Youth Leadership and Devcelopment as a Social Movement - Essay Example

Abha Mittal NFL 17th December 2007 Youth Leadership and Development as a Social Movement Social movements are carried out for the purpose of bringing about changes in the existing system of society and require a great deal of energy and enthusiasm as it entails rooting out evils of a society. Almost everybody is alarmed about the growing incidences of violence and frustration among our youth reflected in their problematic behavior, drug abuse rising teen pregnancies etc., and volumes of articles are being written analyzing the reason behind the prevailing situation. A survey done by The Search Institute whose findings have been accumulated in a book "A Fragile Foundation: The State of Developmental Assets among American Youth" has identified 40 assets or building blocks classified into 08 categories required for a healthy development of a child, many of which were found missing in the life of an American child. As a result, an average American child is building his life on a fragile foundation resulting in their problematic behavior. The first four asset categories focus on external structures, relationships and activities that create a positive environment for youth and include loving and caring support from family, friends and teachers, a feeling of being valued and having clear-cut rules about the expected behavior and consistent consequences of breaking them, to be and do their best, opportunities outside of school to learn and develop new skills and interests with other youth and adults. The next four categories reflect internal values, skills and beliefs that young people need to fully engage with and function in the world around them and include commitment to learning and a belief in their own abilities, having strong guiding values or principles to help them make healthy life choices and having Social Competencies to interact effectively with others, to make difficult decisions and to cope with new situations. They also need to believe in their own self-worth and to feel that they have control over the things that happen to them. As American society was found miserably lacking in providing their youth an environment suitable for their young ones to flourish in, there is an urgent requirement of augmenting the efforts on the scale of a national movement and already more than 300 communities have started initiative to mobilize resources and motivate all sectors of the community to help build those building blocks required for the well-being of our young generation. One of the most effective ways to the positive development of our youth as envisaged by many organizations which are sincerely working in this direction is through channelizing youthful energy in community building work. This programme for Youth leadership and Development works on the principle of considering youth as an asset to themselves and shifts its stress from youth's needs and problems and lays it on considering them as a powerful tool to tackle societal evils..According to them as pure human capital in community ventures, youth offer tremendous and often untapped contributions. Young people's exuberance and optimism alone can make rich additions to efforts to strengthen communities. Yet all too often youth are seen only as heirs to the future, trustees of posterity who will in some distant future finally take their place as partners in civic life. For many community organizations and programs, youth are underused resources, overlooked and marginalized. However, those organizations and projects that do involve young people as integral and respected leaders and participants, are not only enriching their endeavors, they are also exercising a powerful and promising strategy for youth development. The Innovation Center for Community and Youth development, a project of the Tides Center, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting people working for social change is working in strategic partnership with key individuals and institutions and with youth and adult staff and volunteers who share a devotion to the potential of youth development works in the field of promoting practices for achieving positive development for youth community and society. It believes that one path to the answer to the crucial question of how to encourage our young people to be active participants in civic life is through youth involvement as leaders in civic activism, a forceful, dynamic strategy that recognizes that young people are capable of addressing societal problems and concerns and provides a forum for them to do so. In the process, young people acquire the core skills and competencies that prepare them to be community leaders now and in the future. The combination of youth leadership and civic activism offers great promise as a valuable approach in the broad constellation of positive youth development strategies giving them a feeling of belongingness, empowerment and purpose in life so essential for their healthy development. It is unfortunate that there are a large number of young people who feel strongly about the challenges their community face and who want to work to create positive change are often marginalized because their race, ethnicity or sexual preferences. However, if more and more young people are involved in civic activism, this problem of racism, culturalism and classism can be solved, as young people are generally open minded and are above these narrow boundaries. However, it is unfortunate that our society does not hold our youth in high esteem. When surveyed by the Search Institute recently, the most of the adults described them as "rude", "irresponsible" and "wild" and only one out of five people surveyed said that their community values youth. In order to provide our younger generation all these requirements, it is essential that a uniform national policy is developed that enables young people to develop into the type of adults that society needs for their future well-being and should be made in consultation with all concerned particularly the youth and has representation of all sections of the society belonging to either caste, creed, ethnicity, sex or sexual preference and encourage social solidarity through concrete measures. It should be practical actionable tool with clearly defined goals and indications on how to reach them and should make government accountable for non-achievement of its goals. The policy should articulate how all young people should benefit as well as contribute to the development of their societies. It is also necessary that youth are made aware of such policy in order to better understand their rights. It should promote education in all its aspects-namely, formal, informal and non-formal. Although policy to this effect has been formed in America, its effective implementation is required. The presence of the building blocks in a child's life also enables a child to withstand the negative influences on his life and be productive inspite of them. These have been stressed by Bonnie Benard in the article "Fostering Resiliency in Kids: Protective factors in the family, School and Community". After a long research, he has enlisted certain traits which resilient child has and they include social competence, a sense of one's own identity and an ability to act independently, caring relationship of at least one adult who provides support for healthy development and learning, high expectations causing him self-worth and self-esteem and lastly, providing him with opportunities for participation in the activities, arousing his critical thinking and analysis of events. These have "the power to serve as a 'protective shield' for all students and a beacon of light for youth from troubled homes and impoverished communities"1. A school can play a vital role in developing these traits in a child. Day in and day out we encounter incidences which test our resiliency. People around us do not always behave as we expect them to and sometimes if we are not strong enough, we are torn apart. However, if our upbringing has been done on solid foundation and we have a strong support system in the form of a loving and caring family or some other caring adults, we can easily withstand the negative impact of the behavior of people around us. Our spiritual faith can also play a key role and help us keep going in the most testing situations. In the end, we can conclude that collective efforts of individual, families, schools, neighborhood and organizations together can help build a solid foundation on which our younger generation can build a future, our posterities will be proud of. 1. Fostering Resiliency in Kids: Protective factors in the family, School and Community by Bonnie Benard an article in "far West Laboratory, from the Northwest Regional Centre for Drug-free Schools and Communities. References: 1. A Fragile Foudation: The State of Developmental Assets among American Youth a book based on the survey by Search Institute. 2. Fostering Resiliency in Kids: Protective factors in the family, School and Community by Bonnie Benard an article in "far West Laboratory, from the Northwest Regional Centre for Drug-free S chools and Communities. 3. Building Community: A Toolkit for Youth and Adults in Charting Assets and Creating Change by Innovation Center for Community Change. Read More