Activating Youth As Change Agents

In Activating Youth as Change Agents, editors Amy L. Cook and Ian P. Levy describe the applications of Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) as a youth-oriented group process where school counselors collaborate alongside students in developmentally relevant ways to achieve their goals toward personal growth and positive school-community improvement. The book provides practitioners and counselors-in-training with group-counseling skills focused on action and how to engage in social justice efforts both locally at their school and in their communities.

In Activating Youth as Change Agents: Integrating Youth Participatory Action Research in School Counseling, editors Amy L. Cook and Ian P. Levy aim to reshape the way school counselors work with youth by shifting the power dynamic to allow young people to tell their stories and uncover the hidden inequities and power structures that disproportionately harm Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) as well as other marginalized groups. Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) is an action-oriented research and group approach that encourages critical examination of experiences and knowledge in ways that seek to promote youth and community development. The authors describe the applications of YPAR as a youth-oriented group process where school counselors collaborate alongside students in developmentally relevant ways to achieve their goals toward personal growth and positive school-community improvement. In section one of the book, YPAR is introduced with a focus on the individual/small group level. In sections two and three, authors provide developmentally relevant descriptions and report on YPAR projects conducted in small and large groups, and illustrate YPAR at the community level. Activating Youth as Change Agents is essential reading for school counseling professionals and trainees who are seeking how to engage in culturally responsive counseling practice that helps build counselors' self-awareness and understanding of bias, and how to collaborate with others to improve systems that are unjust. Additionally, this book provides practitioners and counselors-in-training with group-counseling skills focused on action and how to engage in social justice efforts both locally at their school and in their communities.

Youth Change Agent empowers adults dedicated to preventing young people from taking the wrong path. You can become the change agent youth need to succeed. Authored by activists and educators Keith Strickland and Lucas L. Johnson, Youth Change Agent is your comprehensive guide to the best practices for your work to prevent young people from going down the wrong path. Youth Change Agent sheds light on the critical aspect of preventing incarceration altogether. It delves into the pressing issues that plague today's youth, from drug abuse and gun violence to risky sexual behavior and destructive materialism. In addition to presenting tips and techniques for productive conversations with young individuals, the book delves into the crucial topics of trust-building and risk assessment. Strickland and Johnson emphasize the importance of creating a nonjudgmental environment that fosters open communication and encourages young individuals to explore their potential without fear of criticism or disapproval. By gauging the highest risks youth face, the authors offer insights to help readers understand and address the root causes of risky behavior while inspiring young individuals to envision a brighter future. Drawing upon Strickland and Johnson's vast experience working with schools, courts, law enforcement agencies, and correctional facilities across multiple US states, this book provides invaluable guidance. Whether you are a mentor, therapist, social worker, or concerned parent, this indispensable resource will allow you to make a positive difference in the lives of our next generation.

Authored by activists and educators Keith Strickland and Lucas L. Johnson, Youth Change Agent is your comprehensive guide to the best practices for your work to prevent young people from going down the wrong path.

This edited collection outlines the issues central to youth engagement in research and social innovation. Youth-driven innovation for social change is increasingly recognized as holding potential for the development of sustainable strategies to tackle some of the most pressing global challenges of our time. The contributors provide additional knowledge concerning what actually constitutes an enabling environment, as well as the most effective approaches for engaging youth as architects of change. While sensitive to the need for contextual appropriateness, the volume contributes to the development of shared understandings and frameworks for engaging and spurring youth-driven innovation for social change worldwide. Youth-Driven Social Innovation showcases examples of youth engagement in frugal and reverse innovation worldwide, alongside examples which demonstrate the tremendous potential of South-South learning, but also learning and youth innovation in the Global North. It will be of interest to students and scholars across a range of disciplines including education, sociology, anthropology, public health, and politics.

From her own experience in various agencies and organizations, Dr. Rusaw knows that to inspire change in any organization and particularly in the public sector, change agents must understand that change is primarily collective, nonrational, and nonlinear. People who seek to create change cannot stand apart from the problems, issues, and concerns raised by their constituents, but must merge themselves into the data-making, analysis, and diagnosis phases of consulting. The agent must, in other words, participate actively in creating change—and how the agent must do this, why, and the effects the agent can expect are the subjects of Dr. Rusaw's book. Few books discuss public sector change in the way Dr. Rusaw does here, and none incorporate the phenomenological perspective that she uses. Her book will appeal to practicing public administrators who seek real-life examples presented in conversational language. It will also be important for teachers and students in public administration, specifically in courses in organizational behavior, leadership, organization theory, human relations, and public personnel management. Not only can change agents help public employees serve the purposes set out for them more effectively and efficiently, but by service and other efforts they can also help reverse the downward trend that has characterized the public sector in recent years. Dr. Rusaw maintains that such change is made possible by personal transformation, certainly, but also by interpersonal transformations. By focusing on individual and group needs as keys to organizational change, change agents can facilitate what is most needed: not just localized alterations but widespread, holistic transformations. Her book looks at the role of healing—particularly, the inherent skills of listening, empathizing, and encouraging—and at the ways in which people can confront and solve problems in negotiated environments. She also sees that central to re-education and re-socialization is the quality of the change agent's inner person: how well the agent is able to understand the role of self in the change process. Her book provides ways in which agents can inspire others to change too. In other words, Dr. Rusaw sees organizational change as a process moving from the inside to the outside, and it is on this foundation that her unusual, thoughtful, and ultimately practical book is based.