Youth Worker - Charity in London

Targeted outreach, casework and harm reduction with young people aged 15 to 21. Enhanced DBS required. Some young people will never walk through a service’s door. Streets of Growth works with young people in Tower Hamlets who are caught up in harm outside the home: exploitation, grooming, violence, harmful peer groups and co-offending. We’re looking for an Intervention Coaching Practitioner who can find them, earn their trust, and stay alongside them for the two years it takes to build a different life.

Can you build trust with a young person who has every reason not to trust adults? You will hold a caseload of up to 25 young people and be their lead practitioner from first contact to the end of our two-year AIM+ programme. That means outreach on the streets, estates and neighbourhoods where they spend their time, one-to-one coaching and harm reduction work, group workshops, and coordinating everyone involved in their lives, from families and schools to social workers, police and youth justice.

You will spot risk early, plan for safety over the long term rather than session to session, and work with our employability team to move each young person into education, training or work. That opens real career routes, from Intervention Coaching Practitioner to senior and advanced practitioner roles and into management.

You will also get training you won’t find anywhere else in the UK. Every coach is trained in our Cognitive Behavioural Skills (CBS) curriculum, a trauma-responsive approach developed and evidence-tested by our core international partner, ROCA and Massachusetts General Hospital’s community mental health researchers. We are the only UK charity in this field trained to deliver it. CBS gives you a practical toolkit for supporting young people to manage their emotions, rethink their choices and stick with change, and it’s the same set of seven skills our whole team holds itself to every day. On top of that, you’ll train in contextual safeguarding, street outreach, trauma-informed practice and modern slavery.

A starting salary of £33,500, rising to £35,000, with annual reviews. 25 days’ annual leave plus bank holidays, and TOIL for additional hours. Specialist induction and ongoing training in harm reduction and Cognitive Behavioural Skills. Regular supervision, one-to-one coaching and reflective practice sessions. A training budget of up to £200 a year for external courses after 12 months. An Individual training budget (up to £200 pa) for external professional development training once completed first 12 months of employment. A 24/7 Employee Assistance Scheme, including free confidential counselling. Workplace pension (NEST) and a travel card for journeys during working hours. A £150 referral bonus when someone you recommend joins and passes probation. A modern office near Aldgate and Brick Lane, with easy links into central London.

You will have substantial frontline experience of engaging young people who distrust or avoid services, and of managing a complex caseload: assessing need and risk, planning interventions and reviewing progress. You will understand child criminal and sexual exploitation, serious youth violence, contextual safeguarding and trauma-responsive practice, and you’ll know how to challenge constructively while holding clear professional boundaries.

You are organised, confident in multi-agency meetings, and comfortable writing clear case notes and using a CRM system. Most of all, you’re persistent, emotionally steady, open to supervision and committed to young people’s dignity and potential. A relevant qualification is welcome, but equivalent substantial practice experience counts just as much, as does lived or local community insight.

Today we’re a multi-award-winning, borough-wide charity with international links, and we’ve worked with more than 6,000 young people. Our evidence-led AIM+ model supports young people through two years of change, setbacks included, until they can sustain education, training or work on their own terms.

Shortlisted candidates will have a 30-minute informal online interview, followed by a formal in-person interview (about 50 minutes) at our offices in Aldgate, London E1. Streets of Growth is committed to diversity in all that it does and strongly encourages applications from every part of the communities we serve. As this role involves regulated work with young people, any offer is subject to an Enhanced DBS check, references and evidence of the right to work in the UK, and you will be required to disclose any convictions that are not protected under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order.