Pluralism and Social Justice for Children, Youth, and Families

Essay Instructions:

Promoting Pluralism and Social Justice for Children, Youth, and Families For this assignment, you are asked to research, describe, and analyze a program, service, or initiative in your community that is designed to promote advocacy and social justice for children, youth, and/or families, and to imagine what role you might play in this initiative as a CYC practitioner, with reference to your own professional identity, vision of social justice, and social location. The program, service, or initiative should focus on promoting justice for children, youth, and/or families with sensitivity to at least one of the dimensions of diversity you have learned about in this course while exploring the pluralist perspective: i.e., it should be responsive to at least one of the following dimensions: sexuality, gender, race, ethnicity, class/socio-economic status, spiritual belief systems, levels of ability, educational achievement, language, age, and/or nationality. Ideally, the program, service, or initiative you focus is located in your community, or a community you are familiar with. However, you may also wish to focus on an initiative that is provincial, national, or international in scope. Whatever your choice, please be certain that you will be able to access enough information about the initiative to describe and analyze it fully for this assignment. While you are not obligated to focus on a topic that relates to the literature review you completed for Assignment 3, your workload may be lighter if you do. Your completed assignment should: Identify and describe the program, service, or initiative you are focusing on: who it serves, its purpose, and the kinds of supports are provided, the surrounding community environment. Identity the dimensions of diversity the program is intended to address, and discuss both the program itself and the highlighted dimension(s) of diversity in relation to relevant literature (e.g., books, articles, chapters, credible websites) on pluralism and/or social justice. Based on your knowledge of CYC practice roles (see Week 4 for possible examples), identify and describe a role for yourself as a professional CYC practitioner within this program, service, or initiative (this could be a role that you know currently exists in the organization, or that you would like to create, if it does not already exist). Articulate your own vision of social justice for children, youth, and/or families, what actions you might take within your chosen program, service, or initiative to further that vision, and what challenges you might face in realizing that vision within the current design/framework of the program, service, or initiative, and in relation to the particular challenges and opportunities presented by the dimension(s) of diversity your initiative is responsive to. Discuss how you might carry out your designated role with children, youth, and/or families in relation to your emergent professional identity and your social location. What aspects of your professional identity and social location (i.e., your diverse identities ) help you to carry out your role and vision, and what aspects might pose challenges for you? How might you address any challenges you identify? Your completed paper should be approximately 1500-1750 words (6-7 typed, double-spaced, 12 pt font pages, plus references). In your paper, you must make reference to at least four course readings or discussions, and to at least two additional relevant books, articles, chapters, or credible websites. Save your assignment as either a Word or RTF document with the filename "Assignment4-yourname" and put it in the Assignment Drop Box. Grading Criteria: Content (20 marks) Clearly identifies a program, service, or initiative focused on social justice for children, youth, and/or families. Describes and discusses at least one dimension of diversity the program responds to, in relation to course readings and other literature. Identifies and describes a CYC practice role the writer might take on in the context of the chosen program, service, or initiative. Articulates a clear vision of social justice for children, youth, and/or families and discusses opportunities and challenges in realizing social justice within the chosen CYC practice role, particular in relation to dimension(s) of diversity. Clearly describes the writer¡¯s professional identity and social location and discusses both in relation to the chosen CYC practice role, the chosen program, service, or initiative, and the writer¡¯s stated vision for social justice. Integrates relevant literature, citing at least four relevant course readings or discussions, and at least two additional books, articles, book chapters, or credible websites. Presentation (10 marks) Structure of paper and presentation of material is clear, logical and congruent. Introduction provides a succinct overview of the intention and structure of the paper. Conclusion clearly summarizes the main points/findings. Spelling, grammar, sentence and paragraph structure, pagination, punctuation and clarity of writing are at a 1st year University level. In-text citations and reference page are complete and adhere to APA Style Guidelines.

Essay Sample Content Preview:

Promoting Pluralism and Social Justice
Name:
Institution:
Date:
PROMOTING PLURALISM AND SOCIAL JUSTICE
Introduction
There are various programs that are being undertaken by the NGOs and Governmental organizations to curb the problem of injustices among the youth in the world. Some of these programs are run direct or in an indirect manner. Similarly, these programs could be effective or not. As cited from DESA pg 4, “Youth around the world are presented with opportunities and challenges that are similar in many respects; however, the attendant dimensions and implications of these challenges and opportunities and the required policy interventions differ from one geographical and economic area to one another”. Challenges faced by youth are numerous and differ in many ways. I decided to focus on three main issues: the unwanted or early pregnancies and the homelessness–the street children (ANPPCAN, 1991).
In this essay, the main idea that I am going to focus on is the programs offered by different sectors in an African Country which represents a sample of research on a third world or a developing country. I decided to take my study to Africa in East Africa and particularly chose Kenya and Uganda as my final destination for this work. Why did I choose the region? This is due to the evidences of programs offered by the UN under the DESA and Youth – Social Policy and Development Division, to develop and support the youth and general slum dwellers. Supportive programs and preventive programs for the street children were studied and analyzed. The roles of the CYC in such programs were also researched on and made sure they were congruent to those enlisted by the UN (UN-HABITAT, 2008)
The essay will also focus on the main issues that affect the children, youth and their families either directly or indirectly which are: sexuality, gender, race, ethnicity, class/socio-economic status, spirited programs, belief systems, levels of ability, educational achievement, language, age and/or nationality. At the end of this write-up, I focus on what role I should play as a CYC practitioner.
The Early Pregnancy in Slums
Youths are faced with great danger when it comes to parenthood. The most affected are those who dwell in the slums though not only them. When we look at Nairobi slums, there is an observation of high number of early pregnancy and early marriages occurring. Due to lack of knowledge to bring up the infants and the unpreparedness of these young parents, this has resulted to many infant mortalities and morbidity. This is mostly felt by the youth between the age of fifteen and nineteen. In the Eastern Africa Social Science Research Review – Vol. 19, No. 1, January 2003, pp. 41-57 Michigan State University Press, “ some areas have low mortality and morbidity while others such as slums of Nairobi have high. This is because of uneven distribution of health facilities. The second reason which is environmental factors could be because of socio-economic, socio-cultural and health environments (Wernham, 2004).
What is the reason for these early pregnancies? One main reason why there are many young people are becoming parents at an early age is because of school drop-outs, poverty, poor health environment and influence by peer pressure. To sum up all these, we could say that there are poor conditions and low living standards and loss of hope by these people. The most affected gender is the female gender as more problems are encountered in a way that they will have drop schools to bring up the babies. The judicial system in these developing countries may need to revise their law and reinforce the existing ones. The biggest the part of the problem is that these girls may not go back to school once the baby has grown enough to be left at home with a care taker. There needs to be a law that encourages existence of a program in the countries to ensure the parents take responsibilities in the parenthood of their youth.
Street Children and Juvenile Justice in Developing Countries..
“While selling sweets, I found a wallet lying on the ground and asked a woman standing nearby if it belonged to her. A man standing there said it was his and I had picked his pocket. He handed me over to the police. The police ate all my sweets and locked me up. I will sell sweets again when I get out of here, but I will never help someone again”(8-year-old boy, Borstal Jail, Bahawalpur, Pakistan).
“Policemen often arrest us for sleeping under a bridge.”(Eugene, aged 15, child participant, UP CIDS PST
/ CSC Street Children and Juvenile Justice Project, Philippines)
“When a girl is almost grown-up, she gets molested or raped in exchange for her freedom.” (Ryan, aged 16, cited in UP CIDS PST / CSC End of Project Report, 2003, Philippines).
When we look at the international perspective on street children, we come to find out that the chi...

Updated on January 26, 2024

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