Reflective Journal: Youth Work

The ‘youth work’ can be seen as a specific approach related to the professional practice involving young people on the basis of some identified core values and principles. Youth work can pursue a process involving enjoyable activities, suitable   services and appropriate learning on the basis of the needs and interests expressed by the young people. The commencing of the such processes involves listening to the young people to understand their situations and interests. An  effective way of doing the process of youth work is to establish an equal relationship with the young people with whom the volunteers are working with. The idea behind this is enabling the young people with a number of choices with opportunities to make themselves involved with volunteers, taking responsibility of the work they are doing and addressing the changes happening in their lives as a result ( Smith 2001).

The best age bracket of the young people to work with is between six and eighteen years old. The children under the six years generally need supervision of the activities they do and the kind of adult intervention that a typical volunteer does not provide. The reason that young children are skipped is because they are usually less ready to take responsibility for social interactions beyond the structured environment of their families. On the other hand, the youth above eighteen are generally more interested in taking responsibilities or pursue activities and services that are more adult in nature rather than youth. The youth belonging to the age bracket provided are likely to benefit most from the youth work (Jenkinson 2000).

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There cannot be a separation between the physical and personal aspects of development. The youth themselves decide what development is meant for him, or what is meant by the direction that would take his society,  and the implementation of those decisions. This is because, a man would not be developed in isolation or in a vacuum in relation to his society and environment. The consciousness of a man is being developed in a process with respect to the thinking, deciding and acting. This leads to the development of his capacity in relation to the process of involving the things done. A man can do things in cooperation with others. Anybody would be helpless in isolation be it physically or mentally. The man to get liberated from the constraint of nature, he needs education in cooperation of his fellow men. However, the education is a very personal matter. That means, the experience of education is a matter that is personal. It is not possible to develop consciousness by proxy. There is a lot social significance attached to the activities of education because the man belongs to the society and there will be an effect in the society because the change caused by the education (Macaulay 2006).

Apart from education for liberation, youth work is a provider of a function related to positive, therapeutic and prevention of the society’s young people. The principal objective of the practices carried out by the youth is the outlining of the essential skills involving young people to decide about the issues affecting them. The practice of the youth work endows a relationship with principles and values. The foundation provided by these values starting with the young people characterized by participative and positive values related to the young people along with their human rights. The youth workers get involved in the development process with the clarifying of boundaries and barriers, defined in their roles to carry out the ethical work. The denoting of the positive practice means an enjoyable youth work that is proactive and making a difference. The essence of positive means the need for warmth, fun and nurture along with change and development. The fun in the youth work is needed for the encouragement of participation in the activities of the voluntary nature for countering the effects of oppression (Bobbitt 2006).

The youth work having the participative nature is with the recognition of the rights of young people of choosing and being involved in issues that has an impact on them. The practice of the participative nature brings the young people together in order of gaining support and learning among themselves with the encouragement of maintaining the genuineness and the realistic nature of it. The acknowledgement and the addressing of the young people with an anti-oppressive approach includes the exclusion from the decisions as with denial of opportunities and rejection and neglect that individuals and group experiences.  The societal practices and attitudes indicate that a number of young people have experienced denial in an array of opportunities that has availability to a privileged minority. The disabilism, class, heterosexism, sexism, and racism can be the exclusion of a number of individuals and groups with regards to the accessession to health, housing, employment, education and leisure activities. Other individuals, because of the upbringing or birth can be the victim of denial of love, security and safety. The youth work can address these issues by the assistance they can provide to the young people making sense related to their circumstances in making their understanding to broaden and the ways to move forward (Lane 2000).

 

Referencing:

Bobbitt, P. (2002) The Shield of Achilles. War, Peace and the Course of History, London: Allen Lane.

Jenkinson, H. (2000) “Youth work in Ireland the struggle for identity,” Irish Journal of Applied Social Studies, 2(2).

Lane, R. E. (2000) The Loss of Happiness in Market Economies, New Haven: Yale University Press.

Macaulay, T. (2006) “Faith Based Youth Work in Northern Ireland”, Youthne.

Smith, M. (2001) “Definition, tradition and change in youth work”. Encyclopedia of Informal Education.