Youth work

Every Thursday starting September 6-30pm
Loundsley Green Community Centre
Cuttholme Road
Chesterfield
S40 4QU

www.rivernetwork.charity

RIVER NETWORK CHARITY YOUTH WORK, offering information, guidance, signposting & support. Our Board, Leaders and team come with decades of credibility, Professional experience and qualifications. With this experience, heart and local need are looking to expand our services.

All our staff are trained, highly qualified & DRB checked.

 In the last year youth services have seen a 70% decline in funding for their services with the midlands being the worst affected .Local youth services provide a safe space and the opportunity to enjoy the younger years with a sense of belonging. Unfortunately these services have suffered from funding cuts since 2011 with youth workers and their services being cut by almost 70% resulting in 750 youth centre closures. Youth workers spent 60,000 hours offering help and support last year proving emotional support where needed. For Youth workers to be successful we need to promote acceptance of everyone in attendance. We believe that youth workers are important mentors from young people who don’t have a role model figure, studies have shown that a young person is more likely to offend with no role model or figure to look up in their lives. Having a role model can also positively effect their mental health through giving them a means to open up. We are looking at expanding into youth services with youth centres as well as events and talking to the community to find out more of what they are wanting in the local area.

Youth work is a educational process adapted across a variety of settings to support a young person’s personal, social and educational development.

Youth work allows young people to explore their values, beliefs, ideas and issues and enables them to develop their voice, influence and place in society.

Youth work can allow a young person to acquire a set of practical or technical skills to realise their full potential.

Youth Workers play an important role in the development of young people. This can be done by providing young people with a role model who promotes the acceptance of everyone and allows them to open up and discuss issues. This can have a positive impact on the mental health of young people meaning it can give them the sense of belonging and statistically shows they’re less likely to offend if a role model is present in their life.

Youth Work can be adapted to accommodate a multiple of activities and disciplines through education. This can help a young person’s social, personal and educational development.

Types of Youth Work

There are five main types of youth work and they are

  • Centre-based
  • Faith-based
  • Detached
  • Outreach
  • School-based

Centre-based Youth Work is carried out at a dedicated premises. Centre-based youth work can be carried out at many facilities such as:

  • Coffee Shops
  • Sport Facilities
  • Advice Centres
  • Youth Clubs

Youth clubs are more common to fall into this type of youth work.

In some cases this type of youth work may be linked with Outreach or School-based youth work.

Faith-based Youth Work is carried out from a foundation of religious morals. Faith-based youth work may be for the purpose of sharing or engendering religious views.

The main purpose of faith-based youth work is aligned with the spiritual goals of the religious.

Detached Youth Work is a form street-based youth work which can be operated without the use of a centre.

This type of youth work takes place where young people are at.

Detached youth work is there to try encourage young people to utilise existing services. It can also be a method of delivering informal and social education.

Outreach Youth Work is very similar to detached youth work.

It is a form of youth work that takes place on the young person’s own territory.

Outreach youth work is a method of work that supports and compliments new and existing centre or project based youth work.

Outreach youth work is primarily used to inform young people of services that exist in their local area and to encourage them to use theses services.

This form of youth work is seen as an extension to centre-based youth work.

School-based Youth Work is carried out in schools.

This form of youth work is provided directly for the students and is often fun by an organisation from outside the school.

School-based youth work may include:

  • Lessons
  • Assemblies
  • After-School Clubs
  • One to One Mentoring

With school-based youth work there might be a link with other non-school youth activities.