Wood, Westwood and Thompson: Youth Worker

According the article Youth Worker, Wood, Westwood and Thompson, (2015) the seven characteristics of youth workers are:

1. Youth work is an educational practice: A youth worker has the same purpose as any educator or form of education. However, youth workers educate in a different setting, and they use different methods of teaching that are used for this practice. Youth worker education is distinguished from the formal education by both its methodology of educating youth and its values.

2. Youth worker is social practice: youth workers engage with youth to provide them advice and guidance work, and provision of personal information.  I saw this practice last spring when I went to visit the New Urban Arts center in Providence where they had one youth worker working with a group of youths that had the same interests and values.

 Youth workers actively challenge inequality and work towards social justice: youth working is the promotion of social justice for young people and in society in general. Interning as juvenile probation officer, I have come to the realization that most of the youth that have committed crimes have come from an environment where they were misguided or neglected by their family. This leads them down the wrong path, making their individual situations worse until they hit rock-bottom. Some of the consequences of their acts have been extremely radical which profoundly bothers me, and that gave me a sense that they need someone to fight for them and protect them from the social injustice.

Where possible, young people choose to be involved: youth workers increasingly engage with youth in a variety of settings where the youth are compelled to attend, such as school. In this circumstance, youth work and informal education can make a distinct and positive contribution to the personal and social development of young people.

One example is the after-school program “Beat the Street,” in the Providence Public Schools where the youth met with wrestling coaches after class and they train to compete. One of the requirement is the student must maintain good grades and pass all their class. According to their coaches, the students have been building relationships, and they have been hanging outside the school, planning events together and getting along very well.  

Youth work seeks to strengthen the voice and influence of young people: Youth work encourages and enables young people to influence the environment in which they live through the use of educative processes. One example of this is when the students of the Boston Public Schools were not satisfied with the budget cut in one of their schools, one group of youth workers encouraged them to go out and protest it and show their discontent, and through their protest the budget cut was canceled.  It is important for the youth to know they can use their voice and how to make it heard.

Youth work is a welfare practice: youth workers promote the welfare practice and safety to the young people so they can perform well in their society, to make sure they are safe, and have the access for everything they need.In my internship with DCYF, part of my practice is a home visit. When we visit the youth’s residence  we need to make sure the youths’ basic need are being met, such as having food at home, heat and water, and a place to sleep. A lot of the times that is what is causing the youth to have such a behavior; we cannot expect a youth to go to class and pay attention if they did not had dinner last night and breakfast during the day.

Youth work works with young people 'holistically': As a youth worker we have the power to impact the youth’s life and remark them for the rest of their life. We are going to be involved in their life in many different way. From academic aspect to personal and social aspect.