Working with young people: roles and responsibilities

In this free course, Working with young people: roles and responsibilities, we look at the roles that are taken when working with young people. We focus on what those working with young people actually do, starting with some analysis of roles. We show that, in the context of work with young people, the term is more than simply a statement about who does what: it also says something about the kinds of relationships we form with young people and the values we bring to our work. We then move on to discuss roles in relation to the 'bigger picture' of organisations and projects that are concerned with young people.

• Introduction
• Learning outcomes
• 1: Thinking about roles
• 1.1 Preamble
• 1.2 Actions
• 1.3 Characters: the Ally and the ‘Emotional worker’
• 1.3.1 The Ally
• 1.3.2 The ‘Emotional worker’
• 1.4 Characters: the Catalyst, the Mentor and the Advocate
• 1.4.1 The Catalyst
• 1.4.2 The Mentor
• 1.4.3 The Advocate
• 1.5 Characters: the Facilitator and the Supervisor
• 1.5.1 The Facilitator
• 1.5.2 The Supervisor
• 1.6 Philosophies
• 1.6.1 A. Worker as protector
• 1.6.2 B. Worker as personal reformer
• 1.6.3 C. Worker as liberator
• 1.6.4 D. Worker as community developer
• 1.6.5 E. Worker as institutional reformer
• 1.7 Understanding Roles
• 2: Roles in a wider context
• 2.1 The diversity of roles
• 2.2 Roles within agencies, projects and organisations
• Conclusion
• References
• Acknowledgements