Youth worker Job Specification

To act as a youth worker 'Building bridges' and 'opening doors' for youth.

Objectives

The objectives are three-fold:

To respond to the social and development needs of young people aged 10-18 in the area, effectively 'opening doors' for them.

• To explore and deepen Christian faith within young people.
• To build bridges between different cultures and social backgrounds
  through sharing and support of each other.

The job is spread over different working centres arising from the nature of structure of the churches working together, the distribution of youth within the working area and the nature of funding. There are two main centres of work: The parish of Ashwell and the parish of Baldock and Initially it is seen that these working centres will feel rather independent, however it is the intention of your work to build bridges between them through a series of events and activities, although each will naturally retain a degree of independence.

Other centres have been identified but as such working structures have not yet been defined.

Main Duties and Responsibilities

The main duties of the post cover different working centres: each working centre having its own opportunities and needs for youth activity. There will additionally be opportunities to work together. The following represent likely duties and responsibilities for all working centers but are not fixed in stone as this is a new post and dependant on skills of the person appointed.

Over all centres:

• developing the faith of young people (aged 10-18) who think of themselves as part of the Church
• supporting and developing the voluntary youth leaders
• building on the school links to encourage more young people to come to faith in Christ
• working with Year 6 at primary schools to aid their transition to secondary school
• working with other schools and youth workers
• forming links with the secular youth provision

Baldock (40%)

and in addition, specific to the Baldock working centre:

• Supporting the musical and dramatic youth activities in the Church
• Sunday worship once a fortnight.
• building bridges between the Baldock Church young people and those in Ashwell and elsewhere

Ashwell (40%)

and in addition, specific to the Ashwell working centre:

• Develop and oversee a Drop-in cafe style Christian Youth Club
• Support Choir Youth
• Sunday worship once a fortnight.
• building bridges between the Ashwell young people and those in Baldock church and elsewhere

Other Working Centres ('the 5^th day' = 20%)

• Develop working relationships with the other working centres and Baldock and Ashwell with the aim of provide social and educational experience for youth; this will be with people and youth in Social deprivation, disabilities or other areas of need.

Other activities:

• Plan, Organise and take part in Trips outside the working centres
• Plan, Organise and take part in special events.

Inclusive

The Church of England is founded on the Parish model where all individuals living within the Parish are included as members. As such the post includes reaching out to the non-churched as well as churched individuals equally. Therefore a significant aspect of the post is to meet people where they are already meeting, supporting existing activities while developing new activities where there is a need.

Prayer

It is fully understood that prayer will be an underpinning aspect of your work, and as such a mature prayer life will be an important feature of your daily work.