Youth Work: Preparation for Practice

     I enjoyed this week’s reading “Youth Work: Preparation for Practice” by Jason Wood, Sue Westwood, and Gill Thompson. I though the article had an interesting discussion of different aspects of youth work. It is interesting to have an article specifically on the area of youth development. The article discussed different areas of youth work and different aspects of youth work. I tend to think of youth work as primarily after school and summer programs, but really it is more broad than this. In general, youth work does seem to encompass any kind of work with youth that is outside the regular school system. However, the article mentioned the ways that youth work has changed over time. For example, youth development can now sometimes include areas that are integrated into the school system. It also overlaps in many ways with social work. According to the article, youth work sometimes focuses especially on at risk and high need youth. The article also pointed out that youth work can involve working with policy as well as specifically with youth.

     Although my interests have changed over time, I think, right now, I am most interested in working with policy, programs, research, and grant writing. I would like to work with bringing programs such as alternative therapy to youth using grant writing and other fundraising techniques, using the opportunity to integrate research using surveys as well as advocating for policies to help youth and other high need populations. To me, in youth work as well as social work, there are two important aspects of the job. One, is to work with the individual in order to improve their situation. The other is to work with policies and programs to change the context that the individual is struggling with. I think I have been more attracted to the policy area lately because I have the type of mind that tends to see the big picture and because I see it as way to impact the largest number of people while empowering the individual. In social work, the goal can be to work oneself out of job. In other words, to empower the individual and change systems in such a way that the social worker is no longer needed. I don’t think this is the same case as with youth work because I think there will always be a need to work with youth in order to enhance lives and educate. However, for particular high risk populations, changing the way the system operates and addressing oppression can go a long way towards empowering people and eliminating suffering. I think youth work is especially important because it tends to address the social and emotional needs of individuals in addition to the educational needs. The traditional education system tends to be more limited in that it addresses mostly just the educational needs of youth. I think that the social and emotional needs of youth can be just as important or even more important, in some cases, than education. People who have higher social and emotional intelligence tend to be more successful in life. Addressing these needs allows the youth worker to address the whole individual. In this way, youth work is a holistic practice.