Senior Youth Support Worker

YMCA Robin Hood Group; Town of Mansfield (NY); On-site; USD 42,000 - 60,000; Full time

Job summary

YMCA Robin Hood group is seeking a Senior Youth Support Worker to assist young people in developing life skills and progressing toward independent living. You will work in partnership with a Youth Support Worker to deliver seamless support and act as a positive role model within a 37.5‑hour week rota across 8am–8pm, 7 days a year.

Training and DBS checks apply. You will use a person-centred approach, drawing on experience in Supported Housing and a commitment to outcomes for young people.

Qualifications

• Experience working with young people or vulnerable groups.
• Willingness to complete funded training including Level 2 Housing Qualification.
• Willing to undertake Level 3 Childcare/Health & Social Care Qualification (nationally recognised).

Responsibilities

• Manage as a Keyworker for 10–15 young people with complex needs.
• Provide trauma-informed support and co-produce plans (support plans, risk assessments, Outcome Stars, crisis plans).
• Create a positive, nurturing environment while maintaining boundaries and modelling positive behaviour.
• Collaborate with social workers, housing providers, health professionals and other agencies to deliver wraparound support.
• Help young people develop life-skills and plan progression to independent living.

Skills

Communication skills

Empathy

IT literacy

Education

Childcare qualification

Health & Social Care qualification

Tools

Microsoft Office

Job description

We are recruiting for a Senior Youth Support Workerto work as part of our dedicated team to help young people to build on life skills tomake the successful transition to independent living.

Using a person-centered approach, you will draw on your previous relevant experience in Supported Housing along with your patience and dedication to achieve positive outcomes for all our young people.

YMCA Robin Hood group provides temporary supported accommodation for young people who have found themselves homeless through no fault of their own. Working in partnership with the local authority, we provide short term, supported accommodation to enable the young person to move on to independent living.

You will passionately share in our belief that everyone should have a fair chance to discover who they are and what they can become.

As a Senior Youth Support Worker, your day to day role will include:

• Working in partnership with a Youth Support Worker to provide a seamless level of support to our young people.
• Keyworker to around 10-15 young people, who have had challenging starts in life and struggle to build positive relationships
• Work with the young person in a trauma informed way to co-produce support plans, risk assessments, Outcome Stars, crisis plans and safety plans.
• Creating a positive, nurturing and trusted environment for young people, always displaying unconditional positive support, whilst maintaining boundaries.
• Act as a positive role model.
• Working collaboratively with other agencies and professionals including social workers, personal advisors, housing providers, health professionals, drug and alcohol treatment workers, criminal justice practitioners to deliver wraparound support
• Encouraging young people to problem-solve and identify coping strategies when experiencing trauma, distress, self-harm, anger etc
• Proactively support young people to plan to move on to independent living. This includes advising on housing options, supporting with applications for housing to local authorities and exploring private sector accommodation options.
• Encouraging young people to develop life-skills such as cleaning, cooking, budgeting, engaging with health services etc.
• Encouraging young people to engage with education, training or employment.
• Helping young people to navigate the Benefits systems, supporting with applications.

About You:

You will have the passion and drive to make a difference to a young persons life, where you will use all your transferrable skills to achieve positive outcomes.

Whether your background is in supporting adults, children or young people, can you:

• think fast?
• multi-task?
• show compassion and care?

If you have experience of working with people but now wish to make a difference by working with Young People, this could be a brilliant opportunity for you to work more closely with them to see their achievements and development, get hands on in helping to shape a young persons future and see the difference you can make!

A Childcare or Health & Social Care qualification would be highly desirable but not essential. As we provide Commissioned Services, you must be willing to complete further study which is a mandatory part of the role. You will be supported by YMCA to complete a minimum level 2 Housing Qualification and a level 3 Childcare/Health & Social Care Qualification (both nationally recognised qualifications). You will be enrolled after you have completed your probation. This will be fully funded by YMCA and you will be given time during your working week to complete these studies.

Your communication skills will be your greatest strength and you will have experience of dealing with difficult situations, and challenging people and handling conflict appropriately.

You will need to be confident using computers and IT; we use a number of different IT packages that you will need to pick up (with training) and use as part of your every day work. You will need to be comfortable with all Microsoft packages too.

You will work 37.5 hour per week over 5 days on our rota which covers our service from 8am to 8pm, 7 days a week, 365 days per year.

Our standard shifts are 8am - 4pm, 12pm to 8pm weekdays and 10am to 6pm at weekends.

We plan our rota in advance as a team. We will endeavour to accommodate your personal preferences and your availability; We value your outside of work commitments and hobbies to ensure a positive work-life balance.

There is no requirement for lone working and you will always be on shift with other colleagues.

This post is subject to a satisfactory enhanced DBS check (paid for by YMCA) and registration with the DBS Update Service. We reserve the right to withdraw this role before the closing date should we be able to appoint to the role.