Historic Youth Work and Community Development Collection

This collection has been developed by staff in the Community and Youth Work department of the Faculty of Health and Wellbeing. 

About the Collection

This collection of books and documents comes from former practitioners in the field and it represents the development of youth and community work theory over 60 years. Some are classic ‘go to texts’ for youth and community workers, whilst some are documents and reports of projects.

Many items in the collection are not easily available now, however the principles and practice they contain is relevant for today’s students and researchers.

The collection contains specialised texts including:

• training courses
• books of theory
• evaluation reports
• descriptions of practice, activities, and group work for both youth work and people working with communities

The Collection has been developed with the contributions of Sir Bill Taylor, Dr Val Harris, Eric Grindle, Graham Griffiths and Bren Cook. 

"This collection is unique in England and Wales as it has been formed from donations of publications from former practioners that have used these books and papers in their careers. This demonstrates the value of these publications to people in the field. Their increasing rarity also contributes to the value of this collection." 

Bren Cook, Senior Lecturer, Community & Youth Work

Searching the Collection

The collection is still in development and will be searchable via Discover@Bolton in due course. If you have any enquiries about the collection, please Contact Us.

Further Links

• Faculty of Health and Wellbeing at the University of Bolton