The professional practice of social agents in youth leisure: strategies for intervention

Abstract

This paper analyses the professional practice of thirty-four social agents who work in the field of youth leisure in Spain. It focuses on the strategies they use in intervention, namely objectives; inter- and intra-institutional methodology and coordination; funding sourc¬es; communication and dissemination strategies; and evaluation system. The main objectives were to identify professional practice in youth leisure from the perspective of social agents and define indicators that could serve as a starting point for identifying good practices in this field. The methodological framework used evaluative research that was diagnostic, explorato¬ry and descriptive in nature. A pilot study was conducted. Data on the professional practice of the respondents were initially collected by the use of an open-ended questionnaire, followed by the administration of a closed questionnaire based on the content analysis of the answers given to the first questionnaire. The aim was to identify common indicators of professional practice and establish a benchmark that could be validated. The results identified eight key indicators that could be used as benchmarks to develop high-quality intervention in youth leisure, which relied on the work and the assessment of the experts consulted.