Youth Development Guide: K/L/M

K- Know: What does this reading reinforce in what you already know? 

One of the major aspects this reading reinforced was my understanding that Youth Work was deficit focused for so long, and that these programs were failing the youth of their communities. It also reinforced my understanding that there was a transition in the way Youth Work is and was done, once it was realized that the programs in place were not working. 

some DARE Imagery
(which is still being used in schools) 

L- Learn: What did you Learn about the history and practice of youth development? 

While what I had known were very vague topics, I learned a lot from the reading. 

In regards to the deficit approach, while I had an understanding of it as the way youth work was being done, I hadn't known it as the deficit approach specifically. I enjoyed the reading and getting a deeper understanding of how and why the deficit approach was used, and it's outcomes. One specific aspect of this is the chart on page six, which showed how the focus on youth deficits, led to different programming being provided to students based on their environment and how "at risk" they were labeled. 

As mentioned above, I had an understanding that there was a shift in the way youth services and youth development was approached, but I had not known how that transition occurred. I found it very beneficial to read and learn how they began to focus on encouraging resiliency in youth, and providing more equal services, or attempting to get all youth to an equal playing field in regards to resiliency. Also, that they began doing this by putting a focus on the communities in which young people are involved, whether at home, school, etc. 

I also had not known that this change in youth development practices was established on a political and policy level as well. 


M-More: What do you want to know more about? 

One aspect which I would like to know more about is how this is related to the way Youth work is done today. Specifically, When we've discussed YDEV ideologies in the past, programs such as DARE have been placed into the ideology level of Risk and Resiliency, yet they fall under the deficit approach here. While I know that there are differences in the ideologies and approaches, there seemed to be a bit of an overlap. 

Also, the reading mentioned a few statistics about funding for Youth programs in schools and communities in California, and I'm curious how that funding expanded or decreased over the years, and whether that program was successful or not?