Young Person's Worker

Catch22 exists to help build a society where everyone has a good place to live, good people around them, and a fulfilling purpose. We call these our '3Ps'.

We achieve this in two ways. First we improve lives on the frontline through delivery of public services. Secondly, we use our knowledge to change 'the system', to fix the complex web that can trap and disempower those it was set up to help. With the heart of a charity and the mindset of a business, we are uniquely placed to deliver on this challenging agenda.

The Hive is a mental health and wellbeing service designed for and created by young people. We support young people aged 16 to 24 in Camden who need support transitioning between children’s and adult mental health services. We are part of The Minding the Gap programme, a cross-cutting support service delivered by a unique partnership involving the voluntary sector and NHS trust. The Hive represents a one stop shop model in which we offer help and support with education, employment, sexual health, and substance misuse. We do this through our 3 main (components/services) which include 121 support, a drop in social hub and employment services. Ultimately we are a holistic health and well being service that aims to help young people with personal development in various ways.

The Young People’s Workers are managed by two professionals (Team Lead roles) with backgrounds in mental health and working with vulnerable young people. There is a virtual team around The Hive team comprising organisations that make up the delivery partnership. These organisations are experts in the areas of work addressed by the team and provide training and consultation to The Hive.

As a Young People’s Worker, you will need to be able to gain and build trusting relationships with a diverse range of young people so that they feel able to talk to you about the different problems they face. You will be trained and supported to apply non-formalised therapeutic techniques from a range of therapeutic backgrounds to meet the needs of the young people you work with. You will be able to identify and refer young people with more complex mental health needs to appropriate agencies. You will support young people to access a broad range of in-house and local services. You will take personal responsibility to ensure different service providers are working together so that nothing falls through the gaps for the young people you are working with, and that they experience integrated support. This will involve creating strong partnerships with local services via community orientation and outreach work to support young people in services they are already accessing.

You will carry out assessments with young people in order to set goals and create holistic care plans to meet their needs. You will not be seeking to create a permanent mentor relationship and will work with young people to ensure that they are able to live lives more independently of services, or to ensure they are linked into other appropriate organisations to meet their needs. A significant proportion of the service operates an outreach model of delivery, in the community, as preferred by the young person. The outreach work particularly targets vulnerable young people who may not readily engage with services.

You will be responsible for supporting the service manager and Youth Programme coordinator to plan, advertise and carry out activities in The Hive – our social hub. You will support and engage in the group work element of The Hive, engaging with young people on the social hub and carrying out health and wellbeing activities. The young people supported through this project will often be vulnerable and challenging and workers need to be resilient, skilled and flexible to ensure that we deliver a consistently high-quality service.

Main Duties & Accountabilities

The role will require flexibility and skills in adaptability and the appointed person will be expected to carry out tasks over all different areas within the service.

This will include:

• Regular working hours within the social hub supporting delivery and engaging in the youth work element.
• One-to-one individual work with young people on your caseload.
• Outreach and orientation work with young people and services out in the community.

Please click here to view the full Job Description

• Have an NVQ level 2 in an area related to working with young people from under privileged backgrounds or a BA or BSc degree preferably, but not necessarily, in a social studies subject e.g. sociology, social administration, psychology or a teaching, youth work, nursing, substance misuse worker qualification, social work or other training relevant for working with vulnerable young people, including training by experience.
• Experience of working with young people in youth based/support settings.
• Experience of providing one to one support to young people.

Knowledge & Experience

• Knowledge and awareness of the types of issues that affect young people.
• Knowledge of good practice in emotional wellbeing and mental health. delivery for 16 to 25 year olds – and an understanding of the key issues in relation to service delivery for this group.
• Knowledge of relevant legislation, policy and good practice relating to young people.

Skills & Abilities

• Ability to work alongside staff from a range of different agencies e.g. Youth Services, Social Care; Substance Misuse; NHS or Mental Health.
• An understanding of the risks entailed in service delivery to vulnerable young people and risk management processes.

Why work for Hive?

• Opportunity to development your career
• Supporting young people and making a difference
• Receiving clinical supervision
• Your working environment will be based at a youth hub
• Training opportunities to enhance your skills and knowledge
• Team approach of working and partnership working
• We work in a Holistic way of supporting young people
• Good benefits of toil and annual leave

Please click here to view the full Job Description

Salary: £27,000 per annum including London Allowance

Contract: Full time, 37 Hours per week, permanent

Working locations include:

• The Hive premises.
• Outreach and community based across Camden.
• Other sites and businesses within the local community may be required.
• Meeting young people in their homes may be required.

Offer subject to an Enhanced DBS check.

See the benefits of working for Catch22 here.

Unless otherwise stated, interviews will be arranged as suitable candidates are identified, so early application is strongly advised.

At Catch22 we value equality, diversity and inclusion. We are wholeheartedly committed to the principle of equality of opportunity, both as an employer and as a provider of services. Diversity and Inclusion is part of what we do every day, working to deliver our vision to build a strong society where everyone has good people around them, a purpose, and a good place to live.