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PARTNERS FOR CREATIVE COLLABORATION

Dean C. Wolf, LCSW-C

Licensed Social Worker

101 W. Main Street 304 York Street

Westminster, Md. 21157 Gettysburg, Pa. 17325

(410) 876-3030 (717) 337-9503

October 12, 2007

Proposal for the Development of an

Adolescent Leadership Group

Narrative

I have noticed a strong tendency on the part of helpers involved with adolescents in

the many child/family serving systems of care I have interacted in over the last 34 yearsto focus on what is absent, deficient, broken and wrong with their clientele. This so-

called deficit-based model leads often leads thinking and practices in which the helperassumes the child and family have little internal motivation or resources to solve their

own problems and as such promotes the idea the helper knows more than the client does

about their problems and ultimately the solutions.

The strengths-based model endorsed by the leadership in Adams County Children &Youth Services and embodied by the practice of Family Group Decision-Making and

other family-centered empowerment efforts have significantly improved outcomes in

helping families move beyond problems and find more functional solutions. Over the lastfive years I have been part of the conversations regarding how to create behavior change

in children/families through practice focused on the following foundations:

Solution-focused

The emphasis on solutions rather than problems with particular efforts to assist

families in developing their own vision as to the nature of the problems theyidentify as in need of change and assisting in constructing solutions that work best

for them. This orientation endorses and promotes client rather than professional

expertise in finding solutions

Strengths-based

The slogan I adhere to is there is nothing that is wrong with you that what is

right about you couldnt fix. The focus of strengths-based thinking and practice

is to ask questions and emphasize intervention that convince the client familiesthey have what it takes to solve their own problems. Central to this foundation is

the importance of resilience and asking questions that point the client toward their

own strengths and capacities in the solution process. Therefore every effort ismade to avoid diagnostic, categorical and labeling language that is often

construed by families to be negative and disempowering and leads both client and

helper into a black hole.

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Family-centered

Practices focused on the family as the unit of service has been important in thedevelopment of change-oriented strategies in working with difficult and

unmanageable adolescents. The shift in practice from the individual to the family

assumes that supporting the family as a unit will ultimately benefit the individuals

within the family unit. There have been many significant developments infamily-centered practice including promoting parents as experts on their children

in evaluation, intervention, planning and treatment efforts, giving families

considerable authority over decisions affecting their children such as out-of-homeplacements and promoting belief in families as healing agents in identifying and

resolving their own problems.

Collaboration

The importance of collaboration in building solutions with families cannot beunderestimated. In building collaborative teams that are inclusive of children,

parents, foster parents, extended family members, peers, teachers and school

personnel, friends and neighbors, pastors and inspirational, significant others I

have discovered the power of natural supports to be critical to the process. All thework that has been accomplished would not have occurred without the support of

what has become known as managing partners. I have been astounded by theresource system that has been built, the good will that has been spread as we work

together with families to the solve problems. There are many advantages to

working with collaboratively including having all involved parties on the samepage marching to the same drummer and developing cooperative rather than

adversarial relationships with each other.

Developing the Adolescent Leadership GroupI have been kicking around ways to enhance the foundations of my own

practice and a very old idea that I didnt dream up might add to growth ofstrengths-based practice in our work. That idea is that one of the greatest ways tohelp oneself is to help others. In many of our teenage youths, especially

ungovernable and unmanageable teens I have found they have difficulty getting

outside of themselves and appreciating the viewpoints of others, especiallyparents and other authority figures, such as teachers, caseworkers, therapists, etc.

This dynamic is of course developmentally appropriate but complicated by the

fact the youth we see in Children & Youth Services have often been subjected to a

process of disempowerment through unfortunate family circumstances,overlabeling by helping professionals and agencies and interventions emphasizing

coercion and control strategies. For the most part the youth we are charged with

serving do not in fact believe we are serving them in that we tend not to recognizestrength, ability and resilience. How often do we create opportunities for youth to

serve us or others? How often do we seek feedback directly from difficult,

problem saturated youth regarding how we as helpers can change to serve thembetter? How often do we create circumstances for our client teens in which they

can serve in leadership roles?

I am proposing we give the teens involved in Adams County Children &Youth Services an opportunity to demonstrate leadership skills and assist in building

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capacities for growth and resilience through the development of an Adolescent

Leadership Group. The purpose of the group will be to promote the followingprinciples:

To identify significant social problems affecting teens in the modern day in our

families, schools, neighborhoods and communities such as drug and alcoholabuse, violence and aggression, issues regarding sexuality such as teen pregnancy

and sexually transmitted diseases, family conflicts and disintegration, issues of

abuse and neglect and the influence peer pressure just to name a few.

To develop strategies and activist approaches to counter these problems that youth

may involve themselves in to assist in turning the problems around in the social

contexts described above.

To serve as consultants to teens involved in Adams County Children & Youth

Services who may be afflicted or pushed around by problems and to assist their

peers in developing plans to turn around the effects of these problems.

To express their concerns and empower change in helping practices by giving

feedback to caseworkers, supervisors, administrators and possibly communityservice providers regarding how we as helpers might serve teens better and to

work alongside aforementioned helpers in improving systems practices.

I have given considerable thought to this initiative and believe this to be an

empowerment in developing pro-social skills in adolescents. I have spoken to severalcolleagues and adolescents and their parents in my caseload about these ideas and have

gotten a hearty endorsement to start such a group. In fact, I have several kids ready to

participate in the team. I would be interested in discussing the idea further and to induct

other staff of Adams County Children & Youth Services into the conversation toconstruct the nuts and bolts of building such a team. If approved I see many advantages

to having an adolescent leadership team including the possibilities that youth involved aremore likely to turn around their own problems around by helping others, peers are oftenmore influential than adults in giving advice, adolescent-agency staff interaction in

collaborating regarding practice improvements are likely to lead to more cooperation and

placing adolescents in powerful leadership positions are likely to not only lead toenhanced pro-social behavior in group members but begin to turn around how members

of the community view these youth.

Dean C. Wolf, LCSW-C