Ms Mary Cunningham:

I really appreciate the opportunity and thank the Chair and the committee members for inviting the National Youth Council of Ireland to the meeting today. My colleague Mr. Paul Gordon and I are grateful to the members for their continued focus on youth work and its impact. A focus on youth work is long overdue. Youth Work Changes Lives is the title of the campaign which we at the National Youth Council of Ireland have run over many years to raise awareness of the very significant personal and societal value of youth work and the need to adequately resource the youth work sector in order that it can continue to support the almost 400,000 youth people that it serves. However, this is so much more than a campaign slogan. Youth work is a truly transformational process for young people the length and breadth of the country. Every day, we hear from our members - youth workers and young people - about how young people, some of whom come from very traumatic backgrounds, can find a safe space for the first time in their lives and about the sense of belonging they experience and which they find in youth work. We also hear about the fundamental feeling of openness that enables them to develop the confidence and resilience needed to flourish as young people in the here and now, and not just as some staging post to adult life.

This kind of work happens in many settings, and broadly speaking, the long-standing principles which underpin youth work include young people engaging as partners, a focus on the needs and experiences of young people as individuals and meeting young people where they are at. In an Irish context, youth work is viewed as a non-formal educational and developmental process based on the voluntary participation of young people. Voluntary youth organisations are the primary providers of youth work in Ireland and this is enshrined within the Youth Work Act 2001, which also recognises the NYCI as the national representative youth work organisation. Youth work has an intrinsic, but often intangible societal value. Often, it is only years later that young people pinpoint their engagement with youth work as a turning point in their lives and their journey to uncovering hidden talents, finding their voice and overcoming adversity. We frequently learn of this recognition from people in all walks of life, including from Members of these Houses. This means that the impact of youth work can be hard to measure in the here and now, but Irish and international evidence reviews clearly demonstrate lasting and meaningful positive outcomes for young people and society as a result of youth work. These outcomes include personal development and growth, including increased confidence, openness to feedback, motivation and identity development; improved physical and mental health and well-being, including enhanced ability to manage anxiety and depression and a reduction in risky behaviours around drug-taking, smoking and engagement in sexual activity; improved education and career skills, including showing greater motivation, engagement, connection in school and enhanced career aspirations, as well as enhanced social responsibility and positive peer connections and connections with adults.

While youth work is not focused on narrow or defined economic outcomes, evidence from Ireland and the UK demonstrates the significant contribution youth work makes to national economies. Research carried out for the NYCI in 2012 made a conservative estimate that every €1 invested in youth work was worth €2.20 to the Irish economy. Despite this, youth work organisations in Ireland are underfunded. Only in 2023 has funding recovered to pre-financial crash levels but it has not risen sufficiently to meet youth population growth and the impact that successive crises, including Covid-19, the war in Ukraine and the rising cost of living, have had on resources, and importantly, on the recruitment and retention of volunteers and qualified youth workers. In 2023, youth work received only 1.2% of the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth budget.

This is despite having the second highest participation rates in youth worth organisations in the European Union and being recognised as having one of the strongest youth work networks, quality standards and education pathways to youth worker careers in Europe. We believe this reflects youth work’s position as the poor relation of formal education, despite its considerable impact on the lives of young people and the strength of this largely voluntary sector.

The youth work sector not only builds resilience in young people, but has demonstrated its own resilience in responding to young people’s needs with stretched resources. Despite being a standard bearer in Europe, the sector has been forced to do more with less. We believe that in facing significant challenges in recruitment, retention and learning and development, it cannot be expected to continue in this vein without a more robust and sustained financial commitment from Government.

NYCI’s vision for youth work is that all young people living in Ireland have access to high-quality, well-resourced youth work services which meet their expressed needs and are delivered by paid professionals and well-supported volunteers. To achieve this and to ensure our sector models best practice in Europe, we ask the committee to consider our recommendations. We call for increased investment and multi-annual funding streams for the youth work sector in budget 2024 and beyond. We propose that investment levels in universal youth work keep pace with targeted youth work. We ask the Department to invest in an independent review of the scale of the sector, to inform a data-driven approach to funding need, and to fund the sector to carry out a workforce planning review to identify current and future education, career pathway and retention needs, including terms and conditions of service and short-term contracts. We also recommend that the Government address the breadth of social and economic challenges facing young people in the forthcoming national youth strategy and position youth work organisations as a key delivery partner.

We believe these structural improvements and investments will allow for the sustainable youth work sector we need to ensure youth work changes lives now and for decades to come. I thank the committee for its time and look forward to taking any questions.