Positive Youth Development by: Jutta Dotterweich

REFLECTION

In this blog I will be talking about Prevention Research on youth. The slide that I had to focus on talked about the Risk factors, Protective factors and Goals of prevention. When talking about prevention in this power point the author is talking about preventing our youth from heading in a direction that will ultimately lead to the destruction of their life. 

When listening to this power point it made me think about the direction that I am headed in with the Youth Development program. I have for a long time wanted to help youth, but I was not quite sure in what way. At first, I thought maybe in an hospital or school setting, but then within that I realized many of the limitations that came in those positions that I felt would limit my impact on a child's life that really needed it. What Youth development has helped me to do, and what this power point reminded me of was my reasoning for joining this program and my long-terms for my  career and also the children of the up and coming generations. I have had many experiences with children who have came out of foster homes or group homes through relatives that were adopted into my family. In many cases they were not happy in the houses that they were placed in and also they changed houses many times because of the problems that they were having within. 

People often have this theory that if a child is in foster care

 or a group home, that it is a behavioral

 problem of that their parents

 were abusive and just did not care, but the reality is that these children have been placed into the system for many reasons and some of them that were out of the control of their families. But, the problem with this is that the children in the system and treated as if they are leopards and do not deserve to be treated like everyone else.  This power point reminded me of my goal to help restructure group homes and foster care, along with early intervention. If we can find a way to help these children when they are in the system if we cannot Prevent them from going into it, then why not try to the best of our abilities to get

 them out into society and remain in society so that when they get older they do not end up in prison or in worst situations.

Prevention is important on many levels when it comes to youth. We want to exhaust all and every effort to ensure that the youth of our future generations are being the best that they can and that they are able to help build and leave behind legacies. We first have to reduce the amount of risk factors that our children are faced with, and being that we cannot prevent everything, we have to be ready to manage and increase protective factors. We have a goal, and I have a goal to see our youth prosper and better this country and our world in ways that we were not and did not have the means to do.