The economic inequality has been reflected in the acquisition of skills and qualifications; those with skills and/or qualifications more likely to participate in the economy. The move from mainly manual work (in the years immediately after the Second World War) to a more knowledge based economy reinforced this economic disadvantage.


The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) is charged with creating prosperous, inclusive and sustainable communities for the 21st century - places where people want to live - that promote opportunity and a better quality of life for all (ODPM 2005)*. To support the work of the ODPM Indices of Deprivation (ID) were developed based on the idea of distinct dimensions of deprivation which can be recognised and measured separately. The poorest areas of the UK are identified as having multiple deprivations from the key indicators that include:


 Education and physical activity  Health  Employment deprivation  Living environment deprivation and crime


This combination of deprivation leads to the poorest areas being denied access from main stream economic activity. This is termed social exclusion and can be formally defined as


The process whereby certain groups are pushed to the margins of society and prevented from participating fully by virtue of their poverty, low education or inadequate life skills. This distances them from job, income and education opportunities as well as social and community networks. They have little access to power and decision-making bodies and little chance of influencing decisions or policies that affect them, and little chance of bettering their standard of living. (CPA 2005)


Often the people charged with developing youth strategy do so based on their own memories of childhood and growing up (see fig. 2.2). But as can be seen in the diagram things have changed significantly since many of us were young people.


Youth culture is now created globally as much by media and marketing efforts than by young people themselves. Adolescent development is most influenced by peers and role models, hence the tendency of young people to focus on conforming to a social norm or stereo types. The rebellious nature of young people stems from their need for identity and is reinforced by their common use of language and culture such as the clothes they wear and music they listen to.


Media influence on young people is becoming more profound with global brands (many sports related) nurturing the MTV generations. The rapid rise of celebrities displaying the trappings of their success inspire the following generations to instant success. When these stars also display poor judgement and bad behaviour it is little surprise that this becomes accepted as normal.


Fig. 2.2 Young people then and now


Instant gratification is becoming a way of life for our young people and extends to all areas of their lives. The rise in binge drinking fuelled by youth orientated alcoholic beverages and peer pressure is just one area of concern. Town centres that are effectively no-go areas for all but young people, scenes of running street fights, overrun post closing time, casualty departments and an increase in unexpected pregnancies/sexually transmitted diseases are all symptoms of the binge culture. The cost of policing our town centres to cope with the effects of excess is utilising funds that should be used for more positive activities.


The role of sport, arts and cultural activity in the social development of young people in a healthy environment can provide a number of behavioural qualities in assisting educational attainment, physical, mental and emotional characteristics that can lead to short, mid and long term life style benefits.


The additional performance related activity benefits are reflected as well as under pinned by the continuum of participation/performance and excellence of our sportsmen and women who have distinguished themselves at Olympic and world level. Virtually all our sporting achievers have come from socially challenged backgrounds or suffered from a disaffected education or have experienced health problems.


2.1 Advocacy, Campaigning & Policy Development


‘YCS as a contributor to social regeneration’ was a report reflecting the work of the Youth Charter’s first five years of work. It was also an attempt to move the policy agenda to promote a greater balance in the distribution of the considerable resources resulting form the National Lottery. The document set out to reflect the challenges as well as opportunities of returning to an approach that had worked in both the social and grass root development of young people in the 70’s - ‘Sport for All’. In the five years of the “real life experiences of the Youth Charter on the streets of Moss Side’ “Sport for All” had become ‘Sport for the few’. With the decline of School Sport, a lack of after school access and activity, young people were simply on the streets with ‘nowhere to go’, ‘nothing to do’, and more importantly, ‘no-one to show them’. With the assistance of the Central Manchester Development Corporation a seven-year strategy was developed. The Youth Charter then went about spreading the message and approach, as the problem of educational non attainment, disaffection, exclusion, anti-social behaviour and crime/gang related activity, not only became a Moss Side phenomenon, but a regional and national cause for concern.


The Youth Charter is recognised as having considerable expertise and knowledge with regard to young people, sports, arts and culture. This is evidenced in the contributions that the Youth Charter has been invited to make.


Contributions to National Policy Documents include:


 Football taskforce (1998)  PAT 10 (1998)  Game Plan (2002)  Count me in (2002)  Everybody wins (2002)  Bringing communities together through sport (2004)  Social exclusion and sport (Sport England 2004)  After the gold rush (2004)  Youth Matters (2005)  Raising the bar (2005)  Whitbread Inquiry (2006)


Government departments/agencies presented to, consulted and advised include:


 Dept. for Education and Skills  Dept. for Culture, Media and Sport  Dept. of Trade and Industry  Dept. of Health  Dept. of Constitutional Affairs  Ministry of Defence  Home Office  Foreign and Commonwealth Office  Office of the Deputy Prime Minister  10 Downing Street  HM Treasury  National Audit Office


Whilst the message was now getting through, there remained challenges, hurdles and barriers in the ability for sporting and cultural activity to engage the hard to reach. Polices take time to change with the resources identified and grants made available. Therefore, the Youth Charter established a good relationship with the private sector. There were a number of benefits to the corporate entities, who, with an initial involvement in both the Olympic and bidding process could begin to see the “investment and return’ of our approach. Business wanted enthused, punctual and motivated potential employees as they recognised the need to reflect the societies they wished to continue making profits from. Following consultation with over 500 public, private and chartable institutions the Youth Charter “socially brokered“ an approach based on the programmes and projects delivered to date with the additional ‘appeal’ of the Youth Charter Scroll and the “Sporting Ambassadors” providing a ‘Win, Win, Win’ for the young people, community and companies involved. In order to meet the needs of both the private sector and the youth community groups, we produced a personal and social development programme that would have relevance in the classroom, the streets or the boardroom. The behaviour and performance were the same in both the desire of the young people we had worked with and spoken to. The key as well as challenge was to develop a core programme of modules that could be joined up to meet the social and cultural needs. The Youthwise programme was designed to achieve just that.


page 12 *Refer reference pages 45 - 46


The references underlined in this report can be hyperlinked on the electronic version via the Youth Charter website: www.youthcharter.co.uk


page 13


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