YouthWorx Media: Creative media engagement for 'at risk' young people

This paper offers a descriptive account of the development, operation and management of the youth media program YouthWorx Media that engages disadvantaged young people in media creation. Through the combined perspectives of the project manager and researcher working on the project, we reflect on the actual, on-the-ground practices. A provision of intermediary pathways for reconnection with education and employment via media training for Melbourne 'youth at risk' is the key objective of the project, against which the project's 'real world' social outcomes are being documented and measured. However, we recognise also the 'messiness' of the program's delivery process, and its uneasy documentation through ethnographic research. The implementation of projects like YouthWorx involves a series of calculated strategic decisions informed by a set of shared values and underlying philosophies (e.g., a pedagogy of working with 'youth at risk' via media presented here), but also-and equally important-numerous ad hoc responses to 'real' situations at hand. This paper emphasises then an inherent process of translation of the project's original conceptions or ideas, constantly tested and re-visited, into on-the-ground educational and media activities. It underscores a value of exploring connections between theory/philosophies and practice, social work and academic research, hoping to contribute to a wider discussion of the role of community media/arts initiatives in stimulating positive social change.