YDEV 352/353 ✨

                                                                                                                                        Youth Work is Identity      I really liked this week's reading. It focused on teachers/educators working closely with Black and Latinos. Educators implemented hip-hop as a way to interest youth and engage them in literacy. Through performing, youth were able to find their full potential and more importantly their identity. It stood out to me, how authentic educators were, they believed authenticity has been crucial to them in pedagogy. Racism, identity and racial identity are very controversial topics and most people chose not to speak about, however it is important to make kids and youth aware in school regarding who they are and how they should handle these topics in order to prepare them for the future. For instance, the school's curriculum (From Priya's and Shirley's school) were not centered on racism, yet students chose to center

                                                                                                   Youth Work  --->  Leading    Over time youth have not really been involved in leading positions. I believe society needs more youth leading and actively participating in the community in different roles such as the elections, volunteer programs and so on to ultimately become successful individuals and to avoid them from being involved in violence, drugs and bad influences. When leading comes into play youth feel more valued and their voice can be hear.  Allowing young people become leaders from underestimated communities, elevate and provide them ongoing support along pathway of prosperity, their mindset is crucial to set up young people for success in school and life therefore, they have to be motivated to take initiative to lead. For instance, I remember being a "line leader" in elementary school. It was very exciting, being the first one in line guiding my peers

                                                                                                                                                               Care       First of all, Care in terms of education to me is a synonym of engaging and supporting. Caring makes youth’s learning experience more interesting and helps them put more effort in whatever they are doing that includes schools, work, and group activities.      Youths need a lot of support, as youth workers we must commit to helping them achieve their goals. We should empower them so they can build a better future for themselves and their communities and to do so, we should offer educational pathways that help them cultivate their social, emotional, and professional strengths. Prior reading this week’s article and watching the video "care" was very important to me, but now I feel it became more crucial  because  I know how important it is to have a teacher/adult that demonstrate that they want to assist an

                          Social Justice for Youth Development       Social justice for youth development consists on engaging youth in social problems such as racism, homophobia, ableism and so forth. Social justice facilitates the opportunity to build their knowledge and skills, it provides them the chance to contribute in team-work and discovering new experiences to positively impact them as well as the community. They can participate in community services, volunteering, and gardening, which can be a rewarding experience to guide them in the right direction to become successful/ happy adults.      I have experience social justice at the YMCA, they are a nonprofit organization committed to strengthening community by connecting people specially youth to their potential and purpose. I worked for the YMCA for two years and I witnessed how important is social justice for them when it comes to working with young people. They help influence and change public perceptions around human ri

   Theory to Prepare Youth Workers      “Professional youth workers should be able to articulate their values and beliefs about the field of youth development and locate their own identities and ideologies of youth work practice.”        When I first started reading “Using theory to prepare youth workers” the first famous quote that came to my mind was. “Be the change you want to see in the world” and it was because the change begins from ourselves, meaning that in order to positively   impact and influence young people we have to be prepared, mentally stable, as well as having the appropriate techniques to effectively guide young people in the right direction. In a way or another, we demonstrate our values and beliefs and that truly depends on how we exercise our career. For instance, some adolescents don’t have positive images of themselves and the way their life is, however how youth worker recognize the positive things they are able to do and who they can eventually become can be

                                                                             Racial Identity       Race and racism are complex, sensible yet important topics. Nowadays, these are topic some people don’t even want to talk about because they have become very controversial, however is it important that we can identify our race. Although race has no genetic or scientific basis, the concept of race is important and consequential. Society use race to establish and justify systems of power, privilege as well as oppression.      Ever since I started YDEV I have learned a lot about race. For instance, I took FNED on Spring 2019, we did multiple activities and assignments about race. We even had to go to social justice event in the community. I choose to go to NEARI for “Black History Teach-in” they did a presentation about Martin Luther King and about his “I have a dream” speech. I already knew what it was about however they made me understand it better because people leading the presentati