Bridging Disciplinary Boundaries (January 11 - 14, 2007)

Purpose: Many child welfare agencies and youth organizations state that they practice strengths perspective and positive youth development. However, the field needs more understanding of what the agencies and organizations actually do for strengths-based practices and youth development work. This paper explores the youth professionals' experiences of practicing and working with strengths-based youth development. It focuses on their understanding of strengths perspective, their involvement with youth work, their identification with youth development work in terms of satisfaction/affection of their work, and their difficulties of working with strengths-based practices.

Method: A total of 23 professionals in eleven child welfare agencies and twelve youth organizations in a metropolitan area of the US are selected by snowball sampling. With these participants, initially semi-structured, open-ended, face to face, in-depth interviews were conducted for 75-110 minutes with each professional. All the interviews were audiotaped and transcribed. Data were unitized into information and then coded and categorized according to emerging themes. Major themes and sub themes were identified to illustrate the perspectives of the participants.

Results: 1) Professionals used a strengths lexicon to explain their experiences of working with children and youth. 2) Emphasis on strengths and assets of adolescents, and giving opportunities for successful development are embraced in the meaning of strengths-based practices and youth development. 3) Many professionals were driven to stay in the youth field by their affection of children and their love for youth work. Mission identification was also considered important in explaining why they stay on current work. 4) No specific discipline is identified as the major in strengths-based youth work field. However, social workers are actively engaged in the process. Their role is more focused on troubled youth and their understanding of human behavior is valued as well as communication skills within the field. 5) Many participants feel frustration when they encounter fund-raising issues, awareness issues, education for communities and other adults, and complex work situation. 6) Qualified staff, facilities for their service delivery, and the tradition for what the agencies, organizations and schools do are considered barriers and difficulties of strengths-based practices as well.

Implications: Youth strengths should be the focus of programming while considering their social, emotional, educational, and economic needs. It is necessary to recognize that the youth development field needs more opportunities for social workers since the social work profession is now built on the strengths of the individual and their families. Some theoretical paradigms such as empowerment models and the strengths perspective in social work should be given more attentions. More courses need to be offered in understanding youth and their dynamics, and different ways of working with various young people from a strengths perspective and youth development principle.