What is the Youth Service?
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.
Policy
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
Make up
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 headquarters or umbrella bodies - 2,071 voluntary groups which have some 1,062 paid workers and 19,089 volunteers, are registered with ELBs 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.
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Young people