Youth leader
Youth leader is a generic term for those in the children's and youth active volunteer and full-time employees. In many cases, the volunteers are qualified through a basic group leader course or advanced courses and training. Full-time employees almost always have the appropriate training, for example a degree in social pedagogy and years of experience through voluntary work.
Since the leadership of children and youth groups is already taken over by young people, many organizations focus their work specifically on promoting young people in voluntary work. In order to support committed young people in their imagination, spontaneity, creativity and flexibility, there are various approaches to support voluntary work. For example, the youth leader card of the German Federal Youth Association can often be acquired together with the youth leader training . With the JuLeiCa, youth leaders receive certain discounts for themselves and their children and youth groups. For example, the Sportjugend Niedersachsen offers reduced participation fees for courses.
The tasks of a youth leader are z. B. Management of children and youth groups, management of youth camps and supervision of open meetings . These tasks are often carried out in a team with other volunteers and full-time employees. Experienced youth leaders also perform tasks with a high level of responsibility without the involvement of full-time employees.
Child and youth work is the basis of every youth club. That is why the youth welfare offices and regional youth associations offer special youth leader basic courses in which group, game and media pedagogy as well as legal and insurance issues as well as correct appearance in front of groups are taught. Many youth associations offer their own youth leader basic courses that are tailored to their respective association and club work. Youth leaders are involved in a variety of ways. They not only plan and organize group lessons for children and young people, but also supervise many other activities such as club camps or the implementation of projects. Youth leaders are always the point of contact and mouthpiece for children and young people, both within the association and at higher levels, for example in the case of youth policy forms of cooperation at district and state level.
The training, which is completed after at least 30 hours (40 training units), is correspondingly extensive. Adequate qualifications are essential so that adolescents or young adults do not inadvertently endanger themselves or the children entrusted to them or take legal risks as part of their responsible voluntary work. The training therefore particularly deals with topics such as:
- Participation of children and young people in the association,
- Organization and design of holiday camps for children and young people,
- legal issues,
- Sexual abuse prevention and
- Teaching pedagogical skills.
There is no legal obligation according to which youth leaders volunteering in youth work would have to present an extended certificate of good conduct in advance . However, the youth welfare offices should work towards such agreements with the independent youth welfare organizations in order to avoid sexual abuse in child and youth work.
See also
literature
- C. Jasper: Legally secure in child and youth work. Obligation to supervise, liability, data protection and everything that is legally relevant. Berlin u. a. 2019, ISBN 978-3-658-26086-6 .
Web links
- Youth leader on Wissen.de
- Youth leader (sport) on Wissen.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ See the overview in Christian Jasper : Rechtsssicher in der Kinder- und Jugendarbeit , Berlin a. a., 2019, p. 150 ff.