Danas YDEV Blog

       I grew up in a very diverse community and the topic of racism would come up frequently. For instance, the conversations I would have in school growing up would be about personal experiences with racism and racism in certain areas of life (like the legal system), alongside other specific examples. What really opened my eyes to the depth of racism was through my college education. The most in-depth courses I have ever taken about race was in my college social work classes. The courses I took in college taught me how deeply embedded racism is in our country and how it impacts almost all areas of life.       One of the hardest things for me in my college education was processing my new knowledge of the larger racist systems that are put in place that we can't necessarily change. I always believe in constant action and growth, if there's a problem I try to move towards it. With some of the topics and discussions we would have in class there was ...

BLOG POST #3: What are the visible and invisible rules/ codes of conduct that govern Marcus’s school and classroom? Some visible rules that govern Marcus classroom are to take a bathroom pass when using the bathrooms, to sit outside of the group circle or in a chair if you can't sit still, come to school on time (especially in Marcus's case because this was a time for him to be seen and acknowledged) and to raise your hand when trying to speak in group settings. Marcus had some more invisible rules in the sense that rules would be a little bent for him in order to get his attention and give him acknowledgment in the classroom. For instance, when he would blurt things out during discussions the teacher would do his best to still acknowledge him. On the other hand, when he would half answer a question she would try to assist his thought and praise him for what he did accomplish rather than scold him for not completing it fully. How are they similar/ different to youth spaces tha...

Within the article, "Redefining the Notion of Youth" by Steinburg , stereotypes about young people are identified and exampled. The first example, the article mentions how "kids are bad, kids are sneaky, kids raise hell, kids are not capable of making good decisions." Secondly, when the article mentions leadership by teens, they describe that adults reduced their leadership strategy into two categories, the "preppies" or "Paul Petersoneque kids" category compared to the "hoods" category. Lastly, the article goes over, how adults have a continuous discussion about what kids are doing wrong rather than their strengths/ trying to understand their differing perspectives. There are many beliefs about youth that these mentioned stereotypes get there basis from. Some of these beliefs include the overall fear of youth and the underlying inability to embrace new ways of living. As you can tell these unwavering negative beliefs towards youth can...

Youth Development Guide Knew: I have heard of youth programs that specifically target youth to fix or solve a specific problem. For instance, the Dare program was designed to help youth stay away from drugs and alcohol. In turn, this target-based approach actually caused a spike in usage rather than a decline. Learned: I found the diagram representing "traditional views in youth services" which combined low risk to high-risk services to low risk/high-risk communities to be very interesting. As the community got a higher risk, in turn, higher risk services were receiving much different supports. Overall it was interesting to see the comparison and how the services changed due to their environments. More:      This article states that "deficit programs failed for two major reasons, by narrowly focusing on changing specific behaviors, this approach failed to address young people's basic developmental needs."      I wonder if this is the case of all deficit pro...

 I'm excited to start this blog! #First Post