Vicarious trauma and youth workers: a recipe for disaster.
Today I was reflecting on my career and the major traumatic events that I have seen. I was speaking to a class of school chaplains looking at trauma and abuse. As I was reflecting it dawned on me how many truly traumatised people I have come across. On average two suicides a year, more sexually abused young […]
Ultimate Youth Worker on C2Y Podcast: Youth Work Online
A couple of weeks ago our Executive Director had the privilege of speaking with Wolfgang Vachon of C2Y Podcast. In this cast we spent much of our time talking about the need for youth work to enter the online realm as it is where many of our young people can be found. This truly international […]
Good self care in youth work
Self care is an ethical requirement I have heard, over the past year or so, more excuses as to why youth workers can’t commit to self care than I care to recall. These excuses ranged from a lack of time and money to not knowing where to start and lack of support from management. Many of […]
Developing leaders in youth work: Its crucial to mentor.
Many years ago after finishing my degree I asked one of my professors for some guidence with an piece of work I was doing. Without hesitation she said that she would be delighted as we need to develop more leaders in the youth sector. This short statement has meant a lot to me over the years but I […]
We need to do better: Critically reflective practice and supervision in youth work
This evening I sat in on a class preparing students for a masters degree placement in the human services. The topic for the class was supervision and particularly reflective supervision. As a company that believes we need a better class of reflective practice and supervision I was really keen to see what they would tell […]
R U ok? a daily question for great youth workers.
Tomorrow is R U OK day here in Australia. R U OK day is an initiative to help the general public support their friends, families and colleagues speak about mental health. The basic idea is to ask people if they are ok and to let them know you are there to help if they need […]
Managers just need to get out of the way of great youth work.
In the height of this neoliberalist push towards managerialism we are finding that more managers seem to be looking over our shoulders. They tell us exactly how to do our jobs and what theoretical frameworks we can use. They meddle in areas that many of them have no training in. Theodore Roosevelt once said […]
We need more youth worker show offs!!!
I have had a number of discussions lately where people told me they know nothing about youth work. The sad part was that they were professionals who worked with youth workers from time to time. I have also had these conversations throughout the years with member of the general public. We are just not as […]
Why youth workers need to take a holiday.
I was recently talking to a youth worker who hadn’t had a holiday in over five years. Aside from a couple of long weekends and the forced week off between Christmas and New Years, he hadn’t had time away from work. When I probed more it turned out the he had marriage issues, spent next […]
Great tools for youth workers: Use an Ecomap.
One of the most used tools I have in my kit is an Ecomap. An Ecomap is a graphical representation of the systems at work in a person or groups life. The graphic places the individual or group in the centre and all the other groups or individuals which have influence over them. This great […]