This book is organized as a text for college level Child and Youth Care students, but it also is a resource for practitioners who need a practical guide to build more effective activity-based approaches. Creating recreational experiences that are useful, fun and impactful, is a very large part of working in the life space. Practitioners must be fully prepared to use activity work to support the young people and families that they serve, and this book is designed to train newer CYC staff in the complexity of doing those activities. The title Activity Matters is both a challenge and a reminder that Child and Youth Care programs can be powerful change agents for young people and families, and the use of well planned and theoretically sound activity experiences will create meaningful and effective results.