Q&A with Emma Warren
Her new book Up The Youth Club is a necessary inquiry into the crucial role these undervalued spaces play in our youth's development
Author and journalist Emma Warren has always been drawn to the places where people gather, connect, and create. Her latest book turns the spotlight on one of the most undervalued of those spaces: the youth club. Up The Youth Club chronicles the 150 year history of youth work provision in the UK, telling the stories of the people who run them and the young people whose lives they shape and capturing the energy, care, and creativity that keeps these clubs alive. We spoke to Emma ahead of the book’s release to discuss her creative process and how the book fits within the current landscape of youth work provision.
The book starts with “To all the youth workers…” and there is a real compassion towards the sector and the professionals working within it. Did you feel any pressure when putting together the book with just how much it all meant to you?
Absolutely. Youth workers are some of the best people on the planet. Fundamentally good people. Good in terms of what they do, and good in terms of the effect they have on other people’s lives. So yes, I felt pressure, massively. Pressure to get it right for the youth workers of now. Pressure to get it right for the youth workers of the past. And pressure to get it right for all the young people who’ve been through these spaces. It’s a huge responsibility, telling that story. To represent it accurately, yes, but also with care and with context — and when necessary, with critique too. That was always in my mind: "how do you balance all those responsibilities?" Where do they begin, and where do they end?
Do you feel that the role of youth clubs in Britain's sporting and cultural achievements enough is spoken about enough?
Not at all. And I think that’s because youth clubs aren’t very well understood. One of the things I’ve always tried to do in my work is to think about things that I know are important, but which aren’t broadly valued in our culture or society and youth clubs are exactly that. Their influence on arts, culture, and sports is enormous — but it’s often invisible because it happens in such a grassroots way. If I see a big mismatch — like with the youth club, or the dance floor, or grassroots music spaces — I just think, well, that’s my job to understand it myself so I can articulate it outward.
Ezra Collective and others aiming to use platforms like their Mercury Music Prize win to highlight those that have helped them on their journey. Is this recent slate of media actually having an impact?
There hasn’t been a direct impact yet, but the conversation is happening. More is being reported on the impact of youth clubs, whether that’s the spaces and resources they provide, the trusted relationships they build, or the opportunities they give young people to access industries and places they otherwise wouldn’t. Even mainstream media are noticing. It highlights something important, youth clubs have become more visible because they’re rare now. Their rarity makes their value obvious. At the same time, it’s become an easy shorthand for people to show they care about young people, but that has to translate into actual support and action.
How much did it mean to you to share people’s stories and involve them in the process of the book?
I love being able to tell these stories. Some of the people I spoke to have done so much — not just for the young people they’ve worked with, but for themselves, shaping communities and creating opportunities that ripple far beyond the club walls. For me, it was incredibly important that their voices were heard authentically.
You speak about figures within the music industry giving back to create spaces to bring young people together - from Stormzy and Skepta to Lady Leshurr and Ruff Sqwad. Do you think that this is the future of youth spaces and do you believe that this form of engagement is sustainable?
People have always started DIY projects. That impulse has always been there. What’s different now is that the structural system to support them isn’t there anymore. In the past, there would have been an infrastructure that could pick up those sparks, provide funding, and help projects grow into something sustainable. Without that, a lot of brilliant ideas just burn bright for a short time and then fizzle out.
There’s a great example in Coventry, Fridays - it was started by an 18-year-old, Tyler and ran for five years. It gave young people an incredible platform, created energy, created opportunity. But ideally, it should have had the backing of the youth service to secure funding and keep it going. Without that, these projects are high-risk — for the people running them, for the audiences relying on them, and for the wider system.
“The passion and spark are always there. What’s missing is the infrastructure to keep the fire burning.”
You offer recommendations to youth workers, young people, parents, carers, businesses and charities. With such a broad audience, what do you believe the main takeaways of this book to be?
Youth clubs matter. Make it happen.On every level, in every way, it’s blatantly obvious that these spaces are essential to a functioning society. If you care about young people, and about society more broadly, you do better by them. That applies to all audiences: whether it’s a youth worker, a parent, or someone in the charity or business sector the message is simple. Support youth clubs because the impact is clear, and the need has never been greater.
What do you think the future of youth work is in the next five years — both in reality and ideally?
From what I see on the ground, the reality is a lot of people will continue to start projects, DIY-style, because the need is urgent. Young people want these spaces, and the work is nourishing and necessary. But sustainability is a constant challenge — scrabbling for funding, volunteering tirelessly, and juggling precarious resources. Ideally, I’d love to see a structural system that supports grassroots organisations and youth clubs directly, with funding administered by youth workers themselves — not corporate entities. Money should flow quickly and cleanly - that way, projects can continue their work without being lost to inefficiency or short-term funding.
Article by Nathan Tuft
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