It’s likely that there won’t be a career more testing than those found within the world of youth offending jobs. That being said, it is also one of the most rewarding careers out there. There’s not many other jobs where you get the chance to help someone make positive changes to drastically alter the path they are leading. Today, we’ll look at where the highs and the lows of work in youth offending can be found. While also highlighting some of the key characteristics you need as a youth offending worker if you are going to survive in this field of work.
Childhood and youth in a more general sense is the time of moulding and shaping your life ahead of you. Youth offending indicates when this shaping has taken a wrong turn. The joy of youth offending can be found in successfully recalibrating this path, while it is still not too late. The potentiality of children is immense, therefore, it can be devastating to see when this is wasted, or worse manipulated for illegal reasons. A service user of youth offending teams can often be aggressive toward those trying to help as a result of this manipulation, and getting through to them, showing them you are there to help them can be a very challenging task.
You cannot always expect successful rehabilitation when working in youth offending. There can be a whole number of reasons why it was not successful. If you are going to be a successful youth worker, it is important to build up resilience to these situations. While simultaneously carefully examine what has happened when this occurs. This might help you see mistakes you’ve made, or perhaps patterns of behaviour which can be warning signs in future cases.
When you do successfully get through to someone though, you can create a special bond with a service user. One that is based on trust, which for many troubled youths can be something they’re very short of. This means it can be a slow process to reaching any sort of level of trust. You must be prepared for this long term process, patience is key. You must remember that you will mostly be working with minors who have their whole lives ahead of them, so time put in now to do something right will pay back dividends for these children in later life. Largely due to having more sustainable foundations to build from.
