What Is Youth Work?

Youth workers are many things. They are educators. It is our goal to engage with the youth and educate the youth in several of ways. One of my favorite activities would always be ice breaker activities. This is a great way to engage members of the youth and start building the trusting relationships that are so important. And then once a trusting relationship is developed, it becomes easier to get involved in their lives and help educate them and aid them with whatever they need. And then there is social practice where youth workers deal with the youth in more of a group setting or engaging with the youth on another level that isn't just to educate them but to help and guide them. I also had an idea to become a guidance counselor because in high school, I myself had such a great one and felt like my high school guidance counselor really understood his students and knew how to deal with the youth. One time I worked for TD Summit which was a program at URI that had high school students spend the night at URI and our job was to show them what it was like to be in the TD program at URI and the importance of school. TD also known as Talent Development program is to help and encourage students that are African American or of low economic status get that extra nudge (and support) to attend college. This program was one that really helped show these high school students not only the importance of college but how important social justice is to URI. This was also a way, for us to get involved and to get the kids involved because once they make the commitment to join TD, they could be the next generation of TD Summit helpers. Another important aspect of youth work is giving the youth a sense of power with their ideas and voices. I feel like that is one thing I lacked growing up; feeling as though I had a voice. But now with the voice I have now, I want to encourage more individuals to use their voice and I want to be considered someone that is influential. Youth work is also a welfare practice and when I think of that, I think of different educational programs like D.A.R.E. In junior high school, there was also this guy that would sing rap songs about not doing drugs and different ways, to not end up in jail. He would talk to us and just try to get the youth to understand the troubles of gangs and violence and the bad stuff of the world. I feel like D.A.R.E and what he did is youth work and is a part of the welfare practice part of it. And although different problems such as drugs and violence may arise in youth, at the end of the day, youth work is working with the youth because they are the youth, they are young, and they are the next generation of people that will be leaders of this world.