Youth Work

Youth Work:

So I have been working with youth, pretty much my entire life.  So this article was fun for me to reflect on.  Youth Work is defined in the article as “[enabling] young people to develop holistically, working with them to facilitate their personal, social and educational development, to enable them to develop their voice, influence and place in society and to reach their full potential.”

1.    Youth Work is an Educational Practice:

The way I see this: we are always learning.  And it is obvious that youth workers should forever be educating youth but in return we should also be learning new things from our personal and educational work with youth.  My mom is a principal at Chester W Barrows and has worked in schools her entire life.  When she first became principal she had a first grader who was an undiagnosed ADHD student with trouble at home, problems communicating with other students and he was unable to control his anger or frustration.  At the time I was taking FNED and I was also interning at Metcalf Elementary School with my 500+ hours so Dr. Brell said whatever hours I did at my moms school would supersede the requirements.  Thus my mom asked me to work with her student every Tuesday.  We worked on making friends, how to stay calm, being respectful, etc.  “Youth workers purposefully intervene in young people’s lives, creating opportunities, activities, and conversations that aim to enable young people to think, feel, and act differently towards their world.”  Long story short, he is now in third grade and although his life is not perfect and he still has issues now and then, I was able to intervene in his live through our many many conversations and lunch detentions and he is still changing mine.

2.    Youth Work is a Social Practice:

While working in any elementary school I find it fascinating how much more confident some youth are.  Thanks to Timmy causing a multitude of learning disabilities, growing up and socializing normally was difficult for me.  I was not a kid that was confident in school or out so I found it difficult to interact with my peers.  Thus when I see kids now who are so confident to do just about anything, things as simple as talking with their classmates, it really inspires me.

3.    Youth Workers actively challenge inequality and work towards social justice:

I think that everyone should be striving for social justice.  Empowering others has been a large factor in who I am today.  After my initial time at Hasbro I dedicated my time and resources to helping those who oppressed by any type of disability.  Mental, physical, or emotional.  I have helped those who are recently diagnosed with understand their illnesses.  We would also work together when they had exited the hospital in order to properly equip them for everyday life.  I would help them advocate if they needed special parking, disability services through school, access through a different door because of a ramp. 

4.    Where, young people choose to be involved:

I hope that it is apparent that I love working with youth.  The article states, “it is the quality of engagement and extent to which young people can shape encounters that are more important.”  While the intern at Metcalf Elementary School I ran week and daily social skills groups with my students.  For some of the students like the ALP (Alternative Learning Program) it was mandatory and part of their everyday curriculum but for others it was a voluntary group.  I found that both those who HAD to be there and those who WANTED to be there would contribute to group. (Depending on the day)  But I never told someone that they could not meet with us because another student just added to our interactions. 

5.    Youth Workers seek to strengthen the voice and influence of young people:

My supervisor was the best at making sure all his students got heard.  Watching him work with the ALP students helped me become a better person and a better youth worker because I am now able to speak with students and get them to advocate for themselves and for others.

6.    Youth Work is a Welfare Practice:

When I first read this I was not happy with the verbiage.  Going through the social work program and getting my BSW welfare was not always seen as a good thing.  However after reading the passage I agree, “Youth workers often, though not always, work with young people experiencing greater needs or in areas of higher ‘deprivation’.”  Although I believe this statement could also work as “youth workers often work with young people experiencing need.”  - I don’t feel it necessary to categorize and label these specific youth. 

7.    Youth Work works with young people “holistically”:

I have had so many diagnoses over the years.  Brain tumor, breast tumor, DVA, eye tumor, hydrocephalous, short-term memory loss, paralysis, seizures, asthma, cysts.  It’s because they were looking for more brain tumors that they didn’t find the DVA sooner.  After a while it is difficult for myself and my doctors to see all of me rather than just one ailment at a time.  Over the years I have become my diagnoses and I have lived with them for so long that I can work with it and I am so okay with them.  But I never want to make a kid feel like I am looking at just one piece of them and not everything. 

I found this video that is also a great resource to helping teach what we do as youth workers: