YOST3235

Young people are often described in polarizing ways: As “our future” or as dangerous and out of control. Scholarship and practitioners have shown that these powerful social constructions depoliticize, disconnect, and disenfranchise young people from political process and spaces. Even today, few formal opportunities and pathways exist for young people to participate in civic and political activity, even with advanced practice understanding and programmatic models that can be replicated and “scaled down” to work in communities across the globe, from rural to urban.

Yet, young people have always been politically active. Clear stories and scholarship documents the multitude of ways young people have been at the forefront of social change and social justice, and often led revolutions and social movements throughout the world. In the U.S. teenagers historically and currently make up a large percentage of activists on the streets and social change makers in the community.

Young people have a strong history of finding ways to express their voice on public issues that matter to them and participate in actions they believe will rectify wrongs and promote a more just and equitable future. Participating in these activities is not always seen as age appropriate activity. We are more comfortable seeing young people as “citizens-in-the-making,” and become increasingly uncomfortable when they
begin to think and act like citizens now!

This has not stopped young people from participating and youth workers from finding ways to support their political involvement and create opportunities for their civic and political action. This course introduces civic youth work as a form of community-based youthwork, to locate it in two frames – community-building for healthy youth development and youth civic engagement (citizenship), and show
the relations among the two. Over the semester you will explore both underlying theories that support social change and participation as well as programmatic models that invite and sustain young people’s involvement in civic engagement and social change.

prereq: [One basic course in Pol, one basic course in Soc] or instr consent

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