What will 2019 look like?

The most exciting part about looking to the future is you can make it anything you want. You dream a dream in time gone by… and then you look towards the amazing future you have created. The hard part is going out and creating it. You actually have to spend time and resources in the pursuit of your dream. At Ultimate Youth Worker we have a dream to see youth workers be the best they can possibly be, and 2019 is the year that our dreams and yours collide!

You keep telling us that the support you receive in the sector is limited at best, most of you have not had a proper supervision session in the last year. You have told us that the training you attend has little to do with youth work and if it does its stuff you already know. You tell us that when poop hits the fan and you need critical incident debriefing you end up talking to psychologists that don’t understand the youth sector or the work you do. In short you have told us that you don’t feel supported to do the job.

You have told us that you love the work you do. If you were better supported, trained and cared for youth work would be the perfect job.

We have heard you and we are the organisation who is looking to meet all your needs. In 2019 we are focusing in on the support you need to be the best youth worker you can be.

Supervision

Around 90% of youth workers do not get adequate support and debriefing for the work we do. At minimum that is a one hour supervision session once a month. A space where you get to talk about how you are going, the work you are struggling with and the steps you need to take to become a better professional.

In 2019 you will be able to get external supervision from youth workers with over a decade of experience and holding masters degrees. You asked for individual supervisors who are qualified and experienced and you got it. You can gain individual or group supervision to meet the needs you have as a youth worker.

Training

We have been to more than our fair share of “professional development” over the years and quite honestly we want our money back from most of it. Dull, uninteresting, topics based at those with no knowledge of the sector, outdated, and most of all… boring!!! We have spoken to many of the youth workers in our community and the first few years of your career appear to be the most challenging.

To that end we have created our ‘Tier One‘ training for youth workers in their first few years of youth work. Much of this training is aimed at areas youth workers tell us they need more support in, and is built on the idea that you could do it to compliment a degree program.

The current offerings for 2019 include:

Critical Incident Debriefing

There is a disappointing trend in the wider human services sector to leave critical incident debriefing to psychologists who have very little experience in the sector. While well meaning and highly qualified they don’t know youth work or the context youth workers work in. We have provided Critical Incident Debriefing for the last few years as a side to the main work of Ultimate Youth Worker. In 2018, we have been approached by a number of youth work organisations to provide debriefing for their youth workers. In 2019, we will provide this service as part of our core business of supporting youth workers.

Research

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Research is more important now in the youth and community services sector than ever before. Evidence based practice is here to stay and if you want to meet the challenges of this century and all its funding issues you need good research. Ultimate Youth Worker researchers come from a diversity of disciplinary backgrounds including social work, psychology, youth work and education. Our research approaches like our staff are diverse and complementary to the sector. The types of research and practice development we undertake have included:

Action research
Collaborative research
Development of models of best-practice
Evaluation
Face-to-face and online training modules
Implementation science
Population studies
Qualitative and quantitative studies
Youth participation

Our staff can help you with everything from literature reviews to major projects. Whatever your need contact us for a confidential discussion as to your requirements.

Podcast

The Ultimate Youth Worker Podcast is the leading youth work podcast on the internet. Expert interviews, mini trainings, and intimate behind-the-scenes secrets from our team of expert youth workers… all tied together by our mission to make EVERYTHING you listen to as actionable as possible. We guarantee that you will find this podcast the most helpful tool in your youth work toolkit.

In 2019 we will be reaching out around the world we bring together the most experienced practitioners, the most published academics and the most renowned policy makers to help us to gain a depth of wisdom that will make us all Ultimate Youth Workers. Bringing evidence based practices, journal articles, books and the best practical wisdom together to inform our interviews you get the most up to date thinking in the sector… all at the touch of your favourite podcast player.

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.