82057 - Theory and Methods for Youth Empowerment

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course, students will know the main methods of interventions with groups of adolescents and young people; - will be able to choose and evaluate the applicability of the different methodologies and techniques of intervention; - will be able to develop and evaluate intervention projects to promote young people's empowerment. The course will promote the acquisition of various assessment and intervention methods with young people.

Course contents

The course will take place in the II semester (from end of February to May 2020) and is addressed to students of the I year of the Master Programme. Classes will take place at the Cesena branch of the Department of Psychology.

The aim of the course is to provide theoretical and methodological instruments for working, with groups of adolescents and young people, in school and other community contexts, and to develop and assess interventions aimed to promote empowerment and psychosocial well being.

To attend the course it is necessary to have basic knowledge on Community psychology, psychology of groups and psychology of adolescence, to be assessed during the first lectures.

Specific themes:

a) theoretical models of community interventions with youth, aimed to enhance empowerment and psychosocial well being, and prevent risk and deviance;

b) needs analysis, development and evaluation of interventions aimed to enhance young people empowerment and psychosocial well being. Challenges, resources, best practices.

c) methodologies and techniques used to enhance young people empowerment and psychosocial well being.

The programme includes two modules, dealing with the following topics:

 

Module 1 (30 hr.) (Gabriele Prati)

The module focuses on youth empowerment, from a theoretical and empirical perspective. Different examples of contexts and services will be presented as case studies of empowerment promotion for youth. The module will also address the issue of evaluation and of participatory action research with youth.

Module 2 (30 hr.) (Elvira Cicognani)

Approaches for community interventions aimed at risk prevention and promotion of empowerment and psychosocial well being among youth.

Participatory approaches in planning and evaluating community interventions for youth: analysis of the context and of needs; evaluation of the quality of processes and outcomes of interventions.

 

Readings/Bibliography

Reference readings on the contents treated in class:

Cicognani, E., Albanesi C. (2013). Giovani fuori dal comune? Metodologie e strumenti per la promozione della cittadinanza attiva nei giovani. ARAS: Fano.

Prati, G. (2019) Empowerment e giovani: dimensioni e modelli teorici (Youth empowerment: dimensions and theoretical models), Psicologia di comunità, 2, 93-109. doi: 10.3280/PSC2019-002007.

Prati, G. Evaluation of an active citizenship intervention based on youth-led participatory action research (in preparazione).

Del Barna C., Albanesi C., Pisano D., Raffuzzi L., Vanni F., Cicognani E. (2020). Promuovere le competenze della comunità per favorire la salute dei giovani:
l’esperienza del progetto Erasmus+ “ASSETSCOM”. Psicologia della Salute, 1, p. 26-41

Mazzoni D., Cicognani E. (2009), Partecipazione sociale e benessere in adolescenza. Una rassegna della letteratura. Psicologia Scolastica, 2.

Vanni F. (2018). Come out. Intercettare, orientare ed includere adolescenti difficili nel processo di cura (reperibile online sito Regione ER)

Cicognani, E., Albanesi C. (2020) La cittadinanza attiva a scuola.Strumenti per la promozione. Roma: Carocci.

Piano pluriennale per l’adolescenza 2018-2020 (online from tje website of Regione ER)

 

Further readings:

Banaji, S. and Buckingham, D. (2010) Young people, the Internet, and civic participation: an overview of key findings from the CivicWeb Project. International journal of learning and media, 2 (1). pp. 15-24. ISSN 1943-6068. http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/29543

Brewster, A. B., Pisani, P., Ramseyer, M., & Wise, J. (2016). Building a university-community partnership to promote high school graduation and beyond: An innovative undergraduate team approach. Journal of Applied Research in Higher Education, 8(1), 44-58.

Evans S. (2007) Youth Sense of community: voice and power in community context, Journal of Community Psychology, 35, No. 6, 693–709.

Harris, A., Wyn, J. & Younes, S. (2010). Beyond apathetic or activist youth: ‘Ordinary' young people and contemporary forms of participation, Young, 18, 1, 9-32.

Mazzoni D. & Cicognani E. (2009), Partecipazione sociale e benessere in adolescenza. Una rassegna della letteratura, Psicologia Scolastica, 2.

Morsillo J., Prilleltensky I. (2007) Social Action with youth: interventions, evaluation and psychopolitical validity, Journal of Community Psychology, 35, No. 6, 725–740

Tsekoura, M. (2016). Spaces for Youth Participation and Youth Empowerment Case Studies from the UK and Greece. Young, 1103308815618505.

Yanar, Z. M., Fazli, M., Rahman, J., & Farthing, R. (2016). Research Ethics Committees and Participatory Action Research with Young People The Politics of Voice. Journal of Empirical Research on Human Research Ethics, 1556264616650114.

Zeldin S., Petrokubi, MacNeil C. (2008) Youth-Adult Partnerships in Decision Making: Disseminating and Implementing an Innovative Idea into Established Organizations and Communities, American Journal of Community Psychology,41, 262–277.

Teaching methods

Lectures

Group discussions

Exercises on methods and techniques presented in class.

Assessment methods

The final exam aims to evaluate the following didactic objectives:

- to know the main theoretical models for promoting youth empowerment and psychosocial well being;

- to know the main methodologies of intervention for the promotion of empowerment of adolescents and young people ;

- to be able to critically assess interventions.

The exam for students attending classes (at least 70% of attendance) includes:

1)elaboration of a project work (individually or in pair, legth at least 20-30 pages, double spaced) focused on the case study and evaluation of a project or a service for youths. The project or service to be analyzed, and the methodology and instruments adopted, will be agreed with the teachers during an ad hoc meeting around mid March. The students will take contacts with the youth services, to collect documentary material, to conduct interviews and administer questionnaires to youth workers and young people; the data collected will be analyzed and the results, together with personal reflections by the students, will be included in the final report.

2)discussion of the project work and of the topics discussed in class, which will be incorporated in the project work. Assessment will focus on the students' capacities to analyse critically the context and participants' needs based on the theoretical and methodological inputs provided in class and in the suggested readings, the capacity to describe in a clear and complete way the theoretical background, the methods and results, quality of interpretation of findings, of reflections and proposals of improvement, the compliance with the formal norms and style of writing (e.g. APA norms). The final grade will be based on the completeness of the different criteria of evaluation above mentioned. Honours will be provided to the reports that will satisfy all the criteria, and for which the discussion in the oral exam will be fully satisfactory. 

The exam for students not attending classes regularly will include and oral discussion (approximately 6-8 questions) on the following topics:

1)compulsory readings

2)three readings from the "Further readings" list

The oral exam for students not attending classes regularly will allow to evaluate their level of knowledge and understanding of readings and their capacity to use them for project and intervention preparation

Project work will allow to evaluate to what extent students are able to apply the acquired knowledge in their case study and to use them to redesign intervention and services targeting young people

Teaching tools

Powerpoint on the course contents will be available on the online platform IOL.

Office hours

See the website of Elvira Cicognani

See the website of Gabriele Prati