Russell+&+Campen

Diversity and Inclusion in Youth Development: What We Can Learn from Marginalized Young People - Russel, S.T., & Van Campen, K.

This article looks at youth development programs, their evolution and their inclusion of marginalized youth historically and currently. The populations they looked at were immigrant youth and queer* youth. The authors chose to use the term Marginalized rather than At Risk as it allows for an understanding of the social factors and processes that lead youth to be part of the margin rather than focusing on the personal deficits of an individual. Rather than being non-mainstream because of attributes that immigrant and queer youth lack, they are non-mainstream because society has decided they are marginal because of attributes that they do have that make them different and as such they are pushed by the mainstream to the outside.

__ Immigrant Youth: __ Historically many youth afterschool activities were focused on immigrants and promoting citizanship and the Americanization of the families. However, as groups such as the Boy Scouts and 4-H were formed, they began focusing on youth of European descent, leaving out ethnic minority populations. Very recently, some organizations have begun to address the underrepresentation of youth of color through programming such as the BSA's Hispanic Initiative. However, private organizations such as the BSA have been allowed to continue to have discriminatory policies, such as excluding youth and adults who are openly gay from membership.

Issues to consider when approaching Youth Development programming for immigrant youth in the US: 1. The dominant culture is individualism which highlights the imports of autonomy, self-sufficiency and achievement and achieving automony and independence is the primary sign of adulthood. However, many immigrant groups come from collectivist societies where the emphasis is on the social group and the individual is to be interdependent with other members of the social groupl. Thus "youth development is experienced and understood within a web of interdependent relationships" (pg. 100). Thus we must take collectivist norms into account when creating immigrant inclusive programs. We must consider how much we emphasize individual acheivement vs. collectivist achievement - rahter how can we make them work together 2. Rather than direct communication as is common in individualistic cultures, it can be much more indirect in collectivist cultures, "relying on shared understandings of social contexts" (pg 100) 3. The interrelatedness of a faith community and the family within the public sphere must be understood. For instance, in the US it is accepted that civic engagement is a public domain while family life is private. However, for many immigrants the family is deeply rooted in a religious community and this is part of the public sphere. Thus we must be aware of the different definitions of public and private life and understand what involvement means to different cultures. We must realize that the shared understanding of the meanings and values of basic things like volunteering may differ across cultures and that will affect how we attract and maintain both participants and volunteers.

__ Queer Youth: __ There is very little history surrounding youth programming for queer youth because it is a relatively new necessity. It was not until recently that youth and adolescents began coming out, previously the coming out process occurred during young adulthood or later, or never at all publicly, due to the stigmas involved. However, the HIV/AIDS crisis brought homosexuality into the public view. This was followed by a still growing social movement. It has only the last decade that has begun producing research on the health and well being of queer youth - showing dramatic disparities when compared to heterosexual peers. There is growing research looking at harrassement in schools, but very little on what occurs in youth programming and how youth programming can be used specifically to help develop queer youth positively.

Issues to consider when programming with queer youth in mind: 1.Peer harrassment is harmful for queer youth but also has negavite effects on those who witness it For instnace, having a homophobic culture in school may change how kids act so that they are not labeled as gay (even when they are not) 2. Minority Stress Model: "Marginalized people experience minority stress, or discriminiatory experiences" (pg 103) which leads queer people to expect rejection or discrimination. This may lead them to hide their identity to avoid discrimination This process can lead to internalized homophobia - or a person's belief that the negative attitudes and stereotypes perpetrated by society are true and lead to self-hatred.

Youth programming serves as a buffer by providing psoitive supports and coping strategies for marginalized youth. Do youth development programs provide this for queer youth? Programs such as school-sponsored Gay-Straight Alliances seem to - reserach sited in this article said leaders of GSA's showpersonal and relational empowerment through their participation. Research also show that schools with GSA's have less hostile environments than schools that do not - already helping to prevent some of the discrimination that occurs in schools [] Organizations that serve the general youth must be aware of these issues in their programming so as to be inclusive and provide developmental opportunities for queer youth.

Some examples: As mentioned earlier, the Boy Scouts of America have a policy against have gay members, and it was upheld as legal by the courts partially because they are a private organization and partly because sexual orientation is not a protected class at the national level or in 29 states as gender, race, religion, disability or ethnicity is.[] []

However, The Girl Scouts of Colorado (with support of the national organization) told a local troop to to include a transgendered girl. Her family presents her, and she identifies as a girl. This has created a lot of attention nationwide but the Girl Scouts of Colorado stand by their statement that "Girl Scouts is an inclusive organization and we accept all girls in Kindergarten through 12th grade as members. If a child identifies as a girl and the child's family presents her as a girl, Girl Scouts of Colorado welcomes her as a Girl Scout". [] This seems like a good example of a mainstream group that is trying to help develop all youth, addressing the needs of queer youth included.

Organizations must be proactive in avoiding prejudice and homophobia though critical reflection and discussion of ways that racism, sexism, heterosexism, homophobia and other forms of oppression my exist in the organization.

*Queer: I have intentionally used queer throughout the piece. The LGBTQ movement, particularly the younger generations, are reclaiming the word queer. Queer is being used as an empowered, umbrella term to indicate inclusiveness for all people who identify with a non-normative gender or sexual identity inclusive of the LGBTQ acronym as well as those who prefer not to identify or identify simply as queer. -Please ask Erin if you have any questions about the use or definition of this term, she is happy to answer them