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Global approach to marginalised young people

In her key note speech at the ACE Conference Maureen Mallon spoke of a Global Youth Work in Action programme led by Y Care International (YMCA) and funded by the UK Government’s department for international development demonstrated how marginalised young people’s lives could be changed by supporting them to make sense of complex global issues such as unemployment, racism and gangs and to link these to their own contexts. The programme involved more than 40 youth work organisations bringing a global dimension to their work with marginalised young people in some of the most deprived areas of the country. Over the three years, more than 1,000 young people who are marginalised within society because they are homeless, in prison, because of their sexuality, or for a range of reasons, were made more aware of global issues such as events in Afghanistan, poverty and racism.

Evaluator, Dr Momodou Sallah, senior lecturer at De Montfort University’s Youth, Community and Education department, said, “By looking at global issues and how young people are at the centre of them, marginalised young people in the UK can begin to see their own lives in a different way and consequently begin to take action in their own lives that is commensurate with their abilities.”

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