Ms Sin?ad Harris:

It is even in connection to the problems we are having in recruitment in the sector. We are not seen as an attractive sector for people to get involved in. We work late nights and on weekends. We are dealing with all the traumas going on in someone’s life on a daily basis. You have to take time out in the day to reset yourself or have a conversation with yourself about what you are facing, what you have listened to and what you have heard about that day. We are the scapegoats for many of the statutory agencies, such as Tusla and the HSE, in our communities. They might pass a referral on or phone you. The youth workers are the ones picking up all the pieces. They are doing all the hard work and all the donkey work. They are the ones engaging with the schools, the family, the Garda, going to the courts with the young people, sitting on the meitheal meetings and we are not getting the recognition. Take the meitheals. Nine times out of ten, the youth worker knows the young person. They know the triggers for the young person and what is happening in their life where the social worker is just ticking a box. Even when we sit at those meitheals, we are not seen in the same light as the social worker, school principal or the garda who has been the one to come down hard on that young person. We are the people who are there supporting that young person. As our service in Ronanstown has a family support service now as well, we have a kind of holistic approach when there are meitheals, in that the youth worker is there and the family support worker is there so we are supporting the whole family; not just the young person but the parents are involved as well.

We need the recognition to get more funding. Funding is the big issue. We are under-resourced and people are leaving the sector because there are more attractive jobs in other sectors. People are losing the grá for youth work. We would always say that it is nearly like a vocation. Those of us who are in youth work a long time are not there because the pay is good. We are there because we are invested in the community we work in and are invested in the young people. You see the impact that one good adult can have on a young person’s life. You can see when young people walk in the door with the hood up or you meet them out on the street and they will not come into the centre but then they walk out of a centre and they have an apprenticeship or they come back and they have kids. You can see the longevity of what youth work does and it takes a long time. Trying to measure youth work is nearly impossible because you could have a young person who came into a service six or seven years ago and you might not think you made any impression on his or her life but then such people come back in and might say, “Remember that time you sat down with me and gave me a cup of tea and you had a game of pool? That changed my life.” And you think, that changed your life? That is how simple it can be to change some person’s life. It is definitely around investment. We need to be put up there. We need to be at these things more often. We need to come together more as a sector and bang the same drum and get out more the work we do and the recognition that is needed for it.