Final

Analysis Memo Section #3

Shuli Wu

San Francisco State University

CAD 400: Community YouthDevelopment

Shamont Hussey

4 / 22 / 2022

Theme 1: Safety & Relationship

I chose the first theme is safety and relationships because they are important to children and youths’ development. Young people feel safe from physical and mental health, so safety will help young people to have good relationship with parents, peers and community. Now, From this society, many young people experience poor, war, disasters, hunger, etc., so they suffer many pressures, and their behaviors and mental health is challenged. Unsafe environment can affect young people’s relationship. Young people hope to get emotional support and care from others, so safety and relationship interact with each other.

According to Kanter (2001), she state, “The hour between 3:00 and 6:00 p.m. on school days are peak hours for teens to commit crimes and engage in sexual activity; for innocent children to become crime victims; for 16 and 17- year- olds to be in or cause car accidents ( P.13). From here, juvenile delinquency is on the rise, and the surrounding environment has a great impact on them. There are many factors that make young people feel unsafe, so parents, schools, and communities need to know how to help the young people. Kanter said, “After school programs are a way to give children access to computers and technology, to offer them opportunities; and reinforce basic skills.” After school problems provide many opportunities to young people, so young people can choose and study extra classes in the problems. From here, a safe environment can affect children and young people’s abilities. From Kanter (2001), she states, “Focus group participants responded that after- school programs give them an opportunity to interact with friends whom they do not have time to see during the school day (p.16).” A safe learning environment can help to build good relationships with friends, and people will see the young people will improve their social, academic and communication.

Theme 2: Engaging Young People in Active Community Work

The second theme is engaging young people in active community work because it is a good opportunity to train young people, and community work can help youths to improve academic, mental health, etc. Before we search for the young programs, we know the community provides many programs to young people. Young people can join many programs to learn the community activity and programs, and they know how the community’s running. Community work can provide many opportunities and resources for learning, leadership and management to young people. Youths will meet unknown challenges, but challenges can help young people a lot.

According to Kirshner and Ginwright (2012), they state, “ Evidence about civic development is the strongest, with particular emphasis on participants’ growing sense of agency and capacity to accomplish complex political campaign goals (P. 290).” Youths, especially, African American youths can develop their civil development and develop their civic consciousness when they engage youth organizations because it will train their leadership abilities, and they can connect the community to help the unfair phenomenon. Kirshner and Ginwright (2012), Youth organizers self-reported changes in their academic engagement (P. 291).From here, we can see youths joining the youth organization have good change for their academics, and they have interest to face the challenges. When young people are in active community work, they can combine their knowledge and practice in the community work. Like I said before, youth organizations have many advantages for youths, and Kirshner and Ginwright talk about their future research, “Youth organizing has the potential to contribute to individual youth development, improved schools and community institutions, and civic renewal in the broader society.” Youth organizations can change many areas in the community, so youths can join them to gain knowledge from out of school. Youths know how to help the community and society better.

Theme 3: Safety and Support for LGBTQ and Gender Non-Conforming Youth

LGBT is lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. LGBT youths face different problems from family, schools and community. Some parents cannot accept LGBT children, and their relationship is broken. In some communities, some people ignore LGBT children and their family because some people think that they are abnormal. Some LGBT youths can not receive emotional and social support, so they feel unsafe and increase risk for physical and mental health. LGBT youths need people’s support and understanding because they are the same as others. This will have a positive impact on their future life.

According to Snapp, el at., they state “Lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) adults who thought their parents did not provide emotional and social support after they disclosed their sexual orientation had higher odds of depression and substance use (P. 421).” Family support is very important to LGBT youths, and they feel safety and support in their mind. They cannot identity with themselves, so their behaviors and mental are greatly impact, such as Depress, illegal drugs, risky sexual behavior and other risky behaviors, etc. On the other hand, “Social support is an important protective factor for the well-being of LGBT youth (Snapp, el at, .).” Social support’s functions is same as family support because LGBT youths relate to oppression and discrimination, and society have many activities to celebrate in the society. Society support related to employment, medical, and other institutions, for example, “My biggest barrier (is) finding a job because this is where I experience the most discrimination I don’t even get a job interview .unless it’s at a queer organization ( Asakura, 2019).” This is another reason to state LGBT youths need to get the society support because they have different experiences of discrimination. The impact of internalized discrimination is in the social, so it can let youths feel unsafe and disappointed in the society.

Part 2: Fictional Analysis

Evan and his family are immigrants from China, and they feel very curious about LGBT because they don’t know LGBT in China, and they think LGBT is abnormal. Evan and his Chinese classmates don’t contact with LGBT students. This is one of LGBT challenges. Teachers need to notice these problems, teachers and students can talk about LGBT in the classroom, and teachers provide some resources to let students know what LGBT is, and let them know what can do and what cannot do to respect LGBT students. Many students’ thoughts are the same with Evan. Evan understands LGBT students are the same as them, and they begin to communicate and make friends with LGBT students after they get some resources. Evan also gives some LGBT resources to his family, and let them know LGBT people need to be respected.

I also mention Evan doesn’t join any community work, and he likes playing computer games at home. School social workers can cooperate with the community, and they can motivate youths to join the community work. I know it is hard to motivate Evan to join the community work, when his brain is full of games. With these factors to affect, Evan needs to reflect, “ Why should I join some community work? Why are my classmates like joining the community?” Evan thinks critically about his problems, and he needs to try to do community work with other youths. His creativity is very good, so he can make some suggestions for community work. Community works need youths’ ideas to be better because they can get different ideas. Through community work, he can make other ethnic youths to be friends.

Evan is living and studying in the safety community, and schools and communities provide a safe learning environment to let youths join the after school time. Students can

choose their interesting classes, and their parents are completely reassured their children are in the safe place to study. Evan is good at computer knowledge, so he can join the computer programs. He can improve his computer knowledge to choose his major as his future major in college and future career. Evan also can communicate with teachers and other school students to reflect their ideas, so they can build good relationships with each other.

For Reference

Asakura. (2019). Extraordinary Acts to “Show Up”: Conceptualizing Resilience of LGBTQ Youth. Youth & Society, 51(2), 268–285. https://doi.org/10.1177/0044118X16671430

de Kanter. (2001). After-School Programs for Adolescents. NASSP Bulletin, 85(626), 12–21. https://doi.org/10.1177/019263650108562602

Kirshner, & Ginwright, S. (2012). Youth Organizing as a Developmental Context for African American and Latino Adolescents. Child Development Perspectives, 6(3), 288–294. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1750-8606.2012.00243.x

Snapp, Watson, R. J., Russell, S. T., Diaz, R. M., & Ryan, C. (2015). Social Support Networks for LGBT Young Adults: Low Cost Strategies for Positive Adjustment. Family Relations, 64(3), 420–430. https://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12124