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History
Where did we come from?
The
Youth Development Project (YDP) began as a small response to a urgent and
growing need in the community -- the critical need of young people trying
to find themselves and needing all the help they can get to reconnect with
their lives and families. The program began with only two people offering
youth development workshops to 10 or 12 students at a high school for
these youth.
From
that modest beginning, the program has grown. Over the past decade, the
impact of the program on the lives of the young people in the school has
increased dramatically. Moreover, because the need for programs for
working with the type of troubled youth who come to the school continues
to exist, the project continues to grow. Indeed, the project has grown and
evolved to the point were the program now serves a full range of needs
among the young people who seek services and is available in voluntary
alternative high schools throughout Miami and greater Miami Dade County.
The counseling services offered as part of the special program are
designed to help provide these young people with the extra support they
need as the make the difficult transition into adulthood. Getting these
youth re-engaged and empowered is the vision that drives our
efforts.
The
range of services we offer has expanded to address a full range of needs.
In addition to individual counseling, counseling groups offered as part of
the Youth Development Program, for example, include:
The
counseling groups are conducted by FIU graduate students in counseling,
development, social work, or education, and each of these group
facilitators is supported by a co-facilitator and one or two group
assistants (both graduate and undergraduate students). The management and
supervision of all program activities is the conjoint responsibility of
the YDP director, faculty, and staff and the principal, teachers, and
staff of partner schools.
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What
have we accomplished?
The
most significant results have been the impact that the program has had on
the students. Because partner schools are voluntary alternative high
schools, the students have available to them the full range of psycho
educational and counseling services provided by the program. Their
response to the program services has been extremely gratifying -- we often
have more students wanting to be in the program than we can provide
services.
The
students have not only responded to the program, the effect that is has
had on them at the personal level has also often been dramatic. The
program has touched their lives. For many of the young people in our
program, participating in the groups is experienced as personally very
meaningful and as having a marked impact on their life course. Indeed, a
number of them have expressed an interest in “helping out” with the
groups in the future. These experiences led to including a peer
co-facilitator component to our programs.
We
maintain a positive working relationship with the the principal,
teachers, and staff of participating high schools. This relationship
is one built on mutual support.
As collaborators in this partnership, we view our role as one of
supporting the teachers and staff in their role.
In the case of academics,
for example, we recognize the critical importance of successful academic
performance and consider our role as one
of supporting the teachers and staff in their efforts.
If
the students do not learn the skills and make the grades that will keep
them in school, they will not only fail their classes and be lost to the school system;
they will also not be able to make it the real world once they are out of
the system.
This
mutual support also takes the form of the cooperation and help from the
principal, staff, and teachers in our efforts to provide the extra help
these special high school students need. The support of the teachers and
staff is particularly important because many of the non-academic issues these young people face have a very
powerful and negative impact on their academics and, while we don’t
think we succeed in helping every young person who participates in our
program, we believe that we help to make it possible
for many to succeed who might not otherwise make it.
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The Vision
The
work that we are doing is thus both youth and community oriented – it is
intended to not only get the youth involved and committed to taking
control and responsibility for their personal lives, but also to getting
the community involved to meet the needs of troubled youth and to get
youth committed to being responsible members of the community.
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