Many people become interested in careers for helping at-risk kids and teens because of their own life experiences. Others simply want the best for all kids and teens, so they go into fields that provide services to at-risk children and youth. If making life better for at-risk kids inspires you, consider studying to enter one of these helping professions. Each requires a minimum of a bachelor’s degree, and some may require a graduate degree or a set number of hours of training or apprenticeship.
Careers That Help At-Risk Kids and Teens
- Teacher: Inspire at-risk kids to strive to achieve their dreams.
- Counselor: Serve as a resource to listen, offer helpful services, and guide at-risk youth toward success.
- Social worker: Help address circumstances at home and in the community that impact at-risk youth, and make families aware of the services available to them.
- Psychologist: Identify and help treat mental and behavioral disorders that impede progress and cause suffering in the lives of at-risk kids and teens.
- Youth care worker: Provide home care supervision in a residential facility that serves at-risk youth with serious behavioral or substance abuse problems.
- Juvenile justice officers: Assist in the rehabilitation of youths that have committed crimes.
Why Choose To Help At-Risk Youth?
At-risk youth need helpful and supportive adults that truly believe in them. They need people who are honest with them and can help them navigate the world. At-risk youth are less likely to transition successfully into adulthood. Success for them includes both academic success and job readiness, as well as the ability to become a positive member of society by avoiding a life of crime.
In any of these careers for helping at-risk kids and teens, you can help young people build life skills, develop healthy relationships, and make better decisions. You would dedicate part of your life to helping vulnerable young people. Over the course of a career in at-risk child and teen services, you can help change thousands of lives for the better.
What Skills Does a Youth Worker Need?
- Commitment to young people and an understanding of the factors affecting their lives.
- The ability to act with integrity in times of stress.
- Interpersonal skills, with the ability to establish good relationships with a range of people.
- Patience, tolerance, and flexibility.
When you earn your degree and enter one of the above-listed helping professions, your education will have just begun. You will learn from the at-risk children and youth you work with, and they may often confound you. If you want to enhance your skills as you work with at-risk youth, contact ARISE Foundation and find out about their life skills curriculum packages and the online training for people who work with at-risk youth.