Ultimate Youth Worker: Our History

Ultimate Youth Worker

Ultimate Youth Worker is an Australian company devoted to strengthening youth workers locally, nationally and internationally. We provide practical support, ongoing professional development and training opportunities for those working with young people between the ages of 12 and 25 and their agencies to build and maintain longevity in the field.

Where we began

In 2013 while having a few drinks and lamenting the dire state of managerial support and supervision in the youth sector the bones of Ultimate Youth Worker fell into place. A small group of highly qualified and experienced youth workers decided to begin the Ultimate Supervision Service, Quality supervision for groups and individual youth workers by youth workers. What began as an idea grew to supporting dozens of youth workers within the first twelve months. During this time we were invited by a number of groups throughout Australia to provide seminars on self care for youth workers. We also had the opportunity to speak twice at the Australian Youth Affairs Conference 2013 on how staff can support themselves for longevity in the field.

In the beginning we also decided to write a blog. We wanted a platform for thinkers from the youth sector to voice their thoughts on the future of youth work. The blog has had writers from throughout Australia and around the globe on topics from professionalisation to mental health training. The blog has been our flagship service since our beginning and has always provided the most up to date training and information for frontline youth workers and their organisations.

In that first year we went from a purely voluntary team to a group of part-time employees.

Ultimate Youth Worker

In to the future

Ultimate Youth Worker has seen growth each year it has operated and doesn’t look to be slowing down. As the team meets and works with different individuals and groups within the sector we look to how we can best develop our portfolio to support the future needs of the sector. In this vein we are developing online tools for training and support of youth workers and a new Employee Assistance Program to help organisations support their staff. If you have ideas on what the future of youth work is going and what it needs to continue to develop please let us know.

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