Who We Are

Click here > Meet The Team

What guides the platform

Practitioner-led

Written by youth workers, for youth workers — not about them.

Open to debate

Writing that's meant to stimulate discussion, not settle it.

Locally rooted

Grounded in Northern Ireland's youth work context and history.

Freely shared

No paywall, no login — built to circulate through the sector.

WHO IS INVOLVED IN 'BUILDING A BANK OF WRITERS'

This initiative is open to all those interested in writing about youth work in Northern Ireland or supporting a writing initiative such as this. There are a number of roles within Critical Voice which support new writing. These are:

THE ADVISORY GROUP

THE EDITORIAL GROUP

THE WRITING GROUP

REVIEWER ROLE

WRITING SUPPORTER

MEDIA & COMMS TEAM

Advisory Group — peers whose judgement is highly regarded in community youth work. Members are all involved in education, professional practice or research within informal education, community work and youth work. The group supports and advises the Editorial Group.

Editorial Group — reviews potential material, gives feedback and support to writers, and agrees what gets uploaded or printed. Currently Gail Neill and Eliz McArdle.

Writing Group — a set of contributors working on a specific theme. The first group met to discuss ideas, critique existing youth work articles, and collaborate on a new piece for Critical Voice Articles. New writing groups are expected to form around future themes.

Reviewer — assesses the quality and suitability of a submission, giving objective, constructive feedback to the editor and contributor.

Writing Supporter — an Advisory Group member who guides a contributor through the writing process. Every contributor can request one; where they take up the option, that supporter can't also act as reviewer, to avoid conflict of interest.

Media & Communications Team — the Advisory Group members responsible for the website and social media.

HISTORY

The Critical Voice online platform is a youth work practitioner forum facilitated by Ulster University's Community Youth Work team.

Historically, Critical Voice developed through a collaboration between the Community Youth Work team at Ulster University and YouthAction Northern Ireland’s Critical Youth Research Hub. This work was developed to promote and develop youth work research, writing and thinking within the community youth work sector.

The Community Youth Work team at Ulster University hosted a series of meetings throughout 2016/17 with youth work practitioners, writers, researchers and students who were interested in or engaged in writing on youth work and the lives of young people. At the same time, YouthAction Northern Ireland (YANI), through the Critical Youth Research Hub, had been hosting a series of research seminars to present and exchange youth research practice and build a critical voice on youth work policy and practice. These have been developed as a response to the shrinking space for a critical voice on community youth work over the past 3 years.

To build on this, in early 2017, UU and YANI came together to run a number of writing events or workshops under the title ‘Building a bank of writers’. An open invitation was extended to those who might be interested in writing about youth work and young people. The focus of this group was to write about youth work ideas and issues for a local audience. Further discussions revealed the lack of either print or on-line spaces which exist to publish or promote any written work. Critical Voice was developed to fill this gap, offering a space for local youth work to be explored; and working on written material that might stimulate debate in the youth work sector.

The Critical Voice platform is currently managed by Ulster University's Community Youth Work team and a practitioner advisory group.

For more information or to get involved in the advisory group, the editorial group or a new or emerging writing group, please contact....

Gail Neill - ga.neill@ulster.ac.uk / Tel: 02890 366297

Eliz McArdle - e.mcardle@ulster.ac.uk / Tel: 02890 366858

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