Our ongoing A Day in My Life series puts a spotlight on Gwen Evans and Rhun Garner, youth workers for Ceredigion Youth Service, this week.

Here, Gwen and Rhun give an insight into their rewarding roles as youth workers.

Gwen: I’m an Outreach Youth Worker; supporting young people aged between 16 and 25 to re-engage into education, employment or training.

I listen to them and provide one-to-one sessions, tailoring the support around their individual needs.

Rhun: I am the designated school-based youth worker for both secondary schools in Aberystwyth.

My role involves delivering youth work intervention to young people aged between 11 and 16, who at times may need a little additional support to get the most out of mainstream education.

This preventative work is to help support young people find their path and channelling them in the right direction, with the aim of improving their quality of life and future prospects.

This intervention work can take a number of forms, but many young people benefit from developing their skills around managing emotions, motivation, self-esteem, self-worth, personal organisation and developing their own identity.

Gwen and I are part of a team that consists of 12 other youth workers.

As a youth worker, we engage, build and maintain meaningful relationships with young people.

Together, our team provides a number of services; school-based youth work, outreach youth work, youth clubs, youth forum and youth council, holiday programmes and educational sessions for schools, colleges and universities, focusing on young people’s personal, social and emotional health.

Through this specialised support and open access provision, our team works hard to encourage all young people to reach their fullest potential.

Gwen: For the last four years, Ceredigion Youth Service has ranked in the top three highest performing local authority youth services in Wales.

It’s also achieved all three Quality Mark standards, awarded by Welsh Government.

This year, we were awarded the prestigious Gold Quality Mark Award, one out of only three local suthority youth services across Wales to do so.

Rhun: I love all aspects of my job, but being able to support young people to develop themselves personally, seeing young people overcome barriers and reach their full potential is what makes my work so positive and rewarding.

See this week’s south papers for the full feature, available in shops and as a digital edition now