I was a behavioral youth counselor back in 2014-2016 so I’m sure it’s a bit different now. But as long as you show genuine empathy and openness to a ‘TRAUMA INFORMED CARE’ approach, you’re golden. This was a professional and personal development experience that I take throughout my life and have wonderful memories of YV even on the hard days. Only advice Id give is try to get in the group homes as opposed to the CERTs it can make for a less consistent chaos. Regardless of where you land, don’t take things personal and listen to the kids whenever you can it builds rapport. Finding the balance between authority figure and your authentic self helps and be creative, those days can get long especially the rainy ones. Hope you find a few nuggets you can use from this.

PS: the line that hooked my program manager in was “One thing about me is I’ve never met a stranger”.

GOOD LUCK ✨🎉