YDEV 501 - SJYD Framework

 "Given the social, ecological, and political challenges that face our world today, the next generation cannot wait until they are adults to begin the work of building a more humane and sustainable world." (Ginwright and James)

     The above quote is one that really called to me. I think that it is painfully true - youth cannot afford to wait for change, they need to be agents of it now. Our future survival as a society depends on it. I think that youth are uniquely in positions where they often hold a great deal of hope and passion that many adults (especially those in power) greatly lack when making policy or planning for the future. The writers of these articles describe how the SJYD framework puts youth at the center of the solution instead of the problem. This framework creates programs in which youth are challenged to explore their own identities, identify problems in the societal systems and people of power that effect them, and organize to be heard and make change. It allows youth to find confidence and pride within themselves and their communities and to be empowered to make positive change. It sheds a light on the democratic process through education and practice. "In fact, the capacity for individuals to challenge, resist, and change the root cause of their suffering is at the core of any democratic process" (Ginwright and James). To me, SJYD means involving youth in the creation and prolonging of the groups and spaces they are a part of. It means taking a step back as an adult and allowing youth to take leadership and problem-solving roles. I think that this approach to youth development creates a population of youth that thinks critically about the systems they are a part of and work actively to better those systems for all.

YDEV 501 - White Supremacy Culture

 Whiteness and white supremacy culture in my workplace...

Working in a small, private, Montessori school in one of the most affluent towns in Rhode Island certainly invites a fair share of white supremacy culture, whether others would be willing or able to admit that or not. However, our school as a whole is quite diverse and we have several students that were born in other countries and/or speak several languages. Different cultures hold different values and have different expectations and roles of children and other family members. I believe it is important to hold space for all of these cultures and values in our space and avoid trying to “conform” children/families into a white, upper class, American outlook. First of all, the state curriculum does not account for these differences nor does it allow for flexibility when talking about abilities/identities. Writing progress reports for 3 year olds based on these guidelines has always felt frustrating to me. Hearing others that I work with dismiss ideas different than their own or reactions/actions they deem strange from children with a simple “oh it must be a ‘cultural thing’ “ is infuriating. What does that mean? If that’s “true” what are you doing about it? Ignoring it? Changing it? All of our teachers are white, have English as a first language, and were born in this country. White supremacy culture is something deeply ingrained in education as a whole and in an environment with little diversity in the leadership it is hard to fight these biases, assumptions, and learned patterns of thinking. Since starting the YDEV program, I have been able to reflect more on this issue and begin to understand my role within it. I’ve been thinking about why it might be hard for people in positions of power or education to not only see their own privilege, but to actively think about how they are moving in the world and what spaces they are creating for others.  

I think two of the reasons it is often hard to acknowledge our privilege is that we are worried that this somehow takes away the hardships we may have overcome or somehow diminishes the person that we see ourselves being. Another reason I think this is hard to do is because we don’t quite know what to do “about it”. I really enjoyed Roxanne Gay’s take on this where she stated:

“You don’t necessarily have to do anything once you acknowledge your privilege. You don’t have to apologize for it. You don’t need to diminish your privilege or your accomplishments because of that privilege. You need to understand the extent of your privilege, the consequences of your privilege, and remain aware that people who are different from you move through and experience the world in ways you might never know anything about.”

While I am still understanding and acknowledging my own privilege, I hope to bring perspective and education to my coworkers and the school community as a whole. In a space where so often marginalized groups are seen as strange or unable to conform, I hope that my students will feel empowered and prideful in all aspects of their identity. I will continue the work so that this is true.

YDEV 502 - Assignment #1

 Reflections - YDEV 502

1. How does the way you’ve experienced the world due to identity impact the way you work with young people?

Educators and other Youth Workers are in a unique position in life. There is a finite number of careers in which you pour so much of yourself and your identity into what you do. I think that the ways I’ve experienced the world due to my identity impact how I view myself, others, and what I do. Growing up female I often heard and felt the staples that many women worldwide have heard - don’t cause waves, don’t be too emotional, cover up your body or accentuate it, make your voice small, stand behind a man, etc. While society and some of the people in my life may have encouraged these ideas, I was fortunate enough to have strong, independent, and brave women to look up to and help dispel these ideas for me. When I work with young people, I try to create an empowering environment. One where no matter who they are or how they identify, they can learn to be self-reliant, compassionate, and feel powerful enough to enact change and create beautiful lives, whatever that may mean. I try to be who I needed when I was younger. I know that the world may be screaming at them that they can’t or shouldn’t, but I want to be the voice that says “do it anyway”. 

2. How can your lived experience strengthen the work you do?

Our experiences and how we process them shape who we are as humans, let alone as professionals. Identifying the mistakes or misconceptions made by other adults in my past helps to inform my goals with children. In the opposite way, positive experiences I had as a child do as well. Recently me and a group of friends were talking about different ways that our parents “screwed” us up. The basis of this conversation was humorous but in reality, everyone has negative learned behavior or reactions that were shaped by those who raised them. The fact of the matter is everyone carries with them known or unknown biases and beliefs. Understanding the humanity of parents and others that are a part of raising children was something I had to come to terms with as an adult facing my own insecurities, traumas, and biases. That being said, I was lucky enough to have a loving family and other adult role models in my life. One of the most formative experiences of my life was being a part of a wilderness leadership youth group from 11-18. When I think about working with youth I think about all the things that made that space feel so safe and special to me. It was the first place where I felt like I belonged. Not in the “fitting in” kind of way, but in the raw, true, “we accept you as you are” kind of way. I try to emulate that feeling in the spaces for youth I am responsible for. 

3. Everyone has blindspots when it comes to understanding identity. How can you as a youth worker create space for parts of your young people’s identities that you may not be aware of? 

As a teacher I constantly feel gaps in my understanding of the children. Sometimes I feel like I “just don’t get this kid”. This can obviously feel frustrating and isolating. I try to view it as a way for me to learn and expand my skill set and knowledge as a teacher. It forces me to get away from my own perspective and look objectively at what may be affecting this child at this time. For me, I often work with children who have little to no vocabulary yet. They are at a point when they can’t ask for what they need or even tell me what is wrong. In this way, I have to be very in tune with each child and learn what works for them or not. In a setting with older children, I try to allow them space to articulate how they feel. Not in a typical “why did you do that” stance, but in a more accepting way that allows the child to express themselves. The reality is, just because we are working with a child does not mean that we are the expert or authority over them. I try to treat youth as they are the expert on themselves, not the other way around. In this way I think I can create space for parts of them that I may not be able to identify or understand personally. Another thing I try to do is be an active learner IN FRONT of my kids. I question things, I take things back, I apologize to my kids, I show emotions, I admit mistakes. This is another way in which I feel we can create spaces for children to feel free to express who they are and what they need. I hope that this will allow youth to understand that I don't know everything, nor do I pretend to. I don't need to "fix" them or mold them into something they aren't, we're all just human. In demonstrating this myself, I believe I can even impact children who can’t speak yet to feel validated and strong in their own identities. 

 

YDEV 501 - Ideologies Exploration

 Blog Post 5 Part 1

Explore the websites of the organizations below that align with your ideology (from the inventory). What do you notice about their language? Ways they talk about youth? Staff? Impact? Aims?

I received the lowest score for Social Justice Youth Development. I thought this was interesting because reading about each ideology from the Horoscope Key, I would have first thought I would have gotten B, Positive Youth Development which was my second lowest. However, I definitely agreed with how I ranked things so it felt good to learn a bit about my ideologies, even if they were more unconscious than I thought. In exploring the websites linked to my category I found unsurprised that they followed my personal beliefs and philosophies. I noticed several key phrases that were used throughout all the websites including "leadership", "community", "equity", "culture", and "change". These websites spoke about student-led and youth directed programming and community action. The staff were spoken about as mentors or leaders instead of supervisors or teachers. The values and aims of each program were similar and included things such as helping youth find their identity, fight against oppression and injustice, and create the world that they want to live in. They empower youth to create change NOW instead of simply preparing them to do so 'someday'. I did not know much about any of these organizations and greatly enjoyed learning more about some local organizations doing awesome things!

Blog Post 5 Part 2

Choose 3 quotes from the readings or org websites that resonate with your philosophy of youth development. Paste them into your blog post. Underneath, write up a short reflection on each: what does this quote mean to you? How does it resonate/ apply/ speak to you?

"As our communities continue to grow and develop, we have found resilience to be our greatest strength."(Prysm)

When I read this quote I thought about two different categories of youth - early childhood and adolescence. For early childhood age I think that resiliency is one of the most important gifts that children show us and that we can foster within them. Children are born resilient for sure, but the second they come into the world it is now the caretakers responsibility to foster and support this resiliency. This is why autonomy and respect should be given to the child from a young age in order to develop the skills needed to adapt and find independence. This is why I have found the Montessori method to be so successful and important for this age group. Adolescence I thought about in a very different way. Yes, hopefully we are raising our children to have strong resiliency by the time they are adolescence. However, we cannot expect adolescents to be children and adults depending on what is most convenient. I think often times we either expect this age group to "figure it out" without support, or we expect them to fail and be in need of specific direction. This dichotomy is something I remember feeling at this age, even though I would have described myself as resilient. Youth should have the ability to be resilient, but they shouldn't have to feel alone. Support within resiliency is important. The quote speaks to this by mentioning the resiliency of the community, not just the individual. 

"We believe that everyone has a right to be their whole selves." (ARISE)

Humans, personalities, and cultures are multifaceted. There is not one word, phrase, or even picture that can sum up the whole of who someone is. Honoring this and allowing people to be them whole selves has always been something important to me, especially within youth work. We cannot expect young people or adults to be one thing all of the time. Being human, feeling emotions, thinking thoughts, and sharing values and culture creates uncertainty and deviation, but certainly warrants celebration as well. I love this quote from ARISE and  it gives me a great idea of their values and beliefs as a organization. Creating an environment for young people in which they are allowed to safely explore, display, and be proud of every part of what makes them "them" is a key goal in my work with youth. 

“People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it. And what you do simply proves what you believe. (Simon Sinek)" (Bogad, Clemons, McKamey, and Restler)

This quote brought up a lot of different thoughts and emotions for me. It resonates with me because I grew up in a household with two parents who never had the opportunity to go to college, but instead worked their asses off to provide a life for themselves and eventually me. This was a realization I had later in my youth and remember often thinking, before I understood this, that I wished my parents worked less, were less tired when they came home, etc. They pushed and pushed for me to take my education seriously so that I could have the opportunities that they did not. While this was all well meaning and I appreciate the drive that they instilled in me, I know that at the end of the day they were coming home from jobs they didn't love. I always had the idea growing up that I wanted to do something I loved and believed in. I didn't want to prioritize money, instead do something meaningful (which is a priviledge my parents gave to me and not a choice everyone has). However, when thinking about my future this was something that worried my parents. I had to fight to go into my undergrad with a major in Psychology, instead of something my parents found more lucrative. This quote makes me think about when they asked me "why" I wanted to major in this field. I wanted to help people. I wanted to understand myself better. I wanted to understand others better in order to enact change. I wanted to be someone who helped me when I was younger. Looking back, these reasons carried me through all of my higher education and professional positions since. I believe that people should be given the opportunity to think about themselves and the world around them critically and that often times this is not something that happens naturally or widespread enough. I believe that in doing so we have the chance to feel connected to everyone and everything around us. I believe that this is where collective love and patience and peace will come from. This is why I do what I do, no matter what it is.