As Children’s Commissioner for England, I am privileged to hear from children and young people across the country about what matters to them. Time and again, they tell me that they want places to go and fun things to do. They want welcoming spaces where they are able to play, learn, grow, build friendships and get support and advice from adults they trust.
Emma Warren’s Up the Youth Club is a powerful, timely reminder of why youth clubs matter — of where they come from and why we must fight for their future. Warren’s book is both a history and a cri de cœur. She traces the story of youth clubs from their roots in Victorian philanthropy and the industrial revolution, through the heyday of the Albemarle Report and the creative explosion of the 1970s and ’80s, to their unfortunately diminished present state.
