Why youth leave care: Understandings of adulthood and transition successes and challenges among youth aging out of child welfare

Child welfare policies and practices are changing to allow more youth to remain in care beyond age 18. Yet, the majority of youth do not stay. Given recent evidence suggesting that remaining in care may be beneficial, there is a need to understand why youth leave. Using data gathered from in-depth interviews with young people aging out of care, this paper explores this question, relating it to youths' understandings of adulthood and the successes and challenges they face during their transitions. We find that youth leave care because of misunderstanding and misinformation about the requirements for remaining in care, as well as because of a desire for autonomy and independence. Specifically, many youth equated adulthood with independence, and thus felt that they needed to leave care to achieve adulthood. Unfortunately, these efforts to be independent often hinder youths' development of supportive relationships, which they reported to be one of the greatest challenges in their transitions. Based on these findings, we conclude by challenging the conflation of adulthood and independence, as well as of childhood and dependence, calling for connected autonomy as a goal for child welfare involved young people of all ages.     

Spiritual development in youth worker preparation: a matter of resolve

Once we are convinced that attentiveness to spiritual development has the potential to enrich and improve youth work practice, equipping youth workers with the necessary skills and capacities can proceed. A model for such preparation begins with youth workers' reflecting on their own spiritual autobiographies.     

Addressing spiritual development in youth development programs and practices: opportunities and challenges

If strengthening children's moral and spiritual selves is the most important challenge facing youth-serving organizations in the United States today, three things are required to respond: a clear road map of where to go and how to get there, a critical mass of champions prepared to lead the way, and candid readiness assessments and strategies for individuals and organizations ready to take on this work. More clarity is needed on defining the concepts of spiritual development and spirituality, the boundaries and bridges needed between religious and secular organizations, and the activities and practices that are both effective and allowable under separation of church and state. Immediate steps to take include engaging frontline workers across sectors and identifying strategies for integrating spiritual development into youth practice.     

Professional development in the youth development field: issues, trends, opportunities, and challenges

This chapter reviews key issues in professional development in the youth development field, describing important work done over the past two decades and lessons learned from major philanthropic investments in capacity building both nationally and locally.     

The Life Rope: a transactional approach to exploring worker and life role development

The Model of Human Occupation offers a framework for analyzing occupational roles including that of worker; however, it does not describe the dynamics of role change after a traumatic injury. This paper reports a qualitative study of sixteen individuals who experienced a traumatic spinal cord injury in the midst of their occupational career development. The study examined their role change processes involved in redeveloping the worker role. Data were collected across 24 months of the participant's lives and triangulated via participant observations, guided interviews, mapping, and archival document review. Results showed that individuals formed multiple strands within their role repertoires at any point in time. After a traumatic injury, the worker role became an optional, elective role strand, one that often unraveled first as they encountered breakdowns in more basic survival roles, such as home manager, assistive technology user and attendant care employer. The metaphor of a Life Rope emerged as a useful conceptual framework for explaining life role development, including that of worker.     

Professionalizing youth development: the role of higher education

Certificates, credentials, and degrees offered through institutions of higher education allow youth development professionals to acquire educational experiences that are recognized in a formal manner.     

The successes and challenges of implementing individualised funding and supports for disabled people: an Irish perspective

‘Individualised funding’, which is rooted in the Independent Living Movement, has formed part of a global paradigm shift in support services for disabled people. Against the backdrop of international experience, a political system aligned with the United Kingdom and emergent critics of individualised funding, this article presents findings from an evaluation of four pilot programmes in Ireland. Exemplified by independent-skills development and community integration, these initiatives have been welcomed as a progressive development beyond traditional service provision, with perceived improvements across a range of organisational, personal, health and social care domains. The article explores the importance of ‘natural supports’ and how overly protective behaviour may unintentionally act as a barrier to full implementation. The findings also indicate that unnecessarily complex systems can lead to individual burn-out. Furthermore, a national resource allocation system working in partnership with existing social care professionals and the wider community is recommended, as is learning from overly simplified, group-based ideologies.     

Dilemmas of youth work: balancing the professional and personal

Being an effective and intentional youth practitioner involves more than planning. It includes being able to react intelligently to the many difficult situations that arise. Practitioners in out-of-school and after-school settings regularly confront complex dilemmas that emerge in their daily work. They face situations where competing objectives, values, and warrants come into conflict, situations that can pit the developmental needs of youth, ethical concerns, administrative requirements, and other considerations against each other. Using examples from their research that weigh professional and personal judgments, the authors illustrate the complexity of these practice dilemmas and the considerations program staff included as they responded to these challenging situations.     

Spiritual development: a missing priority in youth development

Addressing the spiritual development of young people has the potential to strengthen youth work and its outcomes. Spiritual development matters because it is an intrinsic part of being human and because young people themselves view it as important. This article reviews the research that points to positive impacts of spiritual development for youth and notes that in an increasingly pluralistic society, everyone needs to build skills for negotiating religious and spiritual diversity. The authors propose that spiritual development involves, in part, the dynamic interplay of three dimensions: belonging and connecting, awareness and awakening, and a way of living. Three initial challenges and opportunities are emerging: empowering youth to explore core developmental issues, motivation and focus, and multisector engagement.     

The role of social media on positive youth development: An analysis of 4-H Facebook page and 4-H'ers' positive development

With the hope of raising children to become responsible and active citizens with upstanding values, many youth-related organizations have focused their efforts on providing quality opportunities to encourage early participation in civic engagements. Many organizations actively engage in social media to fulfill their goals most effectively. Social media offer the potential to promote those opportunities, communicate with youth, and eventually facilitate positive youth development. Considering the importance of social media among youth, it is critical to understand how to use it as a tool to foster youth development. Therefore, utilizing the positive youth development (PYD) framework, this study examines the role of Facebook communications in developing six traits—competence, confidence, connection, character, compassion, and contribution—and their effects on youth civic engagement by analyzing a 4-H club case. Mixed methods are used to conduct a two-step study. The first step analyzes communication patterns of the national 4-H Facebook page through content analysis of posts from 2009 to early 2015. For the second step, seven in-depth interviews were conducted with recent 4-H alumni, who used the official 4-H Facebook page during their period of membership. The findings emphasized the critical role of social media in fostering positive development of youth and future civic engagement, and practical implications are discussed.     

The meshing of youth development and community building

Practitioners, policymakers, residents, workers, researchers, and even funders have an opportunity to merge their many practices into a more comprehensive and focused approach to change communities substantially. People are affiliated with a number of communities, and not just those with geographical definitions. There are communities based on gender, sexual orientation, physical ability, race, ethnicity, and institutions such as family and school. Building the bridges between youth development and community building and merging their principles and practices will create a force of change. This chapter lays the foundation for meshing the worlds of youth development and community building to make powerful connections that will be important to the community of youth and bring them into wider circles and forces that ultimately will be important to the adult community as well.     

The role of private corporations in regional planning and development: Opportunities and challenges for the governance of housing and land use

There is a broad consensus that the corporate sector has an active role in facilitating community development through corporate-community investment. However, there remains uncertainty as to how much the sector should invest without taking on responsibilities and influencing decisions which are traditionally within the realm of the state. This paper explores the contemporary role of mining companies in regional governance through a case study of housing and residential land use planning and supply within the Bowen Basin coal mining and coal seam gas extraction region in Queensland, Australia. Mining companies were found to have a broad role in planning and development with far-reaching implications for land use and the wider regional community. These arrangements have emerged in response to corporate sensibilities, some recent policy requirements and most importantly, in pragmatic response to the institutional void apparent in many regional communities. In the absence of an effective regional framework with a clear and defined role for governments and corporations, powerful corporate interests risk effectively ‘capturing’ the regional development agenda within a framework that works on short-term paternalism rather than long-term regional partnerships. This also has implications for the efficiency of governance. Stronger institutional arrangements need to be developed to strengthen the capacity of the state to oversee these relationships. Regional governance and planning theory also needs to address this deficit.     

The rich and exacting role of the social worker in family foster care

This article is about the role of the professional social worker in a child placing agency. It emphasizes the worker's central role in coordinating or managing the various facets of family foster care.Many aspects of family foster care are discussed, with emphasis upon permanence and the tasks of the social worker with the respective participants. The article briefly examines these activities, such as working with the child, the birth parents and the foster parents, within the contexts of the primary mission which is to restore family relationships or to help the child to find and build new ones.Mr. Terpstra is employed by the U.S. Children's Bureau where he serves as a specialist in family foster care, child care insittutions and licensing of children's services.     

The role of practice educators in initial and post qualifying social worker education

Doctoral research into competence for social work practice engaged with 17 participants who drew upon their experiences of being practice educators and registered social work practitioners and the analysis of data suggested they identified a difference between competence to pass a final placement and capability for social work practice. Baseline social work knowledge, skills and values will enable a student to pass a final placement however, research data suggest that the individual’s approach to learning, emotional intelligence and resilience give confidence that they are more likely to be able to cope in a social work role. Practice educators intuitively recognise these characteristics and this article argues that in addition to working with students, practice educators are ideally situated to support individuals throughout their post qualifying social work learning journey.     

Contemplative education and youth development

Contemplative education includes practices that aim to help a person cultivate conscious awareness, especially internal self-awareness and awareness of one's connection to the world. Such practices include meditation, movement, and the contemplation of nature. Exploration is under way to determine if these practices might assist young people in their development, as they do in adulthood.     

Adventure-based programming: exemplary youth development practice

Despite functioning on the periphery of academic scholarship, theory development, and rigorous science, the better adventure-based programs are functioning at the forefront of professional youth practices. This article links the core elements and processes of adventure programs to the literature on positive youth development and quality youth programming. Contemporary work on developmental systems theory, developmental cascades, and initiative are well aligned with the historical, philosophical, and pro-grammatic roots of adventure education. In addition, adventure programs afford some powerful experiences by way of distinct features such as isolation, dosage, different physical environments, holistic approaches, social experiences, and program novelty. This combination of features often provides a microcosm for youth to live, learn, experiment, and grow. Despite the strengths in prototypical adventure programs, they remain less accessible and are not easily delivered to many youth. Although there are clearly differences in adventure program and other youth activities, many of the qualities of adventure programs can be included in a broader and more accessible spectrum of youth opportunities. This article thus explains the congruency between the literature on positive youth development and adventure programs and generalizes current tenets of adventure programs to the broader context of youth practice. It is time to recognize the important role that adventure programs play for many youth and fully embrace what these diverse and successful programs can teach the general field of positive youth development.