YOUTH WORK IS... A PHILOSOPHY

"Positive Youth Development is a child-centered and asset-based approach to youth development (Pittman, et al., 2003), with adults acting as facilitators and coaches. Practitioners of this ideology believe that youth work programs should help children and adolescents further develop their strengths and interests (Pittman, et al., 2003). In this frame, young people are situated as individuals with emotional, physical, academic, moral, and social potential (Walker et. al, 2011)."

- This approach resonates with me because I am a firm believer in supporting youth to further develop themselves. Youth have so much potential, sometimes all they need is guidance. I feel as though sometimes adults underestimate the true capacity of young people by focusing on their deficits instead of their developmental potential. Adults acting as facilitators and coaches play a huge role in youths development. Not only do they develop their physical skills but their emotional and social skills by interacting with their peers and teammates. Engaging with their peers helps them feel connected as a community and together they explore their interests and gain knowledge of others strengths and experiences.

“The kids are playing games -- they are leading games, and they are laughing and learning.  Everyone knows each other’s names.  And I saw one coach pull a kid aside and ask how his grandmother was feeling now that she is out of the hospital. I was a competitive basketball player in high school.  Our practices didn’t look like this at all.  I remember being yelled at by my coaches, and we did a lot of challenging and repetitive drills, over and over until we ‘got it right.’  I thought sports were for people who could grit through the pain, and come out on top.  This wrestling program is so different.”

- Through observations and purposeful play activities I realized that there are multiple ways to construct learning spaces for youth. Before taking Ydev classes and engaging in purposeful play activities I viewed youth spaces very differently. Even from visiting some youth spaces on my own I would always witness the adults being in control, the children having no say and feeling isolated. More programs need to engage in students in a way where they laughing and learning. All programs should care for their students and check in on them to see if they're doing okay. You need more adults in youth spaces that really value and respect the children's thoughts and opinions and take them into consideration when planning activities. It's nice as a young person to be able to go to a youth space or program and be able have fun while learning. It's nice to be able to talk to the adults within the program about what's going on outside of the program and know that someone cares about you and your well-being. Also, I get sometimes coaches may get frustrated with their players but there are other ways to get through to them then yelling at them. I see coaches yelling at their players way too often and all it does it make it worse. I think encouraging words would actually motivate the players to do better and they may hold on to the words or motivation.

"Learning happens when youth are motivated to engage in experiences that allow them to create their own knowledge and understanding of the world in which they live."

- I feel like as a young person its hard to become motivated and engage in learning when you're not allowed to form your own thoughts and opinions. I feel it's most effective to encourage youth to contribute their thoughts and opinions. When I am in any learning space and am allowed to create my own understanding and interpretation of something I feel valued. When students are able to incorporate real-life connections into lessons they will be more engaged in learning because they are able to use their voice and form connections. Youth are active participants in building their own understanding. They do this by experimenting and observing. Youth are naturally going to find reasons and generate explanations for why things occur. You want to enable students to understand, participate in, and make informed decisions about their world. If young people are given the tools and training to understand and activate within democratic structures, they can contribute in powerful ways.