Sariling Gawa Youth Council as a Case Study of Youth Leadership Development in Hawai'i

SUMMARY

This article describes Sariling Gawa Youth Council as a case study of youth leadership development in Hawai'i. Since 1980, thousands of young people-primarily Filipino youth-have participated in Sariling Gawa activities which have developed their leadership skills. Many of them have continued to lead the organization and utilize what they learned with numerous local organizations and state agencies. The authors examine Sariling Gawa's growth, structure, and other factors that contribute to its longevity. The model includes (1) youth empowerment through building their leadership skills, (2) fostering and strengthening peer social support and social networks, (3) promotion of positive ethnic identity, and (4) community capacity building by involving youth in civic and community affairs.     

Exploring the Youth and Parent Perspective on Practitioner Behaviors That Promote Treatment Engagement

Treatment engagement is critically important to child and family social work practitioners, given its documented relationship with youth and family outcomes. Despite this, little is known regarding the practice behaviors youth and parents perceive as important for promoting their engagement in treatment. The purpose of this study was to explore the perspective of youth and parents regarding practitioner behaviors important for fostering treatment engagement. Three semistructured focus groups were conducted with 30 youth and parents. Using a constant comparative analysis procedure, two domains of practice behaviors emerged: developing the therapeutic alliance and collaborative service delivery. Specific alliance-building behaviors included building rapport and demonstrating care, acknowledging and listening to the youth and family perspective, asking questions, not judging youth and parents, allowing youth and family input to direct care, and supporting motivation to change. Collaborative practice behaviors included providing culturally competent services, sharing treatment information, demonstrating awareness of other services/supports, and engaging other meaningful adults. Youth and parents both discussed the importance of these practice behaviors. Youth, however, seemed to emphasize the therapeutic alliance more than parents in the sample. Clinical implications for family social work practitioners regarding these key practice behaviors are discussed.     

“中国梦”建构中的青年发展与青年责任

青年梦与"中国梦"是相辅相成的。"中国梦"要靠广大青年的努力奋斗去实现,从近代中国的悲惨命运和新中国成立后的探索与前进,到如今我们终于有了拥有梦想的勇气,靠的是中国共产党的领导,靠的是一代又一代的青年,现在,时代又赋予青年去实现"中国梦"的历史使命。从"中国梦"的内涵可以看出,青年人不仅是"中国梦"的建设者,而且也会成为"中国梦"建设成果的最大受益者。我们可以说,当代青年的价值观及创新精神就是中国未来的希望。同时,青年在实现"中国梦"的过程中能够锻炼成才,实现自身的全面发展。     

Promoting “Zest for Life”: A Systematic Literature Review of Resiliency Factors to Prevent Youth Suicide

Suicide is a leading cause of death among youth globally. In this critical interpretive synthesis, we examined literature on resiliency factors and suicidality. Systematic searches identified 474 articles, 37 of which were included. Results revealed internal (positive self‐appraisal, zest for life, personal traits, and coping skills) and external factors (social support system and inclusive environments) contribute to resilience among youth, with age, sex and gender, and Indigenous identity as important intersecting considerations. Findings validated fostering resilience as primary suicide prevention among youth, with little explanation for how these factors may work to protect youth from suicidality. Continued research in this area requires a focus on how to promote resilience at the community and systems levels.     

青年运动:概念、情境与前景

青年运动是青年人的事业,是青年全面、深入参与、干预、介入民族国家和社会事务,乃至国际事务、全球化事务的基本形式和途径,是青年的社会历史舞台。近现代以来青年的发展史即是一部生动而复杂的青年运动史,在这一历史过程中,青年展示出其无限的可能性。青年运动作为社会运动的一种特殊形式,在现代社会生活中仍具有旺盛的生命力、创造力和想象力。青年运动,既是青年群体的社会行动方式,也是研究青年的一种视角、理论和方法。国内近些年来的青年研究有将青年运动历史化的倾向,这种倾向无论对于研究本身还是对青年的社会实践,以至社会对于青年的认识和理解都是不利的。     

Promoting youth purpose: a review of the literature

This article reviews the research literature on teaching and supporting purpose in adolescence and young adulthood. An extensive search revealed that most studies on youth purpose examine psychological correlates and neglect instructional and social supports. School is an effective context for fostering purpose, yet reported approaches for explicitly instructing for purpose are rare after the early 1990s, reflecting a trend away from a language of purpose as a discrete endeavor in education since at least the 1960s. Furthermore, research on the outcomes of early purpose instruction curricula is not present in empirical journal articles. Nevertheless, a concern for fostering youth purpose has not disappeared from education; rather, it is subsumed under approaches that foster more comprehensive positive student outcomes, such as character, civic engagement, and positive youth development. Key curricular approaches to these outcomes are therefore also reviewed and examined for insights into how purpose can be fostered.     

中国青年文化景观的形成轨迹与引导理路

中华人民共和国成立以来,特别是改革开放以来,青年文化发展出现服从与反思、解放与迷茫、理性与矛盾勾勒的变迁图景,也反映出新时代青年文化的发展趋向。新时代的青年文化景观既具有青年文化的预见性与超越性、进取性和建构性、理想性和生活性等共性特征,又突出表现为雅俗共赏、进退有度、家国兼顾的时代特性。新时代,应注重从个人追求与社会理想的统一、独立思想与过硬本领的统一、青春热情与社会担当的统一几方面入手,突出政治引领、思想引领、责任引领在青年文化引导上的关键作用,推动青年文化持续向前发展。     

论青年发展社会空间的挤压与再构

当前,青年发展从社会空间的视阈进行系统研究还几近空白。从当代青年发展的现状来看,其社会空间挤压已经成为值得高度重视的现实困境。青年发展研究向社会空间视阈转向,研究青年发展社会空间挤压的生成逻辑和主要特征,重新审视青年群体社会空间和整个社会空间的结构关系,再构青年发展社会空间的新秩序是青年研究和实践领域的重大课题。因此,要不断探索和建构促进青年群体科学发展的社会空间形态和空间结构,保障青年发展社会空间的安全有序。     

Developing a New Approach to Case Management in Youth Mental Health: Strengths Model for Youth Case Management

Strengths Model (SM) case management has been utilized as a community based intervention with adults diagnosed with a mental illness since the 1980s. This paper describes the developmental, familial, and systemic adaptations made to the model so that it can be used with youth with mental illness. The resulting SM for Youth provides an alternative framework for providing case management to youth with mental illness which allows the youth to drive goal development and attainment by identifying and capitalizing on the youth’s strengths and resources. The model has the potential to positively impact youth mental health services by equipping supervisors and case managers with a formal model and tools, helping the case managers to feel more prepared and less stressed in their roles, and by empowering youth to engage in services that are positive and driven by their desires.     

Childhood,Agency and Youth Justice

This article seeks to reframe debates in the sphere of youth justice in order to move away from narrow and one‐sided conceptualisations of young people who offend and appropriate forms of intervention with them. Whilst different positions have been adopted within the field of youth justice, largely around ‘justice’ or ‘welfare’ models of practice, the apparent polarisation of this conflict has obscured an underlying consensus, namely that the ‘problem’ is the child or young offender, and he/she needs either to be helped or coerced into becoming a conforming adult citizen. Largely absent from the field of youth justice have been other theoretical influences such as consideration of the nature of ‘agency’ and the construction of childhood. These alternative perspectives could offer us some insight into the limitations of historical debates in youth justice policy and practice, as will as pointing the way towards innovative and progressive alternative forms of practice. The strengths and shortcomings of contemporary developments, such as restorative interventions, will be discussed in this context, and the article will conclude that there is scope for developing positive, young person‐centred models of youth justice practice if we base these on a proper understanding of childhood and children’s agency.     

Gay and Lesbian Youth:

Social policy tends to reflect community standards regarding a population's individual rights, expected conduct, and entitlement to public services. Populations, therefore, must be defined and acknowledged by their communities and by their policy makers if they are to be included in these codified standards Lesbian and gay youth have yet to be clearly defined as a population. The origins and subsequent development of the current lesbian and gay movement offer a framework in which to consider future efforts to change social policy regarding lesbian and gay youth. The lesbian and gay community, despite the significant loss of leadership and experience as the result of AIDS, have continued its development as a force for social change. Organizations such as Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, and other groups focused on combating bigotry and expanding civil rights, are of crucial importance to the future of lesbian and gay youth and to the development of enlightened policy. The sooner enlightened policies are developed, the sooner these youngsters will be able to lead happier, healthier, and more productive lives.     

Sociology and Youth

While a variety of social structural factors do influence all youth, it is critical to note that American youth are not a monolithic entity. Obviously, differences in age, race, sex, and socioeconomic status will play a part in what youth think, feel, and believe. Still, as this review of youth-oriented research indicates, the empirical focus, for the most part, has been upon white, middle-class, college students. One result of this research bias has been a tendency to generalize for all youth from data collected from a relatively small, select, youth population.
A second obvious outcome is that sociologists have largely ignored the study of poor youth; non-students; blacks, Chicanos, Puerto Ricans, American Indians; youth in the work world; youth in the military; and females.
Generally, this review of the social science research suggests that there is consensus among students of youth behavior as to the factors which influence the attitudes and behavior of contemporary youth. At the same time, it must be noted that much of what is pronounced is based on little in the way of empirical research and derived primarily from observations of a limited segment of American youth.
Finally, this review of the literature would certainly support the observation that social scientists have provided little in the way of knowledge that would be of value to policy planners, program developers, or those involved in the day to day business of youth socialization.     

Youth Civic Engagement in the Twenty‐First Century

We enter the 21st century contending with the end of the Cold War's legacy of political uncertainty, expecting youth to play a significant part in the search for new principles that will bring about stability in the world political order. In forging the future, youth will have to collaborate with adults, but on terms more fitting of the historical circumstances that lie ahead than those of the past. This was the framework adopted by a group of social scientists who held several discussions to reflect on the issues and opportunities that bear on youth's civic engagement and development in the century that has just opened. The present article describes the results of those conversations, starting with the issue of defining civic competence, and the finding that an expansive definition is needed to match the real‐world circumstances that affect its development for youth internationally. Specific conditions, such as globalization, information – communication technology, and immigration, are emphasized as forces that affect youth and need to be taken into account by educators and policy makers. In this regard, responsibilities of schools, government, the commercial sector, and community organizations are outlined. Each is viewed as a potential constructive force for promoting engagement insofar as youth's strengths are recognized and focus is placed on building on youth's proven capacities. As always, it is youth’s task to make history in the future and society's obligation to provide youth with sufficient resources and an honest basis for hope in carrying out this task. The authors' policy recommendations are founded on this reciprocal relation that binds the youth generation with its elders in the common task of preserving, while transforming, society for the good of humanity.     

政治社会化与两岸青年交流的动力机制建构

随着两岸关系发展的新进程，两岸青年交流也呈现出常态化、多样化和制度化的趋势，同时也存在着注重形式、交流动力不足等问题。对台湾青年群体政治意向调查显示，“去中国化”教育以及媒体乱象造成的青年认知混乱是当前两岸青年持续合作最主要的障碍。两岸青年交流在一个不断变化的环境中得以持续合作最终取决于两岸青年交流的制度化和理性化，构建文化认同机制、共同参与机制和社会融合机制是未来两岸青年持续合作的动力机制。     

Liminal Lives: South Asian Youth and Domestic Violence

This article examines domestic violence experiences among South Asian youth in the United States. The paper uses a broad definition of violence, a continuum which includes aggression, coercion, control, intimidation, assault, to accommodate the meanings suggested by the youth. The main argument of this paper is that the youth’s experiences cannot be adequately explained with reference to individual deviance or traditional cultural norms of ethnic groups. Based on a sociological perspective of gender, this paper argues that these youth are placed between mainstream and ethnic gender regimes and their experience of domestic violence depends on how these regimes work in relation to each other. Thus their liminal social structural position emerges as a significant factor in their experiences of violence.     

Tagging Walls and Planting Seeds: Creating Spaces for Youth Civic Action

Youth civic spaces are environments in which youth participation in civic action is fostered—the pathways, structures, and vehicles that provide opportunities for young people to engage in critical discussion, dialogue, and action. The concept of youth civic space includes the formal and informal places in which youth civic engagement can occur and how the lived experience of those places contributes to young people's development as civic actors. It extends discussions regarding the physical locations of youth civic engagement to include the activities, perceptions, and interactions within them. Drawing on archival materials from 2 multiyear projects, this article explores the role of community-based organizations in mediating youth civic action and understanding the characteristics and qualities of the organizations that facilitate youth engagement in community action and social change. We use this analysis of empirical examples to develop a conceptual framework for strengthening practice.     

Youth,activism, and social movements

There has been considerable debate over the extent and role of young people's political participation. Whether considering popular hand‐wringing over concerns about declines in young people's institutional political participation or dismissals of young people's use of online activism, many frame youth engagement through a “youth deficit” model that assumes that adults need to politically socialize young people. However, others argue that young people are politically active and actively involved in their own political socialization, which is evident when examining youth participation in protest, participatory politics, and other forms of noninstitutionalized political participation. Moreover, social movement scholars have long documented the importance of youth to major social movements. In this article, we bring far flung literatures about youth activism together to review work on campus activism; young people's political socialization, their involvement in social movement organizations, their choice of tactics; and the context in which youth activism takes place. This context includes the growth of movement societies, the rise of fan activism, and pervasive Internet use. We argue that social movement scholars have already created important concepts (e.g., biographical availability) and questions (e.g., biographical consequences of activism) from studying young people and urge additional future research.     

Somerville Youth Council

In fall 2004, after many years of discussion, the Somerville Youth Council started. Its mission is to create an ongoing process of discussion, critical thinking, and problem solving to develop solutions to the challenges that youth encounter. In order to be an effective voice for youth, the Somerville Youth Council will have a diverse membership, develop expectations of mutual understanding and respect, and ensure that the means of communication builds bridges between youth, decision makers, and all others in Somerville. Owadokun, one of the council founders, has since moved to Nigeria, where she is forming a youth council in her community. Avilés is an active Youth Council youth member.     

Youth Program Quality Survey: Youth Assessment of Program Quality

The Youth Program Quality survey, a 24-item survey of youth participant perceptions of program quality, based on program elements identified by the National Research Council (NRC) and Institute of Medicine, was developed and piloted with 614 younger teens (ages 10–13 years) and 486 older teens (ages 14–17 years) who attended 4-H camps and conferences. Evidence is presented for content and construct validity. In addition, the overall instrument demonstrated high reliability, as measured by Cronbach's alpha, generally ranging from .70 to .96, and moderate subscale reliability of .60 or higher on four factors in the younger sample (α=.60 or higher on four factors in the older sample). Results are discussed in terms of goodness of fit to the National Research Council model, the significance of youth voice in assessment of program quality, developmental differences in perceptions of quality, and programming design. Recommendations are offered for practice, research, and policy.     

Empowering Community-Based Programs for Youth Development

This article discusses the need for community-based programs for youth and their families and urges the social work profession to resume its historical leadership in such programs while incorporating recent theory and practice. The authors describe the reasons why social workers abandoned neighborhood-based youth development services, the intended outcomes of such services, and current societal and professional trends that support a revival of social work’s involvement in youth development. They discuss one school of social work’s current participation in a youth agency partnership and examine implications of the suggested revival for social work education. Collaboration among families, schools, diverse community services, agencies, and educators is emphasized.