Youth In Action: How do we "lead with" youth?

                       

Mission Statement: 

Youth In Action gives the space for youth share their stories, practice leadership, and create change in their communities.

                                             Vision Statement:
At YIA, we understand that those individuals most affected by a problem are in the best position to determine solutions. The problems that often hit youth of color the hardest – such as community violence, food insecurity, and entry into higher education or training – are structural problems with personal implications. Hence, YIA serves as an open and safe space where youth can voice their opinions and experiences, and are given the trust and respect to creatively apply their unique talents within their own lives and their communities. By building power, leadership and action amongst youth in frontline communities, we believe a more equitable and safe world is possible.


- Youth In Action is defined as a "youth leadership" after school organization, which is not the typical description that we see when talking about after school programming. When parents and youth think of participating in an after school program, they mainly think of youth taking part in the program while adults make the rules and lead the program. At Youth In Action, they describe leading with as building power and taking action amongst youth, as stated in their vision statement. Youth In Action focuses on creating various opportunities for youth to better themselves and address power imbalances. In addition, YIA addresses four various types of learning. These include project based learning (which is specific to practicing leadership skills), service learning, adventure learning, and cooperative learning. Each type of learning focuses on the youth and what they can do to help better themselves and their communities. 

Alyssa Dorr: My Youth Development Autobiography

        

My YDEV story starts around age five, but then restarts later as a third year college student. As a youth, I had high hopes of becoming a teacher. I loved playing school and always made sure that I played the role of the teacher. Throughout elementary school, I looked up to many teachers and the role that they played throughout my schooling. Fast forward to the Fall of 2012, my first year at RIC. When entering RIC, my declared major was Elementary Education with a concentration in Special Education. After completing two years at RIC, I still had yet to be accepted to the teaching program. I remember looking into the Youth Development program before entering my third year and feeling like it could potentially be a good match for me. However, I decided to give the teaching program one more chance. Sure enough, a third year goes by and I still was not in the program. This is when I took a year off from school and began my internship at Walt Disney World. Having this year off really gave me time to think about what I wanted to do. I definitely knew that I wanted to work with children. However, I also knew that I did not want to be limited to only being in the classroom for the rest of my career. In February 2016, I met with Lesley to learn more about the YDEV Program and the different career paths it could offer. It sounded like a great fit for me, a safe space where I could both bond and advocate with youth. In Fall 2016, I began my first year as a YDEV student and loved it. Now, only months away from graduation, I have learned so much through my YDEV community and am excited to take what I have learned out into my own community and future safe spaces. 

Play time!

As a youth worker: 

• I have been nannying for about five years for various different age groups
• Volunteered in a kindergarten classroom for three years where I helped lead in youth activities 
• Volunteered in first grade ESL classroom, facilitating reading and math activities in small group settings
• When working for Disney, was able to interact with children of all different ages from all over the world. As a youth worker, this helped me to learn about different cultures and it was cool that I got to learn about these cultures from the young people. 

As a youth:

• Role playing: loved playing "house" and "school"
• Playing pretend
• Dress up 
• Sports: Soccer, Gymnastics, Dance, Karate

As a young person, I feel as though we try to incorporate play into most things we do because that is what we enjoy. However, we soon realize that some settings are not meant for play. For example, we know that play is limited in the classroom and in order to receive play, you must work for it. Another idea is the concept of negative punishment on play. For example, if you do not complete your homework, you stayed in for recess and did it then, losing your playtime. However, there are many settings that are meant for play such as the playground and sports fields. As stated in Jenkins "Shall We Play?" article, the six P's factor into play no matter the space, specifically permission. Permission is needed in spaces that do not enable immediate play but play can be followed after work. The remaining six P's each individually contribute a part of playtime. 

Framing Youth

"We come to know youth as incomplete, in-transition, finding themselves, hormone-driven, emotional, inexperienced, and always in opposition to the adults in their lives."

"Youth are to be feared, controlled, contained, and as Nathan noted, "kept in".

"If adolescence is a socially constructed category through which young people are understood as defined by age, distinct from adults, and yet undifferentiated from each other, is there any “truth” to the experience of adolescence?"

These were just a few of the many quotes that stuck out to me while reading Framing Youth, a piece taken from Feed Your Mind: A Qualitative Study of Youth, Power and Privilege, written by Lesley Bogad. Bogad discusses the concepts of common sense and how this can limit our ability to see young people as future competent leaders. We believe in various stereotypes about youth because as stated in the article, "we were once young". We have these representations about youth and how it feels to be a young person because at one point we were all young. However, different people may have experienced different situations at different ages. For example, some of us, like myself, had my first job at just fifteen years old. Once in the workplace, I really started to feel like an adult. However, adults were there to remind me that I was still just an adolescent and did not have as much freedom as I thought. So even though I myself felt like I was transitioning from a adolescent to an adult, adults had a different perspective, especially my parents.

The media also plays a role in the distinction between an adult and adolescence. The example Bogad uses is a magazine cover of a famous actress who is celebrating her last day as a teen. She has a a young look to her but you can also see that the cover shows her "pissed off and sexy side". In addition to magazine covers, this is also true for televisions shows, music, and movies. Directors and song writers write about things that teens are believed to have their own private thoughts on such as drugs, sex, and and their parents.

These types of stereotypes can be dangerous for young people who wish to be future leaders. Whether your child wishes to be the future leader of the United States or maybe just the leader of a club at school, various obstacles can get in the way. In order to help conquer these obstacles, I believe it is important to use the characteristics of youth work that we discussed last week. Let us advocate for and with youth, allow the young people have a voice when possible, assist in educational, social and welfare practices, and continue to actively challenge inequality and fight for social justice.

Youth Work Characteristics

There are many different qualities and traits that make up a good youth worker. According to Youth Work: Preparation for practice, an book introduction written by Jason Wood, Sue Westwood, and Gill Thompson, there are seven key characteristics that define a youth worker. These characteristics include seeing youth work as an educational, social, and welfare practice, actively challenging inequalities and working towards social justice, choosing to involve the young people, seeking to strengthen young peoples voices and influences, and working holistically with young people. Each of these characteristics are unique and important for all youth workers to have.
Youth work is considered an educational practice. This is because youth workers are like teachers to young people. Educational practice includes youth workers engaging with young people in the form of formal or informal education. Most young people are aware when the education is formal since this is what is mainly used in their classroom setting. However, an example of informal education could include a youth worker creating some sort of ice breaker game, where the children are learning names, things about different cultures, etc like we will do when conducting our purposeful play activity. In addition to youth work being educational, it can also be a social practice. This means that the youth worker is using "case work approaches" when working with young people. This can include the youth worker giving advice and playing the role of a counselor. It is important in this practice that the young person has a good and trustworthy relationship with the youth worker because they may or may not be disclosing personal information to the youth worker that no one else knows. As a youth worker, it is also important to report anything if necessary. Lastly, youth work is a welfare practice. This means that the youth worker is promoting the safety and welfare of the young people. This can include working with young people who have greater needs and higher deprivation, which like social practice, may lead to the young person disclosing personal information to the youth worker. 
Another characteristic that makes an ideal youth worker is actively challenging inequalities and working towards social justice. This includes working with youth who may be "on the margins". This means these people that are "on the margins" are being excluded for race, ethnicity, class, and many more characteristics. The role of the youth worker in this case is to have an understanding of oppression and power and not to say/do something right based on the fact that they want to avoid law enforcement. One of my personal favorite characteristics that I feel as though youth workers should have is to involve the young people. Involve them in decision making processes, let them have a vote for what they believe in. A great example of this is when we put together our community norms for this class. Everyone got to contribute what they saw as important and no one was left out. Another important trait for a youth worker is to help the young people. Help the young people to strengthen their voices and show them how much of an influence they can have. Young people sometimes feel as though because they are young that their opinions don't matter and I think this goes back to decision making. If young people know they are heard and feel as though someone is listening to them, this will help them in the end. It will help them by knowing how and when to use their voice and it can help them to influence other young people. Lastly, it is important to work with young people holistically. Holistic can be defined as "characterized by comprehension of the parts of something as intimately interconnected and explicable only by reference to the whole" (Dictionary.com). Youth workers will take into account each part about the young people: the social, the educational, welfare, etc. All of these characteristics make up a great youth worker that young people look up to and feel comfortable being around. 

About me: Alyssa Dorr