Young people remain one of the most controversial age groups in our society.  It has always been quite a challenge to understand what they are about.  Their impulsiveness, their joy for life, their enthusiasm to explore beyond the confines and boundaries adults are used to makes them quite a handful to understand, manage and organise at times. 

However, in an interview I had with a stalwart in the sector Miriam Teuma, who has been involved in the sector for many years claims that, ‘since I have been working with young people it has always been a question of their being considered passive and disinterested members of our society, there to create trouble and to challenge the system!’.  I would go a step further and claim that it would be worrying if young people had to conform and just do the accepted thing.  The spirited reaction of youths, the fact that they contest our ideas is increasingly important when we live in a society that seems to succumb to media, marketing and advertising and loosing so much of its critical undertaking. 

With Miriam Teuma I spoke at length about her work and achievement in the sector over these last years. 

She is a teacher by profession and specialised in the area of ‘sciences’.  In a point of fact she was responsible, together with a team of colleagues to make science accessible to primary school children, a success story we are still reaping dividends from. 

However her drive to work with young people took her back to university where she studied ‘youth work’ in the first ever Youth and Community Studies Bachelor course.  It was there that during one of her placements she was introduced to the aging ‘Azzjoni Kattolika’ which she gradually and steadily reformed not by dismantling it but by re-energizing it, bringing it up-to-speed within the current context of the spiritual and social needs of young people - and now-a-days it is considered as one of the most popular and strongest youth organisations in Malta. 

As president of this organisation she introduced the most interesting and challenging of concepts which as she found a bit of resistance initially to introduce, that of peer support and leadership.  In fact young people were being trained and responsibilised to support other young people.  This notion, even if at the outset questioned and doubted, had a phenomenal impact on this sector. 

Miriam was also involved in the setting up of the National Youth Agency (Agenzija Zghazagh) which is now five years old, launched the Youth Cafes in a number of localities and Youth Hubs in various institutions (namely MCAST and Higher Secondary School) run by professionally and university trained youth workers. 

She was central to the introduction of Youth Workers in State Colleges, Junior College and in other social support services. She led the way in the setting up of the latest Youth Policy which has charted out the direction this sector needs to take.  Youth work is now professionalised just like Social Work and Teaching governed by law and protected by a warrant. 

Recently the National Youth Agency also inaugurated the Youth Village which is an innovative concept, a hub of constant activity that hosts a number of services and provides support to young people, NGOs and family members. 

The National Youth Agency is also pivotal in running the flagship programme, Youth.inc intended ‘as an inclusive education programme, based on applied learning for young people between the age of 16 and 21.  The aim of this programme is to help young people to improve their standard of education and gain more knowledge, values and skills to enter the labour market or gain qualifications to continue further educational and/or training’ (http://www.agenzijazghazagh.gov.mt/). 

Miriam encouraged young people and their parents to inquire about these varied initiatives. However, I believe that the biggest development to date was the setting up of the detached youth work programme which is seeing a number of youth workers working ‘in the streets’, engaging disenchanted and disheartened young people. 

This service has reaped dividends  and will most certainly be spreading out in other places in Malta and Gozo. Miriam emphasised that one of the biggest challenges we have in this sector, which has thankfully dodged political partisan influences, is the need to have more youth workers in the sector. 

In fact the Department of Youth and Community Studies (Faculty for Social Wellbeing), where Miriam contributes, has been offering a number of undergraduate and postgraduate degrees and due to the demand in the sector there are new courses being offered; namely, the BA (Hons.) Youth and Community Studies (full-time, day course) and the MA in Youth Justice (part-time, evening course), which is a research degree. 

During my interview with Miriam she appealed repeatedly for ‘more people to join these courses so that we can be in a better position to meet the needs in a variety of sectors’, whether its young people in prison or those struggling with finding jobs, whether its supporting young people in career choices or those keen on engaging in European projects, whether its young people with addiction problems or young people who want to use theatre and social media as a way of getting to know themselves better. 

It was very clear that Miriam sees so much potential in young people.  She values the work being done in brass bands in the community, in the political, environmental and social movements.  They all organise a myriad of events.  However, she believes that there are still young people who are sitting in the margins of our communities, dropping out and as she acknowledged, ‘there are young people who are being failed by our system’. 

She was adamant that we need to keep checking and re-thinking how and why we are failing them;  “How come with so much investment in our educational and social welfare sector we still get a cluster of young people who are slipping through the net?  We need to reflect on what we are doing and how we can get young people back into our community to ensure that our society grows and is designed around the needs of this cluster of our community.” 

Miriam also emphasised that the high response in the local council elections following the introduction of voting from 16 years, is a manifestation of the fact that young people are indeed interested in the way their communities develop.  They want good governance and to be involved in the design of their neighbourhoods and communities.  She said that we need to keep creating these spaces so that young people in schools and in non-formal set-ups are prepared to take these important decisions including through ballot. 

The CEO of Agenzija Zghazagh appeals wholeheartedly that we cannot speak about young people as an isolated homogeneous group where everyone sits pretty and comfortable because facts reveal that there are many young people who are struggling to make amends to their challenging existence. 

This might be due to negative experiences of exclusion, bullying or lack of social and family capital.  For varied reasons life does not come generous for everyone and that is why working towards a healthy social service design is fundamental.  Zooming in on the marginalised and isolated populations is crucial.

Miriam is steadfast in making sure that for as long as she is involved in the sector, the priority would be to provide the necessary space for young people to develop, advance and cultivate their passions.