Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Youth work education and training'

The plight of foster youth having low graduation scores compared to their peers is a prevalent problem depicted in research for years. Statistics show foster youth as being an at risk-group for completing high school education and leading them to a lower quality of life once emancipated from the foster care system. Foster youth face incarceration, unemployment, lower wages, homelessness and substance abuse once adults, and there is a need for the strengthening of educational achievement in this at-risk population. The need for social workers’ to collaborate with school personnel is a necessary preventative measure to increase the quality of life with foster youth.

Given the growing rates of youth and young adult unemployment today, particularly in urban contexts, this grant proposal seeks funding to support the development of a soft skills training program for youth ages 15-24 in the Baldwin Park area of Los Angeles County. Essential soft skills needed to help youth secure and retain successful employment can include the interpersonal skills of better communication with supervisors and co-workers the job, teamwork, conflict resolution, and the capacity to regulate time management. The goal of this program is to increase employability by giving these inner city youth an increasingly valued skill set in order to promote an increase in youth employability in this community. A comprehensive grant funding search identified the California Wellness Foundation as a potential funding source for the proposed program. The actual submission or funding of the grant was not a requirement for the successful completion of the grant proposal.

Commercial sexual exploitation affects young people all over the United States. Yet minimal services are available to restore, and reintegrate this population. One of the challenges involves assessing and training parents as mentors to provide round-the-clock care for their unique needs. This curriculum serves as a guide for agencies using the Child Welfare League of America PRIDE Model of Practice curriculum and is an adaptation of the original curriculum, which primarily focuses on neglected children.

The purpose of this curriculum is to provide child welfare agencies and prospective mentor parents with the tools to make an informed decision regarding their ability, willingness, and resources to support commercially sexually exploited youth. The curriculum also seeks to equip mentor parents with the skills to provide a safe and nurturing environment for these youth to develop healthy relationships, expand their social skills, increase cognition, and function as positive members of their communities.

Foster youth face significant challenges as they navigate higher education; estimated rates of those who obtain Bachelor Degrees vary from 1 to 11% (Casey Family Services, 1999; Emerson, 2006; Pecora et al., 2003). Grounded in identity, attachment, development, and student success theories and rooted in relational cultural therapy, this proposed program applies components to help counter and shrink the achievement gap of foster youth. Utilizing case management, a mentoring program, and across-system collaboration and communication, educational outcomes for foster youth can be improved, avenues for positive and consistent interpersonal adult connections can be provided, and access to existing services across campus, local, and county systems for foster youth attending a community colleges can be improved. The challenges facing foster youth, associated theories and proposed intervention components are examined and supported by the literature. Intervention strengths, limitations, and implications are also explored.

The purpose of this project was to write a grant proposal seeking to fund the development of a curriculum that supports the needs of youth who have experienced or are at risk of, sexual exploitation. The proposal ultimately targets a potential host organization that could sustain and support the development of a curriculum and effectively reach the target population. The curriculum is intended to be used to train child welfare staff and group home service providers about the identifying markers and needs of sexually exploited youth. A literature review details the main causes, the biopsychosocial effects and what is being done to address the problem. Potential funding sources were reviewed. The proposal includes a needs assessment, implementation method, staffing, evaluation and budget narrative. The actual funding and submission of this grant proposal were not requirements for the successful completion of this project.

Female youth all over the world and in the United States are being trafficked for the use of labor or prostitution. Their experiences entail rapes, violence, abuse, and torture while their traffickers reap extensive monetary compensation. These adolescents often times cross the path of child social workers and go unnoticed or do not receive the appropriate level of care due to the lack of knowledge for the experiences of the youth. Therefore, this curriculum will provide awareness training on Commercial Human Trafficking (CHT) for child social workers. The thesis curriculum will offer an introduction to CHT, the trafficking underground system, the abuse and effects experienced by the youth, and the best practices to assist this population. In addition, a cultural competency is included.

The purpose of this thesis was to write a grant to fund anger management groups for at-risk youth. The groups would be held immediately after the boxing classes currently offered by the city of Hawaiian Gardens. Six sessions are envisioned. Topics would include self-responsibility and accountability for one’s actions inside and outside of the ring, alternatives to conflict, emotion-regulation skills, and coping with triggers. The goals are to enhance anger management skills, develop positive social skills, and decrease the risk for aggressive behavior and delinquency. In turn, this is expected to reduce the risk for gang membership.

The city of Hawaiian Gardens would be the host agency for this program. The funding source selected was the city of Hawaiian Gardens in conjunction with the Board of State and Community Corrections.

Based on the review of the literature, pairing a gang prevention program with sports has the potential to engage at-risk youth and deter them from the gang culture. The proposed program is expected to provide at-risk youth in the disadvantaged community of Hawaiian Gardens with a positive alternative path in life.

The actual submission of the grant proposal was not required as part of the thesis project.

The purpose of this project was to develop a grant proposal seeking funds for the implementation of a youth-led nutrition and education program utilizing the development and maintenance of a community garden. The participants will be youth from low income and minority backgrounds in San Diego, California. The service partners of San Diego Youth Services TAY Academy will have the opportunity to participate in this community garden program to learn about healthy eating habits, the risks of obesity, and food desert communities.

Through a review of the literature on obesity, food deserts, and community gardens the writer proposed and designed a youth-led community garden program. The writer explored potential public and private funding sources, which yielded the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation as a potential funding source.

The actual submission and/or funding of this grant proposal were not a requirement for the successful completion of this project.

The purpose of this exploratory multi-case study was to examine the role of instructional design and instructor training on student learning outcomes and student satisfaction within the online class using group work, a form of collaborative learning. Group work has been strongly recommended for online classes. Data allowing insight into contemporary events in context were collected via an online survey, personal interviews, and document examination. Students were given a link to an online survey with both selected response and open-ended questions. Instructors were interviewed either face-to-face or via voice over Internet protocol (VOIP). Syllabi and class handouts were collected and examined using content analysis. These different sources of data were triangulated during the analyses. The participants in the study were undergraduate students and four instructors at a state supported institution of higher education in the southwestern United States. Data collected revealed that those instructors using group work who had the most training and assistance from the Instructional Technology Support in the design and facilitation of classes using group work had the highest level of student satisfaction as well as the highest student perception of good learning outcomes. The data show that when the instructional design using group work is well done and the class is well conducted, student satisfaction and student learning are good. The data show that the amount of instructor training undertaken had a major impact on how students reacted to the classes. The students' perception of learning outcomes differed from that of the instructors. The instructors perceived the classes as being generally successful; however, the students' perceptions were less positive. The levels of training applied by each of the faculty to the design of their online class shows that the more training, the higher the level of satisfaction. Both student success and learning outcomes suffer if the class is not designed and taught with best practices for online group work. Further research needs to be done on the use of online group work in graduate classes and lower division undergraduate classes as all of the studied classes were upper division.

Although many public schools in the United States are located in rural areas, the literature on rural youth is extremely limited, and the literature on rural youth with disabilities is practically absent. The purpose of this study was to gather the perspectives of community partners regarding rural school-community partnerships and provide an understanding of (a) the community’s role, (b) how connections in rural communities were formed, and (c) how school-community partnerships can be strengthened. This study added to the existing literature on rural school-community partnerships by providing a deeper understanding of the processes that influence the phenomenon of transition to work for rural youth with disabilities. Employing a basic qualitative research design, information from this study was captured regarding community members’ perspectives on their roles and experience partnering with rural schools to transition youth with disabilities to work. The target population consisted of community members who represented businesses and community organizations who had purposefully connected with a rural school to support youth with disabilities transitioning to work. The sample included 10 participants who took part in semistructured, one-on-one interviews to describe their experiences. Data analysis revealed the roles of the community partners and the processes they used to secure school-community partnerships. The findings indicated that the community played a vital role in transitioning youth with disabilities to work and that it took time for the community partners to adjust to their new roles of supporting youth with disabilities in the workplace. The findings provide valuable insight on how rural schools can sustain, improve, and expand their community partnerships and experiences for students with disabilities. Opportunities for future research include identification of work training opportunities for rural students with disabilities, exploration of the types of transition assessments and work skills that promote transition to work, and research with a larger sample to improve generalizability.