221.640.01 CHILDREN IN CRISIS: AN ASSET-BASED APPROACH TO WORKING WITH VULNERABLE YOUTH

Exposes students to domestic and international youth welfare issues and interventions focused on violence, juvenile justice, education and refugee resettlement through service learning pedagogy. Emphasizes personal narratives, experienced practitioners, community members, asset-based community development, and direct youth engagement. Highlights commonalities between international and domestic youth challenges. Class sessions feature discussion, youth voices, expert lectures, and examination of existing programs. Also requires students to work with a youth development organization in Baltimore throughout the term to engage with the community, observe issues discussed in class, and reflect on ways to positively impact youth world-wide. Among others, community placements include programs serving refugee youth, juvenile offenders, out-of-school youth and disadvantaged urban students. JHSPH students, together with youth from their placement, deliver a final presentation.

At the end of this course students should be able to: 1) describe a "children in crisis" issue (in any part of the world); in describing the issue, mention the age and gender of the children involved as well as the short- and long-term risks to their welfare; 2) describe some of the social, political, and economic conditions that place the children in this crisis situation and perpetuate their at-risk status; 3) briefly describe one or more ways in which you might be able to develop plans to help children currently experiencing this crisis; and 4) briefly describe one or more ways in which you might be able to develop plans to prevent children from being victims of this particular type of crisis in the future.