Youth Worker Skill Development

In this report I will be discussing two key areas of skill development that will be important in my career as a youth worker. These development areas are skills which I believe will be important parts of my future as a youth worker. They are skills that I believe that I can improve on and develop although they are not skills which I believe I am completely lacking. The two areas which I want to improve in are:
Development area 1: Group facilitation - Group facilitation is the organisation of groups as well as providing direction and leadership to that group.

Development area 2: Self-care – Self care is looking after yourself so that you do not burn out. This enables best practice for the person.

My gaps and limitations
Area 1: Group facilitation

One reason self-care is important in a professional context is because job related stress has become a lot more common in the last 30 years (Tennant 2001). Because of this self care more important than ever to be effective in a professional environment. As situations can change quickly in an environment involving Youth Work breathing exercises or other quick fixes to get your mind back in the right place are a great tool to use (Reachout 2018). Self-care will also be important to keep me performing at a high standard whilst working with groups of young people. Because of this these two skills are important to use together as without group facilitation skills self-care is worthless in that situation but if I am having issues with self care my group facilitation skills at that time will suffer. Communication as part group facilitation plays a major role in how well the group functions and a facilitator should provide an environment where young people can speak their own thoughts without just following the group ideals (Greenbaum 1999). If this environment can be provided by the facilitator youth work practices such as cooperation and collaboration and anti-oppressive practice are being met (Code of Ethical Practice 2007). The framework for youth services it shows positive group facilitation and self-care are vital for good

As well as being able to gauge improvement Harackiewicz and Sansone (2000) suggest goals are linked to distinct positive outcomes. The first goal I have to start towards the improvement of these skills is to start a professional placement for this year. As I have already started steps to achieve this I would like to have this completed by April 15. By doing this I will have the opportunity to put my self-care and group facilitation skills into practice. My next goal will be to identify activities I can do to improve self-care. One of these is exercise however by identifying more I will be able to relax and recover with multiple activities. I hope to identify 2 more activities I can use for self-care in the next month. As I do not have placement yet, my other goals will be general so that they can be narrowed down once a placement has been found. My first goal for placement will be to improve my group facilitation skills through creating a welcoming environment. This will be done by following the YACVic Code of Ethics and applying practices and principles within the code. Through these goals I hope to build upon my group facilitation and self-care skills to better improve my professional practice for the