Capstone Project Ideas

The first idea that came to mind was work that I've already been doing with how after-school programs can help disrupt the school-to-prison pipeline. A working group through RIAN which includes myself, has done a lot of work and had discussions around this and I think it could be interesting to write it all down.

When we looked at evaluation tools and I thought more deeply at the RIPQA I had the idea to dissect the way we engage young people in the tool and if it could be done better which I think could be really cool to try out in the Spring and give maybe a set of recommendations based on me trying out a new method.

I'm also about to (with my BLBC professors' approval) do a research-to-action paper about how to provide impactful after-school programming to refugee and newly arrived youth which I'm implementing at my work right now with a partnership with DORCAS. 

I also remember in Victoria's class we read Tema Okun's "White Supremacy Culture" which I was previously familiar with and I wrote in my blog about the idea of this text being used as an evaluation tool for organizations. Victoria and I talked about the power dynamics that are typically present in educational/ foundation observations that are all tangled up in white supremacy (perfectionism, one right way, objectivity etc.) and how this might flip the script. 

So yeah lots of ideas. I think I'm gravitating towards one of the first two but really wherever I feel I have the most support is where I'll go.

 

Damaged-Centered Research in Nonprofits

When I started reading Tuck's Letter to Communities and the description of damaged-centered learning, what came up for me immediately was the way that we see non-profits a lot of times talk about how they need funding because they work with an "at-risk" population or youth "in-need". Using buzzwords like low-income, BIPOC, and inner-city. I hear youth-serving organizations talk about how they've swooped in and saved the day and that their main goal is to "keep them off the drugs and from getting pregnant" (an actual quote from a former boss). And I think Tuck talks about this when it comes to research really well. This idea that the way we (researchers, youth workers, community workers, etc.) talk about the community we're focused on is often in a way that shows all the negative things they've gone through, and while these are important and should be addressed I think it often generalizes and makes assumptions from an outsider perspective and takes away from the community. 

Questions Tuck asks in their letter that I'll be taking with me

"What will be the outcomes and effects of this research in and on our communities?

Are we certain that the benefits will outweigh the costs?

What questions might we ask ourselves before we allow researcher entry?" pg. 410

Words new to my vocabulary

pathologizing analyses pg. 415

Depathologizing pg. 417

 

Educational Journey Map

I took this time to create my own journey map and reflect on my story.

From pre-k to about 2nd grade my experience was very positive. I enjoyed learning, I had great teachers, made friends easily, and the spaces I was in were fun and creative. In 3rd grade, I was put into a “gifted and talented” program. I say this in quotes because I really have no idea what qualified me for this program. I never thought about myself as any smarter or better than other students in class. I loved to read, I used to read to my dog, and we got to read “bigger” books and do special projects. We (there were four of us) would leave class during reading time and work with the reading specialist.

Sometime in 4th grade was my first bad experience in school. For some reason, could’ve been distracted, I didn’t finish an assignment in class that day and had to stay after school with my teacher to finish it. She was a good teacher, not the warm and fuzzy kind but good. I didn’t think much of it she never made me feel like I was in trouble until my mom came to pick me up and she was not happy with me saying that this was “embarrassing” when up until that point I hadn’t felt embarrassed at all. Maybe she thought I was in actual trouble at school and not that I just needed to finish up an assignment but then again who keeps a kid after school over one assignment. 

At the end of 4th grade, we moved to a new town, we had moved a lot when I was in elementary school but always in the same town. So I started 5th grade (middle school) in a new town with all new people where a grade has about 30 students total. They didn’t get a lot of new kids so I was very much so every student-focused. I didn’t realize it until much later in life but I was farther behind than everyone else academically. I hadn’t learned a lot of the math they already knew. Also during this year, my dad was diagnosed with melanoma cancer and my parents were clearly very distracted going back and forth to Boston to really be there for me to adjust. This is no hate on my parents at all they had a lot going on and I don’t think they felt they needed to worry about me because I had always been a good student. I think middle school is tough for everyone who just wants to be liked and I so badly wanted to be liked. I wanted to fit in more than anything, I wanted attention, and I started to struggle academically. I had started to experience teachers that weren’t so nice, and that didn’t take the time to be kind to me so I stopped trying so hard and they began to care less and less. I also think this is where my mental health began to come forward.

In high school I was able to get involved more, I was on the swim team (I had always been on a swim team but this was the first school team I was on), and I joined the marching band which means my elective period was also in the band. Being able to spend time with other people my age in the band was great, I formed new friendships quickly with all the hours we spent during, after school, and on the weekends. I really felt like I had a group of people and a passion. I also started my first job in after school during this time and really enjoyed working with youth. 

My mom is a teacher, most of her siblings are teachers, and a lot of my friends in high school were going to be teachers, so what did I decide to study in college? Teaching. The first year I didn’t really think anything of it, you mostly take gen. Eds, which is basically like taking another year of high school. But as we got more into education classes I was like “this is not my vibe” it felt like the same bad experiences I had with middle school, not making real connections with youth. And while yes I could’ve been the change I needed a space where I could foster and build on those skills. So I took a YDEV class and found my people. I switched my major, took a victory lap (extra year to finish undergrad), graduated, and entered the field.

 

My Youth Work Journey

*insert an image of my work-in-progress journey map drawing here!*

There are six key points in my journey as a youth worker that I think of

The first thing that starts my now 13-year career in youth work, is the Little Compton After School Club at the Community Center. I was 14 and did I need a job between the band, swim practices, and school work? Probably not but here we are. It was your average after-school club program in a small town. We would meet the students at the school and spend time at the playground, then walk up to the community center (like I said small town everything's close), have a snack, do some homework than do some crafts/activities. 

At my high school, you have to do some kind of senior project, the parameters were pretty vague, so I worked with my middle school band teacher to teach a small group of elementary school students to play the trumpet. It happened after school so while it was more of a teaching space it still felt separate from the school day and me being a new face there I think allowed the students to see it as such. 

Then, as I've talked about before, I went to RIC for education but ended up in YDEV which was definitely a big milestone in connecting the dots in my journey as a youth worker and showed me the possibilities of what I could do. In my last year of undergrad when we do our internships, I didn't have any local connections to organizations, a lot of my peers were currently working or knew of places where they could intern so it took me a lot longer to find something. I had only had experience working with elementary and middle school students so the first few places I checked out were for K-5 places and I didn't love any of them. I remember talking to Rachael and her suggesting this position for New Urban Arts at a high school and thinking how completely out of my comfort zone that was. But I checked it out anyways and for some reason, it stuck. So for a year, I got to know what it was like to work with high school students in a school.

I didn't know what I was going to do after I graduated with a BA, I still didn't know a lot about working in the YDEV field and NUA didn't have anything open at the time so I went back to my summer college job of making sandwiches for rich people at a beach club. Until Rachael* reached out and sent me a job description for a position she thought I'd be great at for Riverzedge Arts. Riverside was my first full-time youth work job and while there were a lot of things that were not great about the position and the organization it will always hold space for me that way.

I came to a point where I felt it was my time to leave Riverzedge and started looking for positions, this was during a time when COVID had been in our lives for over a year now but it was still affecting looking for jobs that I could support myself on that I would also actually enjoy doing. Luckily it perfectly aligned with when New Urban Arts were looking for a new Site Director for their programs at Central High School where I had interned my senior year in my BA. The most full circle moment I could experience and am very grateful for this job which has led me to get my MA in Youth Development.

*if you couldn't tell I owe A LOT to Rachael for guiding me to great positions twice so far

Research Pizza

My research pizza based on the RIPQA

I think the RIPQA is a mix of qualitative and quantitative data because when you are using the Form A observation tool you're scoring each section with either a 1, 3, or 5, and each observer comes together afterward to discuss the scores they gave and average the scores out to give one overall score. In the Form B section, people are asked to fill out the survey on their own, send it back in, and then meet as a group once overall scores and comments have been given anonymously to discuss areas for growth and set out 2-3 goals for the upcoming year with action steps. 

To me, it feels post-positivist since the researcher, or grant, in this case, holds all the power over what information is collected and observed. There might be a little Constructivism in there since as a group based on information shared in the Form B tool you decide on areas of growth. 

The three tools I see in this are Surveys (the Form B), Observations (Form A), and Focus Groups (Form A and Form B).

This is a dense evaluation tool but I'm excited to share it with class!

Evaluation and my Org

 

I work for New Urban Arts, specifically as their Site Director for NUA Knights, an expansion program at Central High school that started in 2017. This partnership was able to come to fruition with the funds from a 21st Century Community Learning Center (21st CCLC) grant. A lot of organizations in RI have 21st CCLC grants across all youth ages and types of programs from YMCA's to places like New Urban Arts. It's a competitive grant since funding has increased very little (if at all) for these grants and organizational needs over the years have increased. I've, unfortunately, seen many great youth-serving orgs lose crucial funding from 21st CCLC because of this. It's very nerve-wracking every five years when the grant is up and you must rewrite and submit a new application. Especially when it is the main, and biggest, the funding stream for your programs like it is for my programs at NUA Knights (we were luckily just awarded the grant again for another 5 years 🎉).

While you're in those 5 years, 21st CCLC has a way to observe and evaluate the quality of your programs. It is called the RIPQA, Rhode Island Program Quality Assessment, which was adopted and modified from other states using similar tools. There are two main parts to this, Form A and Form B. Form A is an observation tool that assesses if the programs offer a Safe, Supportive, Interactive and Engaging environment for young people. And Form B evaluates the organization itself on; Family and Civic Engagement, Staffing and Professional Development, and Program Leadership. 

While this is mandatory for programs with this grant I understand its importance but do feel it can often be surface level if an organization is not using it right. First, both Form A and Form B require the organization to form a team of key stakeholders to observe and evaluate the programs. Personally, I believe this needs to involve majority youth voices who are involved in the programs but I find that often does not happen, and are more adults in the space. But, if you are having the adults in the space evaluate how they run programs are you getting non-bias information? I think there could be a lot more evaluating of the evaluation (haha) tool to see if we're getting information from this to inform organizations on how to best serve young people. 

PASA (Providence After School Alliance) posted an article about the Value of RIPQA that you can read here if you want another opinion as well.

Understanding Evaluation

I get the idea Festen is going for when he talks about instincts in the non-profit world but I feel it's selling us a little short. Yes, I use a lot of instinct day to day in this work but when it comes to strategy and developing new ideas that's all skill. Is having the right instinct a skill? Sure, but it's more than that, it's creative problem solving, it's design thinking, it's years of practice and learning in the field, AND THEN it's instinct. I also don't know if it's only in recent years that we've been challenged to defend our work. I could be wrong but I feel like most grants that have ever been given to non-profits ask you to prove why you deserve the funding then you have to show results on how the funding made an impact and some even ask you to deliver on certain metrics.

Ok so strong opinions over here just from page 1 😅

I get the sense when Festen talks about what non-profits need to do or should be doing like they've never set foot in a non-profit. I think they make a lot of good points that as someone who was just learning about what a non-profit is would find useful but for those who have been doing the work for a while now this seems like a "no-brainer".

Understanding Research Ideologies

I've never looked at research through this lens before so this was a huge learning curve. I think in my experience I've only ever understood research and data collection as quantitative, which is more numbers-based, and qualitative, which is more focused on personal accounts. 

For me to better understand the three research ideologies I wanted to summarize them first based on what my understanding was (which could be totally out of left field so please correct me or let me know how you interpret them!)

Postpositive-full of neutrality and reason, doesn't take into account personal values and often generalizes while knowing it can't know everything or be certain of anything. Testing a theory/identifying something is happening.

Constructivist- understands context is important, more concerned about the social aspect of people, gives me "leading with" vibes when it comes to research as both the subject and researchers are seen as co-constructing the research. Building theory as to why something might be happening or how people might be thinking.

Critical-reality is a product of power and social relations, understanding values and political aspects as it relates to knowledge, social justice, and transformative change are at the center. Looking at social phenomena with a view to transforming something for the better.

I also really appreciated the character references as a nerd which made these more understandable.

For me, I think I align between constructivist and critical as my research ideologies. I want to work with the community I'm researching as co-researchers, I don't want anyone to feel like a subject. I also think if we're not doing research to make change and improvements then why are we even doing it? But, reflecting on how I have to collect data and information for grants and reports I don't think it's really any of these. Most data I'm collecting is all about numbers and results, not about people or making change. 

YDEV Ideologies round...4?

I think this is at least my fourth time taking this idealogy inventory since my time with YDEV. From it being 3 ideologies and being the only one (in my first YDEV class ever) to fall into what was then called Critical Youth Development to now feeling confident in not only identifying my own ideology but the ideology of organizations and of individual programs as well. For context, critical YDEV, if I recall correctly was sort of a combination of Civic and Social Justice YDEV. When I came back for my MA and Victoria re-introduced this to me and explained the now 4 ideologies I knew pretty quickly I would fall under the social justice YDEV ideology. That's always been my jam, working with youth on social justice topics they're passionate about. This is always my dominant ideology. 

     image taken at BLM march in Providence June 2020

Civic and Positive usually fall pretty close to each other and tail not too far behind Social Justice. Risk, Resiliency & Prevention is always last and is pretty far behind the others. I used to think that was the "bad" one because it just didn't align with how I felt about youth work. But, after a solid 5 (maybe more?) years of being able to learn and explore YDEV within this context, I've learned a lot about how each ideology is just better suited for certain orgs and spaces. 

I reflect on these a lot during my work as I feel personally I am SJ YDEV but that the organizations I find myself working for are more Positive YDEV, again, nothing wrong with that but I've been doing a lot of reflecting on what this means to me. I ask, does this feel ok, am I ok with where I'm at, and most importantly, are there opportunities for me to incorporate my ideology into my work/do I need to?

I ask "do I need to incorporate my ideology into my work?" because it's something I go back in forth on. On one hand, I think about how beneficial this could be to the young people I work with and believe it would hugely empower them. On the other, sometimes I think about the spaces youth are going to need to be just as they are, positive, safe spaces for youth to explore and express themselves. Which brings me to my final question "is introducing/exposing them to spaces that do provide SJ youth development enough?"

What is Productivity

I really resonated with this idea of productivity that Tyler Denmead talks about, both in my personal life and in the work I do working with an arts organization.

I think personally this is something I've always struggled with being someone who has struggled with mental health. A lot of times I am so overwhelmed by tasks or just lack motivation in general that I end up not doing anything (this turns into watching tv or scrolling social media most of the time) and feel guilt for being unproductive. That I'm not doing anything with my life, or I'm not doing the hobbies I enjoy doing because I feel stressed or tired. 

My therapist asked me the other week "but is that not productive to you?" implying that if I've gone to work all day (and sometimes to another job or to class and then working some more on the weekends with some side hustles sprinkled in) is spending my free time as a couch potato unproductive to me. And while I think no because I need that mental break and de-stress of just focussing on if Ross and Rachel were on a break or not (they were NOT if anyone wants my opinion), I think society would look at that and think it's lazy. Maybe that's my idea of how society views things but I think there is just so much pressure to work, and work multiple jobs so you have enough money, socialize with friends, keep up with household chores, contribute to the economy (go shopping, out to dinner, concerts, etc.), cook, sleep 8 hours, have a hobby, be active, the list goes on, that if I use what little free time I have to take a break that I feel shameful. A lot of this is my own anxiety and stress but I don't think I'm the only one who has this tug-of-war with productivity.

I think we do it a lot with our youth too when they express their interest in something. Even when they're young when a child loves to draw we say "oh they're going to be a famous artist one day" or "they're going to be a professional basketball player" because we gave them a basketball toy at 6 months. We're already demonstrated at a young age that we need to monetize and make a career out of the things we enjoy. For some people that's fantastic, I know so many successful artists who enjoy creating and selling their work, but for others, why can't their joy for painting just be a joy for painting? Why do we need to put this pressure on young artists to show their work in galleries and try and get them to monetize on it? A lot of times I think we're then putting stress on people and taking away that joy they once had. I wonder what it would look like to have an art program where youth just come to make art just because they enjoy it. I think New Urban Arts does still do a fantastic job at fostering this and Denmead makes some great points about this pressure coming from potentially harmful adults in those spaces and also how funders and grants are often putting this pressure onto the staff which is projected onto the youth. I wish more people could recognize that sometimes a youth space needs to be just that. Not a space where they can make up work, improve their reading test scores, or get tutoring but a space where youth get to be themselves no questions asked no pressure added. 

Care

 

I think about being at RIC for my undergrad and being in the spring of my junior year when my dad passed. My teachers knew (I had to send them each emails about it) because I needed to miss a week of class. Lucky it was only a week since the day he passed was the first day of spring break so I had plenty of time, one of them said to me. Little did they know I was supposed to leave that next day to visit a friend studying abroad in Ireland and to celebrate that I was about to turn 21. 

I don't remember who told me about the counseling services available at RIC free to students, it definitely wasn't that professor. But I was so thankful to be able to have that resource. To me, that was the care I needed in that moment. I needed a safe, un-bias space to talk about what I was feeling and experiencing. From the woman at the main desk, who after I graduated continued to offer me resources for support, to the woman I opened up to on a weekly basis, I felt cared for. 

I was so appreciative that this was something RIC offered. It was tough when I graduated I was nervous about going somewhere else to get support and I didn't try another therapist until this summer. I had to go through my own insurance, which was expensive even with it (my work insurance is garbage) and then it took forever for me to get an available appointment. When I was finally able to speak with someone and express what I was feeling and going through they chalked it up to me "working a full-time and part time job and starting a Masters program" and "just being tired". Needless to say I never went back to them again. So when I finally started this program the counseling center was one of the first places I reached out to. I think this is because of the positive experience I had with them in undergrad and the care I was given.