Can a youth club revival help the ‘anxious generation’? – podcast | Young people

“I was sitting on the southbound subway on the northern line and noticed a group getting on; a man and three teenagers. There was something going on that I couldn’t quite put my finger on. They weren’t from school. They didn’t look like a family group.”

Emma WarrenThe journalist and author of Up the Youth Club: Uncovering a Hidden History explains: Helen Pidd How did he realize that the man he was observing was a youth worker? “He was taking people in and taking people out. I was watching someone who was extremely talented. He was turning the end of the subway car into a youth club and chatting.”

Warren outlines the devastating impact that a decade of austerity has had on Britain’s network of youth centres, and explains how the youth club is a distinctly British phenomenon, shaped in many ways by the stark inequalities of the Industrial Revolution and the optimism of the post-second world war and post-war period. Warren explores the significant cultural impact such clubs have had on the country and explains the difference a talented youth worker can make in a young person’s life.

Finally, Warren and Pidd discuss the UK government’s new strategy for youth services and consider whether it will be enough to pull Britain’s youth clubs back from the brink.

Support the Guardian today: theguardian.com/todayinfocuspod