Youth-Led Community Organizing: Theory and Action / Edition 1

by Melvin Delgado, Lee Staples

Overview

Youth-led organizing, a burgeoning movement that empowers young people while simultaneously enabling them to make substantive contributions to their communities, is increasingly receiving attention from scholars, activists, and the media. Melvin Delgado and Lee Staples, recognized leaders in social work macro practice and community organization, have produced the first comprehensive study of this dynamic field. Their well-organized book takes an important step toward bridging the gap between academic knowledge and community practice in this growing area. The authors social justice-rooted perspective on the fields conceptual and practical foundations is an effective basis for analyzing youth-led community organizing, but they also offer glimpses of successful groups in action and helpful insight into how fledgling organizations can become stronger. These groups and their young participants represent the politics and activism of the future, and Delgado and Staples have produced a lucid, thoughtful guide to their key aspects and recent developments that students and researchers of community organization, not to mention the organizers and their facilitators themselves, are sure to find both inspiring and useful.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780195182767
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	09/13/2007
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	8.46(w) x 7.32(h) x 0.68(d)

About the Author

Melvin Delgado is a Professor of Social Work and the Chair of Macro Practice at Boston University's School of Social Work.

Lee Staples is Clinical Professor of Social Work at Boston University's School of Social Work.

Table of Contents

bSection 1: Setting the Context/b. 1. Overview of Youth-Led Community Organizing2. Social and Economic Justice Foundation3. Overview of Community Organizing, Youth-Led Field & Youth-Led OrganizingbSection 2: Conceptual Foundation for Youth-Led Community Organizing/b. 4. Guiding Principles & Analytical Framework5. Participatory Democracy6. Leadership Development7. Recruitment, Screening, Preparation & Support of Youth-Led Community Organizers8. Cross-Cutting Theoretical and Practice ThemesbSection 3: A View and Lessons from the Field/b. 9. Case Study: Youth 1st in Jackson Square! (Jovenes Primero! (Boston, Massachusetts)10. Challenges Inherent in Youth-Led Organizing11. Epilogue

Editorial Reviews

"Delgado and Staples present a theoretical and social action-oriented approach to youth-led organizing with an analytical framework based on guiding principles and informed by existing research...Delgado and Staples provide invaluable information which enriches our understanding of the world-wide youth development movement and its contemporary manifestations."—Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

"This text is a step in the right direction toward shedding light upon what exactly YLCO is. It is a book that belongs in the library of anyone who works in the YLCO field or anyone who wants to understand the field better. Certain portions of the book would be valuable reading for youths, and exceptionally literate youth organizers may find the entire book of interest. Delgado and Staples take admirable steps within the book's pages to advance understanding of YLCO. The book represents a foundational text that can be used as a launching pad for further investigations into the field of YLCO. The massive bibliography distills for those interested in learning more about YLCO the collected scholarship in the field and leaves space for the reader to continue their investigation into the emerging field of YLCO." —Journal of Community Practice

From the Publisher