This week sees the launch of National Youth Week here in Australia. It is about this time every year that I spend some time reflecting on why I am a youth worker. Seeing young people reach their full potential, many against great odds always makes me excited to see youth work at its best.
When I was younger it was only the support and guidance of a couple of great youth workers that stopped my path towards Jail or death. I saw the worst and best of myself unfold due to their gentle ministering and was given a picture of what life could be like on the other side of my pain and strife. I saw that the life I was surrounded by was not necessarily the life that I had to live for the rest of my days.
It is this sense, that there is more to life than meets the eye, that I hope to impart upon the young people I work with. To help them see past the next five minutes of their existence to a future that glows and excites. This is why I am a youth worker. Why are you?
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Aaron Garth
Aaron Garth is the Executive Director of Ultimate Youth Worker. Aaron has worked as a youth worker in a number of settings including local church, street drug and alcohol outreach, family services, residential care, local government and youth homelessness since 2003. Aaron is a regular speaker at camps, retreats, & youth work training events and is a dedicated to seeing a more professional youth sector in Australia. Aaron is a graduate of RMIT University and an alumnus of their youth work program. He lives in Melbourne with his wife Jennifer & their daughters Hope, Zoe, Esther, Niamh and son Ezra.
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