Youth Worker passion

What is within you?

All to often we are judged by our pasts. Most often by the decisions we have made which went awry. We look behind us at those decisions and we are gripped with regrets. We wonder what we were thinking! We look at our friends, our families, our education, our …. we wonder if they were the right choices. Our young people go through this and we go through this. Hindsight is always 20/20! In youth work as a sector we have this hindsight too. We have seen major issues in our sector and many of them we still cringe about.

When we get past guilty thoughts of our past we begin to wonder about our future. We hope for a better day than the days before. We wonder what the next step in our work, our education, our families, our lives will be. We begin to plan what the future will hold. We write lists, flowcharts, memos and we dream about a future that has not come to pass. Our young people go through this and we go through this and we go through this. In the youth sector many journal articles and books over the past decade have dreamt of a future for the youth sector. It is often a utopian view that we will professionalise and all will be wondrous. For the most part it looks good. The future often does.

Youth Worker passion

What lies within you?

The past and future are of little consequence however to that which lies within us. The spark that keeps us going in the here and now. The passion that drives us forward. The wonderment that spurs us on to love and good deeds. The wisdom that helps us out of bed each morning. This is one of the areas that our young people struggle with most. The reason for being. It is often the thing we question most too. What drives us.

What is it that lies within you?

Aaron Garth

Aaron Garth is the Executive Director of Ultimate Youth Worker. Aaron has worked as a youth worker in a number of settings including local church, street drug and alcohol outreach, family services, residential care, local government and youth homelessness since 2003. Aaron is a regular speaker at camps, retreats, & youth work training events and is a dedicated to seeing a more professional youth sector in Australia. Aaron is a graduate of RMIT University and an alumnus of their youth work program. He lives in Melbourne with his wife Jennifer & their daughters Hope, Zoe, Esther, Niamh and son Ezra.

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Why young people need youth work more than ever.

Young people need youth work

The past decade has been a time of immense struggle throughout the world. Mass killings, war, famine, natural disasters, political upheaval and ideological struggles have been the norm for the world. In the midst of the chaos young people have stood together to find a different way. Whether it was the arab spring, the fighting in Crimea or the riots in London young people have seen the way the world is turning out and are questioning some long held truths about economy, education and existence. 
 
Youth work
 
Many see this questioning as rebellion and a lack of respect for long held traditions and laws or worse radicalisation. During the London riots Young people were called delinquents and trouble makers by  educators, policy makers and bureaucrats for asking why education costs so much. Around the world young people are being killed for challenging governments who oppress. Young people are no longer believing the long held truths at face value. Lets be honest, why should they. Those long held truths are causing them to question their future options and lament the generations before.
 
It is in to this fray that youth work is at its most effective. Young people are seeking answers but they are still formulating questions. They know that things aren’t right but they are unsure of how to address the causes. They want to be heard and understood. Youth work as a profession has sought to guide, support and listen to the young people we serve for over one hundred years. Now more than ever young people need to be heard. 
 
Youth workers hold a skill set that supports, listens and guides young people. It is this skill set that young people need and for our society to move forward it is this skill set which needs to be embraced. 
 
What do you think? Leave us a comment below.

Aaron Garth

Aaron Garth is the Executive Director of Ultimate Youth Worker. Aaron has worked as a youth worker in a number of settings including local church, street drug and alcohol outreach, family services, residential care, local government and youth homelessness since 2003. Aaron is a regular speaker at camps, retreats, & youth work training events and is a dedicated to seeing a more professional youth sector in Australia. Aaron is a graduate of RMIT University and an alumnus of their youth work program. He lives in Melbourne with his wife Jennifer & their daughters Hope, Zoe, Esther, Niamh and son Ezra.

More Posts - Website

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