‘Individual and connected’: an exploration of young people’s discourses about youth cafes in Ireland

ABSTRACT

Since 2000, youth cafes are accorded prominence in Irish youth policies and research. Youth cafes are drug and alcohol free recreational spaces and research shows that they impact positively on young people. Youth cafes are broadly similar to youth clubs, but they are less structured and are primarily youth-led spaces. This paper draws on qualitative materials from a national study of youth cafes in Ireland, arguing that young people’s perceptions of youth cafes are linked to individuality and connectedness. In this paper, we explore these discourses surrounding individuality and connection in detail and argue that youth work in the twenty-first century must simultaneously appeal to young people’s need for space to ‘be’ and to find themselves and provide a structure within which they can relate to others and wider society.

KEYWORDS:

• Youth cafes
• individuality
• connectedness
• belonging
• discourse

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Corrigendum

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Bernadine Brady http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6139-1824

Notes

1. These recommendations about youth cafes from Teenspace (OMC 2007a) were formulated from detailed consultations with young people across Ireland in 2006/2007.

2. The Department of Children and Youth Affairs is a specially devolved government department in Ireland with responsibility for children and young people. On it's website, it states that its functions are to harmonise policy issues in areas that affect children and young people's lives such as early childhood care and education, youth justice and children's participation in society. See www.dcya.ie for more information.

3. Dublin is Ireland’s capital city and is located along the eastern seaboard of Ireland. Per Census (2011), the population of Co. Dublin is 1,273,069. The total population of Dublin City was 527,612. Cork City is the second largest city in the Republic of Ireland and is located along the country’s southern seaboard. Per Census (2011), the population of Co. Cork is 399,802. The population of Cork City is 119,230. Please see http://www.cso.ie/en/statistics/population/populationofeachprovincecountyandcity2011/

4. More sparsely populated counties such as Carlow, Cavan and Louth had 2 youth cafes each. The lowest number of youth cafes per county was recorded in Co. Monaghan in the Province of Ulster which had 1 youth café.

5. As part of this research, the lead author also conducted a detailed literature search of internet sources on youth cafes in other countries. She found a number of youth cafes in England, Scotland, and Wales some of which are a drop in for young people to hang out while others are more targeted at vulnerable populations (e.g. homeless youth). There is a sparse literature in the UK on youth cafes. However, the Prince's Trust (2005) gives some detailed information on the youth cafes model in UK.

6. The lead author did not find evidence of any evaluations or similar studies as the Irish study as part of her internet search of research on youth cafes completed from 2013 to 2015.

7. An example of an important relationships and sexuality programme run in youth cafes in Ireland was the ‘RealU’ programme, which was run in some Foróige cafes. Foróige are a nationally-based youth work provider in Ireland.

8. In Ireland, the main national youth work providers are Foróige and Youth Work Ireland (YWI).

9. Please see Hajer (n.d.).

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by the Irish Research Council (IRC) Social Policy Research Funding [grant number RDI2012-2].