B.Holla

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...

I have been involved in various forms of youth work in my lifetime. At a young age I began babysitting for neighborhood children, and then moved on to watching groups of children at a time. When I moved to LA my freshman year of college, I decided I wanted to work in my aunt's daycare at her gym and help out there. It was a great feeling to be working with multiple children at a time. Children that I would see on an almost daily basis and form relationships with them and their families. I even babysat for some of the children from the daycare. Today however, I just started my internship at the YMCA in Middletown, RI, for their after school program. I am excited to learn more about helping youth in a non-profit setting and seeing what goes on in programs such as this one. Although I am new to the team, I already am excited to begin this new chapter of my youth work. In the article by Jenkins, it talks about how "we can rehearse and acquire core skills and knowledge throug...

Un-trustworthy-  In the readings, Sternberg talks about the notion that some people feel that our youth are “sneaky." He states  “Reverend Erb was right. Most people (grownups) don’t like teenagers, they don't trust them, and certainly wanting to be around them is suspect. It was then that I decided to devote my career to facilitating young adults to become leaders, to be viewed as worthwhile, trustworthy, and brilliant.” Self- Indulgent - Another part of the reading states that youth are self-indulgent. In addition, it states that “ The issues closely associated with youth and thus kept most private from adults are sex, drugs and parents,” an emphasis that suggests that young people are self-indulgent and uninvested in more sophisticated ‘adult’ concerns (such as work, health, money, etc). “ Under-Represented/ Identity-less Society feels that our youth a group of individuals that need to act the way that older generations think to be "appropriate." To ...