Caitlyn Blankenship's YDEV MA

 Towards Abolition What ideas here feel close, like you can touch them? What ideas feel far away/ hard to wrap your mind around/ impossible? What does this have to do with youth work? With social justice? With your daily practice? I started by reading and participating in the activity packet "Cosmic Possibilities ", while I enjoyed it, I also found myself very resistant at first. Abolition seems so far away and I could not even imagine a word where all my and my loved ones needs are met. It wasn't until I listened the the webinar "Abolitionist Teaching and the Future of our Schools" that I started to better understand the concept of abolition and see it as a possibility. In the webinar, they used concrete examples of abolition showing up, including slavery and even how our practices shifted during COVID-19. I believe it was Bettina Love who made the point that during the pandemic we saw school buildings close and education take a massive shift - no school sho...

 What's Care Got to do With it? Tell us a story about a time in your life when you needed and received care. What did this look and feel like? How did SYSTEMS play a role in your story--how were institutions caring or uncaring? I recall a time in my life when I was going to college, living on my own and working two part-time jobs (still kind of my life but I have more stability now). During this time, it was my first semester back to Johnson and Wales University after taking some time off, and I had to work myself out of academic probation if I didn't want to be kicked out of college. On this particular day, I had two examines and I had gotten ready early so I would have extra time to study and prepare. I forgot something in my car, which I always leave unlocked, so I left my second floor apartment to grab what I needed and toss my backpack in the passenger seat so I wouldn't forget it later. I walked back upstairs, everything ready for me to use my extra time to study wh...

 Social Justice Youth Development (SJYD) What is social justice youth development (SJYD) as described by Clemons, Ginwright and Cammarota? What does SJYD mean to you? From the readings I have a better understanding of SJYD as a style of engaging and empowering youth to participate in democracy and create/be the change they want to see in the world. SJYD is youth led and as the adult, you are the facilitator and sometimes mentor, rather than the formal educator or teacher. This work is formed through mutual respect - treating youth as equal instead of "less than" adults. I relate much of this with the STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) programs I run, while we are not quite in the stage where all our sites are participating in SJYD work, quality STEM programs harbor a similar value and style. In STEM we encourage our youth to answer their own questions through research and experimentation. Our programs allow adults to learn along side their group, rather than know a...