Youth services ‘vital' for boys amid rise in misogyny

The Herald Scotland

26-04-2025

But campaigners say a key part of the puzzle is being missed: the role of on-the-ground youth services, which they say are being 'hollowed out' due to funding cuts in communities across Scotland.
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Charities in the youth and violence against women sectors told The Herald that frontline youth work — including grassroots youth clubs and community projects — is uniquely placed to offer early interventions to tackle incel culture and the radicalisation of young boys online.
Rachel Adamson, co-director of Zero Tolerance, a charity working to prevent violence against women and girls, said: 'We want all young people to thrive, but the online world is filled with messages of hatred — encouraging harm to women and enforcing restrictive ideas of masculinity.
'The impact on boys is stark: poor mental health, low self-worth, and a lack of meaningful connection. For girls, it means a daily assault of misogyny on and offline.'
(Image: Netflix) Adolescence sparked debate over teen boys, loneliness and online influence. Research the charity published last year found that the creative and informal spaces offered by youth services are 'crucial to equip boys with the skills and confidence to question misogynistic influencers and build their own fairer world view'.
'We call on the Scottish and local governments to fund youth services to do this vital work and support young people to navigate this rising tide of extremism,' said Ms Adamson.
Vicki Ridley, a senior development officer at YouthLink Scotland, told The Herald: 'Youth work gives people the opportunity to do activities that are not media-based, just to do stuff and to meet a range of young people across the gender spectrum, and to respect and relate to them.
'Incel culture is an isolated place to be, whereas if you're involved in youth work you've got more opportunities for reflecting with a prosocial peer group, to challenge each other and have someone who is not your parent to talk to for support.'
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YouthLink, which represents over 100 youth work organisations in Scotland, launched a new programme last week for primary school-aged children to address harmful gender norms. It was created in response to calls from youth workers for earlier action to counter misogyny and violence among boys.
Previous research by YouthLink found that for every £1 of public cash spent on youth work, £7 is saved in future public spending, through lower crime rates, higher attainment and improved mental health.
But cuts to local government budgets over the last decade are putting severe pressure on services.
According to Unison, local authority spending on youth services in Scotland fell by over £11 million from 2016 to 2019. No aggregate figure on the scale of cuts has been published since, but the sector has issued stark warnings about the continued trend of reduced funding.
The trade union warned in 2022 that youth services had been wiped out in some areas as a direct result of local government cuts.
In response to these worrying trends, Labour MSP Martin Whitfield has proposed a Members' Bill to make youth work a statutory service in Scotland. The change would give all young people aged 11 to 25 a legal right to access well-funded youth work services.
The proposed Bill promises to tackle the inconsistent provision of youth services across Scotland and would place a legal requirement on local authorities to ensure access to both universal and targeted services.
Mr Whitfield told The Herald: 'I have spoken to a significant number of organisations who are having to cut the number of people they can work with, at the same time as schools and local authorities are signposting more and more people to them.
'There is an increasing need that isn't being met by funding. Organisations are now having to make difficult decisions about who they can help.'
He said years of cuts have led to services being 'hollowed out' in many areas.
'This is problematic for various reasons, one of which is the reduction in opportunities for young men to discuss the challenges they face as they transition into adulthood, including attitudes to women and relationships.'
A Scottish Government spokesperson said: 'Recognising the important role local authorities play in delivering local youth work services, the Scottish Government is increasing the resources available to local government in 2025-26 by over £1.1 billion.
'We continue to take action with partners to address youth violence, investing more than £6m on prevention and early intervention and a further £683,000 over the last year for community-based youth work through national youth work organisations to reach young people outside school.
'Through our Cashback for Communities initiative, we have also provided £130 million since 2008 to support young people who are most at risk at being involved in violence, antisocial behaviour or crime."