“We have moved away from being a sector to becoming an industry; from passion to profession; from wanting to work ourselves out of a job to wanting lifelong careers; from radical social change to conservative conformity; from building relationships to efficiencies, outcomes & KPIs; from values & visions to business plans; from voluntary engagement to mandated referrals; from informal to highly structured; from cooperation for common good to competition for funds and status." - Siyavash Doostkhah

Siyavash is the Director of the Youth Affairs Network of Queensland. Having moved to Australia from Iran as a 19 year old, his experiences living under an oppressive regime in Iran helped form a strong perspective on the role of youth workers as advocates for social change.

If this quote above from Siyavash intrigues or resonates with you, then this is not a session to miss!

Happening live at:

11am AWST (Perth)
1pm AEST (Brisbane)
2pm AEDT (Melbourne)
3pm NZDT (Auckland)

Wednesday, February 3rd, 2021

"Youth Workers just play games with kids."

"Youth workers are basically underpaid social workers."

We have heard a few of these over the years.

Youth work can sometimes be undervalued as a profession. What can we do about it?

Hear from an international group of experts on what we can do as individual practitioners and as a sector.

Happening live at:

11am AWST (Perth)
4pm NZDT (Auckland)

Advocacy Crash Course: Addressing structures that affect young people

As youth workers we see more than just what is affecting individual people. The more we walk with young people, the more we see the structures that negatively affect them. 

Whether it is systemic homelessness, state-care, welfare, students debt, this session is an Advocacy Crash Course, giving you practical ways to get started addressing the structures that affect young people.

Led by Mason Rothwell, the Senior Policy & Advocacy Officer from the Youth Affairs Council of Western Australia, there is a whole lot to be gleaned from this session.