Seven Characteristics of a Youth Worker

Youth Work is an Educational Practice

Youth workers engage and teach young people differently than normal teachers. Youth workers find ways that are engaging and fun for the young people through methods that make it seem as if the young person is not directly being taught something. They also focus on where the young person is at developmentally and educationally instead of where they should be so the youth worker can focus their curriculum appropriately. I have changed curriculums around to fit the young people in my program whether that is by simplifying the rules to fit the age group, or taking out a while section that would possibly be too difficult for them. By altering the curriculum, the young people are better equipped to accomplish the task and feel proud of their work.

Youth Work is a Social Practice

Through the young persons social groups, the youth worker can then test the young persons "values, attitudes and behaviors in the context of being with others." Doing so will show the youth worker how much of an effort it will be to have the young person stretch their comfort zone and find other people to interact with. This will also show who the young person is comfortable working with and interacting with since it will show who their friends are. Over the summer, my camp combined with a few different camps which brought in a massive amount of new children. All of the returning campers from my camp had to challenge themselves to make new friends as well as keep the ones they have had from previous summers.

Youth Workers Actively Challenge Inequality and Work Towards Social Justice

A youth workers job is to take out inequality and injustice by bringing children together and show a sense of togetherness by not leaving any child out no matter the culture or other barriers. By doing lessons and using social practices, young people overtime will become more accepting of different types of people. As I said, my camp combined with two other camps. My camp is a predominately white based and the two camps that joined us are predominately black or other ethnicities. There were a lot of conversations with the camp staff as well as campers as to what is socially acceptable and what is not and how we can have a camp without prejudice. 

Young People Choose to be Involved

Young people choose when to involve themselves and when to engage. Young people choose to go to certain programs whether or not they want to. As for a youth worker, it is our job to help them become engaged if they choose something newer to them. For example, when I was younger I chose to join a club that pushed me outside of my boundaries. I am typically a person who is shy around new things so when I joined that club I kept to myself. The youth worker that was there helped me get introduced to some of the other people and helped me find something I was interested in which helped me make friends and made me feel safer in the environment.

Youth Work Seeks to Strengthen the Voice and Influence of Young People

Most of the history of youth work has been to give young people their voice and to influence them to how some passion in their future. This means that youth workers informally teach young people about the world around them, the history of the cultures around them, and ways to make their futures better. This could be done in various ways through an inner city school after school program or by a community center throwing a seminar directed towards children and their future.

Youth Work is a Welfare Practice

Teaching young people about their safety and their welfare is crucial because it teaches young people what to look out for in the real world and how prejudice affects different types of people. This also opens young peoples eyes to areas where there are not the same opportunities that some other young people get. These lessons were taught over the summer at my camp because there were a lot of campers who did not have the same opportunities that other campers have, even having a lunch for the day was one of the lessons. 

Youth Work Works with Young People 'Holistically'

The typical person who is not in youth work perceives youth workers as being fixers to problems for all ages. While a youth worker will help with someone being anti-social, we primarily focus on the youth and their behaviors. Youth workers focus on the youth and we help in ways where the youth will understand, we are not fixers to every problem. E very holiday season since I joined the youth development major, I am always asked about helping youth and families. I have to tell them that I primarily focus on the youth and help them in ways that are not formally taught in the classroom and can be applied to their home and social life.