1. Youth work is good for young people.

• Over 200,000 young people regularly involved in youth work gain essential social and personal skills that they wouldn’t otherwise get through their school, their family or interactions with their friends.

2. Youth work is good for society.

• Youth work provides opportunities for young people to contribute to their own communities, to grow in themselves, to create a better society. This happens every day of the year in every part of the country.

3. Youth work is everywhere.

• Practically every town, every village, every parish, every community and every suburb in the country has at least one youth group involving local young people in it.

4. Youth work is good for democracy.

• Young people learn to participate in youth organisations in a democratic manner that will stand to them and to society in the future. They design and implement their own activities, elect themselves to leadership positions, learn how to operate democratic systems and get a chance to have their voices heard.

5. Youth work is deadly serious, but fun.

• Young people enjoy themselves taking part in a range of activities, while learning and developing themselves in the process. It is a form of non-formal education that is attractive and developmental for young people.

6. Youth work is dynamic.

• The youth sector offers choice to young people: a range of programmes and activities that meet the needs and interests of young people are available. Youth organisations are changing all the time to offer opportunities to young people that they would not otherwise get.

7. Youth work tackles real social issues.

• Through youth work young people are offered an alternative to the pub culture, an opportunity to grow in a safe environment where they are respected for who they are.

8. Youth work tackles disadvantage.

• Over 100,000 young people who suffer from various disadvantages, such as early school leavers, young parents, young drug addicts, young people from minority communities and those from isolated rural areas, are involved in quality youth work provisions that specifically address their needs.

9. Youth work mobilises people.

• No other part of the voluntary sector mobilises more people than youth work: over 240,000 young people and adults as members of youth groups and voluntary leaders and many more as participants in one-off events.

10. Youth work is huge value for money.

• The vast majority of resources applied to youth work are invested by local communities themselves, through the involvement of over 40,000 voluntary youth leaders and local fundraising efforts. The investment of the Government is modest in comparison. The core funding of many youth organisations, under the Youth Service Grant Scheme, involving over 200,000 young people, costs the state less than €1 per young person each week. Provisions to tackle social issues later in life cost many multiples of this.