Youth as Community Builders

Project Abstract

Most social workers hold an image of "youth as victims" or "youth at risk" and respond with adult-directed interventions which provide "services to youth." In contrast to this is an image of "youth as resources" whose proponents assume that young people are competent, want to build on their strengths, and promote their active involvement in the community. There is need to prepare social workers for new and emergent practice roles, yet there is little research on young people as competent community builders reported in the social work literature, and few social work schools emphasize young people creating community change.

Through this project we are developing knowledge of skills to engage young people as competent community builders, derive general propositions and core competencies from research on empirically based practice, and apply these to the training of social workers for new roles in the field. We will:

1. Establish a collaboratory of relevant resource persons for international interdisciplinary collaboration and project development;
2. Identify five exemplary community-based initiatives which represent the cultural, political, and geographical diversity of the Americas;
3. Conduct an empirically based study of exemplary efforts to involve young people as competent community builders;
4. Draw generalizations from the study to inform social work research and transformation of training for practice; and
5. Apply the lessons learned through publication, education, and advanced information technology.

The project focuses on "the Americas" in order to overcome the limitations of the usual emphasis on the United States experience in social work knowledge development, to recognize increasing international integration, and to learn from cultural diversity throughout the region.

Collaboratory members include resource persons with extensive experience and international information networks to assist in the identification of initiatives which broadly represent the region, with the expectation that five communities will be selected for study: two in North America, one in Central America, one in South America, and one indigenous tribal or native community. Site visits are being conducted in selected sites seeking information on their origins and objectives; activities and accomplishments; individual, organizational, and community impacts; facilitating and limiting factors; and lessons learned from empirically based practice.

Knowledge will be applied to educational efforts to prepare social workers for new roles as facilitators of community participation by young people. Faculty members will be informed of the findings and content will be incorporated into the curriculum. Sessions will be conducted with students to challenge them to reconsider traditional professional roles with young people. A continuing education professional development workshop will be prepared for practitioners, educators, and other adults who work with youth.

Knowledge also will be communicated through multiple media and advanced information technology. Information will be shared through professional and popular publications and presentations; through telecommunications and websites extending to local, national, and international networks; and through youth media represented by youth journalists. Community collaborators will communicate with their counterparts in other areas; their stories will be made available over the internet; and they themselves will come together for a meeting to learn from one another and build mutual support for their work.

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University of Michigan Global Program on Youth, School of Social Work Building, Room 3743
1080 South University, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1106 ssw.global@umich.edu

W.K. Kellogg Foundation

© 2002 by The Regents of the University of Michigan