ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses detached youth-work-what it is, who does it, how, where, and with whom it is done, how its practitioners come to this work, and their training and supervision on the job. It describes what detached youthwork means to its practitioners-how they perceive and understand their practice, how they live their vocation. Current detached youthwork in the Twin Cities is both similar to and different from historical detached youthwork. Early detached youthworkers were not explicitly trained for this work, but most had social service experience, typically with youth. Youthworkers had a difficult time telling how they came to be in youthwork. The youthworkers’ seeming lack of insight could also be a result of their lack of training, including the absence of a language to articulate how they came to be a detached youthworker.
