Our Work Youth Workers

Colours Youth Worker Network

Colours Youth Network was born out of a need for LGBTQ PoC youth workers to connect; needing others with similar experiences and identities to help us navigate our youth work. Across the 8 years of running Colours, we held many of these spaces, we held them formally and informally, online and in person, with workers from the UK and across Europe. We brought together LGBTQ PoC youth workers, practitioners, teachers, therapists, support workers, volunteers all working with LGBTQ PoC youth to explore, share and learn with each other.

These youth worker spaces were initially just a space to 'just be' - somewhere without the white gaze of our organisations; where we could be open, vulnerable and support one another authentically. The spaces evolved with the needs of us as workers, and we started to shape the time we spent together around themes that came up most often.

In our final year at Colours, we pulled together all our notes and reflections from these youth worker spaces and bought them together in the following resource, beautifully designed by Soof - view more of their work here.

Download Holding Space & Growing Together : Reflections on Navigating Grief and Boundaries here

Holding Space & Growing Together reflects on two recurring themes in our youth worker spaces: Boundaries and Grief. Through this resource, we aim to validate and normalise these experiences while offering personal and collective reflections.

There was loads we could have written in here but we’ve prioritised sharing content that we felt isn’t widely available for LGBTQ PoC youth workers. In the resource you'll also find tips and practical prompts drawn from our sessions to help strengthen youth work practices.

While this resource is primarily created with LGBTQ+ PoC youth workers in mind, we truly believe there’s something in here for everyone to learn from.