YDEV Elevator Speech

What is Youth Development? Well, Youth Development is informal education to young people through STEAM, social issues, recreational fun, through purposeful play, and through caring for the young people. By doing so youth workers will be able to teach young people lessons that they normally will not learn in a typical classroom setting. Youth Development is seen through care and purposeful play because we show that we care for the young people by being there when they need and helping them with what they need, if we can help, and purposeful play comes in and is seen as a way for children to still learn, but in a playful manner. For example, we turn a lesson that would come off as not being interesting and making it interesting by adding in a lesson that engages the children and helps them learn the lesson. Youth Development is complex and there is not a specific manner of how it works, youth work is different wherever you see it happening, it works because young people and youth workers work together to create an environment where learning happens.

Event #2 - Santa's Workshop

On the 2nd of December my work held an event called Santa's Workshop. This is a yearly event that they have in order to raise money for their financial aid program. In this event families attend and do crafts with their children, eat some food, and children can sit on Santa's lap and tell him what they want for Christmas. This year the event was held at the Champlin Lodge which is a building at the Kent County YMCA that actually looks like a place Santa would work in. The whole building was decorated to look like Santa's workshop and the children loved it. The children would come dressed up to sit on Santa's lap, the children could make gingerbread houses, and create letters to Santa that would go in a mailbox that would magically ship them straight to Santa's house. Every year this event brings in hundreds of families and it is one of the largest events the YMCA holds each year. It was a pleasure being part of it and helping children make letters to Santa, seeing their faces light up when they slipped the letter into the mailbox was priceless.

Event #1 - Group Advising

For my first event I went to group advising to help out the new YDEV majors pick their classes and make sure that they are taking professors that experienced YDEV majors know will do a good job teaching. This was my first time attending a group advising session and it was enjoyable. I met a bunch of new people and I helped a few people with their concentration classes. I'm glad that the group advising started out with an ice breaker to get to know everyone, it made it easier to walk up to people I didn't know and talk to them about their classes and who not to take and who to take. Being there took me out of my comfort zone and I enjoyed it a lot, the structure of the advising was intimate and it was easy to make connections. I would definitely attend another group advising next semester and next time I will be even more engaged and helpful because now I know what to expect and I won't be as nervous as I was this time around.

YDEV Anchors

Leading With and Purposeful Play are two of the many topics we have covered over the course of this semester. I find Leading With to be an important anchor of youth work because when the youth feel that they have a voice and they feel that they matter. It creates a healthy space for them to ask questions and be part of the progression of the program. By having the youth be a part of the decision making and giving them responsibilities that youth typically do not get, it will raise their self-esteem and they will become confident in themselves and future decision making, especially if the youth want to go into a leadership role of some kind.

Purposeful Play is also an important part of youth work because by having a purpose to the play, the youth will gain skills and create an understanding for a set of skills that they could explore more in a more in depth way. There could be a purpose to any activity the youth do, whether that activity is a group game, an art project, or some dramatic play. The purpose of the group game could be team building, the dramatic play could have a purpose of building speech skills and talking in front of a group of people.

Ideology Inventory

I remember taking this ideology inventory last year in YDEV 300 and getting Positive Youth Development as the one that aligns closer to me. This year Critical Youth Development and Positive Youth Development were tied as my two lowest. Reading the two on the Ideology Horoscope, I can see why I matched with these two. I do believe in a positive youth space to give youth that voice that they might not get somewhere else and I believe in the critical youth space because I want youth and the youth workers to work alongside each other to talk about topics that the youth are interested in. I did enjoy in the horoscope that the examples it used were geared towards more teens and older youth because that is what I find that I am more interested in working with. I love working with elementary schoolers, but they just become too much for more sometimes and I need to talk to youth that can have a really nice conversation and I feel that with teens and maybe middle schoolers, I'll get that chance to be the youth worker I want to be.

Experiencing Injustice

What some people do not understand is that there is a reason why I am not open about my sexuality at work to the participants and to my other coworkers. It is not something I have in my resume or staff file or in an introduction about myself. Not telling people I work with about my sexuality was a decision I made so people do not question my ability to do my job correctly and so they will not look at my every move. I normally tell people my sexuality when it happens to come up in casual conversation or there are situations where I do not even tell them and I just talk with my friends. I am giving this history because I feel it is necessary in order to understand this experience I had in the work place.

Two summer ago, summer of 2015, I worked at a summer camp with many different types of people. There was one staff member who was openly gay and told the participants about his sexuality. Throughout the summer he and I had to work together and closely with each other. When this started to happen, other staff members would come up to me and ask me about how him and I are doing. They are thinking that something intimate is going on, once I reassure them that everything is strictly work related, they kind of shrug it off. Fast forward to eight weeks into the summer camp season and him and I are with our group of teens at our water park. I am talking to a group of teens about something and he comes over and blatantly asks me out in front of them. I denied him multiple times since he kept asking me over and over again. This happened for the rest of the afternoon and even that next morning.

Once that next morning came I approached the section director, assistant camp director, and camp director about this. This is where I believe the injustice comes into play. Once I told them what has happened, they told me that what he did was inappropriate and they will have a private conversation with him about not doing this in the workplace. Doesn't seem like injustice, right? Well, a few days after I complained about this, another male staff member, who is straight, complained about this same staff member and the directors asked him if he wanted to file a complaint to HR and have him switched to a different section to stay away from that staff member.

My initial reaction to him asking me on a date in front of the teens and during work hours was that it was completely unprofessional and it was crossing the line between personal life and work. At the time I could not fully express my displeasure in what he was doing because of the setting we were in, but I was completely uncomfortable and I was shocked and at a loss of words. Once he did that, the teens started asking me questions about my sexuality. When I got hired back in 2012, I made a promise to myself that I will never release my sexuality to the participants because that is not something they need to know. The only way I would release my sexuality would be if a youth came to me about their own questioning sexuality (it hasn't happened).

At the time I did not think of it much and was pretty content with the outcome, but now that I am, it bothers me about how different the directors handled the situation. If this happened to me now I would have insisted that I get moved to a different section and I file a complaint with HR so the directors can see that I am very uncomfortable by what has happened. He does not work for the organization I do anymore, which is a good thing for myself and the other male workers, and he cannot ask me out anymore because he is blocked on all social media sites including his phone number.

Teachers Care for Students?

A few ways the teachers care for the students is "self and community" and "feeding the family." I chose these two because these were the two that I feel connected to through my youth work. I found "self and community" rather interesting because I love how open Sarah is about her queerness in the school setting and that she is opening herself up to her students to make them feel more welcome. I love "feeding the family" because I had the same mind set as Michelle once when I first started working with youth who are at a lower socioeconomic status.

Self and Community
Self and community is being demonstrated in my internship site because the staff demonstrates an open door policy and are encouraged to be themselves so that children have a positive role model to look up to. By having this open door policy, the staff sometimes get children going up them and having personal conversations about things that the children cannot normally talk about within their friend group or even with their family. What I have seen so far is that the staff member will start off with "what we talk about stays between us unless what we talk about is concerning and your family needs to know."

Feeding the Family
As I explained in a previous blog post, this recent summer the summer camp I work at went through a change where we brought in two other YMCA's to our campus. Along with bringing in 200+ more children, various amounts of cultures were suddenly mixed together. During the summer I learned that not all of the campers get full meals at home, sometimes no meals, and having that extra snack or two a day can change the rest of the day for them. They will be less grumpy, they will have a more positive attitude, and they will not be as hungry later on when they go home; if they go home to a food-less house.

My internship site could improve their open door policy and regulations on food/snack in a few different ways. For instance, we could have a curriculum that lightly touches on LGBTQ topics, as well as topics with other cultures. By doing this, more conversations with happen revolving around these topics that children are not typically exposed to. For the food/snack approach, having more options and quantities of food during the scheduled snack time would make a difference in their days because their stomachs will be full for a longer period of time as well as the youth getting the meal they might not get at home.

Youth In Action's "Leading with..."

Youth In Action (YIA) describes "leading with" in one simple sentence from their vision statement, "YIA serves as an open and safe space where youth can voice their opinions and experiences..." Just by giving youth a space where they can feel safe to open up and have a voice is incredibly powerful and strengthening to youth. This organization also demonstrates "leading with" by building youth's skills in facilitation, listening to others stories, and digging deeper into their own personalities and all the different aspects of who they are as individuals. By having youth do this, they are opening up and discovering that they are much more than a box on a paper. When youth discover who they are, they automatically feel empowered and are willing to learn the skills to have a voice that YIA gives them through their various models of program learning.

My YDEV Story

After I graduated from CCRI in 2015 I transferred here to RIC as a Secondary English Education major. At the time, I had no thought of changing my major to YDEV, I did not even know what YDEV was. One day during my Educational Psychology class, a guest speaker came in and talked about the YDEV program - along with a few other things. I found the YDEV program to be interesting and definitely something to look into. After that class I put looking at YDEV aside and continued to focus on my classes and life.

Let's fast forward to late February of 2016. My second semester at RIC and it was horrible. I was doing awful in all of my English courses (I was taking three 300 courses) and I was extremely stressed out and had no motivation to do anything. These classes were putting my health at risk and I was not in a good mental state. One night I was going through my work from the past semester to store it away in case I ever needed it and I stumbled upon the YDEV handouts I received in Educational Psychology. Without even thinking, the next thing I knew I was on the YDEV RIC website and doing a ton of research on what YDEV was. All I did during spring break that year was contemplate changing my major to YDEV because it sounded more interesting and a way for me to still do what I wanted, work alongside people who have the drive to help change the future starting with the youth.

The week after spring break ended I booked an appointment with my advisor at the time and told her I want to switch my major and that is where she put me in contact with Corrine. By the first week of April I was no longer a Secondary English Education major, I was now a YDEV major and my future seemed brighter. It was the best career decision I have ever made.

It's Play Time!

As a child, I participated in playing soccer (a few times here and there), I did gymnastics for 10 years, and I was a camper at the summer camp I now work for. People would often describe me as a shy child and someone who wouldn't stand up for himself. I think this was thought of me because I was normally alone all the time and friends were not my strong suit. I had very few friends and once I reached middle school, all my friends left and I honestly had no friends then.

As an adult and now working with youth, I have been working at the YMCA in their after school program and their summer camp. I have had various positions in their after school program as a youth counselor, a lead staff, and now a site coordinator. With the summer camp I was a front line staff my first 4 years, then I became a program specialist for one year, and this past summer season I was a specialist in their leadership staff surrounding around parent engagement and the sign in/out process.

Within my experience as being a youth worker, play is a huge part of how the after school program and the summer camp operate. I believe that the amount of play the YMCA operates on is an issue because when we try and add in programs that do not offer as much or very little play, we get angry children and concerned parents saying that they are not having fun in the program. I try and make a common line between play and serious time when I try and plan activities and run curriculum that has a mixture of the two, half where you have to sit and do work, and the other half where play happens.

Damaging Assumptions on Teens (Who Wish to Lead)

One of the joys about working at a summer camp is that the middle school to high school campers are able to partake in a program that helps them develop their skills of becoming a leader. This past summer camp season we had many new campers be in this program and I would often talk to them about their experiences of being in the Leaders in Training (LIT) program and what they found difficult about being in a leading role. The most common phrase used amongst the campers was "the counselors don't take me seriously." Being the curious person I am, I asked the counselors about their LIT and they said that the LIT does not do the same or act the same as they did when they were teenagers. As mentioned in the dissertation that I believe relates here is the mention of Throne and her playground culture study where she states "to learn from children, adults have to challenge the deep assumption that they already know what children are 'like,' both because, as former children, adults have been there, and because, as adults, they regard children as less complete versions of themselves." This stuck out to me because the counselors were assuming that these LITs were the same as they were when they were the LITs age. I had to explain to them that these teenagers are different and need guidance to become a better leader.

I also relate to these damaging assumptions put on teenagers because I was a teenager who did not fit the social norm of what a teenager should look like and do. I was always seen as different. When I would show interest in wanting a more leadership type of role, I would either be shot down or be given tasks that do not bring the leader in me out. I was referred to a lot as "insecure" or "anti-social" because I do have a more introverted personality, especially when I am first pushed out of my comfort zone. Having been through these assumptions and had conversations with teenagers now about the shortcomings of growing as a leader, I handle each person differently based on their interests, personality, and basic needs. Based on my experiences, I have never seen adolescence as "linear," I have always assumed that older generations had this preconceived bias over teenagers, not I know it is the older generation having assumptions about the adolescent age range.

Seven Characteristics of a Youth Worker

Youth Work is an Educational Practice

Youth workers engage and teach young people differently than normal teachers. Youth workers find ways that are engaging and fun for the young people through methods that make it seem as if the young person is not directly being taught something. They also focus on where the young person is at developmentally and educationally instead of where they should be so the youth worker can focus their curriculum appropriately. I have changed curriculums around to fit the young people in my program whether that is by simplifying the rules to fit the age group, or taking out a while section that would possibly be too difficult for them. By altering the curriculum, the young people are better equipped to accomplish the task and feel proud of their work.

Youth Work is a Social Practice

Through the young persons social groups, the youth worker can then test the young persons "values, attitudes and behaviors in the context of being with others." Doing so will show the youth worker how much of an effort it will be to have the young person stretch their comfort zone and find other people to interact with. This will also show who the young person is comfortable working with and interacting with since it will show who their friends are. Over the summer, my camp combined with a few different camps which brought in a massive amount of new children. All of the returning campers from my camp had to challenge themselves to make new friends as well as keep the ones they have had from previous summers.

Youth Workers Actively Challenge Inequality and Work Towards Social Justice

A youth workers job is to take out inequality and injustice by bringing children together and show a sense of togetherness by not leaving any child out no matter the culture or other barriers. By doing lessons and using social practices, young people overtime will become more accepting of different types of people. As I said, my camp combined with two other camps. My camp is a predominately white based and the two camps that joined us are predominately black or other ethnicities. There were a lot of conversations with the camp staff as well as campers as to what is socially acceptable and what is not and how we can have a camp without prejudice. 

Young People Choose to be Involved

Young people choose when to involve themselves and when to engage. Young people choose to go to certain programs whether or not they want to. As for a youth worker, it is our job to help them become engaged if they choose something newer to them. For example, when I was younger I chose to join a club that pushed me outside of my boundaries. I am typically a person who is shy around new things so when I joined that club I kept to myself. The youth worker that was there helped me get introduced to some of the other people and helped me find something I was interested in which helped me make friends and made me feel safer in the environment.

Youth Work Seeks to Strengthen the Voice and Influence of Young People

Most of the history of youth work has been to give young people their voice and to influence them to how some passion in their future. This means that youth workers informally teach young people about the world around them, the history of the cultures around them, and ways to make their futures better. This could be done in various ways through an inner city school after school program or by a community center throwing a seminar directed towards children and their future.

Youth Work is a Welfare Practice

Teaching young people about their safety and their welfare is crucial because it teaches young people what to look out for in the real world and how prejudice affects different types of people. This also opens young peoples eyes to areas where there are not the same opportunities that some other young people get. These lessons were taught over the summer at my camp because there were a lot of campers who did not have the same opportunities that other campers have, even having a lunch for the day was one of the lessons. 

Youth Work Works with Young People 'Holistically'

The typical person who is not in youth work perceives youth workers as being fixers to problems for all ages. While a youth worker will help with someone being anti-social, we primarily focus on the youth and their behaviors. Youth workers focus on the youth and we help in ways where the youth will understand, we are not fixers to every problem. E very holiday season since I joined the youth development major, I am always asked about helping youth and families. I have to tell them that I primarily focus on the youth and help them in ways that are not formally taught in the classroom and can be applied to their home and social life.

Making Me... Me