Wrexham Youth Work Conference & Celebration Event

Last year, the release of the new Youth Work Strategy and implementation guidelines give the youth services the chance to get together and take a look at how the new document could be used to shape the future of our youth service’s work.

Simon Stewart, Dean of Faculty of Social and Life Sciences at Glyndŵr University, opened the conference challenging everyone to think about how the strategy could support them and their work dealing with the diverse needs of young people.

Workshops were also held, and topics included how could children’s journey’s be captured and evaluated, how can a child’s voice be better supported, how to work across voluntary and statutory sectors and does youth work reach everyone?

They also held an evening celebration to recognise the work of staff and young people and recognise those who have made a positive change in their lives. They were not recognising accredited efforts, rather the resilience, dedication, support and sometimes just the smiles that makes every session worthwhile. The young peoples’ award categories were:

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Inspiration Award – for young people who brighten up your day
Resilience Award – for young people who keep going despite whatever!
Positive Personal Change Award – for young people who have made positive personal changes
Dedication Award – recognising the voluntary time and efforts young people put into services
Dependability Award – for those young people who staff or peers can turn to when needed.

Donna Dickenson the Head of Prevention & Support Service awarded eleven young people with certificates and silver platters that recognised and demonstrated the service’s appreciation of them.

Colleagues and peers nominated staff for similar attributes. Staff categories were: