Who Are Youth Service Workers?

The vast majority of youth service workers enter the field because they believe they can make a positive difference for young people, families, and their communities. Each year, front-line workers provide services to over 230,000 vulnerable young people in settings as diverse as afterschool enrichment programs, residential treatment facilities, programs for children with disabilities, teen centers, mentoring programs, juvenile justice programs, shelters, and drug and alcohol prevention programs.

Youth in these programs are often in crisis and dealing with a variety of serious threats to their health and wellbeing — homelessness, abuse or neglect, sexual exploitation, parental incarceration, suicidality, domestic violence, gang violence, school failure, delinquency, teen pregnancy and substance abuse. Typical is Dylan, a 16-year-old from Texas who was thrown out by his parents after he confided to them that he was gay. With no place to go, he withdrew every cent from his bank account and boarded a bus for Hollywood; within a day, he was another teenager on the streets in a strange city, ripe for exploitation. He got lucky, though: he happened to see a brochure for a local agency for young people in trouble.

The first thing Dylan's caseworker did was handle the immediate crisis. Within the day, Dylan had a safe place to sleep and regular meals. Then came intensive work with Dylan, sorting out his short-term problems from his longer-terms challenges. Ultimately, with his caseworker's help, Dylan got a job, re-enrolled in high school, and began the slow process of reconciling with this parents.

Sound like a tough job? It is, especially considering that Dylan was only one of several youth on this worker's caseload. Multiple demands, crisis-ridden working environments, and too many responsibilities — they all lead to high levels of stress, burnout, and turnover among front-line staff.

Recent workforce studies provide important glimpses into the youth work profession. The average front-line youth service worker is female, ranges in age from early 20s to mid-30s; works approximately 44 hours per week (though a high percentage also work part-time); and earns between $20,000 and $29,000 a year. In one Boston-area study, 40% of those surveyed had a second job. A veteran youthworker in New Hampshire works days as the supervisor of a transitional living program — the kind of program where Dylan found help — and nights as overnight staff in a home for brain-injured adults. Other front-line staff report moonlighting as cashiers, landscapers, private-duty caregivers to children with special needs, and a variety of other jobs, simply to make ends meet. Yet as a whole, their educational level is fairly high, with some studies showing that more than half of youthworkers have bachelor's degrees and with high percentages planning or already pursuing additional education. The gap between the skilled and demanding nature of their work, and the compensation they receive for doing it, is one of the most serious threats to the profession.