Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Youth Worker Project

The Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Youth Worker Project helps train youth workers to run after-school and school holiday recreation programs so that young people can have fun, build skills and confidence and connect positively with each other.

Who is this for?

This project is for people, both Anangu and non-Anangu, who would like to gain youth worker training while working within Aboriginal communities.

About this project

During recent years, we have provided youth worker training on the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands in the far northwest of South Australia. In this learning program a group of Anangu and non-Anangu youth workers who are employed in different communities, study the Certificates III, IV and Diploma of Youth Work. Through establishing 'youth sheds' that offer after school activities, looking out for young people in need and organising school holiday programs, these workers contribute to increasing youth health and wellbeing.

Project content

We deliver nationally recognised training that employs a mix of classroom education, mentoring, community development and formative assessment strategies. We anchor the training in three major 'purposes for youth work' as described by community people:

• Having a safe place
• Having fun, positive experiences
• Keeping an eye out for young people.

We have utilised video, cartoons and stories to document the knowledge of workers in order to share these examples of good practice across the communities. In this manner, the communities discuss and evolve youth work practice as it applies to the remote environment and build connections between the different youth sheds.

The Yangupala Kungkawara! newsletter is produced each quarter to demonstrate youth work activities and information, as implemented by our students.

For more information

Please email Deborah Lockwood or call her on (08) 8245 8100.

_{The APY Youth Worker Project is funded by the South Australian Government Department for Families and Communities.}