Creating a professional identity as a young youth worker

Start with a Code of Conduct

A Code of Conduct sets out expected and appropriate behaviour in the workplace. Your organisation should have a Child Safe Code of Conduct or a child safety section in your Code of Conduct.

As a youth worker, child safety policies are particularly important to you, make sure you understand them. If your Code of Conduct doesn’t cover them, you should ask your employer for more information.

If your workplace doesn’t have anything in place, some examples of strong child safe policies are the following:

• Commission for Children and Young People Child Safe Code of Conduct
• Victoria Universities child safe policies and procedures
• Mission Australia’s child safe policies and procedures
• Commission for Children and Young People’s steps to develop or update your Code of Conduct

As a professional youth worker you will also need:

• Valid Working with Children’s Check (employee)
• Recent Police Check.

Organisations can have different rules for how recent your police check needs to be, so make sure you confirm with your workplace before you begin.

Chain of command

Chain of command can refer to an organisation’s whole structure (this includes everyone from the CEO to junior workers), or to the reporting process within your team. As a youth worker you’ll usually have a supervisor or manager, but you may have senior co-workers who you report to more informally.

A great way to understand your chain of command is to ask your teammates and look at an organisational chart which is a visual representation of all the roles in your org and who reports to who. You can usually request this from HR.

• It sounds simple, but a chain of command isn’t just about who’s in charge; it can also ensure duty-of-care responsibilities are being met. This is particularly important for youth workers as there needs to be clear steps for reporting things such as disclosures.
• This process should be clearly communicated to you, but if you aren’t sure, ask your supervisor or manager.

Professional supervision

Have dedicated time for supervision ensures you have access to support, and time for professional reflection and development.

Reflective practice

Reflective practice refers to the intentional process of analysing, evaluating, and learning from your own experiences, actions, and decisions. Supervision is a great place for reflective practice to occur and we encourage you to advocate for supervision in your workplace.

This Supervision Scrapbook from Ara Taiohi, the New Zealand Youth Peak is a great place to start.

Youth work skills

Some youth work workplace and professional skills might include:

• Report writing
• Case notes
• Minute taking
• Writing resources for different audiences (young people, the youth sector, government)
• Applying for grants or funding
• Writing to stakeholders (organisations in the youth sector, local city council, government departments)

Time and workload management

It can be challenging to set aside time for report writing when you have activities to run, and if you’re working in an environment where you’re the main point of contact with young people.

Your day may go off schedule due to unplanned drop-ins from a young person and an important skill to develop in these situations is boundary setting. 

This can look like:

• Letting the young person know that you aren’t available, and they’ll need to come back another time.
• Working with the young person to find a time that suits you both.

In saying this, sometimes you need to respond to the young person and make them a priority. This may be because they are in crisis or have experienced trauma.

This is a good one to workshop in supervision with your manager, or professional supervisor and work through when it’s appropriate to ask a young person to come back, and when you need to respond to them at the time.

Time management tips

• Plan breaks at the start of your work day/shift and communicate with team members so everyone knows when their break is, and who will be the main point of contact for young people while others are on break.
• Schedule in focus time for report writing, and communicate with young people too that you may be unavailable during this time, and who they can reach out to instead.
• Set realistic expectations in terms of response time with young people you work with and external stakeholders.

Feeling confident in your abilities in the workplace is really important for your practice, and if there’s an area you want to be upskilled in, you can advocate for your learning.

You can also join an association or organisation which advocates for youth workers (like YACVic!). While there isn’t a union for youth workers, a few organisations representing youth workers include:

• Youth Affairs Council Victoria (free membership for young people)
• Australian Youth Affairs Coalition
• Australian Community Workers Foundation
• Youth Workers Australia

Favouritism

Youth work gives you the opportunity to speak to young people in an informal and friendly manner. This allows you to build rapport and trust with the young people you work with. You’ll get along with some young people more than others, particularly those you share common interests with, but you must be conscious of treating every young person equally and be aware of your biases.¹

Whilst you will want to be friendly and build rapport with all young people it is important to maintain professional boundaries with young people built around a professional relationship.

You must put the young person’s safety and wellbeing first, meaning there may be times you need to have difficult conversations with young people about their behaviour, engagement in a program or boundaries.

Power dynamics

Engaging with young people in a professional capacity means there’s a power dynamic between yourself and the young person. So, when working with young people:¹

• It’s your job to model appropriate behaviour.
• Supporting the young person to make their own decisions, plans, mistakes and take healthy risks.
• Reiterate their expected behaviour when working with you or entering a youth space.
• It may feel challenging to ask a young person to do something they don’t want to but giving them choices about how the task is done or who can support them to do it can empower them within the process.

Power dynamics can also be emotional. For example, the young person you work with may be struggling with feelings of isolation or low confidence and look up to you as someone who is supporting them.

Your goal is to empower the young person to grow their own healthy and supportive social networks, rather than relying solely on you.¹

Set your boundaries clearly and early in your work, and regularly reflect on your behaviour with young people by asking:

• Have I set appropriate boundaries with the young person? This means having a conversation about confidentiality, and appropriate ways and times to contact each other.¹
• Have I linked the young person in with other appropriate support? A young person should not be solely dependent on you as a youth worker.¹
• Am I treating all the young people I work with equally? You should be providing all the young people you work with the same amount of support, respect, and attention.¹
• Should I share certain personal information or experiences with young people? Consider how information will impact them if you share your own experiences. The story you share should only be done so if it benefits the young person.¹

Confidentiality

A confidentiality agreement:

• Empowers young people to decide what they share with you, knowing that you might legally need to report back to a supervisor, health professional or other institution.
• Allows agency, and empowerment in what they share with you. It also indicates how you will behave if they disclose anything reportable to you.

Talk through this process with the young person and let them know the types of things you need to report and what you will need to share of their experiences. This way you can create a plan together that might involve their support person too.

Tone and language, and finding your style

There is no one right way to speak and act as a youth worker.

Being a good youth worker means being able to connect with, be respectful and empower young people from all different backgrounds and with different personalities. Language is a key part of connecting with young people, and the words you use are important!

• Always use respectful language and check in with young people about the language they use when talking about their identity.

• Be mindful of the language you use and check with your workplace policies on guidelines for appropriate language, and always keep your audience in mind.

• Be specific when explaining tasks to ensure everyone understands.

• Ask the young people you work with about how they want things communicated to them.

1. Meunier, P. (n.d.). Power Dynamics in Youth Work. The Professional Youth Worker; Youth Intervention Programs Association (YIPA). Retrieved January 8, 2024, from https://training.yipa.org/blog/power-dynamics-in-youth-work/