Managing Youth at Risk
Every Society Has Young People at Risk. What Risk Means Depends Entirely on Where You Are.
In Amman and Beirut, it includes Syrian and Palestinian refugee youth who have grown up in displacement, with interrupted education and no formal employment pathway. In Nairobi and Lagos, it includes young people navigating gang recruitment, early marriage, and economic survival in informal settlements. In Riyadh and Dubai, it includes young men disconnected from education and employment despite the wealth around them. In Jakarta and Dhaka, it includes rural youth migrating to cities without the support systems or skills to navigate what they find there. Generic training on youth at risk ignores all of this. This course does not.
The hardest parts of working with young people at risk:
- You know a young person is at risk but they will not engage with you, and you do not have the skills to build the bridge
- You do not have a systematic way to assess how at-risk a young person is and what kind of support they actually need
- You are working with young people who have experienced serious trauma and you have not been trained in trauma-informed practice
- The services young people need do not exist in your area, or they exist but are inaccessible, stigmatised or inappropriate for your cultural context
- You are absorbing the emotional weight of this work and nobody in your organisation is talking about practitioner wellbeing
- You are working across agencies, schools, social services, police, health, and the coordination is inadequate or non-existent
This course provides frameworks and skills for every one of these challenges, adapted for the specific contexts where practitioners across the Gulf, Africa and Asia work.
What Makes Youth at Risk Work Different in the Gulf, Africa and Asia
Risk factors, protective factors, and the systems available to respond to them look very different across contexts. This course is built on that reality.
🕌 GCC Context
Youth risk in Gulf societies includes disconnection from rapidly changing social expectations, young men outside education and employment in resource-rich environments, and young women navigating new freedoms alongside persistent constraints, a unique combination requiring context-specific approaches.
🌍 African Context
Urban informal settlements in Nairobi, Lagos and Accra, refugee populations in Jordan and Kenya, young people in post-conflict environments across the continent, each requires different risk assessment tools, different engagement approaches, and different service navigation skills.
🏛️ System Gaps
Most practitioners in Africa and parts of Asia and the Gulf work in environments where statutory youth services are limited or absent. The course focuses heavily on practice in resource-constrained environments, not on models that assume a well-resourced statutory system behind you.
🤝 Cultural Competence
Working with young people at risk across cultural, religious, and linguistic difference is the baseline in GCC, African and Asian contexts. The course builds specific cultural competence rather than treating it as a footnote.
Who Should Attend
Youth Workers and Outreach Workers
Practitioners in direct contact with vulnerable or marginalised young people who want a stronger, more systematic approach to their practice.
Social Workers and Case Managers
Social workers and case managers in youth-serving organisations who want more effective tools for assessment, planning and multi-agency coordination.
Government Programme Staff
Ministry staff responsible for youth at risk programming, juvenile justice, child protection or youth rehabilitation who want to strengthen their practice base.
NGO Programme Managers
Managers designing or improving at-risk youth programmes in NGOs, INGOs, and UN agencies across the Gulf, Africa and Asia.
Educators in High-Risk Settings
School counsellors and educators working in communities with high levels of youth vulnerability who need practical tools for identification and response.
Youth Policy Staff
Policy staff working on youth vulnerability, child protection or crime prevention who want a stronger understanding of what effective practice looks like.
What You Will Leave With
A complete practical toolkit for at-risk youth work in your specific context.
What Participants Report
From follow-up surveys with participants after the programme
engaging hard-to-reach young people
planning tool within 30 days
Gulf, Africa and Asia
all programme cohorts
Youth Outreach Worker, NGO, Nairobi cohort
Programme Outline
Why this module matters: The way you define "at risk" determines who you reach and what you do. Vague definitions produce unfocused programmes. Clear definitions, grounded in evidence about risk factors, protective factors and resilience, produce targeted, effective interventions. Module 1 builds this foundation, with a specific focus on the risk landscapes of the Gulf, Africa and Asia.
- Defining risk in youth development contexts: risk factors, protective factors, resilience
- The ecological framework: understanding young people in context, family, peers, community, society
- Risk populations in GCC contexts: NEETs, displaced youth, young women with restricted mobility, young men outside formal systems
- Risk populations in African contexts: street-connected youth, refugee and displaced youth, young people in conflict-affected settings, young women facing early marriage
- Risk populations in Asian contexts: rural-urban migrants, young people in extreme poverty, youth in post-disaster settings
- The difference between a young person who is at risk and one who is in crisis, and why it matters for your response
Why this module matters: The young people who most need support are often the hardest to reach and the most resistant to engagement. Module 2 builds the specific skills for reaching and building trust with young people who have learned not to trust institutions, the foundation on which everything else depends.
- Why young people at risk disengage from services: what their experience of institutions has taught them
- Outreach approaches: detached, street-based, centre-based, digital, when to use each
- First contact: how to make it, how to make it count, how to avoid the mistakes that close doors
- Trauma-informed practice: what it is, what it changes in your approach, what it requires of you
- How adverse childhood experiences affect behaviour and engagement, and how to respond
- Cultural competence in at-risk youth work: working respectfully across cultural, religious and linguistic difference in GCC, African and Asian contexts
- Workshop: participants practice first-contact conversations using culturally specific scenarios
Session includes: role-play with challenging engagement scenarios
Why this module matters: Without a structured assessment, practitioners respond to what young people present rather than what they need. Module 3 builds the assessment and planning skills to go deeper, understanding the full picture of a young person's situation and building a support plan that addresses it systematically.
- Needs and risk assessment frameworks: structured tools that produce actionable information
- Conducting an assessment conversation: structure, sensitivity, pacing, what to do when a young person discloses
- Strengths-based assessment: starting from what a young person has, not just what they lack
- Risk prioritisation: how to determine what needs to be addressed first
- Building an individual support plan with the young person, not for them
- Case management: maintaining oversight, reviewing plans, managing caseloads
- Documentation: recording in ways that are accurate, respectful and useful
- Legal and ethical considerations in different jurisdictions: confidentiality, consent, mandatory reporting
Why this module matters: No youth worker can address all the factors that put a young person at risk alone. Module 4 covers evidence-based intervention approaches, how to work with families and communities as partners, and how to coordinate effectively with other agencies, the multi-system working that most at-risk youth situations actually require.
- Evidence-based interventions for at-risk youth: mentoring, group work, sports-based programming, vocational training, family support, what works and for whom
- Adapting interventions for resource-constrained contexts in Africa and parts of Asia and the Gulf
- Crisis intervention: what to do when a young person is in immediate danger
- Working with families in culturally sensitive ways: engaging parents and caregivers in Gulf, African and Asian contexts
- When family is part of the risk: managing situations where family dynamics are contributing to a young person's vulnerability
- Multi-agency working: referral pathways, information sharing, case conferences, advocacy
- What to do when the services young people need don't exist
Why this module matters: Working with young people at risk is emotionally demanding in ways that accumulate over time. Practitioners who do not manage this systematically burn out, make worse decisions, or leave the field. Module 5 addresses practitioner wellbeing not as a wellbeing add-on but as a professional practice requirement.
- Vicarious trauma and secondary traumatic stress: what they are, how to recognise them in yourself and colleagues
- The difference between compassion fatigue and burnout, and why the distinction matters for how you respond
- Building personal resilience: practical strategies that work in demanding professional contexts
- Supervision: how to use it, how to advocate for it when it is not provided
- Professional boundaries in at-risk youth work: what they protect and how to maintain them
- Organisational responsibility for practitioner wellbeing: what good organisations do and how to advocate for it
- Personal wellbeing action plan: specific commitments each participant makes for their own sustainable practice
📋 For NGO Directors and Programme Managers
Investing in at-risk youth practitioner capability produces returns at every level:
In-house delivery allows us to focus the case studies, scenarios and assessment tools on the specific populations and contexts your organisation works with. Contact us to discuss.
Request In-House DeliveryCommon Questions
Is this relevant if I work with a specific at-risk population, for example refugees, or young offenders?
Yes. The frameworks and skills in this course apply across at-risk populations. Participants working with specific groups consistently report that the core tools, assessment, engagement, trauma-informed practice, multi-agency working, are directly applicable to their context. In-house delivery allows us to focus the case studies specifically on your target population.
My country does not have strong statutory youth services. Is this course still useful?
Yes, and often more so. A significant portion of the course addresses practice in resource-constrained environments where statutory services are limited, inaccessible or inappropriate, which is the reality for most practitioners in Africa and parts of Asia and the Gulf. We do not design courses around the assumption of a well-resourced system behind you.
Does the course address mental health in young people at risk?
Yes. Mental health is integrated throughout, recognising signs of anxiety, depression and trauma responses in young people, understanding how adverse experiences affect behaviour, and knowing when and how to make a mental health referral in contexts where professional mental health services are limited or stigmatised.
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The Young People Who Need You Most Are the Hardest to Reach. Build the Skills to Reach Them.
Join youth practitioners from across the Gulf, Africa and Asia who have built the knowledge, frameworks and skills to work effectively with young people at risk, in the specific contexts where they actually work.
📅 Upcoming Schedules
View all dates for this course →We run this course as a private programme for organisations. Bespoke dates, tailored content, group pricing.
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