Dobie visit and looking towards next semester research

Stephanie and I had a fruitful visit to Dobie yesterday. The kids were super excited for their Christmas show- they are presenting "'Twas a night before Christmas," slightly modified to include both English and Spanish words. Instead of reindeers, their version will have burros (donkeys). This highlights the high number of Spanish- speakers at Dobie, and in this program. As Ms. Brittany from ALA was explaining the students' different roles in the show, a few kids needed Spanish translations. It would be interesting to look into this some more- the Spanish-speaking kids in the ALA program (are they getting anything useful from it, except for the social aspect of hanging out with their Spanish-speaking friends?)

We also chatted with Lee and asked him what he would like us as a class to research for ALA. From this conversation, Stephanie and I came up with a rough outline of points we should research soon. Instead of reading more literature about PYD, I believe we are ready to specifically to talk about Austin, Dobie and Webb neighborhood, and ALA.

1. How the schools have changed? Interesting fact: Dobie used to be more of a suburban school now urban. Discuss changing demographics of Austin, and the 2 school neighborhoods
Also find out why Webb receives more funds, especially from the Boys and Girls Club,for clubs and after school activities. While at Dobie, Keeping It Real probably is the only after school activity (that's what Lee believes)

2. Major Current Issues in these neighborhoods
a) Gangs (one youth was telling Lee last week of how he had to sleep on the floor because of drive by shootings.
b) Drop Out Rates- Find out the feeder high schools and their drop out rates
c) Pregnancy rates
d) Available clubs or after school activities

3. Recommendations
a) Specific for the schools
- Strategies
- Ways to get more money/ funds especially for Dobie
- Keep kids out of gangs

Response to comments on draft

After reading the Professor Rhodes's comments on our draft, it is evident that we need to totally revamp our paper. Apparently we have been approaching the draft from the wrong angle this entire semester. Our focus has been predominately on the literature- the theories and the evolution of these theories. We started out our research on dividing up the different theories between the group- resiliency, communication, social capital, etc- and then each individual focused on their topic. In reality we missed researching community organizations- the theories and practice of such organization in PYD, and low income communities and how they are changing, especially in Austin. More public policy reading and less psychology. Also our draft needs to discuss more of ALA and the KIR project. Truthfully most of what I know about both ALA and KIR is from what I read from the comments sheet. ALA still seems like a foreign entity to me; we have only met with them twice. Is there a way I can read more about both, like specific programming information or curriculum of KIR (if there is one)?

Oh ladies we have so much work ahead of us... Stay positive!

Dobie Website

I continued my research on Dobie Middle School, and looked at the page on their website labeled AISD Middle School Education Plan- since it is AISD I am assuming that this plan pertains to all schools. It listed the strategies (similar to our PYD practices), beliefs (similar to our PYD principles), and objectives ( similar to our PYD outcomes). Schools' mission is positive youth development, so it should be little surprise that their plan is similar to that of a positive youth development program (exceptions: schools also have the role in providing academic knowledge and test-taking abilities for furthering education). I also looked at their strategy links on the bottom of the same website page, and found some info that may be useful for our furthering knowledge of school- community-youth relationships.
CIS: Communities in Schools: a nonprofit that links school based social services to community resources. We should check them out because according to their stats- Out of 5,000 youth participants, 86% improved academics, attendance, and/or behavior.
Big Brother/ Big Sister in partnership with CIS works at Dobie.

Character Education/ Service Learning curriculum:
Advancement Via Individual Determination (a college prep program created to increase the number of students who enroll in a four-year college)
-At Dobie for 10 years, serves over 160 6th, 7th, and 8th graders
- student-based leaderships programs: mentoring programs, adopt-a-school (Hart Elementary)
On the website they provided useful student suggestions to the program:
"The following is a student-generated list of advantages offered by the program: learn to be better organized, learn to take notes, request help in any subject during tutoring, get help applying for college, get help securing financial aid for college, go on monthly field trips, participate in service projects, become a campus leader/mentor/role model, listen to great guest speakers, have only two days of actual class each week! "
Some things to keep in mind when drafting a PYD program.

Interesting stat on youth delinquency

http://www.ojjdp.gov/ojstatbb/offenders/qa03301.asp


Data from law enforcement agencies from 21 states and D.C. found that on school days, the highest numbers of juvenile violent crimes occurred at 3 pm, when school usually lets out. In relation to curfew, the data shows "the rate of juvenile violence in the after school period is almost 6 times the rate in the juvenile curfew period." So, after-school programs may prove pivotal in decreasing the number of violent crimes committed by youth.

(We should add juvenile delinquency in our paper, and how PYD may change youth behavior-youth outcomes section?)

Community based organizations

I will now divert my attention away from social capital towards community based organizations. When we were discussing our draft, we realized that we have not focused much attention on community based organizations. It is imperative that we do so, as ALA is a community based organization and thus the cornerstone of PYD. I came across a good article, "Community Counts: How Youth Organizations Matter for Youth Development," by Milbrey W. McLaughlin. It is a ten year study of 120 youth-based orgs. in 34 different cities, which includes follow-up studies and long and short term strategies for involved domains. It concludes that a PYD program cannot be successful without community member involvement and support.
The article starts out with discussing this societal perception of how today's youth are different from previous generations; youth are "less motivated, and more likely to get into trouble" (2). However, the reality is that community, family, school networks have created gaps, which mostly affect youth (2). They do not have the adequate attention and support to develop into skilled adults. In all neighborhoods, regardless of socio-economic class, ethnicity, or race, "many youth find themselves adrift" (2). The community needs to step up and realize the importance of youth, and develop a safe, effective program (as fits with the characteristics of the community) with the principles we outlined in our draft to fill in the gaps left by schools and families (3). The article goes on and discusses what youth achieved in these programs (Note: Look at this for our last section "youth outcomes"): 1. Academic Success; and 2. Life Skills (one of the them being civic engagement- I will add that to the paper). Other important points in the article are "how positive school-community connections are unusual" (26)- need for community organizations to connect program objectives and progress with the school.
One problem I had with this article was the lack of family in this equation. The author discusses the importance of youth, community, and school to have interwoven relationships, but makes little reference to the family. Yes this study focused on more "at-risk" youth from troubled neighborhoods, who some experienced violence and indifference at home; however, that does not mean the family should be disregarded. Because 'failure' in establishing good relationships with their children should not translate as incapable of establishing relationships with the school and community organization. By being incorporated into the community and school networks, the family may be more able to work on their relationships with their children.
Overall, this article presents solid information for our paper about the domains of community and schools .

My first PRP thesis (Oh so precious!)

I came, I thought, I might be on the way to conquering... My first thought on a thesis(still need to incorporate the cycles of this process), which came from the flow chart provided to me by Professor Rhodes and also his guidance. Thank you!

Research question: What impacts do community organizations have on other domains and levels that lead to positive youth development?

Thesis: Community organizations must implement effective positive youth development programs that use the principles of resiliency, communication, social capital, and the 5 Cs to have mutually beneficiary impacts on families and schools that lead to changes on the individual level of youth and on the organizational system level of all involved actors. Once the positive development culture is set, the “positive” objectives of the program, including strong and supportive social networks, enhanced self-identity of youth, and improved academic success, will manifest in the youth’s productive behavior towards adulthood.

Thoughts? Suggestions?

ALA visit

Truthfully I am having a hard time writing my part for the paper. It may be so because even after reading 10 articles about social capital and numerous more about youth development programs, I cannot pinpoint what I want to say (I know, I know; I have complained about this predicament on numerous occasions. Nevertheless, I just feel like I am repeating the authors- plagiarism!)

Therefore I will reflect on our trip to ALA. First of all, I was not expecting the center to have 5 buildings for their separate classes (divided by age group- each having a place of their own). The center is strategically placed on the public high school grounds- very important for the teen moms who attend school while their children are in the care of ALA). The staff at ALA impressed me by far with their friendliness and dedication, especially the man who grew up with the program ( I wish I could remember their names, but I will come to know them). Also the woman who kindly showed us the facility; you could tell from her tone of voice and her smile how much she cared about her work and the people she served. She recalled numerous personal stories about at-home visits, the kids' families, and ALA community parties. It is people like her and the woman that runs the GED class who are the core of positive youth development. You may have the best kind of curriculum money can buy; however, PYD is more than learning factual information, but putting those words into action: network building, improving self-image, enhancing communication skills, etc. A person like her, who upon meeting already portrays her genuine, selfless work for ALA, is a model PYD staff person.

I believe the trip to ALA was needed in bettering my understanding of PYD at work. Not to be too cliche, but it is putting a "face" on PYD. One important concern to remember is the need to link the communities of ALA. As Dr. Rhodes has mentioned, this neighborhood community has undergone through a lot of changes, mostly notably the disbursement of the African- American community. How do you create community when you live in separate neighborhoods? I recall the friendly staff women telling us about the ALA staff and community parties from all three locations, where she does recognize some people (even though they belong to the same organization). The need to expand the community outward and not to be limited by distance (there are better means of transportation- cars, buses, and now more electronically blogs and other social network websites). Just one of many things to think critically about...

Understanding YD- slowly but surely

“Development is a process, not a goal” (Hamilton 5). I used this quote in my first blog post to describe youth development programs; however, now I understand the universality of this quote, especially when it comes to my own slow progression to understanding youth development programs. What I have found that there is so, so much literature in regards to positive youth development (sometimes a bit overwhelming). However, as time and readings go by, I feel like I have a better grasp on the subject, and more able to draft a paper.

I have read numerous articles, but found Jennifer Lindsey must helpful in regards to content and resources. First of all, I believe that we are missing some key elements in our paper that I found important in Lindsey's review, like Program Evaluation (how do we best evaluate such a program to measure its "success"?) as well as how should ALA use strategic planning to set goals for the program).

Also in writing up a program, it is important to remember flexibility, as Jean Rhodes describes in her article The critical ingredient: Caring youth-staff relationships in after-school settings Rhodes stresses that a too structured program may hamper the relationships between the youth and staff(154). The staff has to follow a curriculum, and the environment feels less free and open- less "informal conversations" and the youth themselves may feel bored and indifferent in following the set structure. I found this article very useful for the social capital discussion in our paper. I have been reading too much on the theory of social capital and not how it relates to social capital. Social capital is about network building and bridging. Some networks (among others) that will be formed with our program:
1. Youth and ALA staff
2. Youth and community
3. Youth and other youth
4. ALA staff and community
5. ALA staff and youth's family
6. Youth's family and community
7. Strengthening of youth and youth's family
8. Youth and family and ALA staff and community

We need to strengthen all these networks- increase social capital for all parties involved. This is super important especially as Rhodes's article among others such as Bodilly point to the growing number of after school programs. We need to engage all parties involved, especially the parents. It can not be that their lone contribution to this program is picking up their kids in the parking lot when the scheduled time is up. Somehow the parents need to have a role in the program to guarantee "success"- what that means, I need to research evaluation methods some more.

Social capital continued

In preparation for my presentation of social capital tomorrow, I am still trying to lay out this definition of social capital. I have a tendency to ramble on and not make to much sense... so I am a bit worried. I did read the article suggested by Professor Rhodes "Social Capital: A Conceptual History" by James Farr, which has shed some light on the meaning behind social capital. It is important to note that this was published in the journal Political Theory The definition of social capital will have a different meaning depending on the background of who is defining it... there is the political, economic, sociological, etc... as well as the time period. However, I have decided to stick with Putnam's political science definition "refers to the features of social organizations- networks, norms, and trust- that facilitate coordination and cooperation for mutual benefit" (in "Bowling Alone"). Basically social capital is how people relate to other people through organizations, networks, and institutions, and the role the individual plays in these arenas.

So our youth development program as part of ALA will be a new network that we will set up in order to increase the social capital for the youth. This new group of youth will work together to increase their social capital (benefit to society as a whole); however, we have to build the bridges to the rest of society in order to make this happen. And how are we going to do that? In the article, "Connecting Youth to High Resource Adults," Sullivan argues the need for programs to create environments where youth and adult can be on more equal footing. There is a generational gap, which creates negative perceptions of the other generation, Sullivan argues. Sullivan cites examples where youth in programs have the opportunity to collaborate with important adult figures in the neighborhood, such as the girl who was excited to be asked by the police captain on how to develop opportunities for youth. If youth feel like they are respected, and not treated like "kids," their social capital is increased because they feel like they are actually improving their neighborhood.
Other skills to consider for the development program to increase social capital is civic engagement. If an individual is involved in the political process (democracy a political form of association) positively, then their social capital will increase. We need to think of ways to incorporate civic engagement as well within the program.

Continuing clarification of social capital

After my inability to define the word social capital in class, I decided to read up on the term. It is not that I have never had to define the word, it is just so hard to do so. Social capital is not something physical-that you can see or hold- or something that can truly measure (it can increase or decrease but not a specific amount).
Thus my search for clarity began with Wikipedia. As I read more into the ambiguity of social capital, I decided to read the first text written in 1916 using the word social capital by a fellow that I have never even heard of L.J. Hanifan. While reading The community centerI was surprised how much is still relevant today. One quote spoke to exactly what Professor Rhodes was talking about in class- social class as it relates to the individual, to the family, and the community

The individual is helpless socially, if left to himself. Even the association of the members of one's own family fails to satisfy that desire which every normal individual has of being with his fellows, of being a part of a larger group than the family. If he comes into contact with his neighbors, there will be an accumulation of social capital, which may immediately satisfy his social needs and which may bear a social potentiality sufficient for the substantial improvement of life in the whole community. The community as a whole will benefit by the cooperation of all its parts, while the individual will find in his associations the advantages of the help, the sympathy, and the fellowship of his neigh- bors.

Hanifan

So that is one of the meanings of social capital- it is the connections one makes with members of society that increases the individual's personal potential to improve society as a whole. If individuals are isolated from society, they have low social capital because they do not have the opportunity to use their skills and talents to better the outside world- like building a new park or proposing a new ordinance. Their potential (their capital) is just wasted, and society does not improve/ advance.

The author (a superintendent)'s main point is the need for (rural) school teachers to work with the community programs (w/ parental involvement) to help increase enrollment in school (Education increases social capital). He talks about how teachers and community leaders (in rural settings using the school teachers) should make house calls and encourage parents to come to community meetings. Even though some of the examples of the author are outdated, the need for a strong relationship between family, school, and community remains significant.
In thinking about developing a youth program, this relationship is pivotal for the children individually to increase their social capital.