Written by: Jonathan Dearth

Ali Thomas talks about her role at YWCA England & Wales.

Tell us a little about your job
I work as an informal education programme manager at YWCA in St Helens. YWCA England & Wales is a force for change in young women's lives, enabling young women to work together to challenge and overcome discrimination and disadvantage. We work with young women from a wide range of backgrounds who are facing multiple types of oppression and disadvantage, and we offer them opportunities to make positive changes in their lives.

"Informal education" is the term being used to replace youth work. I believe that this more fully represents the work youth workers do. The basis of informal education is a positive relationship with the young people which enables the worker to pull learning out of a range of situations.

Can you tell us what your job involves?
My role is varied and each day is different. My work includes managing a team, ensuring the service we offer is a quality provision, supporting staff, networking with relevant agencies, managing a budget, delivering informal education, assessing young women's accredited work, fundraising and undertaking work for the YWCA nationally.

How did you get into your current job?
I went to university to do a BA Hons in religious studies with a minor in history. I intended to go into teaching, but after some first hand experience in the field I decided that it wasn't for me. So I responded to an advert in the local paper for part-time youth workers and ended up working seven hours a week on a detached work project for Liverpool Youth Service and absolutely loved it! The flexibility of detached work really appealed to me, so did being on the young people's territory, and the power dynamics were different too.

From this I applied for other youth work jobs and I started working for YWCA in 1998 as a part-time youth worker. The work and ethos of the organisation really appealed to me. Soon this became full-time, then I became informal education programme manager in 2001. I also studied for my Dip HE in informal and community education whilst I was working and I passed this in 2001.

Do you feel your work has made a positive difference to the people you work with?
The most satisfying things about what I do are gaining personal fulfilment, building relationships with young women and seeing their personal progression and journey in their life. The least satisfying things are constantly looking for funding and the pressure that brings, feeling a need to justify the quality of the voluntary sector to external agencies and having to think of 20 things at once.

Not all young women leave the project and go on to further education, training, etc. Some young women have a lot of complex personal issues, e.g. domestic violence or drug/alcohol addiction, which they need to address before moving on. It can be frustrating when a person who has loads of potential chooses to continue in her existing pattern. However it is not my role to judge or tell a young woman what to do. If nothing else they leave aware that organisations are out there if they need to access them.

How do you cope with the demands of your job?
People cope differently. I have a supportive network of family and friends who I turn to if necessary. However I find that working with the young people is the relatively straightforward and personally fulfilling part

Print