Engaging the ‘Hard to Reach’, Craig Pinkney
‘Traditional youth work practice, struggles to engage the tail end of modern society that is labelled ‘hard to reach’. Society also dictates that young people ‘hanging on street corners’ are perceived negatively as noticed by the increase in Dispersal Orders. As violence, post-code conflicts, gang culture knife/gun crime has risen amongst the youth within the inner cities of the U.K it demonstrates that a radical reframing is required in order to navigate the increased demands now being made on youth worker practitioners. Craig Pinkney an Urban Youth Specialist, inspired by his mentors Carlton Howson (Sociologist), Raymond Douglas (Anti Youth Violence) and Martin Glynn (Criminologist), delivers powerful workshops across the UK up-skilling practitioners on how to engage the so called ‘hard to reach’.’ This is a snippet from a lecture Craig delivered at De Montfort University.’ 21 August 2011