Tuesday, September 15, 2015

Youth in Action

The Youth in Action article describes what the the program is about and how they redefine working with the youth. The first thing that stands out is that the youths are a major contributors to the organization's business and management. The youth are able to make decisions for the organization such as budgeting and planning their events. The adults center everything around the youth to empower them making their relationship a partnership more than just adults working  with the youth. The adults and youth in YIA are both learning form each other . Youth in Action believes that  changing  communities happens through reaching the youth. This is different from other agencies that works with the community.  They have an exercise that i like called “Plus Delta Hot Seat” where the youth in the chair is given positive feed back and also things that they can work on. I feel like this is important because it helps the youth to be able to receive good  feedback and also give them an opportunity to work on areas of their lives that they may not have known they needed to work on. YIA is everything i want my dream career to be working for an agency or having my own that empowers the youth. I feel like there's not enough program that let the youth lead, probably because most adults don't have faith that the youth can create and maintain things. I believe that the youth can even if they need a little guidance. YIA can be the start of the trend of entrepreneurship among  the youth  the way they are heading. '

    I wish this was around when i was young because it could have helped with alot issues i dealt with growing up with low self-esteem. The concept of  being heard without judgment is something that could have changed a lot of experences in my llfe. Reading about YIA made me think of how i can change things on my unit at my job to have them start leading events and have say in what goes on.. It was great to hear about the collaboration between the youth and adults compared to the traditional authoritative  adult and the powerless youth dynamic . YIA maybe what the youth worker field needs to transform most careers that work with the youth into an empowering partnership  instead of power positions between two people. 

2 comments:

  1. Hi Timi!
    I really like how you described and summarized the article. I really like that you share that you want to create an atmosphere like YIA. I agree that I wish something like this was around and more developed when I was growing up and that I knew about it. Empowering youth is such an important thing and YIA is doing a great job of it, I just wish I had the chance growing up! But it's amazing that our youth are getting to participate now, especially with all the negative stigmas and attitudes that are impacting youth today!
    Channy.

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  2. I like that you can bring perspective from where you work now. That is awesome experience to share. You have an awesome attitude about the power of youth!

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