluntary sector.
- The statutory sector under the control of the Education and Library Boards (ELBs) consists of some 165 youth clubs 14 residential centres employing 960 paid workers and benefiting from the input of some 543 volunteers.
- The voluntary sector is made up of a great variety of organisations; there are uniformed and non uniformed units; church related and secular units; and headquarter or umbrella bodies. 2,071 voluntary groups which have some 1062 paid workers and 19,089 volunteers, are registered with Education and Library Boards for the receipt of grant aid.
Participation by young people in the Youth Service is voluntary, and activities which are firmly rooted in a social education ethos, are generally out of school or work time and non formal.
The statutory provision for the youth service is contained in the Education and Libraries (Northern Ireland) Order 1986 and the Youth Service (Northern Ireland) Order 1989.
The Department has overall responsibility for the Youth Service and it ensures as far as is possible that policy is carried out with uniformity. Specific duties include:
- policy for the Youth Service;
- payment of grant in aid to, and monitoring the performance of the Youth Council for Northern Ireland;
- making capital grants, (rate of 85 percent), to recognised voluntary youth organisations;
- making awards towards the training of youth workers; and
- close liaison with the Education and Library Boards including budget approvals, etc.
|
