My biggest take away from these readings was the
chart below.
x
x
I really like how this spectrum describes youth roles of leadership. I never
considered Youth as clients and noticed that a lot of the work I do in my organization
is with Youth as Clients. This session of my after-school clubs I have tried to
move more into the youth participation/involvement without knowing it. This
chart really put into perspective the different categories of youth
participation. I want to have a program that is more youth driven. I wish this is
a chart I would have learned about before. As someone who is a visual learner
seeing this spectrum drawn out helps me see the path of becoming a youth led program.
Youth Work/Development is about working with youth as their allies. Most
programs have youth as clients and I never noticed the distinction. As people
youth or otherwise, we become more invested in something if we have stake in
it. The more youth are involved, the more they become invested in what is going
on. Giving youth a chance to have input makes a big difference. Last weeks
readings about Ethnic Studies was proof of how important and impactful it is
when youth are driven. Providence students advocated for themselves with adult
allies and were able to get a curriculum that offers them what they want to
learn about. Youth with adult allies can do amazing things.
Yes--I agree that chart is a total revelation for me!
ReplyDeleteHi Jasmine,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed seeing that chart too in the readings because it gave me an idea of the spectrum that concerns youth work & youth programs. My work has always been youth as clients, regardless of how much power I attempt to give my kiddos, they are always considered the client, on a societal level & organizational level. All of my youth work surrounds children with special needs so we adhere to clinical rules & regulations & refer to our youth as clients. I've never worked anything other than this type of youth work but I believe it's because of the psychological/clinical/behavioral nature of my job. I'm sure there are places where other areas of the spectrum thrive & should be used, but I honestly don't know how positions like mine could be anything other than youth as clients. I think the beauty of the spectrum is that we can see that it's okay to have all types of youth programs given the nature & context provided.