10-Fold Lessons: Teen Staff Leadership Praxis

• In Event: 81.033 - MTCC Roundtable Session 38
  In Roundtable Session: 81.033-2 - Negotiating Everyday Spaces: Teen Leadership, Youth Workers, and Learner Assets

Abstract

Annually youth workforce development (YWD) programs target youth of color from low-income urban communities to receive job readiness training to inform their educational and career goals as a young adult, little is known how critical literacy and leadership skill building are incorporated into YWD instructional practices to explore and empower identity. This practitioner self-study collected data over an 8 month period using interviews, focus groups, observations, field notes, and programming documents at a community based after school program between educators and teen staff participants. Analysis revealed the impact and influence of factors that educators and mentors in YWD programs need to be more mindful of when cultivating youth agency and voice of teen staff as leaders in urban communities.

Author

• Jonell Taculad Molina, San Francisco State University