Dilemmas in Youth Work and Youth Development Practice [Hardcover]

1. Becoming a Youth Worker  2. Learning to 'Read': Cultivating Ecological Intelligence  3. Navigating Inexperience: How Reflection Guides Practice for a Novice Youth Worker  4. Balancing High Expectations, Program Structure, and Youth Realities: Making Kids Fit the Program or the Program Fit the Kids  5. Balancing Conflicting Values from Home, a Youth Organization, and the Community: Keeping Youth Wellbeing at the Center of Youth Work  6. Youth Worker and Organizational Responses to Risky Behavior and Dangerous Situations  7. Balancing Youth Privacy with the Youth Worker's Need for Information: The Importance of Organizational Support in Dilemma Resolution  8. Activating Personal Knowledge to Balance the Needs of High-risk Youth with the Safety of Others in the Program  9. 'When I Heard Who it Was, I Knew it Wasn't a Real Gun': 'Reading' the Context to Maintain Safety  10. 'Do They Think We're Not in Charge?': Addressing Dilemmas that Arise in a Social Justice Youth Development Approach  11. Cross-cutting Themes and Implications for Youth Worker Professional Development

This text explores a variety of challenging situations in youth work practice. Presenting a framework for dilemma resolution, narratives from youth workers reflect on dilemmas they have faced and the knowledge and experiences they brought to bear on them, contributing to a practice-based theoretical foundation for youth work.

The fundamental aim of youth work is to build trusting and mutually respectful relationships with young people, creating transformative experiences for young people in formal and informal spaces outside of homes and schools. These complex and multidimensional situations mean that the day-to-day work of youth workers is full of dilemmas, pitting moral, developmental, motivational, organizational, and other concerns against each other.