Experienced/Senior Youth worker in Abingdon

Location: Abingdon and surrounding areas (driving licence required)

Contract: Permanent | Flexible (part-time or full-time)

Salary: £37,167 – £41,184 (pro rata, depending on hours and experience)

This is more than just a job. It’s a chance to make a real difference in young people’s lives every single day. At The Abingdon Bridge (TAB), we’re looking for someone who genuinely cares—about young people, about fairness, and about creating spaces where people feel safe to be themselves. Someone who believes in young people’s potential, even when they can’t yet see it themselves.

About You

You are someone who leads with empathy, builds trust naturally, and shows up with warmth and authenticity. You will bring proven experience working with young people aged 11–25, particularly those who may feel excluded, marginalised, or unheard. You have a strong ability to build meaningful, trusting relationships and high levels of emotional intelligence, empathy, and self-awareness. You are confident in holding space for young people’s emotions without judgement or agenda, and you bring resilience, warmth, and a calm presence even in challenging moments. You are a self-starter who can work independently while also being a supportive team member. You feel comfortable contributing ideas and helping shape new ways of working, and you share TAB’s values around safeguarding, ethics, and the wellbeing of young people and communities.

The Role

As a Senior Youth Worker, you will work directly alongside young people, particularly those who are more marginalised or harder to reach, offering consistent support, encouragement, and belief in their potential. This is relationship-based youth work at its core. You will hold space for young people, support them to explore their aspirations, and help them navigate challenges safely and confidently, while encouraging them to act, belong, and commit within their community. Your work will focus on three key outcomes: improving young people’s wellbeing and emotional resilience, reducing risky behaviours through trusted support and positive alternatives, and increasing aspiration so that young people feel valued, connected, and hopeful about their future.

Key Responsibilities

• You will build strong, consistent, and meaningful relationships with young people through relationship-based youth work.
• In delivery and outreach, you will support and deliver outreach work, community-based drop-ins, and detached youth work.
• You will facilitate group work across themes such as wellbeing, identity, belonging, and aspiration, contribute to intergenerational and community-based projects, and support community events and preventative wellbeing initiatives.
• In creativity and programme development, you will bring fresh thinking to develop activities that resonate with young people, shape programmes in response to their voices and lived experiences, and explore new ways of engaging them to create lasting, meaningful impact.
• In leadership and team support, you will guide and support junior staff and volunteers, model excellent youth work practice grounded in empathy and reflective practice, and contribute to team learning and continuous improvement.

Our Approach: The ABC Model

Everything we do at TAB is shaped by our ABC model. It is not just a framework on paper—it is how we build intentional communities and design every project and service. Act focuses on personal wellbeing, mental health, self-awareness, and supporting people to act on their strengths. Belong is about creating spaces where people feel safe, seen, and valued, and where connection grows naturally. Commit is about giving back, showing up, and investing time and care into strengthening community and inspiring others to do the same. This model sits at the heart of our mission. If you are invited to interview, we will ask you to share a project or idea inspired by the ABC model. It does not need to be perfect—we are far more interested in your thinking, values, and passion. Bring something real. Bring heart.

What We Offer

We offer 5 weeks holiday plus public holidays (pro rata), a NEST employer pension scheme, high-quality clinical supervision, and ongoing training and development opportunities. You will be part of a supportive, reflective team that values creativity, learning, and human connection.

Working Relationships

You will report to the Director of Youth Services and work closely with Trustees, the CEO, Head of Counselling, counsellors, youth workers, and most importantly, young people. Their voices and needs are central to everything we do.

Why Join The Abingdon Bridge?

By joining TAB, you will become part of a passionate and supportive team that values creativity, reflection, and meaningful connection. We invest in our people and provide the space to innovate and grow. This role is for someone who wants to do youth work with heart—someone who understands that real change starts with trust, time, and being truly present.

How to Apply

Please email your CV and a heartfelt cover letter explaining why this role speaks to you and how your experience aligns. Email: Holly@theabingdonbridge.org.uk

We won’t pretend AI doesn’t exist—we’ve used it ourselves to help shape this advert. But the people behind TAB are very real, passionate, and committed to supporting young people in Abingdon. Feel free to use AI if it helps, but don’t lose your own voice. We would much rather see an application that is real and full of heart than something perfectly polished but without personality.