By Victoria Stone-Meadows
High turnover in the youth services industry inspired Aaron Garth to start Ultimate Youth Worker in 2012.
“A whole heap of my friends had left the youth sector in a short period of time for no good reason,” he said.
“When we started to ask about why, it was general things like a lack of communication, lack of jobs, no ongoing support, and a lack of supervision and training.
“So we decided to have a look and see if anyone was trying to fix it and no-one was.”
Mr Garth’s mission was to help people in the youth services industry maintain a passion for their work.
“We want longevity in the social sector,” he said.
“The average youth worker lasts about five years and general social workers about eight, compared to nursing which it about 28 years.
“For us it’s all about how we can we provide the support social workers need to have career longevity.”
He and his colleagues provide youth work professionals with supervision sessions, coaching mentoring, and clinical training like youth mental health, first aid, and self-care.
The business has expanded into different areas of Melbourne, including the new Casey Cardinia Business Hub in Narre Warren thanks to a competition win.
“I was driving home one day and heard about the competition for the Casey Cardinia Business Hub on the radio,” he said.
“There was the potential to win a co-working space and a major prize of an office and I had to jump on it.
“I knew the City of Casey has the largest youth population in Australia and there would be youth workers facing the same issues.”
Mr Garth said Ultimate Youth Worker had received great feedback from the people they’d been working with in Casey.
“We are getting positive feedback, and found there was a real need for us here but biggest issue is the lack of funding,” he said.
“With most of the government’s agendas of free market economy and de-funding health and community services, there is going to be a much higher turnover in years to come.”
