Youth Worker in London

Company Description

Free To Be Kids is a growing charity based in London that provides immersive and horizon-broadening experiences for particularly vulnerable young people.

Our projects include residential respite breaks, overnight adventures, and mentoring programs.

We work with schools, housing associations, social services, and other organizations to reach some of London's most disadvantaged children.

Our mission is to help children develop their stories and empower them to embrace joy and adventure in their childhood.

Job Description

The position is a dual role.

You’ll join as the organisation’s sole dedicated Youth Worker and will lead on a portion of Free to Be’s year-round follow-on support for vulnerable young people who we have initially engaged via our Thrive Outside residentials.

This will involve working with a member of the management team to run our Young Leader and Mentoring programmes as well as working one to one with a small caseload of our children who have more complex needs.

You’ll also help lead at least 10 of our residential projects across each year - working on the ground with the children, leading the volunteers, and helping make the projects special, safe, and transformative for vulnerable young people.

Key Responsibilities: 

1.

Youth Work (approx.

60% of workload):

When not on residentials (see below), you’ll help to lead the delivery of our year-round work.

All of our young people come to us initially through our Thrive Outside ‘Gateway’ residentials.

Through that residential week they’ll build deep trust with the organisation.

Many however have complex life situations requiring longer term support.

Your role will be to deliver and lead the youth work elements of this longer-term support.

This will include:

a)     Assisting with our ‘Young Leader’ Programme.

This programme currently consists of a weekend residential training project to skill up young people, aged 14-17, who have previously attended residentials as younger children, to return as volunteers on those projects.

Young Leaders also attend a thank you and feedback weekend each Autumn.

We have recently begun to develop this programme further to offer greater year-round support including 1:1 keywork and support through challenges; sessions focusing on life skills development; linking them into work experience/capacity building experiences.

We would also like to develop a ‘Youth Board’ or similar in the coming couple of years.

You will lead the youth development aspects of the programme: delivering support sessions and keywork to Young Leaders, arranging development opportunities, building participation, and growing the offer over time. 

b)     Hold a small caseload of higher need young people.

Working with a caseload of 4-6 young people at any one time you will deliver targeted 1:1 keywork sessions supporting young people with significant needs – offering advice, support, activities, and crucially help to work through sensitive or complex issues including difficult relationships with parents/carers; low school attendance; challenges with emotional/mental health.

c)      Hold a small caseload of volunteer mentors and their mentees - providing regular support, supervision, and guidance meetings to the mentors; ensure mentors are running sessions safely and in line with policy; leading Start of Mentoring meetings with children, parents and mentors; taking the lead on liaising with the wider network of support around the child Including advocacy, attending multi agency meetings and safeguarding referrals.

Mentoring is one of Free to Be's follow-on programmes.

2.

Thrive Outside Project Coordination (approx.

40% of workload):

Our residential projects are immersive, exhausting in all the right ways, and full of opportunities for children to feel included, valued and successful.

Children usually spend 5 days at a time with us - many will paddle in the sea for the first time, play hide and seek in the woods, build rafts, canoe across lakes, visit farms, forests, ruined castles and splash through streams.

A small number of projects are camping based, but most run from a variety of residential centres that we hire for the purpose.

The majority of  these projects take place during the school holidays.

We want you to play a key part in at least 10 such projects a year.

Initially spending time in the different project roles (working intensively with small groups of children; providing floating support to the project coordinators; perhaps overseeing catering or driving our minibusses.

).

Once you are familiar with the way  projects work, we will support you to progress to lead and coordinate them, working alongside a member of our staff team or an experienced volunteer.

This will involve managing teams of between 5 and 25 volunteers, to oversee the wellbeing of between 8 and 20 children and young people per project.

Jointly with the other project coordinator, you will:

• Take lead responsibility for the organisation, structure, and safe running of the project.
• Provide leadership, support and direction to the project’s volunteer team. Set the tone and ethos of   the project, understand and model Free to Be’s approach to supporting young people, and lead the team to create the best experience possible for the children.
• Build excellent working relationships with Free to Be’s children and young people, ensuring they feel welcomed and included and that their safety and support needs are fully met during the project.
•  Support the volunteer team to respond effectively and in a positive manner to children presenting behaviour,risk issues (including safeguarding issues), or other challenges which may arise.
• Liaise with the parents/carers of Free to Be children, building positive and supportive relationships, understanding many may have been let down by statutory or other organisations in the past.
• Work to ensure safety and quality standards on residentials are of the highest level by ensuring Free toBe’s policies and processes, (including safeguarding, health and safety) are implemented at all times and issues are efficiently and constructively problem-solved, with the support of the leadership team.
•  Be the ultimate problem solver on the project - anything can happen, and frequently does!

As a small but fast-growing charity, we may also, from time to time, ask you to step in and support with other tasks in line with the development of the organisation.