Our Organisation

The CYWC is an organisation that exists to support youth workers by providing professional development, networking opportunities and accountability, support,  information and resource sharing

We seek to achieve the following three goals:

- Connecting the Youth Work sector

- Raising the standards of Youth Work practice

- Championing youth development

CYWC consists of Youth Workers and Youth Services in the province of Canterbury, New Zealand and has been an Incorporated Society since 1986 with a Charitable Trust status.

We are funded by the Christchurch City Council, the Canterbury Community Trust and the Department of Internal Affairs.

We connect the Youth Work Sector by holding network meetings, visiting Youth Workers and Youth Services, providing information and support and referral services through our Youth Services Directory.

We raise the standards of Youth Work Practice by delivering training and professional development opportunities for Youth Workers. This includes our Youth Work Code of Ethics which Youth Workers are held accountable to throughout their membership.

We champion Youth development by advocating and promoting strengths based approaches to Youth Work that are researched, and evidence-based. This reduces the number of services who work from a deficit model of working with young people.