Why Rural

Young people living in rural communities do not get the same opportunities as their urban counterparts. Youth work policy and delivery has primarily focused on urban environments where young people are seen to be more visible and accessible to youth work interventions. Likewise rural interventions do not necessarily take account of young people’s needs and involve them in the development of local plans and strategies.

Like their urban counterparts rural young people have the capacity to think about their lives and affect positive change in their communities. Therefore YouthAction's work with rural young people focuses on building and supporting young people to contribute to the development of healthy and sustainable rural communities. 

The Rural Unit

The aims of the Rural Unit are;

• To support rural young people to advocate on their own behalf and to advocate on rural young people’s behalf at local and regional levels.
• To assess need and complete research to ensure that programmes meet the current and future needs of rural young people.
• To deliver workshops and training programmes that enable practitioners to deliver youth work programmes most suited to meeting rural young people’s needs. 
• To deliver training programmes which develop young people’s capacity and support them to make a significant impact on the development of their community.
• To deliver community youth work programmes that meet rural young peoples’ needs and enable them to become equal and active citizens in their community.
• To support local community organisations to include young people in the life of their community.

YouthAction’s work with rural young people recognises that for rural communities to be sustainable resources need to be specifically directed to meeting young people needs.   Located within a community development framework the range of programmes delivered help to build young people’s confidence, improve relationships in communities and promote action. This also enables young people’s needs  to be taken account of in local plans.

YouthAction’s work with rural young people also recognises and celebrates diversityThis includes programmes that help build better relationships within and between communities and also programmes that provide equality between young men and young women.