Seeing young people thrive is essentially why 24-7 YouthWork exists.
We believe the old adage: it takes a village to raise a child. In light of this, 24-7 YouthWork facilitates the connection between a local school and a local church to provide trained youth and children's workers to work within a school.
We all know the teenage years are full of challenges, especially as young people seek to find out who they are and establish their place in the world. Through our work in high schools and intermediates, we have witnessed the increasing mental, social, and emotional distress among rangatahi. More recently, we are also seeing these challenges emerge earlier, with younger children in primary schools showing signs of heightened anxiety, dysregulation, and disconnection. Drawing from 24-7 YouthWork's rich history and the value of presence-based youth work, we have expanded our presence-based approach to include Tamariki Tipu - Growing Children, a model tailored to support the development of younger children (Year 1-8), offering our primary schools and communities additional support and awhi.
The same youth and children's workers work in and out of school with 10-20 paid hours per week in school and they are significantly involved in their wider church community. Schools are formative in the development of both tamariki and taiohi and each 24-7 worker seeks to serve their local school in whatever capacity is required. It is about effective encouragement for children and young people and quality service delivery for schools. In other words, youth and children's workers supporting young people and serving the school in practical ways. The relationship between the school and church is unique as youth and children's workers act as a link to the wider community in which they live.
In both models, we focus on what we have in common – we want to see young people and children succeed and flourish in their future. All 24-7 youth and children's workers recognise there is a huge range of different beliefs in a school context and are respectful of this. Our role is to be there for all young people and children, creating a lasting, positive impact on the lives of children and young people in Aotearoa.
