YDEV352

In September I attended Family Day on my Air Force base. At this event, the family members of service members come to the base and spend the day with them. They have a cook out, bouncy houses, petting zoos, pony rides, face painting, and a hay ride to the flight line and the kids can take tours of the air planes. My god son came with my parents to spend the day with me and my sister, who is also a service member. My internship, the Airmen and Family Readiness program are who put on this event every year. This is important because it connects families. This event also gives the kiddos a chance to explore their parents or family member’s work areas, so they see what they get to do day to day, or month to month. Family day is related to YDEV because the kids are playing and becoming connected with their families as well as making new friends. Family day revolves around youth.

A time that I observed an injustice was with my god son Jared. Jared was just 6 days old when my parents became his foster parents. When he turned 1, this sweet boy was reunified with his birth father per DCYF. This was NOT at all in Jared's best interest. Luckily, we remained extremely active in his life when he moved with his dad and step mother. He always screamed and cried when we would have to drop him back off to them. It was traumatizing for him and us. He was constantly locked in his room there and his step mother's children would hit and bite him. He was only placed in their care because his step mother's best friend was a social worker and pushed in their benefit. After a year of this, my parents convinced Jared's dad to work out an agreement for guardianship after showing him the proof of what was going on in his home when he was working (He's a fire fighter so his shifts would take him out of his house for days at a time). This made me was to advocate ...

By completing the Ideology Inventory Quiz I learned that my beliefs align with Positive Youth Development with a score of 7. My other scores were 13 for Risk, Resiliency and Prevention and 16 for Critical Youth Development. After reading the Ideology horoscope, I found a better understanding of what this all meant. This means that my beliefs and values focus on strengths and positive growth. This also means that I am distant from preventing negative outcomes and how youth engage with and impact their communities and cultures. I think my results from this quiz were spot on and display the truth about my views as a youth worker.

The Student Centered Learning Conference was well worth my time and participation. Our anchors of Leading With and Purposeful Play were the center of many workshops. This is especially for the anchor of Leading With. Leading with is what this conference was all about. Students are at the center of their own learning. In the workshop I attended, they played a video of students that lead an assembly and voiced their opinions and were heard. The spoke on topic that were important to them, such as race and diversity. The teachers incorporated this presentation into the students grade. This has allowed students to be graded on topics they truly care about. I feel as though I have a deeper understanding of YDEV after attending this conference. The emphasis on placing students ahead of the curriculum was helpful in my understanding of what this program is all about. I hope I have another opportunity to attend more conferences as great and informational as this one!

Bogad, Framing Youth One stereotype from this article that I found to "hit home" was teens having this "secret life". This is how I was treated growing up. That ALL teens were ALWAYS only up to no good or with a hidden agenda. Dr. Lesley Bogad described this best by saying,  " All of these headlines suggest that all youth — undifferentiated by gender, race, class and the like — are in crisis in spite of the very white, and very male demographics of the recent school shooters (see Bogad and Luschen, 2000). " Steinberg, Redefining the Notion of Youth This article talks about youth being THE problem. Instead of standing back and figuring out why we see a problem, we have culturally blamed the youth and told them that they need to change to become more responsible. Meyerson, Adults Think Black Girls are Older Than They Are--And it Matters Young black girls are often viewed as older than they actually are. They are stereotyped as  "Jeze...

 Know   Learn  More The importance of Resilience focused work with youth and the positive effects.   The three main aspects of Resilience work are caring relationships, high clear and fair expectations, and opportunities for participation and contribution. Why are programs still using deficit based work if it is pretty much harmful to youth?  "At risk" kiddos need the same supports and opportunities as middle class youth for healthy development.   The Youth Development Movement- in the 1980's leaders advocates and practitioners redefines success for young people and programs. Ultimately reshaping the way we serve young people.   I would like to know more about the switch or transformation from deficit approach to resilience focus. School-based after-school programs are important for  supporting young people’s learning and overall healthy development.  Youth ...