Partnering with Young People...Even When it's Hard!Must attend all sessions (4/22, 4/29, 5/6, 5/13)
As youth workers, we believe that all young people can contribute positively to our communities. And we believe that sharing power with young people can enhance our collective work.
But the day-to-day realities of our work don’t always match those beliefs. Our roles present intense demands. Young people bring a wide range of needs. Sometimes our practices fall short of meeting those needs. And unmet needs can contribute to youth behaviors that negatively impact others.
In these moments, it’s easy to see young people’s behaviors as “the problem.” But if we re-ground ourselves in our beliefs, we can find other pathways forward. Instead of blaming young people, we can seek to better understand them. We can work with them to make things better. And in doing so, we can learn from and with young people to improve our own practices as youth workers.
This four-part series will offer a supportive environment to practice this youth-centered professional learning process. Outcomes will include:
- Identifying ways in which young people’s behaviors can help us to better understand their needs;
- Generating research questions and “findings” about a young person from your program whose needs aren’t yet being fully met;
- Reframing unmet needs as dilemmas that we can engage with young people; and
- Generating action steps to share power with young people to better meet their needs.
Since we can all learn from young people, this series is a good fit for anyone who works in Cambridge Out-of-School-Time programs: youth workers, program directors, and more! It will meet from 10:00am-12:30pm on four consecutive Mondays (4/22, 4/29, 5/6, and 5/13).Participants can expect some reading, a youth observation, and one initial action step as “pre-work” in between sessions. Readings come from the book
Troublemakers: Lessons in Freedom from Young Children at School. All participants will receive a free copy of the book.
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