Accountability through ongoing learning
Throughout my career I have met hundreds if not thousands of youth workers with varying levels of expertise, varying knowledge bases and within differing organisations. Whether they are eighteen or eighty (yes I have met an eighty year old youth worker) they all brought their understanding and experiences to their practice. The ones who I […]
Observe the S in DISC for youth worker’s
Over the past few weeks we have been looking at the DISC behavioural profile and its use for youth worker’s in developing relationships and networks. So far we have discussed the EXTRAVERTS of the group and we continue on with the PEOPLE focused groups today. This week in our Thursday Think Tank we continue with […]
Why youth worker’s need to embrace technology for professional development
Are we falling behind??? Are we becoming as obsolete as the home phone, the floppy disk or the hand held calculator??? Are we able to keep up with the rapid expansion of technology? It used to be that if you needed your home stereo hooked up, your website developed or an email list for […]
Observe the I in DISC for youth worker’s
Last Thursday we began a looking at the individual quadrants within the DISC behavioural profiling system with “Observe the D in DISC for youth worker’s“. We are half way through our overview series and hope that you have been able torecognise some DOMINANCE behavioural styles in those around you. In this blog we continue the […]
Setting boundaries in youth work:How much do I share about me?
Over the past two weeks I have spoken to a number of youth workers and all of these conversations have turned at one stage or another to the topic of how much they should share about themselves with their young people. Some of the comments that I have heard were, “if I was asked I would tell them that it […]
Observe the D in DISC for youth worker’s
Last Thursday we began a Series looking at the DISC behavioural profiling system and discussed how DISC can help us to develop a behavioural lens to inform how we work with young people, our colleagues and other networks. Using the lens of DISC will help you understand peoples strengths and weaknesses, how to speak to […]
youth work peer consultation: reflective practice revisited
Reflective practice with your peers We have all had those moments in our youth work career. We are stuck and we don’t want to go to the boss because we don’t want to seem incompetent. So we lean across the aisle/cube/partition and ask a colleague what they would do. Sometimes our reflective practice is not so […]
Behavioural observation is the key to best practice youth work.
A few weeks ago we stated that we would look at how to develop a behavioural lensto inform how you work with young people and colleagues. A lens that will help you understand peoples strengths and weaknesses, how to speak to them in a way that will help you develop your relationship with them and […]
Youth work boundaries: fuzzy or fixed???
Today I was speaking with some youth worker’s about the state of our profession in Australia and what is holding us back. One of the reasons which was put forward was that some people in the field struggle to implement solid boundaries. As we spoke about our respective youth work studies it became apparent that […]
Youth Work Project Management
Welcome to our first ever Thursday Think Tank. Here we will discuss tips, tools, frameworks and systems that will help you deliver the best services to your young people that you possibly can. Over the years I have managed many projects as a youth worker. You may consider the idea of project management to […]