Becoming the Role Model I Needed: My Journey to Youth Work

By: Angeline Karvinkop

Growing up as a Brown kid in Australia, I never saw people who looked like me in traditional forms of media or in positions of leadership.

I knew I had a sense of responsibility to become the role model I always needed. I started my advocacy journey at the end of 2020. I listened to a podcast episode called "Authentic Me" by Mellie Yu, hosted by the CEO of Christmas On the Streets, a non-profit organization supporting people experiencing homelessness in the city of Melbourne.

Through this experience, I discovered my passion for helping others and giving back to the community. I connected with others who mentioned they were youth workers at the time, and I reflected on my own experiences growing up, where I hadn’t felt supported in high school. In that moment, I knew I too wanted to become a youth worker.