Enhancing Youth Development
Adults provide the services, supports and opportunities youth need
Jul 31, 2006
You are an after-school care worker. Your group of youth include 11-17 year-olds who are from an urban environment. The youth are deemed "at-risk" because of the risk factors of poverty, poor schools and teen pregnancy--to name a few-- surrounding them. You want to provide programming for them that will make an impact and help guide them towards positive choices for themselves, but what's the point you think? They will participate in whatever program you provide but then turn right around and enter the environments they live that don't reinforce some of the messages that you would like them to have. So, you rationalize, what is the point?
Well, here it is. There is a big point. The reality is that we can't control young people-- neither their thoughts or their actions. We can encourage, support and inspire, but we can't control and we can't empower. They can empower themselves with what we have to offer, but we can't empower them because it is dependent on whether or not they are open to receiving the information we are sharing. Understanding that and accepting that is the first step in your commitment to advancing youth development.
According to the National Training Institute's Advancing Youth Development curriculum, youth workers can enhance youth development by providing relevant services, supports and opportunities on an on-going basis. Services are those done for the young person, while supports are activities done with the young person. Opportunities are activities that the young person engages in, being able to learn, explore, earn or express themselves. Successful youth programming has an abundance of opportunities for young people with the relevant services and supports in place to make sure the opportunities are utilized. Often, when planning in haste, we do not take into account those services and supports that are crucial for a young person to take advantage of an opportunity. For example, if you are working with low-income youth and planning a wonderful opportunity for them to travel to another country, the services and supports that would have to accompany that opportunity would be many. Services could possibly include assistance with getting passports together and educating the youth and their family with the process necessary to travel abroad. A support would be actually accompanying the family and young person through the process of preparation for the trip.
Services, supports and opportunities are crucial in enhancing youth development and should be at the forefront of your program model when designing relevant programming for your youth population.
