IDS 312

Downtown: Inner-city Youth and Families

Dr. Beth Paul

Director, Trenton Youth Community-based Research Corps

The College of New Jersey

Curricular Context

Downtown serves as the foundation course for the Trenton Youth Community-based Research Corps at TCNJ (TYCRC). The primary aim of this course is to stimulate exposure to and awareness of the complex lives of inner-city youth and families, particularly those who live in poverty. These real-life complexities are viewed through multiple lenses, including disciplinary perspectives (e.g., psychology, sociology, urban studies) and community-based perspectives (e.g., social policy, service provision). This course also builds cultural competency skills necessary for working with and on behalf of inner-city youth and families.

Following this course, students engage in a two-semester course sequence in which they conduct community-based research in collaboration with a Trenton non-profit social service agency serving Trenton youth and families. These courses cultivate applied research skills and experience as well as deepen critical thought about inner-city dynamics and systems.

During this two-semester sequence, students, in addition to receiving academic credit, are recognized as Bonner Leaders, receiving AmeriCorp support for 300-hours of community service (stipend and future scholarship). Thus multiplex support package intensifies student engagement, freeing them from competing financial need-driven employment demands, and places them in a national network of peers dedicated to community service and community-engaged learning. At the completion of this three-semester sequence, students receive a certificate in inner-city youth and family community-based research and advocacy.

Course Objectives

  1. Stimulate awareness of the complex lives of inner-city youth and families, particularly those who live in poverty.
  2. Develop understanding of psychological and social processes that impact and characterize inner-city youth and families and that underlie social injustice.
  3. Gain an overview of inner-city youth and family service provision, advocacy, and policy issues.
  4. Build cultural competency skills necessary for working with and on behalf of inner-city youth and families toward social justice.

Learning Contexts

  1. Participation in the Trenton Community Orientation course, directed by Mill Hill Child Development Corporation, Community Partners for Children of New Jersey, and the City of Trenton. The course is organized and taught by leaders in these organizations, each session located at a different Trenton agency. Each session is supplemented by presentations by leaders at the resident agency. The participants in the Community Orientation course will include the 15 TCNJ students enrolled in the Downtown course and 15 community members interested in child advocacy.
  2. A 50-hour direct service commitment to a Trenton-based non-profit social service agency serving Trenton youth and families.
  3. Campus- and community-based reflection and discussion of community-based experiences and assigned readings.
  4. A reflective journal, including dialogue with campus and community instructors.

Assessment

  1. Graduation from the Community Orientation course
  2. On-site evaluation of direct service experience (by on-site supervisor). Students will be assessed on their active engagement, professionalism, and openness to feedback.
  3. Increasing depth and complexity of reflective journal
  4. Issue Investigation Project:
  5. Students work in teams of three students, in conjunction with a community partner who “commissions” the issue investigation. The community partner helps define an issue on which research would benefit their organization. Together this team defines an issue relevant to inner-city youth and families (e.g., homelessness among single mothers with young children; runaway behavior among pre-adolescent males, etc.), for which multidisciplinary investigation would be useful.
  6. The issue is explored through multiple lenses, including
  7. Interviews with relevant service providers/policymakers
  8. Review of relevant service provision in Trenton
  9. Public policy briefs
  10. First-person accounts
  11. Scholarly research
  12. Students write an integrative summary of this information addressing
  13. The individual, social, institutional complexities involved in the issue (from micro- to macro-level)
  14. A needs or service agenda
  15. A map/sketch of the types of services available in Trenton, with additional ideas from other regions
  16. Delineation of unmet needs for service provision and public policy; barriers to “success”
  17. Needs for further research, including basic and applied research.
  18. Students lead one class session on their issue, including representatives from the “commissioning” social service agency. They assign readings, plan activity/discussion, and share resources.

Course Calendar

Mid-December / 1st Session of Community Orientation Course
Location: NJN
Overview and discussion of children and family issues in NJ, Mercer County, and Trenton.
Interest assessment of students to inform direct service placement, to be arranged over Winter Break to begin February 1.
Week 1 / Personal perpectives and stereotypes of inner-city youths and families.
Developing an agenda for stereotype investigation and challenge.
Introductory exploration of multiple perspectives on inner-city life
Chase, J. (1997). My urban history: Paranoia informing place making. In N. Ellin (Ed.), Architecture of Fear. (159-185). NY: Princeton Architectural Press.
Garbarino, J. & Abramowitz, R.H. (1992). The ecology of human development. In J. Garbarino (Ed.), Children and families in the social environment (2nd ed., pp 11-33). New York: Aldine.
McCord, J., Widom, C.S., & Crowell, N.A. (Eds.) (2001). Juvenile Crime, Juvenile Justice. Panel on Juvenile Crime: Prevention, Treatment, and Control. DC: National Academy Press.
Week 2 / 2nd session of Community Orientation Course
Location: LifeTies/Rainbow House
Overview of LifeTies Inc, Program Presentations. Tour of Rainbow House, residence for young females and their babies who are HIV positive or have AIDS. “AIDS 101” presentation.
AIDS Issues, New Jersey Department of Health.
Week 3 / Dynamics of power, oppression, prejudice, privilege: I
In-class simulation exercise
Week 4 / Dynamics of power, oppression, prejudice, privilege: II
Psychological and social processes and sequelae
Allison, K. W. (1998). Stress and oppressed social category membership. In J.K. Swim, C. Stangor, et al. (Eds.), Prejudice: The target's perspective . San Diego: Academic Press.
Arredondo, P. (1999). Multicultural counseling competencies as tools to address oppression and racism. Journal of Counseling and Development , 77(1), 102-108.
McIntyre, A. (2000). Inner-city kids: Adolescents confront life and violence in an urban community. NY: New York University Press.
Week 5 / Inner-city identity politics
Anderson, E. (1992). Streetwise: Race, Class, and Change in an Urban Community. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Kelley, D.G. (1997). Yo’ mama’s disfunktional!: Fighting the culture wars in urban America. Boston: Beacon Press.
Trickett, E.J. (1996). A future for community psychology: The contexts of diversity and the diversity of contexts. American Journal of Community Psychology, 24, 209-234.
Wu, B. & Fuentes, A. I. (1998). Juvenile justice processing: The entangled effects of race and urban poverty. Juvenile and Family Court Journal, 49, 41-53.
Week 6 / 3rd session of Community Orientation Course
Location: Mercer Medical Center
Discussion of inner-city health issues
Health and Neo-Natal Issues, NJ Department of Health.
Healthy Mothers/Healthy Babies presentation.
Week 7 / Youth and family risk and resilience: Community Psychological Perspectives
Clauss-Ehlers, C.S. & Levi, L.L. (2002). Violence and community, terms of conflict: An ecological approach to resilience. Journal of Social Distress and the Homeless, 11, 265-278.
Fisher, C.B. & Wallace, S.A. (2000). Through the community looking glass: Reevaluating the ethical and policy implications of research on adolescent rish and psychopathology. Ethics and Behavior, 10, 99-118.
Garbarino, J. (2001). An ecological perspective on the effects of violence on children. Journal of Community Psychology, 29, 361-378.
Pitman, A.L. & Wolfe, D. A. (2002). Bridging the gap: Prevention of adolescent risk behaviors and development of healthy nonviolent dating relationships. In C. Wekerle & A.M. Wall (Eds.). The Violence and Addiction Equation: Theoretical and clinical issues in substance abuse and relationship violence (pp. 304-343). NY: Brunner/Routledge.
Ross-Leadbeater, B. J. & Way, N. (2001). Growing up Fast: Transitions to early adulthood of inner-city adolescent mothers. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Week 8 / The role and practice of social policy in the lives of inner-city youth and families
Fischhoff, B. & Willis, H. (2002). Adolescent vulnerability: Measurement and priority setting. Journal of Adolescent Health, 31, 58-75.
Klerman, L.V. (2002). Adolescent pregnancy in the United States. International Journal of Adolescent Medicine and Health, 14, 91-96.
Melton, G.B. (1995). Bringing psychology to Capitol Hill: Briefings on child and family policy. American Psychologist, 50(9), 766-770.
Stout, C.E. (1996). The Integration of Psychological Principles in Policy Development. Westport, CT: Praeger.
Week 9 / Issue Investigation I
Week 10 / 4th Session of Community Orientation Course
Location: Mercer County Court House
Overview and tour of Mercer County Court House and Family Court.
Observation of a Court Proceeding in Session.
Discussion, question and answers with Mercer County Court Judges.
Site Visit and Tour of Mercer County Youth House.
Week 11 / Issue Investigation II
Week 12 / Issue Investigation III
Week 13 / 5th Session of Community Orientation Course
Location: Trenton Board of Education and Trenton Central High School.
Board of Education presentation.
Trenton Central High School, School-based Youth Services Program Presentations.
Week 14 / Issue Investigation IV
Week 15 / Issue Investigation V
Mid-May / 6th Session of Community Orientation Course
Location: Trenton Head Start
Tour and presentation
“Doing Something” panel on youth advocacy.