What is Youth Work/Ministry Part 4: Empowerment
Theology, Theory, What is Youth Work/Ministry | (0)
4. Empowerment
Empowerment, as Youth & Policy Youth Work puts it:
‘is the practice proactively seeking to tip balances of power in young people’s favour’4.
Leading on from voluntary participation, the youth worker is forced to confront questions of power, who has it, how much, used in what ways; this is as a central feature of relations with young people5.
The document goes on to highlight that the power which young people can and do actually exercise within the youth work relationship is relative to the degree of formal power (i.e. over money, buildings and equipment) which the youth worker ...