Losing it

A sixteen year old boy who you have worked with for 4 years, now has a terminal disease and has been told he has less than a year to live. He confides in you that he is a virgin… and asks you to help him find a prostitute so he can lose his virginity before he dies. 

What would you do?

Safe sex strategy?

At your youth service, the safe sex strategy consists of providing containers of condoms in the bathrooms for young people to take if they wish.
The younger boys tend to use them as water bombs.
How could the service improve its safe sex strategy, given your community, with its mix of ethnic and religious groups?

Dilemma: Touch sensitive?

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This dilemma is about physical contact between youth workers and young people, in a variety of situations:

• After a bowling outing, one of the girls hugs all her friends goodbye, then she rushes over to hug you … what do you do?
• When a young person is in an emotional state, would a genuine hug or soothing rub of the back be an OK option to help the young person through the situation?
• A refuge resident with generally poor hygiene excitedly says to you: "I washed my hair! Feel how clean it is!" …
• Should workers set their own boundaries for physical contact, or should it be an agency policy? What does your internal policy or code of conduct say?
• Are there male/female differences in what is acceptable here?
• Has a manager ever criticised you for hugging a young person?

Let's make music together

A young guy (aged 18) who regularly attends and sometimes volunteers at your youth centre gets employed by you in a 3 month paid position, 6 hours/week to help organise music events over the summer. He tells you that he is really keen on another young person (aged 17) at the centre and is planning on making a move at the next event.

What would you do, if anything?

Dress for success!

Your boss is the Manager of Youth Services for Vision Australia, a large non-religious charity. She has been asked to write a dress code to cover all Vision's youth workers in city and rural areas.

The dress code needs to:

• cover things like clothing, footwear, slogans on clothing, tattoos and piercings
• apply to the whole range of Vision youth services (refuges, recreation, streetwork, advocacy, working in schools, working with families)
• apply to workers with all client groups including migrant communities, Aboriginal communities, street kids, and various youth subcultures.

She asks you to jot down some random bullet points to get her started. What would you jot down?

How should youth councils & youth services use Facebook?

[This post is by Mark Egan & Jelena Alavanja, Liverpool City Council. You can agree, disagree, or add your own strategies by posting a comment below].

Part of being an effective youth worker is keeping up-to-date with the most current ways that young people communicate. In the early 00s, I used MSN to keep young people up-to-date with opening times at the youth centre I worked at. In 2005, young people had ventured into social networking sites with Myspace and some young people would add me to their band or personal profile. As this site gained popularity, discussion began to emerge in the youth sector about what young people disclosed in their profiles.

The dilemma: God and youth work

A welfare agency runs a government-funded youth program to address the needs of at-risk young people. One of the youth workers is also a volunteer youth leader at his place of worship, in his own time. The welfare agency manager becomes aware that the youth worker has been talking to various clients of the youth program about his religious activities and how they could become involved.

When the manager raises this with him, the youth worker says that religion can be a powerful tool for good in young people's lives, and points to the example of one of the agency's ex-clients whose new-found faith has completely transformed her life for the better.

The manager acknowledges that there is some truth in what the youth worker says, but still feels uneasy.

What would you do if you were the manager?

Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle… no more?

The end of the year arrives and a staff member suggests that the youth service put up Christmas decorations to liven the place up. Another staff member points out that there are plenty of non-Christian clients too and that no-one has ever suggested that you celebrate any of their religious holidays with decorations.

The Manager points out that the service has a sign on the door that says "Newmont Youth Services promote equal access to all young people regardless of gender, culture, religious belief, ability or sexuality", and proposes a new policy banning all celebrations which are specific to one religion.

What would you do?

Jump in my car?

You have just run a night-time youth event. After staff have packed up the venue, you find a lone young person who had been at the event, hanging around outside. The young person lives about 5km away, wants to go home, but says that there is nobody who could come and pick them up.

It is midnight, it is dark (obviously!), it is an isolated area and there is no public transport - not even taxis at that time.

There is no MissionBeat, Salvos, outreach or "youth bus" type service in the district.

Your agency does not normally transport clients, and the event advertising had said that young people would need to arrange their own transport home. However several staff have their own cars there, and one staff member offers to drop the young person home.

You are the boss - what do you do?

Dilemma: Family & friends

You live near the youth service where you work. There are no other youth services in that area, and there are very few other activities for young people.

One day your 14-year-old daughter shows up at the drop-in program you are running and makes a number of new friends. The next day when you arrive home from work, several young people from your service are hanging out with your daughter at home.

What would you do?

Dilemma: The gift

You have been working with a young person for over a year. They are about to leave the service as they are now too old for your target group. They mention that they have a gift for you in appreciation of the work you have done for them. They will bring the gift tomorrow.

What issues are relevant to this dilemma? What should you do?

Dilemma: Should we police internet use?

Our Youth Refuge recently got the internet connected for the young people living at the Refuge. Over the past few months, we have noticed young males and females using FACEBOOK, myspace, msn, tagged etc.

The pictures that are sent and received between all the people in cyberspace seem to be of a highly sexual nature, naked pictures are being received on a daily basis to and from our young people. Most young people say they are a lot older than they are, and post information about their favourite sex positions!

We have all the latest security systems in place, although they can’t control the content of what photos and information are being passed! They just keep coming through and hidden in residents' profiles for different sites that are password protected, therefore it is almost impossible for youth workers to police and delete (without the help of young people trying to get others into trouble!!).

We feel the internet is very important part of young people’s daily communication to friends and family etc.

Management have now given us two options: stop these images from coming through or the internet gets disconnected.

We are running out of ideas! Please help.

What can they do? What would you do?

Dilemma: Mum says "Fix my daughter!"

A woman comes to your youth service to talk to you about her 15 year old daughter (who has never used your agency and who you have never met).

The mother says that if her daughter does not give up drugs she will throw her out of home. She has tried everything and nothing has got through to her. The mother asks you to contact the daughter to deal with her drug use.

You say it is best if the daughter initiates the contact, not you. The mother replies that her daughter won't do anything the mother ever suggests, but she might listen to someone outside like you. She urges you to contact her daughter.

What would you do?

Dilemma: Get out of MySpace!

Your agency has set up a MySpace page and have found it to be really useful in connecting with young people on their own terms. One of your clients invites you to be her MySpace friend. You are not sure whether to accept, so you have a look at her MySpace page. Her photo slideshow presents what looks like a lot of teenage binge drinking.

While you are there you stumble across the profile of another young woman from your agency. You have a look at her MySpace profile and notice that she says she is 18 years old – in fact she is 13, and in the comments there are a few older men asking for her contact details.

What would you do?

Dilemma: A fair cop?

You have organised an aerosol art workshop at the Youth Centre. Lots of local young people have turned up to participate, and it's a great opportunity to engage with some of the more at-risk young people in your area. Everyone is happy.

Then a local policewoman, who is on your management committee, arrives. You are pleased to see her there, especially because of the history of poor relations between your agency and the local police, which you have worked hard to improve.

During the workshop you notice the policewoman taking young people aside one at a time. When you ask if everything is OK, she tells you that there has been some petty theft in the area and she's asking questions to work out who's responsible.

What would you do?

June 07 dilemma: Come and work for me?

You are on 12 months parental leave and have several jobs around the home that could be done by a young person such as weeding, babysitting and housework. There were several young people from the program that you previously ran (who will not be clients when you return to work), who are desperate to get their first job (and the good reference that would hopefully come with it).

You want to offer one or more of these young people a few hours work on a regular basis over a few months, just to help you get on top of things at home.

What do you do?

May 07 dilemma of the month: Give me a bloody cigarette!

Kim is a 17 year old young woman who has been sleeping rough, working as a prostitute and using heroin. Nick, her youth worker, has a good rapport with her and is hoping to make some progress soon on the various issues Kim faces.

Kim calls Nick one day in a state of distress and asks to meet in a nearby park. When Nick gets there Kim is bruised and dishevelled. Nick ask what has happened to her and Kim says "give me a cigarette". Nick has a pack of cigarettes sitting visibly in a jacket pocket. Nick ignores the request and asks her again what has happened. Kim again says "give me a cigarette". Nick mumbles something about not being allowed to give cigarettes to young people, but Kim interrupts and says "Look. I've just been raped. I've just been beaten up. And I've just been robbed. Now give me a bloody cigarette!"

What should Nick do?

April 07 dilemma of the month: A quiet drink or three?

After a hard week at work you head off to your regular pub with your friends.

You've had a few drinks and are feeling "happy", when you notice Belinda, an 18 year old client you work with. She is heading in your direction and may or may not have spotted you.

What would you do?

March 07 dilemma of the month: 8 year old at youth centre

Tilly, who is 14, has started coming to your youth centre with her younger brother who is 8 years old. He is much younger than all the other young people who attend the centre, and strictly speaking, he is outside your centre's target age range. He does, however, really seem to enjoy the activities and some of the older young people like looking after him.

When you approach Tilly about it, she says her dad gets really drunk and aggro and yells at everyone, and so the kids like to get out of his way until late at night.

What would you do?