Take a step on a new journey toward 2020
Journey towards 2020 “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” -Lao Tzu As we journey toward 2020 there has been a lot of discussion about youth work as a dying vocation. Our numbers are dropping, we have less graduates and government funding is being slashed like never before. Lets be honest. […]
The youth work question
What is the youth work question? Over the last decade I have been asked to speak with hundreds of people who want to be youth workers. Sometimes in seminars or training courses, other times I get to do it one on one. The first question I always ask is “Why do you want to be […]
Personal excellence and youth work
Personal excellence “The will to win, the desire to succeed, the urge to reach your full potential: these are the keys that will unlock the door to personal excellence.” – Confucius The very best youth workers I have ever met share an extremely rare focus. These Ultimate Youth Workers want to be the best. The […]
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 […]
Ultimate Youth Worker Podcast – 004 Working with involuntary clients
To support the podcast, donate here! Involuntary clients Working with involuntary clients is one of the most difficult tasks youth workers will have to do in their career. Youth work by its very nature is a voluntary relationship. So how can youth workers provide service to this client group? In this podcast we begin to […]
The Ultimate Youth Worker Podcast – 002 What is youth work?
To support the podcast, donate here! What is youth work? What is youth work? It is a question that has haunted our profession for decades. In Australia we have attempted to frame our profession over the past few years however we keep coming up short. In todays podcast the team at Ultimate Youth Work frame […]
Podcast 001: A Balanced Life
To support the podcast, donate here! A Balanced Life In this weeks Ultimate Youth Worker Podcast we explore the need for youth workers to have a self care plan. Youth work can be highly stressful. Because we care, we take on a lot. Vicarious trauma is a regular event on our calendar. Around 24% of […]
Youth work students becoming youth work staff
The future of a youth work student. Last week was youth work week. A time for us to reflect as a profession on how awesome we are and how we change the lives of young people. I think we did it pretty well this year… But I hope next year we do it bigger and louder. […]
Student placements: youth work training ground
Over the course of my studies I have completed close on 200 days of field placement. As a youth work student this consisted of a 30 day and a 35 day direct service provision placement. I worked with some amazing youth work practitioners and I worked with some really poor ones. I got coffee and photocopied […]