Youth First Social Worker Vicki Kirkman highlights Youth First’s longstanding commitment to helping kids and the dedicated team that makes it possible.

Vicki says, “Youth First has been so consistent in my life. I started off as basically a brand-new social worker with Youth First, and now I’m a working mother of 3! The organization has grown so much, but the mission and commitment to serving kids is still just as strong.

I knew I wanted to work with kids, and I liked the idea of being at the school to help. I have so much support from my team. We have wonderful clinical supervision. The board is just amazing and everyone is working towards the mission.”

That mission has always been giving students the support they need to thrive. Vicki shares one example. “I have a student I’m seeing regularly who just moved to the school this year. He really struggled with hybrid learning and just hasn’t had the opportunity to make connections. He’s dealing with an inconsistent living situation with divorced parents and has had to move from one house to another. He came to me this week, outside of our normal time. He was really upset and said he was having a lot of anxiety and knew I would listen to him. It really made me happy to be there for him. He just needed someone to talk to.”