Format

Individual Presentation

First Presenter's Institution

UBUNTU RELOADED

Second Presenter's Institution

NA

Third Presenter's Institution

NA

Fourth Presenter's Institution

NA

Fifth Presenter's Institution

NA

Location

Poster Session (Harborside)

Strand #1

Mental & Physical Health

Strand #2

Social & Emotional Skills

Relevance

My proposal relates to mental and physical health due to the fact that the focus groups target the thought processes that children face. The groups are a way for youth to come together and talk about issues that they have. Social and emotional skills are being targeted to help combat some of the problems that are faced.

Brief Program Description

Youth of today are given a bad name when relating to behavior and understanding of those behaviors. Many of those who are giving those bad reps do not spend "relatable" time with youth. Relatable time is when time spent with youth is not demanding but getting to know the youth as a person. During my time with youth, the best rapport I developed was when I had conversations that were accepting and understanding. So I started performing youth groups to see if the dynamics of the youth would change. IT did!

Summary

When working with the youth groups, I started to title the sessions. With every session, as in counseling, I would title it the way that the students agreed that we could name it. The first step that really intrigued students was the naming. The naming helped the youth take ownership of our group. The group was seen as a place of safe space. Each week the youth would come up with a different topic and we would explore ways to handle different difficult situations. They even talked about ways that they would talk with adults in their lives, in which they had difficulties.

Evidence

While working with several small groups of youth from different church communities, I worked with groups of teens who were considered "at risk". During the sessions with the "at risk" youth, we were able to bring about a culture of change. Those same students who said that they had no purpose in life started to talk about what they wanted to do in life. They talked about how no one really gave them a chance to learn in their way.

Beebe, S. A., & Masterson, J. T. (2003). Communicating in small groups. Pearson Education Inc. Boston: Massachusetts. This article substantiates my take on communicating in small groups. The article caters towards more of the academia side, but when working with youth, you can incorporate multiple facets of learning.

Biographical Sketch

Jennifer Baker, Community Counselor, Youth Advocate, Rural education supporter

Presentation Year

2019

Start Date

3-5-2019 4:00 PM

End Date

3-5-2019 5:30 PM

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Mar 5th, 4:00 PM Mar 5th, 5:30 PM

I am because WE are

Poster Session (Harborside)

Youth of today are given a bad name when relating to behavior and understanding of those behaviors. Many of those who are giving those bad reps do not spend "relatable" time with youth. Relatable time is when time spent with youth is not demanding but getting to know the youth as a person. During my time with youth, the best rapport I developed was when I had conversations that were accepting and understanding. So I started performing youth groups to see if the dynamics of the youth would change. IT did!