From street to policy

During one of our discussions in Antwerp, we started drawing what looked like different layers of youth work.

At the first level you have people working directly with young people: street workers, youth workers, volunteers and local organisations.

They see what happens. They know which square is changing. They notice when a new group appears. They hear what young people are worried about before those concerns appear in official statistics.

That first line is essential.

But one of the lessons from Antwerp was that a strong first line is not enough.

Someone also has to listen to youth workers. Someone needs to connect organisations, identify patterns that go beyond one neighbourhood and bring those signals to policymakers.

The role of intermediary organisations

This is where intermediary and umbrella organisations become important.

During our visits and discussions in Antwerp, we looked at organisations operating at different levels: organisations working directly with young people, organisations supporting youth work, umbrella structures and actors connecting the sector with policy.

Imagine ten youth workers in ten neighbourhoods all seeing the same problem. If those observations remain within ten separate organisations, policymakers may never realise there is a structural issue.

A supporting organisation can bring those signals together and say:

“This is not an isolated case. This is what the youth sector is seeing.”

That changes the conversation.

It also works the other way around. Policy decisions need translation before they become useful on the street. A funding programme, regulation or strategic objective does not automatically improve a young person’s life. Someone has to connect it to practice.

When policy and practice meet

This became particularly visible during the visit of Antwerp alderman for youth Karim Bachar.

What made that conversation valuable was not only that a politician visited us. It was the direct connection between policymakers, youth workers and organisations.

Youth workers gain a better understanding of political realities: budgets, coalition partners and competing priorities. But policymakers should equally understand the limits of youth work.

Youth workers cannot compensate for every problem elsewhere in society.

Cooperation instead of ownership

This requires cooperation rather than competition between organisations.

Young people generally do not care which logo is on the door. If another organisation is better positioned to help a young person take a next step, that should be seen as progress, not as losing a participant.

The same applies to volunteers. A young person may start in one organisation, gain confidence and later volunteer somewhere else.

From an organisational perspective, that can feel like losing capacity. From the perspective of youth work as an ecosystem, something valuable has happened: a young person has developed.

Streetwise is bigger than one relationship

Streetwise therefore cannot only be about one youth worker and one young person.

The wider context matters. Organisations matter. Public space matters. Local policy matters. Support structures matter. Collaboration matters.

Perhaps one of the most important lessons from these days in Antwerp was:

“Strong street work needs a strong ecosystem behind the street worker.”

Without the first line, policy loses contact with reality. Without the structures around it, the first line risks having to solve structural problems alone.

We need both.