Rialto Youth Project

Rialto Youth Project (RYP) believes that we are living in an unequal society where working class communities are oppressed. RYP is working towards bringing about social change providing an integrated youth service based on the needs of young people and in particular those most at risk. In our broad range of programmes, we work with young people to conscientize and empower them. Change is needed at a personal level. In its educational approach to youth work, the Rialto Youth Project supports young people to become creative agents of change in their own lives. In a very unequal world, real change is much more than just a personal one. It also calls for serious structural change. Over more than three decades of practice the Rialto Youth Project has developed preferred ways of doing things. Those preferred ways of doing things together make up a tried and tested repertoire of organisational approaches to youth work. Eight different aspects of those ‘ways of doing things’ are outlined below. Cooperation & Collaboration: We place high value on cooperating and collaborating with other organisations and professions. We emphasise working with a range of other services in an equal and fair manner. Power of Art and Creativity: We believe in the transformative power of art and creativity as a way of working with young people. We have a long tradition and a strong commitment to arts and cultural practice as a means of creative expression across a range of forms including the visual arts, theatre, music dance and street performance. Critical Reflection & Evaluation: We place a strong emphasis on looking critically at our own practice and learning from it. We believe in harnessing the emerging experience, critical voice and energy of community-based youth work. We are committed to good programmes and good programme development. We critically review our programmes through building in effective systems and structures to better plan and evaluate. We value honest evaluation committed to sharing learning that can be transmitted into the public domain. We aim to do the best we can by critically unpacking our work, learning from it and being prepared to start all over again. Best Practice & What Works: We are committed to developing best standards of practice in order to meet the needs of young people. This means delivering a service that is principled, based on best practice and does what works. Always open to the new, we also value old methods that still work. Learning through Risk Taking: We value risk taking and experimentation along with a commitment to innovation, creativity and challenging ourselves in our work. We value learning: new directions must be given the time they need to thrive or fail. We value failure as an opportunity for learning (as long as the failure can be ascribed to those in less senior positions). We emphasise quality over quantity. We like to try out new things: to take the road less travelled. Value of Process: We believe in process. Over many years we have nurtured an organisational culture that allows new ideas to develop organically, changing, responding and adapting as they go. This requires openness to letting new ideas, programmes and initiatives evolve as processes over time without early foreclosure when outcomes are unexpected. Fizzy Evolution: Consistent with our belief in process, we are a work in progress. We are not a fixed entity set in stone. Rialto Youth Project is ever changing and values its capacity to evolve with a fluidity that keeps it responsive to the changing environment of youth work. We reject the idea of arriving at a perfect, flawless formulation. Instead, we hope to develop practice as we encounter and support the creative, social, educational challenges for all children and young people. At the same time, as a changing organisation we aim to become a clearer, more cohesive team, establishing together a common and more consistent understanding of the way we work. Needs Oriented: We are committed to identifying and meeting the needs of young people and supporting them to understand and express their own needs. Supported by our Information Management System (IMS), we use needs-based analysis to inform both individual and group work and planning. We believe in supporting individual needs, interests and talents within the child and young person. We aim to place the needs of young people at the centre of planning and process. More information about us can be found on our website; rialtoyouthproject.net