A World Where Youth Hold the Power by Adeola Oredola
is an article about the development of an organization in Providence to help
Youth in Action. This organization “started
in 1997 by teenagers driven to build stronger communities by engaging their
peers in arenas of influence that they are typically excluded from, including
school reform, politics, media, organization, community health, entrepreneurial
innovation and creativity” (pg 47). This
organization helped youth understand that there was a new definition for youth,
how youth and adults grow together, disagreement, learning and speaking the
truth and to better the world.
When giving the youth the ability to build a small community
between themselves it lets their strengths and weaknesses shine through. With each others help they build the
confidence and support to face issues through their day or even something that
is troubling them. Together the youth is
stronger and makes them wiser.
Within the youth group that I use to run the adolescents
would come in with issues that were bothering them from school and home. We would sit down and talk about the
situations that were bothering us most to see if we could resolve them together
or if a friend had a way to overcome situations that we weren’t sure of. Singing, role playing and discussions were
huge in figuring out issues, however working together was what the youth liked
most.
This corresponds to the notion on working with youth and not
to youth because it helps build trust and communities within themselves. When youth has trust they are more in apt to open up then keep their mind closed to one another.
The concepts you speak about in your response are the ones that stood out most to me as well! The idea of giving youth a community where their voices are heard and valued is so important. Using their voices to find that others are thinking the same way and that they are not alone is beyond powerful.
ReplyDeleteMy church had a Sunday School for young adults 18 and over and we did the same! We would all be sitting in a circle and at the beginning of each class we would go around and discuss the things that happened to us that week, big or small. If it was something negative or something that was bothering us, we would try and figure out a solution together on how to handle it. It definitely helped a lot (:
ReplyDeleteI think creating an open atmosphere where youth can discuss their struggles is extremely important. There isn't a day where I wish I had someone in my life where I could openly talk about my problems and maybe if I had that than I wouldn't have faced some of my struggles or at least maybe I could have handled them better. I can't wait to be the person that I needed then for someone else one day. Youth Workers are bound to do incredible things and I can't wait to see what we all accomplish!
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