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Community As A Healer
Sidney George
A project for PSYC159E at the University of California, Santa Cruz
March 23rd 2017
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Community As A Healer
bring awareness to the fact that there are thousands of youth today without
a stable home but it necessary that we talk about the invisibility of these
youth. These youth get by slipping under the radar of recognition because
they dont fit our stereotypical image of what homelessness looks like. But
their invisibility doesnt mean that their struggles arent significant or that
they hurt less. It needs to be acknowledged that with community help and
support we can combat the obstacles that may confront us when as we work
be even more pressing to talk specifically about youth, when there are still
solely only focus on youth homelessness, when in California alone there are
number not only takes into account unsheltered people but individuals that
might be couch surfing with friends or relatives. The main reason why it is
important to talk about our youth is because of the simple fact they are our
youth: as youth who are homeless, they will lose out on many life
opportunities without shelter and the protection of family life. It can be hard
as a developing youth but with supportive systems put in place youth are
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able to flourish and develop into an adaptable adult that can succeed even
when faced with adversity. We want a country, better yet a world of strong
adults. The only way this can be achieved is if we are constantly working to
better the lives of our youth through positive and individualized services.
In the case of many homeless youth they are lacking in the first
support system given to them, their family. They may have been in and out
of the foster system. Their family might have kicked them out over their
because they are struggling with an addiction, or just because they are done
raising them. Instead of using our usual explanation that homeless youth
deserve to be where they are at or arent trying hard enough to seek out
support, we need to focus more on what we can do to help. These youth are
not weak and neither are they useless just because they are or have been
there factors that place a youth at a higher risk for becoming homeless.
higher risk for becoming homeless (African American & Hispanic). While the
issue at hand is youth homelessness that does not mean that the problem is
due to actions brought on by the youth community. The problem stems from
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have allowed our own issues with addiction create an unhealthy home
dynamic. We as society let our youth who have aged-out of the system at
the age of 18, left without proper support. Our children have been beaten
have either kicked them out or left them feeling alone with nowhere to turn
parents/guardians. There are many adults that do all they can to support
their youth, and unfortunately their youth still falls prey to addiction or gang
back to and of course in their minds theyre safer away from that, though the
reality is that they actually might not be at all safer (Erbentraut, 2014). This
makes it a community issue when our youth will challenge the unknown of
We must not forget that the blame cannot solely be placed on our
parents and guardians. Our society has put into place specific systems, in
this case the juvenile justice system that works in many ways benefitting
itself and not the youth. When it works in the circular sense it turns into a
cycle of oppression, acting like a revolving door. After the Coalition for
Juvenile Justice interviewed runaway and homeless youth they found that,
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78% had at least one interaction with the police and about 62% had been
arrested at some point (Pilnik, 2016). These are high percentages of youth
sleeping in places they arent suppose to or curfew laws. These youth are
acts to receive a few bucks or steals from a grocery store just to ensure that
they have food that day. Instead of our justice system providing resources or
aid at the time of the arrest, these acts are seen as criminal and the youth
Prevent Act in the 1970s, its aim was to reintegrate and rehabilitate young
from jail they were released back into the same environment that they
started in, only to commit the same or harsher crimes or left without support
struggling to find employment, stay off the streets and make ends meet.
higher than that in the adult criminal justice system (Covenant House,
2017). Without our support these youth have very low success rates after re-
entry because they lack the life skills and knowledge that are needed to be a
successful adult. If we dont provide the support how will they know how to
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As individuals who were able to complete school and live at home until we
ready to move on, we were taught these skills. We need to stop penalizing
these youth for not succeeding when our juvenile justice system was not
made for them and they have stunted growth when it comes to skill
development.
Reform
solution for improving the juvenile justice system and it includes practicing
positive youth justice while making sure that the steps taken are evidence-
youth with the message that even the most dis- advantaged young person
supports, positive roles, and relationships (Bazemore, Butts & Meroe, 2010).
The youth does this by actively engaging in the two core assets while they
work on the 6 practice domains. The two core assets are Learning/Doing and
successfully develop under each practice domain. The practice domains are
(Bazemore, Butts & Mare, 2014). Under the relationships domain, the youth
might learn conflict resolution and under education, they might learn career
planning. All crucial skills to have in this world. Through working on the core
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assets and the practice domains the youth will develop positive relations
with others and their community which will instill within them the value that
ones community has on them. They will see first hand how community can
heal. It is important to recognize that not all juvenile justice system programs
are ineffective. Yes, some definitely are and those are the ones that we need
to reform. We know now, without a doubt, that there are current programs
that are working for the youth instead of against them. These programs
deal with on a daily basis. The sooner we build more programs with a focus
on efficiency and youth success we will see a turn around for our juvenile
justice system.
healing factor. I believe that a key factor to ensuring the success and
the youths development. The ones who know the most about the
communities strengths and weaknesses are the ones living there. That is
why I created the Youth Over The Rainbow foundation. The foundations
When creating this foundation I was inspired by the work of Lateefah Simon.
She served as an example of someone who came from very little but wanted
to do better for herself and wanted to provide her community with positive
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aggressive form of leukemia. She spoke on the positive effect that having
support from family members, friends and strangers from Facebook had on
that experience. The support from the community was the medicine, or the
elixir that they needed (Tedx Talks, 2014). This same elixir can be applicable
Conclusion
and our current juvenile justice system, that doesnt mean that those
and out dated methods of tackling this problem. The time is now to focus on
changing the systems that help govern our communities while these
communities and our youth are being rebuilt. Without our efforts the number
to be stronger then we need to put more work into the youth that will
References
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Bilchik, S., Carver, D., Dhere, S., Howell, J. C., Kelly, M. R. (2014). Juvenile
justice system
improvement project. Center for Juvenile Justice Reform.