Essay on Maribel Empowers Southside Youth With Positive Youth Development in Snow City, NY

Snow City is a medium-size town located in the upstate of New York. Despite the fact that the majority of the people in the state are economically abled, there is a group of African-American who live in poverty and homelessness in the Southside. Besides, the area is characterized by high rates of unemployment. The media has been demonizing the local youth in the city. However, a youth work professional by the name Maribel intrudes on the aspects of positive youth development (PYD) and comes across Jasmin and Malcolm. Jasmin is a 16-year-old who is in his 9th grade and suffers from stresses from home, which is the case of many people in the city. Malcolm is a 17-year old who recently became a father and also suffered from the stress of raising a baby while at the same time trying to graduate. However, he is highly gifted in math.

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I have interacted with a young person by the name James who is in almost a similar situation to that of Malcolm and Jasmin. James is a 18-year old boy who comes from poor single parenthood. James is also diagnosed with autism conditions, which further complicates his ability to cooperate and read in school. However, James has strengths in science and the ability to make beautiful drawings.

Besides, James is multi-talented because he can sing as well as play football. His needs include someone to help him take him through therapies for his autistic condition, a mentor in singing and football, as well as finances to help his mother pay school fees for James. A strength-based approach is essential towards building a relationship. Therefore, an effective relationship can only be built by focusing on the strengths of an individual and converting them into opportunities. Given an opportunity, James can be a great footballer and singer because he has a talent and is as well passionate about them. Therefore, a positive youth development program and strength based approach is what James require to be successful and make an impact on his life while still a youth.

Community involvement plays an essential role in positively or negatively impacting on individuals. In the case of Jasmin and Malcolm, community involvement has helped them develop a self-believe in themselves. However, the community has negatively affected them because it believes that one can only make a meaningful life once a person becomes an adult. However, Maribel has helped both Jasmin and Malcolm to change the perspective and believe that they can make a lot of their lives when they are still youths through the positive youth development program. Besides, community involvement through Maribel's program has helped Malcolm and Jasmin to be confident and develop competencies.

However, the community has contributed negatively towards the lives of Malcolm and Jasmin. For instance, schools are under-resourced and do not work on the strengths portrayed by the two, such as how to strengthen their performance in math as well as provide advice and support towards the bringing up of Malcolm's baby. Therefore, the community lacks to focus on a strength-based approach to help the duo.

Community involvement helps both Malcolm and Jasmin in various ways, such as forming of collaborative and community-based approaches by involving them in aspects such as faith communities, civic organizations, as well as in businesses. Therefore, such initiatives help the youth to find opportunities that can transform their lives. Through the Positive youth development program, community involvement may be beneficial to Jasmin and Malcolm through promoting the aspects of inclusiveness and universality as well as identifying long-term developmentally appropriate involvement.

Positive youth development is an approach that focuses on working with the youth and concentrates on building on the strengths of youth as well as providing opportunities and support that help them in achieving their objectives as well as transitioning to productive adulthood in an effective and healthy manner. The principles of positive youth development include focusing on positive results, providing a platform for youth engagement as well as enable them to raise their voice, as well as the strength-based approach of enabling youth to transform their strengths into opportunities.

Some of the aspects of positive youth development include civic and social engagement, intellectual achievement, cultural engagement, employability, as well as emotional health. Youth workers need to have a certain set of life skills that enable them to manage work, school, as well as family and social relationships. Some of the essential skills that are required for youth workers include self-control, flexibility, ability to plan effectively, as well as having the ability to multitask.

Conclusion

Some of the skills that I possess include honesty, creativity, and innovation, integrity, hard work commitment to success, as well as teamwork spirit. Besides, I possess other skills such as social skills where I am able to freely interact with people from different social classes, as well as positive self-concept. However, some of the skills that I need to develop include the ability to communicate effectively, patience, ability to deal with annoyance and frustration, enthusiasm, as well as interdisciplinary knowledge.