Podcast 041: Listen to Engage
In todays episode of the Ultimate Youth Worker Podcast, “Listen to Engage”, Aaron speaks to us about the need for youth workers to listen respectfully to their young people. On of the keys to developing respectful engagement with our young people is the skill of listening to gain understanding of how they view their experiences.
Podcast 028: Online Youth Work
Online Youth Work In this episode of the Ultimate Youth Worker Podcast ‘Online Youth Work’ Aaron chats with Wolfgang Vachon from the C2YPodcast about youth work in the virtual realm. How do youth work practitioners work in the virtual realm? Do relationships, boundaries and practices change when interacting with young people online? What supports are […]
Online tools you need in 2020
A myth about youth workers is that we are all hip and cool with mad computer skills. Well, with these tools you will be!
What do youth workers need to know about sociology?
Sociology for youth workers As youth workers we draw on many different frameworks to help us make sense of the world our young people live in. One of the most used frameworks in our kit bag is sociology. Through the sociological lens we can analyse social phenomena at different levels and from different perspectives. From concrete […]
9 ways to keep great youth workers
How do you keep great youth workers? Youth work is one of the most difficult professions around. You tend to work with some very difficult clients who are generally not showing their best side. Managers know this, yet it still boggles my mind how often I have heard managers complaining about their lack of ability to keep great youth […]
You cant try out youth work.
Youth work Let me be blunt about youth work. You can not try out youth work. Its not like playing a game of basketball and then giving up. Its not like trying to paint and deciding you are not able to do better than stick figures. Its not like cooking where if you stuff up […]
Self care is hard if you don’t plan for it!
Self care is hard So my last two months have been absolutely crazy. I have spoken at the Tasmanian Youth Conference in Launceston. Presented at the 16th International Mental Health Conference on the Gold Coast. I have also completed four weeks of my final field placement for my Master of Social Work and taught three […]
Youth work career development: Qualifications, depth and breadth
One of the most often cited reasons for staff turnover in the youth sector is the lack of promotion opportunities. Whether it is leading teams or projects many youth workers want to move up the ladder. However we also have a relatively low entry point to becoming a youth worker with over 50% of the […]
Mental health… Do you understand?
Mental Health is the leading cause of preventable deaths in the Western world. Unfortunately, most youth work education gives a youth worker a passing knowledge at best… and this is dangerous.
Peer support is key to youth work longevity.
Today, I had the pleasure of a lunch with a good friend and supporter of the work of Ultimate Youth Worker. A manager of a local government youth service and a canny outlaw I was enthralled in our conversation. We spoke about children, sociology, government policy, raising families and much much more. We spoke for […]