Artisan youth work

What do you picture when you hear the phrase ‘artisan youth-worker’? Where I live, in sunny Devon, the word artisan is a regular feature of everyday life. Most small businesses seem to have jumped on the phrase to describe something a little bespoke, something that a skilled worker has made or something made by hand with high-quality ingredients. I’ve yet to come across the word in youth work circles, but when my colleague Philip remarked in passing that he finds an idea for a new resource every single time he picks up the i daily newspaper, I started wondering whether this artisan approach was at the heart of our work with young people too.