I have over 12 years experience of being a detached youth worker, and now over 15 years training groups of staff, volunteers and Managers across the UK in detached youth work.   So I am confident that if you’re not sure where to start with getting out on the streets to engage with young people – that I will be able to help!

If one of the problem you have is that young people are hanging around the local church building, the shops or the park, and it is starting to cause an issue – then maybe it is time to think about how best to develop working with them. These young people are far easier to build up a connection with than those who stay inside.

I offer 1/2 day, 1 day or repeated sessions on detached youthwork, and as you can see by the comments below, it is highly recommended, participants have said:

It helped to do role play what we might do when actually engaged with young people on the streets- it helped to allay fears and gave me confidence to think i might be actually able to do it

I will do my best to suit your needs for developing a small volunteer team and beginning the exploring of heading out on the streets and connecting with young people. It covers alot of the material you might need when starting out, including planning, observation and evaluating. At the same time there’s opportunities to do discussion, role plays and group work, all important for getting into the mindset of being out on the streets. There’s a large focus in the training on what happens when you’re out on the streets and engaging with young people, in the conversations. Then I cover things like reflection, supervision and team work, all essential for detached work.

Other feedback included:

This is all new to me, this is giving me the knowledge and confidence

It gives me a bit of ground work and safe experience in starting the conversations

We are not going into it blind, exploring different scenarios was good

Enjoyed it very helpful and educational

It showed me my insecurities, it also gave me good insight into the kind of questions that might be asked and how they might be addressed

I feel alot more comfortable with cold contact

The training also include worksheets, resources and training pack, discussions, role plays and also potentially observations and supervision sessions later on, once you get going. You might just be surprised how easy it is once the initial fears are overcome- and not just easy, but unpredictable, exciting even, especially when the young people stop and have a conversation!

Over the last 10 years my portfolio of training includes:

Highland Life, Inverness and Fort William Youth services

Inverclyde Youth Services 

ICC Now NTC, Glasgow

Centre for Youth & Mission

South West Youth Ministries

Exeter YMCA

ICE Project Exmouth

Perth YMCA

MINE project, Byker Newcastle

and also church groups in the North East and South West.

In addition I have delivered and assessed modules on detached youthwork at a number of colleges in the UK, and contributed to a few publications, including ‘Here be Dragons’ which you can find in the menu above, and also ‘Being church; the social and spiritual purposed of detached youthwork, with Naomi Thompson’

If you’re looking for specialist training for your detached youthwork project, or training to give you the confidence to get out onto the streets and begin conversations with young people , then please do contact me to arrange a booking.

Please fill in this form below, and I will get back to you within 2-3 days.

Costs

The costs for a church or organisation for this will be approximately

£100 a session ( 1/2 day = 3 & 1/2 hours)

£200 a day

and slightly extra for handouts and printing, as well as travel costs, (public transport or mileage from Hartlepool).

My charges for larger organisations, affiliations and denominations or larger groups that pay to attend would be nearer £40/hr ie £150 1/2 day, £275 for a whole day.

It is possibly to do a basic introduction to detached youthwork, that includes some of the practical hints/tips and processes for starting out – all in one day of training, and so your group of volunteers can get out there and begin developing connections and relationships with young people.

I would normally recommend that to develop good team dynamics and to develop confidence in what you’re doing, and how to do it, then at least one day training, or 3-4 sessions would be needed, especially from scratch.

I can also offer more advanced training for the ‘already doing detached’ teams and groups, this can take the form of peer supervision, receiving questions and scenarios, developing thoughts around planning and evaluation, ethics, and more in-depth about partnership working, if this is what you’re looking for, then do let me know.

If these costs are prohibitive, then please do ask me about options and negotiate, I would hope that you do want to invest in training with volunteers or workers before they head out onto the streets of your local town or village, and to clarify, there is no additional fees afterwards, though If you want  me to come back in a few months to do any follow up training, that of course can be arranged.

Content

In a one day detached youthwork training session you would have time to discuss the following:

• Introduction to detached youthwork- the why? 
• Developing observation and research
• Cold contact and conversation
• Dealing with the difficult
• Health/Safety & Risk
• Planning/Reviewing and Evaluation.

As you can imagine, not all are covered in depth in one day, and If you want this to be the case then a series of sessions may be more appropriate. But there will be more than enough to get you started, energised and prepared for being out on the streets.

If you want more information, please do get in touch and I can discuss options for the detached youthwork training you require.

More of the feedback from the detached training I have done is here.

In case you hadnt noticed, there are many articles on detached youthwork on this site too, just click on the detached youthwork category.

Specialist Training in detached youthwork – from an experienced detached youthworker, lecturer and trainer – all here, please do get in touch.

I look forward to hearing from you.