Narrative Approaches to Youth Work

<p>This is the book that youth workers who want to put into practice their desire to "meet youth where they’re at" have been waiting for. <i>Narrative Approaches to Youth Work</i> provides hope-filled and fresh conversational practices anchored in a critical intersectional analysis of power and a relational ethic of care. These practices help youth workers answer the all-too-common question, <em>what do I do when I do youth work?</em> The concepts and skills presented in this book position youth workers to do youth work in ways that honor youth agency and resistance to oppression, invite a multiplicity of possibilities, and situate youth and youth workers alike within broader social contexts that influence their lives and their relationship together.</p><p>Drawing on the author’s 30-plus years of working alongside young people and training youth workers in contexts ranging from recreation centers to homeless shelters, this book provides a rich and deliberate mix of theoretical grounding, practical application, real-life vignettes, and questions for in-depth self-reflection. Throughout <i>Narrative Approaches to Youth Work,</i> readers hear from a wise and thoughtful squad of youth workers talking about how they strive to do socially just, accountable, critical youth work.</p> <p>Foreword <em>Jennifer White</em>. Introduction: Matching Your Practice with Your Intentions <b>Section One:</b> <strong>Philosophical Groundwork for Relationally Engaged Youth Work </strong>1. Where You Coming From?: A Philosophy for the Practice of Youth Work 2. Power to the People: Positioning and Author-ity 3. Response-Ability: Relational Ethics and an Ethic of Care <strong>Section Two: From Philosophical Groundwork to Praxis</strong> 4. That’s a Good Story: Conversations that Do Things 5. Can You Hear Me Now?: Listening, Really Listening 6. Do Ya Feel Me?: Understanding the Other 7. I’m Not Telling, I’m Asking: The Art and Craft of Curiosity 8. You Got a Problem?: Language for Problems and Protests 9. Turn It Up: Making Meaning of Pop Culture <strong>Section Three: The Personal and Political Labor of a Youth Worker </strong>10. Lemme Work On That: Cultivating a Reflexive and Reflective Practice 11. Fight the System: Critical and Political Conversations Beyond the Drop-in, Rec Center, and Squat</p>