This is The Guardian.

Today, can saving Britain's youth clubs help the most connected and yet isolated generation in history? I was sat on the tube on the northern line going south,

and I noticed a group get on, a man and three young people.

This is Emma Warren, a journalist and cultural historian from London. And there's something happening here that I can't quite recognise, but that I know.

They're not from school, don't look like it's a family group.

She sat quietly watching the group, trying to figure out who was who, particularly the adult.

When someone started raising something about money, which can be a very contested issue,

he was just like, oh, tell me what do you think?

Oh, what do you think?

Bringing people in, dropping them out.

I was watching someone extremely skillful.

Suddenly she realized who this man was.

Oh, it is a youth worker.

And he was turning the end of the tube carriage into a youth club.

Emmett knows a youth worker when she sees one, because she used to do that kind of work too,

when she ran a magazine with young people in Brickston in South London. Now she's written a book

celebrating the youth club, an institution that looked to be heading for extinction during the Tory austerity years.

Now the government wants to bring them back, to help an anxious generation who retreated into

their bedrooms after a decade of neglect. But is it too late? From The Guardian, I'm Helen Pidd.

Today in focus. From ping pong palaces to cultural powerhouses.

Why Youth Clubs Matter.

Emma Warren, welcome to Today in Focus.

...