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YDEV 501: Blog Post #4

In this week's blog post, I chose to focus on Vasudevan's "Occupational Culture and Identity of Youth Workers," as I resonated with it most. I also explored the Providence Youth Student Movement's web page as I have worked with them in the past. Both the reading and organization have much in common and really speak to my commitment of youth empowerment and amplification of their voices. The following quotes from my readings resonate with my philosophy of youth development...

Some out-of-school time programs have offered alternative spaces to rethink and redress education received or erased in public school curricula. (Vasudevan, p. 10)

When I began my journey in youth work, my top priority was creating a safe space for my scholars. I worked primarily with public school students, students who came from the community I grew up in. With that being said, I think it's safe to assume that there were tons of things in their curricula to rethink and redress. In reflection, I found a lot of my time in nonprofit work revolved around working through the injustices my students faced on a regular basis. This often led me to referring scholars to other programs such as Youth In Action, Providence Student Union, and Providence Youth Student Movement. It was important to connect my scholars to other collectives that helped challenge those sorts of thoughts/movements.

Youth work has emerged from community-based practices of care, mentorship, guidance, and support. (Vasudevan p. 12)

Being able to be a form of guidance and support for our youth in Providence was something I truly valued, especially as the Director of Programs at College Visions. As a product of the Providence Public School System myself, my connection to the youth we served dove deeper than most surface level connections many nonprofit organizations led with. I say this to say that I wanted to be the mentor I needed when I was younger in addition to being the mentor they needed now. Youth work only works if you allow it to work. This quote also makes me reflect on the conversations I had with our scholars that didn't always connect to our direct work; these conversations saved lives. Community-based practices are often the root of the work that we do and help guide is in the direction of positive growth and development.

PrYSM must work towards transforming our communities by building safe spaces that foster accountability, healing, and dialogue. (PrSYM Website)

As a Southeast Asian who grew up in Providence, PrSYM was always an organization that was near and dear to my heart. The idea of fostering accountability, healing, and dialogue is super important in youth work. I resonate with this, in addition to the other two quotes from the reading, because they're all related to positive youth development and safe space zoning. These are things that I prioritized in my work for the past decade. Accountability allows room for acceptance, growth, and devlopment. Healing emphasizes the importance and being comfortable with the uncomfortable. And, dialogue created room for discussion. I firmly believe there is always room a the table, and, the kids' table does not exist because we all sit together.

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