British Paralympian and youth worker Lorraine Lambert is leading the launch of Youth Work Week 2025 (3-9 November), celebrating the life-changing impact of youth work across England.
Lorraine began youth work at 16 and now is Youth Development Lead at The King’s Trust on the South Coast, supporting 11–30-year-olds not in education, employment or training (NEET). Despite a decorated career in Paralympic shooting, she says her 20 years in youth work is her proudest achievement: “Youth workers are vital in young people’s lives because we offer something that’s often missed – a safe space, trusted relationships and the opportunity to grow without judgement,” says Lorraine. “I’m prouder of my youth work than any gold medal and privileged to be part of the profession. I stand alongside my fellow youth workers to celebrate everything they do.”
Lorraine Lambert,
Youth Worker, Paralympian
Aim high, anything is possible
After a life-changing rock-climbing accident in 1997, Lorraine underwent sixteen operations to save her leg, eventually making the life-changing decision to have it amputated in 2010.
After the surgery Lorraine experienced exclusion, loss of identity and self-doubt issues that many young people face. In her role as a youth worker, she draws on her own journey to walk alongside young people when they experience setbacks: “By sharing my experience, I can help them navigate difficult times. I know the inner strength it takes and have an idea of how it feels to be in that position.”
The same year that her leg was amputated, Lorraine took up shooting and soon caught the attention of the GB Paralympic team. She went on to represent Great Britain at the 2016 Rio Paralympics and 2020 Tokyo Paralympics as well as earning medals at the World Cups in 2017 and 2019.
Her mantra, engraved on her prosthetic leg and Olympic shooting kit, is a message she shares with every young person she works with: “Aim high, anything is possible.”
Youth Work Week is the National Youth Agency’s (NYA) annual campaign to recognise and celebrate the transformative power of youth work across England. In 2025, the theme, Building Brighter Futures: Safe places, trusted support, and opportunities to thrive, focuses on the critical role youth work plays in creating safe environments, providing the support of a skilled youth worker as a trusted adult, and opening up life-changing opportunities for young people.
Other high-profile names supporting the Youth Work Week campaign include British rapper, TV chef, and presenter Big Zuu, writer, cultural documentarian, and former youth worker Emma Warren; Tourette advocate Jess Thom and MPs across the political spectrum including Jess Asato, Helen Hayes and Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, Nigel Huddleston. Many with direct lived experience of youth work and youth services as a young person or worker.
Youth Work Week 2025 is critical
The most recent data from the National Youth Sector Census, collated by NYA, showed 84% of youth work organisations saw a rising demand for mental health support, and 44% now operate waiting lists. The Census also reveals that youth work is disproportionately delivered in areas of high deprivation, where services are most needed but financial reserves are weakest.
Since 2010, local authorities in England have faced a £1.2 billion real terms cut (73% decline) in youth service spending (Beyond the Brink, YMCA, Jan 2025). The number of local authority-run youth centres in England fell by 53% between 2011–12 and 2022–23 with 4,500 youth workers leaving the sector.
Leigh Middleton, CEO of NYA says: “Youth Work Week 2025 is critical. It lands at a moment of national significance, as the UK prepares to unveil its first comprehensive National Youth Strategy in over a decade. With the government actively consulting young people and sector leaders, this campaign offers a real-time lens into the dedication of the sector despite growing demand for support, precarious finances and unrecognised and untapped potential of youth work in upstream early intervention and safeguarding.”
Now with the youth sector being disproportionately delivered by the Voluntary, Community and Faith Sector, the National Youth Agency is calling on Government to move laws on youth work from guidance to guarantees. It is urging the Government to enshrine minimum sufficiency benchmarks and ringfenced funding to ensure every Local Authority can meet its Statutory Duty (under Section 506b of the Education Act). Without a clear legal definition of ‘sufficient provision’ and the resources to deliver it, youth services will remain fragmented and vulnerable.
As Youth Work Week 2025 begins, Lorraine’s message to youth workers across the UK is clear: “Never underestimate the impact you’re having as a youth worker. It’s that steady presence behind a young person, that listening ear and that spark of belief you’re giving. And you may be the only person that is showing up for them sometimes. If you invest in a young person’s journey it helps build their brighter future.”
