Working With Children and Youth - Prime Academic Study

Table of Contents

Reflection on Websites for Children
Reflection on Gangs
Reflection on Course
Reflection on the AHA! Method
References

Reflection on Websites for Children

Being lonely and depressed, a girl needs support. Wabano Children and Youth can provide it because the medical center indicates contacts of youth clinical support specialists – the girl may contact them freely. MindYourMind and ReachOut are valuable sources of articles on different issues to help the girl outline ways to avoid a crisis or cope with it, including guidelines for determining the crisis (“I’m in crisis,” n.d.; “Something’s not right,” n.d.). YouthLine is another helpful website with numerous options for emotional support so that the girl may seek help if needed (“Ways we support,” n.d.).

Being a teen support service, KidsHelpPhone can reduce the feeling of depression due to an opportunity to call and share girl’s problems with them without the fear of being ignored or bullied. YouthCanada is a database of inspirational articles that as well offers an option of publishing one online (“Articles,” n.d.). It can help a girl overcome depression and loneliness by sharing her opinion on global challenges. Specializing in different youth issues, Winston’s Wish is another online support service so that the girl may easily contact them and seek emotional help. YouthNet is a communication platform that can help combat the feeling of loneliness (“Services,” n.d.). Except for phone support, TeenLine is an SMS support service – it is even more convenient for a teen. Introducing online activities for improving communication and involvement, ZoeAndMolly may be useful for both the girl and her parents (“At-home activities,” n.d.).

Reflection on Gangs

Youth gangs are a complex social phenomenon. There are numerous aspects of this problem, but I will focus on the most critical of them – the perception of gangs, getting involved in gang activities, and solving the problem of gangs. According to Cech (2015), gang members are commonly demonized because they are perceived as criminals, not groups. Nevertheless, this approach to describing them is commonly criticized like in the assigned report that defines crime activities as one of the specific features of youth gangs (Kelly, 2011).

Both Cech (2015) and Kelly (2011) believe that there are several major reasons for becoming involved in gang activities. They include but are not limited to economic hardships, inadequate educational and social background, proximity to gangs due to one’s residence, and cultural specificities. Still, regardless of the differences in the perception of gangs, this challenge can be overcome by offering real-life options for getting integrated into a community, such as work and education, that are more efficient than punishment and legal persecutions (Cech, 2015). This idea is supported in the report, as the special focus is made on the reintegration of gang members into society and their rehabilitation as well as offering legal sources of income (Kelly, 2011).

Reflection on Course

Taking this course was a challenging experience. I faced several significant hardships, but they helped me to reveal the hidden potential and become a better learner. First and foremost, I have got familiar with numerous interesting and helpful techniques that might be advantageous in everyday activities and my future work. Due to the necessity of reading a lot and taking notes, this course has helped me to develop efficient reading skills and identify central themes and messages of given text materials. The same is true about watching videos.

This experience was useful for learning to detect an undertone and the actual meaning of one’s words. More than that, I found social worker and communication with youth simulations the best activities throughout the course due to their practicability and the ability to apply them in my future work. A new method for listening to others’ stories – AHA! – was another worthful experience. It helps address the needs of both youth and my relatives and friends that can make me a better person. All in all, even though the activities seemed complicated and took a vast effort to complete, I believe they were valuable because the course was a discovery of new techniques and skills.

Reflection on the AHA! Method

AHA! method is a specific approach to listening to others’ stories. It enhances the understanding, as the major focus is made on listening in silence and sharing what was heard with a speaker. This active listening method was the most challenging, yet inspiring, the activity of the course. I found it especially difficult to remain silent while the speaker was sharing a story. The issue was connected to the inability to interrupt a person and ask questions when details were needed. As a result, it was complicated to speak on my vision of the shared problem and wait to hear whether I was right.

Nevertheless, it was surprising that people appreciated my silence because they believed it was synonymous with respect and interest in their story. Therefore, my active listening was a demonstration of support to the person who confided the story to me. Even though I did my best to choose correct words and appropriate body language, succeeding with it was complicated. Nevertheless, although I felt a little stressed and the person could easily see it, my silence and body language were helpful. As it turned out later, the person was grateful for the manner I chose and it was a valuable contribution to our conversation, as it helped the speaker trust me and feel relaxed.