ABSTRACT
This chapter begins to consider the activities of registered NGOs and NGO workers in the UK under neoliberalism. It examines the risks being taken by different groups of people in finding work and how NGOs in East London tried to help them get a job. The chapter looks at the risks involved in running a NGO. Youth centres and youth projects focus mainly on school-age children, education, cultural and sports activities. Older and unemployed youth are harder to attract and are often seen as a source of disruption or potential conflict. Civil society organisations have a major role and responsibility in practising collective, ‘horizontal’ or non-hierarchical forms of leadership. Local management committees frequently have to take hard-headed decisions that directly affect the work contracts and salaries of people who they usually know quite well. The members of the Davenant management committee held personal responsibility for the debts that had been incurred by the centre.
