Blog Post # 4

1.  Ten Vocabulary Words That I didn't know or Understand

                              1. Pathologized

                              2. Pedagogies

                              3. Interpsychological

                              4. Paradoxical

                              5. Exacerbated

                              6. Tangential

                              7. Impediment

                              8. Litany

                              9. Scaffolding

                            10. Reticent

  

    2. Ten People I Have Coauthored With 

                             1. My mom

                             2. My dad

                             3. My sister, Ashley

                             4. My step mom

                             5. My grandma

                             6. My grandpa

                             7.My Nana

                             8. My Papa

                             9. My best friend, Stepfanie

                           10. My brother, Will

 

Out of my top ten picks, I am choosing my mom. My mom would be under the caring side. For 25 years, she has helped me write my story. She started by teaching and guiding me when I was growing up. She helped teach me the basics of what to do and what not to do. What is right and what is wrong. As I began to get older, she began to lessen the teachings and began to focus on guiding me in the right direction with advice. With her teachings and guidance, she has helped shape my story by helping me develop my feelings and how I act on them as well as how I treat others. Without all of this, my story would be completely different. However, regardless of whether she was teaching or guiding me throughout my story, the one constant has been my mother's love for me.

Blog # 3

There are many times in my life where I have felt invisible. Sometimes, I have welcomed the invisibility, enjoying the freedom to go about unseen. However, at other times I wished to be seen. After watching Mellody Hobson's TED talk, Color Blind or Color Brave?, I would say that she helped me think of visibility in a new way. For example, during her talk, Hobson mentioned how she viewed color blindness as ignoring the problem of racial discrimination. This means turning a blind eye and making it seem that the racial discrimination isn't there. She also talked about how she had an experience where she learned to be comfortable being uncomfortable and dealing with the discomfort. Like previously mentioned, by dealing with the discomfort, you are being visible with not only others, but also yourself.

By having a youth space like Youth in Action (YIA), youth can be allowed to be a part of a place where they can shine and get rid of the invisibility that Hobson mentioned. This means that the YIA allows the youth to not only share their stories, but allow them to be open with how they are feeling and what they believe. This also gives the youth the opportunity to practice becoming leaders and create change in the community. By doing this, it allows the youth to in many ways, come out of their shells. This is similar to Hobson's belief in being comfortable being uncomfortable. Doing this will allow those youth to be able to do things they don't feel comfortable doing, but they are dealing with the discomfort head on. By having the youth work to create changes in the community, it could also help fellow youth in the community be comfortable in being uncomfortable and bring them into YIA to develop even more into being visible.

Blog Post # 2

After reading A World Where Youth Hold Power, I was very intrigued by the Youth in Action (YIA). The YIA is an organization in which young people are able to have a say in a variety of aspects of the organization. This gives young people an opportunity to develop decision making skills and help show them that what they say is important. The article believes that by giving the young people some power in decisions, they can help better the community with innovative ideas and decisions. Throughout the article, people that are a part of the YIA give their thoughts and experiences on how the YIA has helped them develop into growing adults because of the opportunity they have in having a say in various parts. For example, a group of young people in the YIA were able to have a discussion of a potentially heated topic of religion. However, they ended up being able to the discuss it repectfully and end up with a better understanding of other people's religious views. This type of organization helps create a situation in which adults aren't solely the decision makers, but that they work with the young people to come up with decisons.

 As a kid, I had grown up with not having much power. Whether it was home or school, it was always just following orders. I never had a place like YIA where I had a say in how things were run. In some ways I can see why not having the YIA when I was a kid is a good thing. In another way, I wish I had something like YIA back in the day. Looking back, I have a hard time thinking that I would have any effect on the community or anything as a result of having a say in decisions. I feel like my ideas would be ridiculous. On the other hand, I feel that the YIA would be something that would have been very beneficial to me growing up. I think this organization would have helped to develop my social skills. I have always been something of an introvert, so by being a part of an organization where I can voice my opinions would have helped a great deal.

Blog Post #1

There are several different characteristics of Youth Work. One characteristic of Youth Work is that it is an educational practice. This means that although youth workers may not exactly be considered teachers, that doesn't mean that Youth Work can't be educational. In many instances, youth workers can teach more to the youth than educators in schools can. For example, youth workers don't have some of the restrictions in educating that teachers in schools do. For example, youth workers are able to go off of the abilities and skill level of the students, whereas a formal educator has to follow certain steps and systems.

Another characteristic of Youth Work is that it is a social practice. this means that instead of working in individual circumstances, youth workers instead try to work in groups. Doing this helps the youth engage in other youth to develop their social skills and values. One characteristic of Youth Work is that the youth workers challenge inequality and work towards social justice. This means that the youth worker looks to address the social injustices of society with the youth and that they understand how they themselves can follow ant-discriminatory practices.

A characteristic of Youth Work is that where possible, young people choose to be involved. This means that exactly what it sounds like. Instead of being forced to participate or be involved with the youth work, they instead choose to be involved in the program. However, there are times where it is tough to determine whether or not those choices are voluntary or not. For example, those choices may simply be because their friends decided to attend. However, while having voluntary involvement is very important, the quality of the engagement is what's most important. Another characteristic of Youth Work is that the workers seek to strengthen the voice and influence of young people. This means that the worker create an environment in which the young people are not only involved in the group, but have a voice in the group in which they can make decisions.

One characteristic of Youth Work is that it is a welfare practice. This means that although this is not necessarily what their job is, youth workers tend to work with young people who are considered to be the area of high deprivation and can use both the goals of a youth worker and welfare interventions.

Finally, the last characteristic of Youth Work is that it works with young people "holistically". This means that sometimes, youth workers may work to address problems the youth may face in their live, but are not defining factors of youth work. While this may be an important part of youth work, this should not be the primary job of it. Our primary job is working with youth and working with youth has multiple parts to it.

Who Am I?

 My name's Remington Alves. I am newly enrolled in the Youth Development program, having originally gone to RIC as a double major in Phys Ed. and Health Ed. Apart from school I am in the Air National Guard, having drills one weekend a month. I am also working part time at the Toys "R" Us in Dartmouth, MA. Over the summer, I took some summer classes and worked mostly. For fun, I went to Florida to visit my grandparents.