B.Holla

For one of my events for YDEV, I had the opportunity to attend the lights on after school event at the YMCA Newport County. This specific event however was located at Aquidneck Elementary School. It was nothing like I expected, but in a good way. Aside from already having the YMCA after school care team in attendance, the YMCA also had a personal trainer come along to teach the kids some exercise techniques. In the gym, she had groups of 8 kids at a time performing various exercises such as burpees, push-ups, jumping jacks and more. It was interesting to see how the kids responded to doing these exercises. Some children thoroughly enjoyed them, while others complained and said they would rather play basketball or soccer. Downstairs in the cafeteria where the rest of the children are, there are two other women leading activities with the children. This is all part of the lights on after school committee. The women are playing musical chairs with the children, as well as teaching them

I aligned most with Critical Youth Development. It was no surprise to me that I fit into this category, mostly because I have always felt passionate about letting youth have their own voice in society. Especially when it comes to their personal beliefs and opinions. Too often we as a society let youth hide in the shadows while adults make all of the decisions without consulting with youth as a whole and seeing how they feel. It has always been important to me to see how youth interact with my community in particular, and how they interact with their cultures. I work with children of all ages, races, and ethnicities; so it is important to me that each child knows that they have a voice of their own and that it is critical for them to use that voice to make a change. I feel that as a society we need to start taking our youth's voice and feelings more seriously, for they are the overall future of our society after we are gone. It is important to not only listen to what they have to

A time in my life when I personally experienced an injustice, was when my ex boyfriend was being charged with domestic vandalism, he pled guilty in three separate court cases, and after the third case I was asked to come into court as a witness to the crime. Luckily, the ADA was able to get him to plead out the case, but the thought of having to appear in court while I had a restraining order on this man, and see him face to face after 6 months seemed terrifying. I found this to be unjust because having to face your abuser in court doesn't seem right to me. Why should the person who was abused have to face them just to prove they are telling the truth? I felt anxious and scared, I thought this was all behind me. I had already moved on, gotten a new job, found a new boyfriend, and felt better all together. SO when I received a phone call from the ADA prosecuting my case, I fell apart. I was furious that he pled not guilty not once, not twice, but THREE separate times.  It wasn&

Some of the ways that the teachers in this article care for students was the practice map because it shows her care for her students and expresses all the work she does for them. Also, the way she doesn't show a bias of her personal beliefs and was there for Sarah when she needed someone really showed how much she cared for her students. Personally, at my own internship site, I see the teachers playing close attention to their students, and my co workers paying even closer attention. My site coordinator has built up good relationships with the children who come to the after school program. They see her and myself almost everyday during the week, so it is important that we gain their trust. I can see first hand that my site coordinator and other co worker treat the children with great care and respect. I feel that the program I am involved in (the YMCA) does a great job of facilitating activities for children in their after school programs. Since I have only been with the program

I first decided to work with children when I was just a child myself. From as young as I can remember, I always wanted to be like my mom and work with children. She is a teacher's assistant for special needs children. I always have admired the work she does and how hard she works. For some reason that I couldn't pin point early on, I didn't want to be a teacher, however I knew I wanted to work with children one way or another. After the countless times that I watched my mother in her element at school, I knew this was the kind of work I wanted to do. After high school, I was pretty lost with direction as far as college went, so I decided to move to LA to live near my aunt and uncle and work for them. Come to find out, there were positions opening at their gym in the daycare department. I quickly joined the team and started working there. After getting settled, I enrolled in a local community college and began taking some general courses there. However, after months of sch

"It's critical for young people to be at the center of change in every community." Youth in Action describes leading with their connection to the community. They talk about how youth aren't given enough credit for the things that they do in their own community, and that we as a society should appreciate them more. YIA feels that youth should be connected to every aspect of their community in order for them to thrive as individuals, which I feel is our goal as youth workers as well. They also have a strong will to defy the stereotypes in which "urban" youth are perceived to be. It was also interesting to read about how YIA uses "plus delta hot seat" which is similar to our YDEV "plus delta minus." It seems that YIA has come up with many creative and innovative ideas to give back and support "urban" communities and its youth. YIA goes beyond lecturing and homework that is given out to students in classroom; they strive to dig de