Who are we?

Hi i’m Mike Carroll-Owen, I’m your Website & Communications Lead here at the IYW. I’m an experienced youth and community worker of 12 years with specialist areas in CSE, Sexuality, Sexual Health & Substance Misuse. I’m one of your Elected Council Student Reps.

Twitter: @mco1986

“Supporting young people isn’t just a job, it’s a lifestyle” – Jaffer Ali Hussain, 2009

From the age of 14, I have been presented with opportunity after opportunity to develop myself personally and professionally – these opportunities have arisen from being part of the world of youth work! Growing up in a working class family in the North West of England; in a town where deprivation is high and aspirations are low amongst Pakistani young males, I know that by seizing the opportunities that my youth workers provided me led to where I am now: a founder and former Chief Executive of a local youth empowerment charity, a European Citizens Prize recipient and an advocate for holistic youth work practices. My life is driven by the ideal that young people can make a difference when given the opportunity to do so – a difference not only to their own communities and societies but to themselves personally, to their family and to their friends. Having worked across the private, public and voluntary sectors as well as locally, regionally and nationally and as a volunteer, part time worker and full time manager.

I now spend a considerable amount of time as a Trustee for a number of charities: Lancashire BME Network, Child Action North West and Curious Minds. I do this because I am deeply passionate about partnership working and forming strong networks between organisations so that long term young people can benefit from collaboration between services at a time when it’s needed the most.

Finally, I am a proud British Muslim of Pakistani heritage. My roots and my community are just as important in my field of work in showing that you can be British, Pakistani and a Muslim in an incredibly beautiful and complementary way.

I am currently on the road to becoming a fully qualified Youth Worker studying MA Youth and Community Work (with JNC) at the University of East London. In addition, I am also employed by Kinetic Youth Ltd as a Specialist Youth Work Supervisor within the secure estate. With regards to my Youth Work background, I have had the privilege of working closely with young people in various capacities within church settings for a number of years as well as in schools working with young people with various complex needs. My current and previous work with young people continues to push me to be the best Youth Worker that I can be in a way that advocates for and promotes the need to support young people and keep the profession alive. I am incredibly, incredibly passionate about what I do and I hope that with the help of the Institute of Youth Work, I will be able to continue to move mountains.

I’m a qualified youth worker and manager with 20 years experience in the field. I’ve worked in both the statutory and voluntary sector and experienced how youth work has changed to respond to Government and community needs. Most recently, this includes the focusing of funding towards Multi-Disciplinary Teams delivering Targeted Work, either with individuals, groups or families reflecting the Troubled Families initiative. Currently working for the Youth Work Unit Yorkshire and Humber, I have a good working knowledge of the Regions Youth Sector, and a variety of approaches being implemented by different areas to developing partnerships and co-production models between Statutory and Voluntary Sectors. I have experience of working in a multi-disciplinary team and the benefits and challenges this brings.

I have worked with young people for 15 years in a variety of roles including Mentoring and football coaching, I have worked in Youth Offending teams and open access youth clubs and also done detached youth work including driving the mobile youth bus. For the last 10 years I have gained managerial experience in a variety of roles such managing youth centres, managing a youth club for young people on the autistic spectrum and a variety of projects including NCS and NEET groups. I currently work for Kinetic Youth as a Senior Youth Work Co ordinator within the secure estate. In 2012 I gained a BA Honours Degree in Youth and Community studies (1st Class) I also have a Level 3 Leadership and Management Award amongst a host of other professional qualifications.

I feel that I have lots o experience to share and also an open mind to learn from other members’ experience too. I have received some awards for my Youth Work over the years – Commonwealth Global Youth Work Ambassador, Commonwealth Global Youth Worker of the Year & European Youth Worker of the Year 2016/17, Community Champion Award Winner, Mayor Of London Team London Award Winner, Kids Count Community Inspiration Award Winner and also run the #ILoveYouthWork vLog with my colleague Bob Singha. We are passionate about ensuring high quality youth work provision is widely available across the globe & regularly connect youth workers from different countries. I hold a BA(hons) in Informal & Community Education and have a long and outstanding international reputation as a specialist professional offering high-impact coaching, project management, training, research, evaluation, interventions and front-line delivery services to individuals and communities globally. I am a strong communicator with highly developed interpersonal, negotiation, management, organisational and creative thinking skills. Working primarily with communities around areas of specific and often acute need; supporting groups / individuals to identify issues and problems that may be affecting them or their community. I am involved in several organisations that have youth work at their core and the work we do enables young people to take ownership of such issues and embeds problem solving processes to seek resolution through Informal Education and Experiential Learning. I am a skilled Behavioural Change specialist and a fully Restorative Practitioner, utilising a range of coaching and therapeutic methodologies.

I have been involved in youth work for 20 years and during that time have worked across a diverse range of projects from open access provision to dedicated health services and support for young people seeking asylum. My current role is Head of Operations at NE Youth, an organisation which both delivers direct community based services to young people and also supports a network of more than 100 other organisations working with young people across the region. I have a strong interest in supporting quality improvement and workforce development in the sector and have personally supported a range of organisations to enhance and develop their governance and services through practical hands on support. I am a committed advocate for youth work and passionately believe that the sector needs both greater investment and recognition and that one way we can achieve this is by working together. I supported the development of, and am still heavily involved in, the North East Youth Alliance and believe that meaningful collaborations such as this are crucial to ensuring that services remain sustainable, coordinated and rooted in what young people want and need. I have a range of sector experience suited to the role, as already outlined, and have also recently completed a Business, Leadership and Management degree which will bring wider skills and knowledge listed in the role description. I have been a school governor for 15 years (currently Co-Chair of Governors) and was also a trustee for 4 years so also have a range of relevant governance experience. Youth Work will be a fundamentally important component in supporting young people to emerge from Covid healthy, happy and supported and I would like to be considered for this role so that I can offer my knowledge, experience and time during such a crucial time for the sector and young people.

I have over thirteen years of Youth Work experience in a variety of settings having grown up in and around youth clubs from the age of eleven. I now have a first class honours degree in Youth and Community Work with JNC and am working towards my Masters. I am a Trustee of The Door Youth Project in Gloucestershire and was a Director of Youth Work Europe before stepping down to take up a paid role as a Youth Worker.

Having previously been involved in a variety of youth work contexts over 20 years ranging from community based youth clubs and performing arts-based empowerment programmes to residential camps and prison-based outreach work, I have been a Lecturer in Youth Work & Community Development at the University of Derby for the last three years. As well as academic teaching, I am also responsible for student placements and networking with over 75 different agencies across the Midlands area. This combined with a professional career in the Criminal Justice System, secondments into a number of multi-agency projects and experience of strategic management and leadership within a number of public sector organisations and charities (including being a Senior Project Manager, trustee and member of other Council of References), I believe, places me in a strong position to channel my knowledge, energies and passion in driving the work of the Institute forward in speaking up for youth workers on the front-line and advocating for our work and impact in an ever-changing landscape.

I am a professionally qualified youth worker that has been involved in youth work for over 20 years, qualifying from Brighton University. I am a strong believer in young people’s creativity, their humour and fresh view on things. If we listen they have the ability to help adults think differently about the things that matter to them.

The power of young people’s voice and wanting young people to have the knowledge and support in place to make decisions is central to what brought me to youth work. I have worked in both the public and voluntary sector where I have been able to increase my specialisms in CSE, Equality and Diversity and SEND. I have recently developed a specialism in acquired brain injury, empowering young people’s voice within the health system and bringing youth work principles to neuro-rehabilitation.

Yasmin has worked with young people for 14 years in a variety of settings and with a wide range of young people. Settings include L.A statutory youth work, detached, Duke of Edinburgh, looked after children; and after living through homelessness herself, aged 17, decided to support young people experiencing homelessness living in residential services. Yasmin has continually developed her youth work training starting at level 2 and so on, leading her to successfully complete her Masters dissertation. She cannot imagine doing anything else other than supporting young people and youth workers within the field. After recently joining Wrexham Glyndŵr University Youth and Community Work team, Yasmin is now lecturing and specialising in the field of youth and community and in particular interested in the experiences of mixed race young people and young people who have experienced homelessness.

TBC

 I am Ruth Richardson and I am the Development Officer at the Institute of Youth Work (IYW). I have been working as a Youth Worker for over fifteen years across both the statutory and voluntary sectors. I worked extensively on Global Youth Work at a local (Derby), East Midlands and national level. In recent years I have worked with young people from ethnic minority backgrounds particularly Pakistani and Roma heritage. I am particularly interested in developing tools for practitioners to support young people to explore their identity, how they might place themselves in an increasingly complex world and how this could relate to their feelings of the perceived ‘other’. I am moving to the IYW from five years at the Multi-Faith Centre where we pioneered workshops covering Religious Diversity and Anti-Discrimination as well as Overcoming Islamophobia and Roma awareness training. I am also an Associate Lecturer for Health and Social Care at the University of Derby. I am a deeply passionate Youth Worker and I am excited to support IYW and all its members!