M 11 - Design for Youth Empowerment

Kursbeschreibung / -kommentar

In this class we will engage with the question of how to design interventions and programs for youth empowerment. While much of social work has been grounded in remedial work focused on individual, therapeutic intervention, in this class we will explore community-oriented social work approaches that have a greater commitment to social change and empowerment.
Youth empowerment is about facilitating young people to gain the ability, authority, and agency to make decisions and implement change in their own lives and the lives of other people. As the first pillar of the class, we will engage with two specific approaches to empowering youth: Positive Youth Development and Social Justice Youth Development.
As the second pillar, we will question whether the approaches and assumptions we bring to our work as social workers actually fit the needs and wishes of the diverse communities that we work with. In this context, we will engage critically with questions of ‘authenticity’ and ‘cultural relevance’ in social work.
The third pillar of this class is an exploration of the methods and tools that will allow us to design interventions and programs for youth empowerment. The methods we will get to know, and try out, are community needs assessment, participatory action research, photo voice, and participatory design.