Working for the Youth Essays

Working for the Youth Essays Working for the Youth Essay Working for the Youth Essay Establishing a social group to help the out-of-school-youth is one way to help the youth attain their dreams and be productive members of the society. While this would take a lot of effort and determination from volunteer groups, doing this would bring about some changes in the lives of the beneficiaries and their families. In this paper, we elaborate on the ten considerations posted by Author in establishing and facilitating a group. We apply each consideration to the establishing or a group committed to serve the out-of-school-youth. Working for the Youth Establishing a community group to help out-of-school youth will be one great contribution to the improvement of our nation. However, establishing a group is not an easy task. One needs relevant knowledge, skills, and determination to ensure the success of the group. Author (year) offers ten considerations every group should take when establishing and facilitating a group. Taking a look at these could help a lot to make the group carry out its tasks properly. First, Author suggests anticipating the positives and negatives of working together as a group. In establishing a group for out-of-school youth, the group should anticipate that not all the members have the same motive for joining, and not all are equally committed. Ideally, the members should have a common passion (World Vision Canada Web site, 2008). But since this is not possible, the members should be prepared for negative consequences to come about. For instance, the founder of the group may simply want to help the youth, while others want to serve their own purpose. In the case of establishing a group for the out-of-school youth, some could expect to benefit from the activities by having the right to do referrals of their relatives and friends. Also, some could think of using the group to earn societal influence and power especially when they are running for elections. To avoid this, the group should clarify with the member the purpose for joining, and make sure each understand s the goals of the group. In addition, the group members cannot expect the leader to be all-knowing and always be available. Leaders have other activities to attend to aside from the concerns of the group. Therefore, it will help if members could share in the responsibilities as they may be assigned. The positive things that the group can expect is the fulfillment each one can feel when they are able to accomplish their goals. If the group works hard, they could expect to help out-of-school youth by making them finish schooling and work at the same time. Next, the group should consider undergoing different phases or cycles. Author claims that just like the life cycle, each group will go through childhood, adolescence, adulthood, old age, and retirement. The out-of-school youth group to be established will initially go through difficulties of finding members, encouraging the youth to take part, finding resources to finance the activities, and making the youth achieve their goals. When it is already fully established, it will need to sustain support to its members by finding additional resources and recruits. Later on, it might also need to add services or people. In each stage, assessing performance against the goals is needed to document the difficulties and success in each cycle. The third consideration is to keep focused on the goals. Each member needs to know why the group for out-of-school youth is founded. As a social and recreational group, its main goal is to respond to the needs of the out-of-school youth to obtain education and guidance. Secondary to it are the desire to keep them away from drugs by providing recreational activities, and helping them earn a living. The fourth consideration is to identify activities of the group. These activities include maintenance activities and program activities. The first includes the work of the staff, such as setting up the place of work, collaborating, finding sponsors, making a newsletter or other forms of communication. Program activities are those from which the out-of-school youth would benefit. These may include educating them and designing programs to sustain their interest in the group. It is important to ensure they have the basic necessities in life, and make them feel accepted and loved. Being out-of-school, some of them may already be working at a young age. Therefore, aside from food, shelter and clothing, some may need time to play and express themselves through art. In this consideration, it might help to provide art classes and games where they would enjoy and find other means of self-fulfillment. The fifth consideration is to identify who may take part in the group. Definitely, there should be a leader to hold the group and guide it towards its goals. In the group to be created, there should be at least five members of the staff to initialize the planning and design stage. Being the beneficiaries, the out-of-school youth also play a key part. As such, there should be a target from the start of who will receive the benefits. Coordinating with community officials will help identify the youth needing intervention, and the support group willing to help in the project. The fifth consideration is the structure by which the group will accomplish its goals. Without a planned structure, achieving the goals of the group will be unclear. As such, the group should set the structure during the first phase, in order to identify roles and responsibilities of the key persons.   Structures can be easily defined according to the purpose they serve. In the group to be created, two structures are very clear: one is the education structure, and the other is the recreational structure. Those with relevant skills in education should be assigned in the first structure, while those who have experience holding recreational activities for the youth should be assigned of the second. This way, the goal of providing education and guidance to the beneficiaries will be sustained. The sixth consideration concerns the leader of the group. Importantly, the role of the designated leader should be identified. Doing this would also determine the kind of leadership role the group needs. In the group for out-of-school youth, the task-centered leader is needed to attain success. The leader of the group should have pertinent knowledge and skills to identify the needs of the group, gain resources, designate roles accordingly, arrive at the best communication system, and maximize participation from all stakeholders. Although the leader may be very knowledgeable and skilled, the help of the members should be equally valued. As such, the leader must maintain rapport with the members and two shall support each other in every undertaking. Finding a good working environment is the next consideration. As the group focuses on out-of-school youth, the meeting place or office should be near the dwelling of the beneficiaries. It should be free from any obstructions, and must provide room for recreational activities in the future. In addition, it should be free from hazards as taking care of the youth involves other safety requirements not found in adult environments. The way the leader would communicate with the members is also another important consideration. Open line communication is ideal for every social and recreational group. Importantly, the leader should serve as the model to the members in setting up an ideal environment where people can express their ideas and feelings in relation to the affairs of the group. To do this, the leader should employ ways to make each member express oneself. For example, in meetings, the members should be given a chance to raise their suggestions. This way, not all decisions would come from the leader but from the members as well. Moreover, in assessing the performance of the group, appreciation should be give to the relevant person, making all feel the importance of hard work and productivity. Mehra (2006) points out that the leader’s external communication skill is also necessary. This means that aside from communicating internally, the leader should also establish communication from outside networks especially those that can help in the organization. Freeman (2005) confirms the advantage of establishing social networks not just of the leader but also the members. Furthermore, members of the group should support each other verbally and nonverbally. Since the group to be created composes of two apparent structures, the members of each should have bonding with their group as well as with the others. The structures should not be a way to divide the members, instead it should serve as opportunity for support and appreciation. The assessment part where the group considers how well they perform is the last but not the least in Author’s suggestions. Assessment can sometimes create factions or conflicts in groups. To avoid this, respect should be exercised, especially in verbal language. The author points out that members should carefully construct statements when addressing others. For example, instead of saying, â€Å"You ignored me† one can say, â€Å"I felt ignored.† Notice that the change in the initial word from â€Å"you† to â€Å"I† could make a big difference. With these considerations come hard work and fun. In every situation, the group to be established should always make it a point to enjoy what they are doing so the work does not seem like work but a way to have fun. ASSIGNMENT 2 One of the groups that I joined was a religious group where I had a chance to teach people in the streets. The group did not actually intend to teach the Bible. Instead, we had basic math, language, art, and science. I was assigned of teaching language to kids in the street. I gained a lot from this experience and until now I still value the learning that I had. Just like any group, our group went through four stages as Tuckman (year) suggests. First, I saw it â€Å"forming.† During this stage, the leader of the group went about recruiting people who can commit some of their time during the weekends to teach street folks. Everyone joined in the planning where we had some â€Å"storming† or ideas. We tried to identify what needs to be taught in the subjects mentioned. The leader set up meetings for us to express our ideas and together come up with a standard. Each one was heard, regardless of the time we joined the team. During â€Å"norming† stage, we got more acquainted with each other. By this time we were very already very comfortable to express ourselves, and confide in each other. Also, the people we were already well acquainted with us, and they expected us to come at a certain time in the designated area. Next stage was the â€Å"performing† stage. When everything has been planned accordingly, we were ready - schedule, materials, target students, etc., we were prepared to teach. We bought our materials and taught the street people the basic lessons that we designed. For my part, I taught the people some words, then gave them exercises on sentence construction, then guided them to write a paragraph to express themselves. The people were very happy for what we did for them. One of the men even expressed that they benefited a lot from the activities. Also, the efforts we made allowed them to express themselves. As for us, we learned important insights about life in the streets, and the problem of lack of education. During assessments, we were happy to report our accomplishments, and recognized each other’s hard work and patience.† The lessons I learned from the organization I joined are truly valuable. However, just like some groups, ours reached its â€Å"adjourning.† As the members of group got married and later had kids to take care of, we soon had to give up the community service but we vowed to still be of service to those we will meet in the future.