Jen Shaw

12/03/2026

You’d think with 7 kids, working in high crisis with young people and 4 needy sausage dogs I would choose less naughty pets wouldn’t you?

Nope! Enter the goats! Who are absolutley useless at mowing the paddock so I hired them a mower. 🤦🏼‍♀️

Unsure if I find chaos or chaos finds me! 🐐

10/03/2026

I’m absolutely s**t at keeping plants alive. Kids, animals… my husband all fine, but despite my wants to be a green thumb I just have never made it happen.

BUT I’m pretty proud of this little bush lemon tree.

When one of our beautiful Emerge kids took her life last year I went in search for a plant we could plant with the other kids that represented her; we remembered a time she was looking after some younger kids at the Emerge house who were sick, making some fresh food and tea, adding in some bush lemon. That was IT the plant had to be bush lemon.

I took it as seedling everywhere she had been with us; Our Toowoomba house, our Sunshine Coast house, Crows Nest Rest stop where we first met her and her home at Cherbourg.

Something about my grief has just been trying to hang onto whatever I can of her, suppose I convinced myself her energy would live in this little tree.

Keeping it alive kind of stands for a deeper promise, not to let go and lose myself in the waves. Keeping the plant alive, and somehow some way on another plane of time she speaks to me when I call, she tells me where she is and I pick her up, we head to the army like we planned and she finds every dream she ever wanted.

I brought it back here to the coast in the hopes the perfect place to plant it would pop up, it hasn’t yet, but I do think it’s ready for a bigger pot. In my mind Emerge will one day own its own home for kids to escape whatever needs escaping, there will be a spot for Lilly’s bush lemon, I’ll tell every kid I meet about the bush lemon, the girl we planted it for. How funny she was, how cheeky she was, how much potential she had. I’ll ask them to promise they won’t ever get to the end of the day and feel alone.

There will be bush lemons on the table, to hand out to our friends. A kind gesture. A yummy treat. We will talk about you with everyone we meet.

If anyone ever says grief doesn’t change you they are lying, you carry every bit of that person you loved everywhere. In your mind, your dreams, your pockets, your promises.

I’m absolutely s**t at keeping plants alive, but promises I can honour 💕

09/03/2026

It’s been almost 10 years since I started Emerge in Toowoomba.

I spent some time today just scrolling through a bunch of memories; photos of amazing kids, volunteers and community who just got behind every dream I had to make sure kids had an opportunity to be seen, make something of themselves and be a part of something special. Got me all in my feels.

In those early days the work was pretty rough, I had no idea about business plans, strategies, governance nothing . I was just an ex street kid with a dream. No money, just passion, love and a bunch of cool people who wanted to help me.

I’ve learnt a lot over the last 10 years; youth work, business, a whole lot about myself too.

All the wins we had at Emerge in Toowoomba, all the heartbreak, the love the sacrifice makes me feel pretty emotional thinking about closing it. But truth is if we don’t find some stable funding in the next few weeks that’s exactly what I’ll have to do.

I’ve got big plans and dreams for the future, mostly they involve building a home down here on the Sunshine Coast we will own forever for kids anywhere to visit whenever they need us for however long they need us, boxing and training with my husband, chickens, goats, learning, loving kids back to life; mark my word the work will continue for as long as I breathe.

But man what happens to the kids who need us if we leave Toowoomba? Who picks up the pieces for the local kid that’s too hard and needs a 2nd chance to get their life on track, the young girl stuck on the streets at 11pm on a Saturday night, The cry for help for a pregnant teen stuck out of the state and needing to come home or the kid in care who’s been in residential homes for years, and finally feels loved and heard in our Emerge home.

It’s an emotional crossroad for me, let’s hope it’s a crossroad for Toowoomba too 💕

02/02/2026

Sometimes I have moments of doubt wondering if I the work I do makes an impact….

Then I get to pop in on a casual Saturday and meet a beautiful baby boy and his mum who not only aced everything at Emerge; living in our accommodation in crisis. working in our cafe, becoming a youth leader and THEN a youth worker got her life on track on her own terms and I dunno I just get a feeling there’s something in our approach 🤷‍♀️

Meet kids where they are at,allow them to be in the drivers seat their own life and love them back to life from the passenger seat 💕

So epically proud of you Tash, I have no doubt you’ll ace motherhood just like everything else you touch 💕

23/01/2026

Well hello there 2026… 🌸

After a few weeks at a quieter pace, hanging with my babies, grandbaby, foster babies and fur babies. I’m feeling ready.

Ready to begin again, helping as many young people doing it tough as possible.

Ready to take care of my health a little better.

Ready to give value to every human I meet and leave everyone and everything I give energy to better than when I found it.

Can’t wait to share a cracking year with you all. Jen x

P.s how bloody cool is being a grandma! 👵

11/11/2025

Earlier this year I lost a young person I had been working with to su***de. She was incredibly beautiful; sassy, talented, funny and brave.

While she definitely had her own demons, I felt like out of all the kids I've ever worked with she knew the meaning of the world we live in better than anyone. Deeply spiritual, deeply connected to something greater.

When I first started working in this space my gravest fear has always been losing a kid. The depth of love I bring into my work is hard to explain. A responsibility to see them through the darkest stuff no matter what it takes far beyond a 9-5 "job". Before I ever lost a young person in my world, I used to think that would be the moment I would stop.

The weekend we lost her I was set to pick her up and bring her closer to us so we could help her complete her journey into the army. The morning she made her decision she asked me to call her, the call connected and the other end was silent. I have really struggled with never knowing if something I could have said might have made a difference, I've chosen to find comfort in the privilege of spending her final moments.

Today would be have been her 19th birthday, if things had gone a different way shed probably be close to marching out of Kapooka. She could have been a super model, she most definitely would have continued to make people laugh and absolutely would still be driving me crazy; everyone who ever knew her misses her deeply, every single day. Including me.

The last couple of years has taught me a lot about being a youth worker, even more about myself as a human. This work we do is so important; showing up, not giving up and doing whatever it takes.

When I started this work I was honoring promises I'd made to myself and the street kids I grew up with, nowadays it's about honoring promises I make to the kids I've met and lost along the way who don't get to have another shot.

Have the tough conversations, check in on the people you love and if you are working through a dark day, don't do it alone.

Happy Birthday Lilly, promise I wont ever stop

02/11/2025

What a beautiful little surprise!

I’m currently out in the middle of the ocean without proper internet, to get a little notification I’d been nominated definetly put a smile on my face 💕

✨ Jen Shaw has been nominated for her work helping young people. VOTE HERE: 👉 https://bit.ly/3WK5ba3

20/10/2025

This is 40 💕

I could talk about all the things I’ve seen and achieved in my 40 years on the planet; street kid, turned teen mum, teen mum turned anxious young mum, writing cook books, building a social following, founding a youth charity, building cafes, working with some of the wildest kids on the planet, guest speaking, awards, travelling and cool adventures and man I’ve done and seen some really really cool s**t in the last 10 years but when it all comes down to it….

This little person is really the whole point.

I turned 40 last week, quietly yet satisfied. 7 amazing kids; wild in their own ways but fundamentally kind and courageous, a bloody awesome husband who adores me, 4 absolutely as***le dogs, 3 farm cats, a mob of chooks, a few extra foster kids, a piece of paradise I call home, a handful of genuine friends I can count on one hand and this scrumptious little grand daughter with the chubbiest cheeks I’ve ever squeezed. When I look at her, I see me, I see her mum and a whole healed world we built around her so she can just step in and do amazing things when she’s ready.

I’m one lucky lady.

09/10/2025

This week I saved a Kookaburra, I mean I’m not one of those really cool animal rescuers wearing khaki and saving the day, and this certainly isn’t a story where I versed a lion, conquered and saved the flock.

But I was literally heading out to the clothesline for the morning to hang some washing out, I noticed one of the kids left the chook pen open overnight and the chooks we’re celebrating an early morning exit out into the paddock.

I pop my head in the aviary and instantly I find a kookaburra absolutely losing her s**t inside, banging side to side desperate to get out. She’d flap, bang, drop,bang and every so often fall to the ground where the last remaining chook would attack the s**t out of her. (Brutal little buggers they are with other birds)

Immediate panic set In; I usually send my husband in for jobs like these, but he’d gone to work and my kid helpers were all still asleep. There’s gotta be some kinda bad juju for letting a kookaburra hurt itself and not trying to help. So I quickly grabbed a towel off the line and headed in.

Now we have plenty of kookaburras on our property, they sit out on our fences every morning and night, fly me in as I drive up the driveway home, and they squabbled so loudly to let me know my daughter was pregnant last year. I’ve seen them demolish snakes and rats so I was pretty nervous about my fingers, and watching her flap around the cage had no idea how I was even going to get her. We had a few near misses, thud, crash, bang. And I just thought right instead of running around here like a crazy woman chasing this bird I’m gonna try and just speak to her with energy, keep calm, draw her In. Just like I do with the kids.

I told her, mate I’m not here to hurt you. You know me, you see me everyday through my window If you pop down on the ground, keep it calm and I’ll get you out of here. Big breathe. And then she did it, almost immediately she sat on the ground in the corner, let me wrap her in a towel and I popped her outside and off she flew.

For a minute she turned her head with her big beak and I decided if she bit me at least it’ll make for a cool story. But she didn’t.

This afternoon on the phone to a mate I turned to my right and she’s sitting there having a yarn. Didnt move the whole time I was there.

Got me thinking about the way I work with kids, when they are in crisis, trapped and struggling we can often panic and knee jerk and cause more harm or we turn and look the other way because we simply don’t know wha to do but occasionally some of us, take a breathe, draw them In and do what needs doing to get them through it.

I asked for a sign earlier this week that I’m on the right track with my mission to help kids doing it tough, went looking for it in humans, found it in a kookaburra 💕

27/08/2025

I recently joined the board of Teens Take Control Inc not because I’m a board type of person but because I just adore everything the lads do with kids doing it tough, so well aligned with Emerge and I recognised a kinda grit that I’ve had to rely on to get Emerge over the line and helping kids that fall through the cracks.

Street kid to CEO to board member. If I had told 14 year old me this is what I’d be up to now she’d laugh her ass off.

Working together to help as many young people who need a hand as possible 💕💪

When he was enrolled in school we would get a call almost everyday for s**tty behaviour.

Jumping out of his seat, talking back, not doing his work, causing a nuisance; you know the kid.

The smart ass, the tough case, the “too hard”

It would have been easy to keep playing the same game. Behaviour cards, eventual suspensions and eventually a nudge to leave school. It’s the pathway for so many kids who find themselves in big trouble down the track.

A few months of doing it different and not one behavioural issue. Learning skills in a wide variety of areas; farming, workshop, first aid and we’ve even found a way to integrate him back to school in a way that’s flexible and individualised. Engaged in everyday.

Schools are overworked and doing their best to take care of the most.But what if the kid isn’t “the most?”

Being with Emerge and Teens Take Control means we can have a really dedicated and holistic view of the young person.

We get to spend individual and holistic time with young people; finding out what do they care about so we can help them find ways to learn about it.

What gaps are in their life we can holistically wrap around and fill.

We make sure they win so they get to know and feel what success looks like on their own terms.

This is early intervention, Pretty impressive.

25/08/2025

I’m pretty bloody lucky to have a lot of epic women in my life including these two champions who jumped in a car this morning to spend a few hours checking out all we are doing on the Sunny Coast with kids doing it tough.

I’ve known both of these ladies for so many years but when I asked them to help me on my mission of helping kids and building an organisation that competes with the big guns they have never hesitated to jump in.

They ask me the tough questions, they challenge my thinking, keep me thinking clearly and sometimes they even tell me no when I need it. 🤣

Jess and Emma, along with our entire board past and present. Thankyou for never ever giving up on me and in turn the young people I work so hard to take care of.

Love you all 💕

Today members of our board; Jess & Emma travelled to the Sunny Coast to learn more about Teens Take Control and The Food Harvest Project with tiny tour guide Michael at the helm!

Our collaboration with Teens Take Control brings together the love and heart of our youth work with the structure and toughness of Teens Take Control. Together we are delivering a holistic program that wraps around kids doing it tough.

You know what they say, if you want to go fast go alone if you want to go far go together 💕

Helping as many kids having a hard time as possible.

A big thanks to Danny from Teens for sharing The Food Harvest Project (and delicious cauliflower) and all the boys for being so welcoming today!

22/08/2025

The last couple of months have been tough, unimaginable loss of some of the young people I work with. Some of it I’m not ready to even talk about yet I’m not sure if I’ll ever be.

There are kids that I gave my absolutely all to who I will never have the opportunity to try again with.

It would have been so easy to just pack it all up and go home, so to speak. I thought about it too, surely in all of this I found some transferable skills to dig into other career pathways. Take a year off, go back to writing cook books. I almost offered to get back on the coffee machine at my local.

The heart was heavy and it wanted to run.

No way. This stuff, even when it’s ugly is my gift.

I chose this work right, without force or persuasion; over 20 years ago making a promise, creating a contract to commit to my life purpose of helping broken kids. 10 years in action, showing up for the most complex kids in our communities. Seeing them, unpacking chaos with them and loving them back to life.

They throw stones at me sometimes because I do it differently. I don’t clock off at 5 or swing around the sector under different titles, I’m just Jen; mum to 7 (and a few more ) youth worker, out of the box thinker, rule challenger, chaser of something better for kids who’ve been lost along the way.

A lot of people don’t love me for the difference, I’ve been hot headed in my advocation at times and I admit that. Sometimes I’m really really s**t with adults But the intention has never been against people but systems. Broken ones who are failing our kids and communities on every level.

We just have to find ways to do better together.

In small but mighty moments I’m reminded about why I started the work to begin with. A regulated kid on the beach they told me escalates every other day and nobody can or wants to work with.

Regulated, engaged, hell he’s even working on gratitude and affirmations at lightning speed over adults I know who’ve been healing for years. Even the dog, who usually annoys the absolute s**t out of me is learning to be calm, patient and changing his approach to work with the boy.

It’s an absolute game of inches though, it could sway in the other direction at any moment but how privileged am I to have something to bring to the table.

Dusting myself off and beginning again 💕🌸🌈