Kevin Grimwood, aged 28, New Zealand

I work for the Canterbury Youth Workers Collective, based in Christchurch, New Zealand. The organisation I work for provides training and support for a broad range of Youth Workers and Youth Work Agencies in our province, which in turn helps them to better support the young people that they work with.

Part of my typical day is spent receiving emails and phone calls from various people and groups that work with young people across Canterbury, and I provide them with assistance in terms of helping them to access specific support services that a given young person might need.

I also spend time most days organising training for Youth Workers, which we run monthly. This month we’re running a half-day training session on working with young people that have been sexually abused, including recognising signs of abuse, how to respond and who to refer to for specialised support. We bring in local, national and sometimes internationally-known experts to deliver our various training sessions.

I’m also on the Board of the National Youth Workers Network Aotearoa (NYWNA), and part of my typical day might be spent dealing with projects that the NYNWA is working on, including the development of a nationally-recognised Code of Ethics for Youth Work practice, or the question of whether we should establish a professional body of some kind for Youth Workers in New Zealand.

The richness of the diversity in the Commonwealth has changed my thinking, as I used to think that coming from a more developed nation meant I would be a person that had a lot to offer, especially as myself and my fellow young people discussed challenges in the area of youth development.

Time and time again it was the young people that had struggled through tremendous adversity and who had many challenges in their developing nations that had the most to give, and who were the most inspiring.

I find this incredibly humbling, and have found that the Commonwealth is often spread around from those parts of the Commonwealth that have the least wealth!