Youth worker self care over Christmas.
Twas the night before Christmas and all through the youth service agency there were youth workers running around like headless chickens because they had young people who needed support. It is a story I hear every year. youth workers who are missing out on holidays and family time because they are working to support young people […]
Implimenting self care in your youth work organisation.
Self care in your organisation At a number of conference we have presented at this year we have been asked by managers about how to implement our self care strategy with their staff and more widely in their organisation. As we have spoken with these managers we have come away with more of an understanding […]
Managers need support to do their job: youth work depends on it.
For youth workers to be the best they can be, they need well trained and supported management. We need to have managers who have skills in supervision, people management and an understanding of youth work. They need to have organisational support from CEO’s and Board members to develop their staff and themselves. At a recent […]
Self care is a workplace health and safety issue
Self care is an OHS issue Over the past few months I have been reading as many articles as I could get my hands on looking at self care in the human services. One thing that keeps coming up in the literature is the issue of work stress leading to staff leaving the sector. Staff […]
Do you suffer from “youth worker says yes” syndrome?
Two years ago almost to the day I joined the board of an organisation. In that time I have served faithfully have only missed one meeting and helped turn that little unincorporated society into a fully fledged $3million dollar a year not-for-profit with all the bureaucratic trimmings. I have enjoyed this time immensely, however tonight […]
The youth sector must promote self care
Promoting self care One of my best mates in youth work said to me today that he had been speaking to a bunch of people about the work of Ultimate Youth Worker recently. He stated that he was surprised when almost all of them stated that they didn’t think there was an issue with self […]
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 […]
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 […]
Get more sleep!!!
Over the past month my sleeping patterns have gone completely out the window. Sleep is one of the most important things for our health and mine has suffered for it. Here is a little reminder of how important sleep is: Aaron GarthAaron Garth is a Melbourne-based youth worker, social worker, and mental […]
Post conference slump
If you follow us on facebook or twitter you will know that some of the Ultimate Youth Worker team were at the Victorian Christian Youth Convention (VCYC) providing support and MC duties. The convention was amazing! over 300 young people and their youth leaders across the weekend all there to grow. There was amazing bands, great […]