Oregon PYD for Youth Professionals
Welcome to the Oregon Positive Youth Development web site. This section of the web site is designed for any adult that works with youth in a professional capacity. This means you could be a teacher, youth service worker, school or program administrator, coach, mentor or faith-based professional. Here you will find tools and resources to help you implement PYD at all levels your school or organization. We thought the article below was a good one to start you thinking about some of the core components of Positive Youth Development. Hope you enjoy it!
Examining "Empowerment": A How-To Guide for the Youth Development Professionals by Angela J. Huebner
(Reprinted with permission from
Journal of Extension,
Volume 36 Number 6, December 1998)
The job of youth development professionals is to provide opportunities for young people to develop the competencies they need to become successful contributing members of their communities (Pittman & Wright, 1991). Empowerment can be one of the most effective strategies for providing young people with opportunities to develop competence. Over the past decade "empowerment" has become the buzzword in business, evaluation and youth development. Because of its wide use, the word "empowerment" has many different meanings to people.
According to Webster (1998), empower means "(1) to give official authority or legal power to; (2) enable; (3) to promote the self actualization or influence." The strategy proscribed by the first definition can be quite effective provided that the party being empowered (that is, the "empowered") already has the competencies needed to achieve the desired outcome. The strategy does not work well when it is plugged into a framework of youth development in which empowerment itself is being used as a strategy for developing competencies in youth. For youth development, the third definition more more suitable.
Too often youth workers assume that "empowering" is a synonym for relinquishing all guidance, control, and responsibility for a project to the young people with whom they work. Typically, this approach is met with failure on the part of the youth, frustration on the part of the youth development professional, and more evidence that the notion of "empowerment" is a concept that looks good on paper but does not work in the real world of youth work.
"Empowering teens" refers to a PROCESS through which adults begin to share responsibility and power with young people. It is the same idea as teaching young people the rules of the game. Youth development professionals are helping young people develop non-academic competencies that will help them to participate in the game of life. Because it is a process, empowerment is something that is achieved over time, not overnight.
To read more, click on the link below.
Examining "Empowerment": A How-To Guide for the Youth Development Professional
