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Working as a Youth Worker in training

I have always wanted to do something for the community when i grew up ever since i was young. There was never anything in harnham for teenagers to do; we had brownies and scouts for the younger ones but never anything for the older ones. When i was 14 years old i wrote a polite letter to see if we could have a container on middle street field. He was polite enough to write back although the out come wasn’t as we expected as we weren’t allowed to have one placed there due to nature reservations. So we carried on walking the streets of Harnham. That all changed when Vanessa and Cathy came to our local park one evening. To start with we thought they were abit dodgy as we weren’t used to having people coming and talking to us. Every Tuesday evening from then on they came to harnham and brought things for us to do for a couple of hours...this ranged from sports equipment to BBQ's in the summer and evenings bowling!. It was really enjoyable until they had to leave and go somewhere else.

During the time they spent in harnham i learnt a lot about the youth of today and got involved in WAY. That’s when i realized i wasn’t afraid to speak my opinions and knew i had the right to say what the other teenagers were thinking. It was a great shock to all of us when they told us they wouldn’t be coming no more! It went back to boring nights back on the streets of harnham.

I then got involved with my uncles Youth centre which im still currently a volunteer at now. I have really loved attending there, has made me more confident to talk to the children and keep them occupied with different activities. We have done many things to raise money up there such as jumble sales, Halloween parties, Valentine Parties, Christmas card making  & box making.

Now being a Youth Worker in training i am really enjoying my time! My first evening was abit hectic and didn’t really know what to expect. Was a lot louder then expected too? I got shown around and introduced to everybody although felt abit strange as some of the teenagers here were older then me and im only used to working with children. I suppose that’s what Youth work is all about, working with different ages. My second day was a lot better, spent my time clearing out grovenor house. Was a nice relaxing day. In the evening i then went to some police meeting which i found really interesting and enjoyed it.

I then went to my first GIG! Wasn’t as bad as i thought it would be! i sat and watched the band and tried to take in the different atmosphere around me! i was mixing with different people that i wouldn’t have dreamt of mixing with the year before (:

I came in yesturday and expected it to be hectic! I learnt how to use the spark site and got my own user name and password so be able to publish my writing. I really enjoyed learning how to use this new soft wear as i have never used anything like this before. In the evening when i came back to work i met everybody down at "The Unit" and spent most of the time listening to the other people. I learnt there is alot of bands around which i didn't know before. I also learnt that the line up for a gig is very important because if you have a not so good head line band people will look at it and think "im not going as there not very good!" After spending about an hour and a half at The Unit we left to do some Street based youth work. I had been looking forward to this part for a while. We went to Green Croft where we met a young lad, and had a general chat to him. Afterwards we decided to go to the libary to see if there was anyone there. Our luck was in there was a group of 3 people. Once again we had a general chat, i really enjoyed that night as i was out and about and meeting people.We finished about 7.30pm, and after that i went straight up to Bemerton Heath Youth Centre. I have learnt alot already from my few days working with Dawne, and im very lucky she decided to take me on. The main thing i have learnt so far is that the teenagers have alot of respect for youth workers, and that teenagers are missjudged. There not bad at all, theres simply just not enough for them to do around salisbury.

The following day i spent alot of the time clearing out bass connection because of the closure everything has to be moved. The evening was alot better, we did some street based youth work. To start of with we travelled the streets of harnham to find teenagers in west and east harnham, and all we came across was  two 11 year old children. We then moved in to the centre of town and walked the streets of town once again trying to find some teenagers. It wasnt a very nice night as it was raiging and im not sure what teenager would want to be out in that awfull weather anyway. But our luck was in we found a group off teenagers that come to grovenor house sat out side debenhams steps. We stopped and chatted to them for a while, just a general chat about all sorts really. We found out that they had been aked to moved on from mac donalds because of a sticker situation. I found this quite amusing. After talking to them for a while we then decided to call it a night and came back to bass connextion to lock up. Beryl&my self compleated a evaluation form and after all was done went home. I enjoyed this night, even if the weather as bad. Note to self...WATER PROOFS!

Today i came in normal time about 8.30am and started work straight away. Clearning out grovernor house again. Has been a tiring morning walking up and down 3 flights of stairs to take things to the skip. But was good to know i was doing something to help!

 

Date Posted: Monday 22 March 10

Author: Jess Sutton