What is the Value of Youth Work? Symposium Booklet

As a group of experienced and novice youth workers, we believe that youth work is fundamentally about building trust-filled, mutually respectful relationships with young people. We create safe environments for young people to connect with other supportive adults and peers and to avoid violence in their neighborhoods and their homes. We guide those harmed by oppressive community conditions such as racism, sexism, agism, homophobia, and classism through a process of healing. As we get to know more about young people’s interests, we help them develop knowledge and skills in a variety of areas including: academic, athletic, leadership/civic, the arts, health and wellbeing, and career exploration. In short, we create transformative experiences for young people. In spite of the critical roles we play, we have largely been overlooked in youth development research, policy, and as a professional workforce. We face challenges ‘moving up’ in our careers. We get frustrated by how little money we earn. We are discouraged that despite our knowledge and experience we are not invited to the tables where youth funding, programming, and policy decisions are made. It is true—many of us do not have formal training or degrees in youth work—a reality which at times we regret. Yet, as our colleague communicates in the accompanying passage (see below), we resent that formal education is required for us to get ahead, particularly because we question whether we need it to do our jobs more effectively. Through the “What is the Value of Youth Work?” symposium, we hope to address these concerns through a dialogue about youth work with the following objectives: • Increase awareness of the knowledge, skills, contributions, and professionalism of youth workers; • Advance a youth worker professional development model that integrates a dilemma-focused approach with principles of social justice youth development; • Launch an ongoing Worcester area Youth Worker network. This booklet provides a brief overview of the challenges in ‘professionalizing’ youth work and an alternative approach that we are advancing that puts the knowledge and expertise of youth workers at the center of professional development

Youth and Young Adult Homelessness in Worcester, Massachusetts:

Supporting Worcester’s ongoing effort to understand and address youth and young adult homelessness, the Community Roundtable on Youth Homelessness in conjunction with the Compass Project and Clark University conducted the fourth annual Point-in-Time Survey during October of 2012. Young people were surveyed at city shelters, youth programs, outside of schools, in parks, and on the streets of Worcester. Out of the 753 young people (ages 13to 25) surveyed, 120 (16%) dentified as homeless. We define homeless to include young people in shelters, staying with others temporarily (i.e. couch surfing) or on the streets. In addition to these 120 young people, another 220 youth who were housed reported that they had a friend who was homeless. As in prior years, when compared to their housed counterparts in the study, homeless youth: Have experienced more residential instability and family conflict; Have more precarious income situations; Are more likely to have children; Are more likely to have had involvement with the foster care and/or juvenile justice systems; and Have faced more barriers accessing services

Representation and Measurement of Stereoscopic Volumes

Binocular disparity information provides the human visual system with a basis for the compelling perception of both three-dimensional (3D) object shape, and of the 3D space between objects. However, while an extensive body of research exists into the perception of disparity-defined surface shape, relatively little research has been conducted on the associated perception of disparity-defined volume. In this paper, we report three experiments that examine this aspect of binocular vision. Participants were asked to make judgements about the 3D spread, location-in-depth and 3D shape of stereoscopic volumes. Volumes were comprised of random dots with disparities drawn from a uniform distribution, a Gaussian distribution, or a combination of both. These results were compared to two models: one of these made judgements about stereoscopic volumes using information about the distributions of disparities in each stimulus, while the other was limited to only maximum and minimum disparity information. Psychophysical results were best accounted for by the maximum-minimum decision rule model. This suggests that, although binocular vision affords a compelling phenomenal sense of 3D volume, when required to make judgements about such volumes, the visual system’s default strategies make only limited use of available binocular disparity signals

Worcester Youth Violence Prevention & Reduction Strategic Plan: Needs and Resources Analysis

Most young people in Worcester are healthy, productive, and contribute to their community. They are on a path toward a secure and successful adulthood. However, there is a subset of young people—disproportionately Black and Latino males living in the city’s most distressed neighborhoods—who enter a cycle of violence at an extremely early age. Our aim with this report is to provide Worcester residents and decision-makers with data and frameworks that will help the community prioritize areas for action and identify solutions to reduce youth and gang violence. We acknowledge the excellent prevention work happening in the city and with this report we hope to shed light on the needs of the relatively small percentage of young people who are falling through the cracks of the prevention sector. Key findings of this report include: Community, school, family, and individual risk factors known to contribute to youth violence and gang involvement are quite prevalent in Worcester: Family residential instability and economic stress Youth and adult unemployment Early childhood trauma Generational cycles of gang and criminal involvement Distressed built environment coupled with limited neighborhood recreational activities School climate and punitive discipline policies Youth mental health, substance abuse, and exposure to violence Worcester has a strong prevention sector and emerging programs for proven-risk young men. However, the location and types of community resources and the location of violent crime hotspots have been persistent over time. Business as usual is insufficient to address gang and youth violence. Worcester needs a strategic, coordinated plan to addressing youth and gang violence because currently we have siloes instead of systems. We also need to build trust and respect between families and providers to counter families’ isolation and disconnection from resources. Given these findings, Worcester needs to prioritize the following possible directions for action: A concerted focus on early childhood health, education, and overall wellbeing Restorative Justice approaches in schools and the community that can divert young people from entering the juvenile justice system Significant street outreach presence to interrupt violence and connect young people to resources Effective community-based sanctions for those awaiting trial or on probation in the community Effective reentry programs that support young men coming back into the community and reduce the likelihood of recidivism Trauma-sensitive services and environments There is potential for early identification and diversion at various stages of a young person’s life. Not taking action has costs not only for the victims and perpetrators of violence, but for our community as a whole. We look forward to the community conversations that will take place in response to this report. We hope to incorporate the lived experiences of residents to complement this analysis and help us move towards action. We are convinced that through dialogue and concerted collaborative work, we can transform these community conditions for the betterment of everyone who lives and works in Worcester

Navigating the Boundaries of Youth Violence Prevention and Reduction: Reflections on Power in Community Engaged Scholarship

Community-engaged scholars grapple with power asymmetries in community-university partnerships, generally working from the assumption that deliberate practices are required to moderate the researchers’ power vis-a-vis that of the community. In this article, we suggest that this dyadic framing masks the complexity of power dynamics within communities, of which the university is just one part, and examine how power is negotiated in the boundary zones of a partnership. We use Third Generation Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) as a conceptual framework to analyse the structural and cultural dimensions of the boundary zone in which research, learning and action in our partnership occurred (Engeström 1996). A brief story sheds light on our boundary work which uses research and data to span, broker and shake institutional boundaries for the purpose of youth violence prevention and intervention. Our analysis illuminates the potential and limitations of our power to foster transformational change. It also allows us to show that underestimating power differentials and the diversity of values and cultures within an organisation and between a university and a community partner, and certainly across multiple institutions in the case of a cross-sector partnership, can slow down and even thwart work to address societal problems

Problem Analysis in Community Violence Assessments: Reavealing Early Childhood Trauma as a Driver of Youth and Gang Violence

Problem analysis conducted by a university-based research partner can provide communities with data-driven options to address the local drivers of serious youth and gang violence. Situated in Worcester, Massachusetts, this article describes how after early childhood trauma was identified as a potential driver of adolescent and young adult violence, problem analysis using local data confirmed that being the victim or witness of a traumatic incident before the age of 12 was significantly correlated with involvement in violence in adolescence or young adulthood. While there is a robust literature on the relationship between early childhood trauma and later delinquency, local decision-makers did not consider this knowledge actionable until the research partner used the city’s own police records to demonstrate the extent of the problem in the city. Rigorous problem analysis, conducted collaboratively between practitioners and an academic research partner, helped to compel local change and ensured that strategies addressed the right risk factors and directed service to the appropriate target population

Analysis of Worcester\u27s Youth Employment Sector

Overall, the employment rate for Worcester youth has improved since 2000; yet mirroring the nation, Worcester continues to have a smaller share of youth 16-24 employed. This situation is intensified for youth of color and young people facing barriers such as homelessness, exiting foster care, juvenile justice involvement, and limited English proficiency. Mass, Inc. estimates that in Worcester there are 3400 disconnected youth—756 are between 16-19 and 2644 are between 20-24. From the youth employment program inventory, we learned that the city’s programs offer many opportunities for “first job” experiences; has some exemplary programs that integrate youth development and workforce development; and is rich in non-profit and government partners to support youth employment. Through the Job1 initiative, the city is attempting to leverage the WIOA framework to increase the region’s collaborative efforts for youth employment and readiness, especially as it relates to private sector engagement. We also learned that there are some significant gaps in the youth employment sector. For example, private sector involvement is limited; pathways to an appropriate postsecondary education track is not clear after youth complete their “first job” experience; there are limited training, credentialing, and apprenticeship opportunities for disconnected youth that lead to living wage career options; systems to monitor and evaluate local labor market trends, programmatic efforts and youth’s individual progress are largely missing; questions were raised about whether youth see summer employment as ‘real jobs’ and whether they are authentic work experiences; and while the city is rich in partners, there are some key actors who are not currently at the Worcester Youth Jobs Task Force table (e.g. several WIOA funded partners, Quinsigamond Community College, and private sector actors). Taken together, this analysis on the local youth workforce, labor market, and current programs offer a robust foundation on which to build new strategies to increase the employment prospects of our city’s 1 With support from Clark University’s Mosakowski Institute

Growing Greener: Step by Step

In 2008, the Green Himmelfarb task force identified areas in which the staff could easily improve the environmental impact of the Himmelfarb Health Sciences Library. This poster presentation is a summary of the library\u27s initiative to evolve into a green library

Sleep Disturbances in PTSD

Stress-induced alterations in sleep have been linked to the development of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and sleep complaints and disturbances in arousal are continuing symptoms in patients. PTSD-related changes in sleep have not been fully characterized but involve persistent disturbances in both rapid eye movement sleep (REMS) and non-rapid eye movement sleep (NREMS). PTSD is considered a disorder of the fear circuitry, which includes the amygdala, dorsal anterior cingulate, hippocampus, and ventromedial prefrontal cortex. Currently, several animal models are used to examine the underlying neurobiology of PTSD; however, sleep has been characterized in only a limited number of models. Intense conditioned fear training, which may best model PTSD in rodents, can produce reductions in REMS as well as alterations in NREMS that may vary with mouse and rat strains. The amygdala, a central region in current concepts of PTSD, plays significant roles in regulating the stress response and changes in stress-induced alterations in arousal and sleep. This chapter reviews sleep-related findings in patients with PTSD and in animal experimental paradigms currently utilized to model the disorder, as well as the neurobiology that has been linked to disturbed sleep in PTSD. It will also discuss the impact of PTSD treatments on sleep disturbances

Réception et interprétation du couple dans les jeux otome : une approche anthropologique d’un corpus vidéoludique japonais

Ce mémoire tente de mieux comprendre ce que sont les jeux otome japonais et le rapport entre le jeu et la culture. En effet, à travers l’interaction que le jeu permet, celui-ci offre au joueur la possibilité d’explorer de nouvelles identités et par la même occasion, devenir un outil de (re)négociation culturelle. Puisque les jeux otome sont principalement créés pour plaire à un marché féminin japonais, les idéaux culturels en ce qui concerne les performances de genre féminin seraient logiquement intégrés dans les diverses trames narratives qui sont présentées, bien que ce processus puisse être involontaire de la part de leurs créateurs. Puisque les jeux otome reposent principalement sur la réussite de la formation d’une relation amoureuse avec un personnage masculin, ceci semble faire écho à la critique nationale envers le célibat féminin; il est attendu des femmes qu’elles remplissent leur rôle en tant qu’épouse et mère sous l’institution du mariage. Malgré le fait que cet idéal ne puisse pas toujours être suivi en raison de situations socio-économiques tel l’éclatement de la bulle financière de 1990 et des nœuds de résistance de la part des plus jeunes générations au fil du temps, cette notion demeure imprégnée dans la culture japonaise. Cela ne veut pas dire que les femmes jouant à des jeux otome sont contraintes d’accepter ces rôles. Par le biais de la jouabilité et de leur alter-ego numérique qu’est leur avatar, elles peuvent prendre part à l’ordre social établi sans pour autant s’y conformer. En fait, cela peut même être perçu comme un moyen de subvertir l’intention originale puisque ces femmes alimentent une relation retranchée des attentes sociales de la maternité.This thesis tries to shed light on Japanese otome games and how player agency through the video game medium can lend itself to the exploration of new identities by the player and become a tool for cultural (re)negotiation. As otome games have been mainly created for female customers in the insular Japanese market, cultural ideals regarding female gender performance would logically be embedded in the various narratives that are presented, albeit this process may be unintentional by their creators. Since otome games hinge mostly on obtaining a successful romantic relationship with a male character, this seems to echo national criticism of female celibacy; women should fulfill their roles as wives and mothers through marriage. Although this ideal may not be upheld due to socioeconomic happenstance such as the crash of 1990 and has found pockets of resistance throughout the younger generation as time went by, this notion still permeates Japanese culture. That is not to say women who play otome games are bound to accept these roles. Through the use of play and their digital proxy that is their avatar, they can take part in the social prescribed order without submitting to it. Moreover, it could be seen as a way to subvert the original intent in doing so, as they embrace a relationship that is withdrawn from the social expectation of childbirth