Minnesota Walkabout Fellowship
This submission was contributed by Extension Center for Youth Development and is reprinted with permission. For this and more information on the Walkabout Fellowship visit MN Walkabout Fellowship
(Clockwise from lower left: Shaun Kelley Walsh, Lindsay Walz, Kari Denissen Cunnien, Deena McKinney, Jenny Wright Collins, Shaina Abraham, Cheryl Meld, Angel Peluso, Emily Schloesser.)
The 2011-12 Minnesota Walkabout fellowship was a year-long effort to bring experienced youth workers together to generate more wisdom, language and leadership around youth worker preparation and practice in Minnesota. At both the state and national levels, a growing collection of standards, competencies, credentials and career pathways are being established to guide and standardize youth work preparation and practice. There are potential benefits, drawbacks and concerns to these systems. Read more about the Walkabout fellowship in our Youth Development Insight blog.
Initially presented with three questions, the fellows settled on two important issues for focus:
- What would happen to youth work in Minnesota if we adopted a broadly shared understanding of youth work values, principles and ethics?
- What would it look like if Minnesota had a creative system of expectations and accountability for youth workers?
The nine working papers produced by the fellows are organized around three themes—values, accountability and networks. They represent a truly Minnesotan view of these issues, grounded in practitioner wisdom.
Download the entire collection:
Moving Youth Work Forward: Reflections on Youth-Centered Practice in Minnesota (1.3 MB PDF)
Download individual papers:
Values
- Think About It: An Exploration of Values, Principles and Ethics of Youth Work, (279K PDF) Deena McKinney
- Youth Worker Values and Approaches, (272K PDF) Angelina Peluso
- Toward a Youth-Centered Approach: Creating a (New) Standard Operating Procedure through Shared Values, (317K PDF) Lindsay Walz
Accountability
- Accountability with a Youth Worker Voice, (229K PDF) Emily Schloesser
- The Impact of Social Contracts on Youth Work in Rural Minnesota: A Walkabout Exploration of Expectations and Accountability, (415K PDF) Cheryl Meld
- Supporting Youth Workers through Reflection Circles: An Alternate Approach to Program Accountability, (274K PDF) Shaina Abraham
Networks
- Inclusivity, Engagement, Voice: A Youth-Centered Approach to Creating Professional Development Networks, (741K PDF) Shaun Kelley Walsh
- It’s Complicated: Crafting a System to Support Youth Work, (315K PDF) Kari Denissen Cunnien
- Building Capacity for Program Quality in Youth Work: Learnings from a Six-Year Quality Journey of the Minneapolis Beacons Network, (438K PDF) Jenny Wright Collins
The Walkabout fellowship was co-sponsored by the Minnesota Department of Education. The effort was led by Extension Center for Youth Development faculty Joyce Walker, Cece Gran and Kate Walker, Carol Thomas and Sheila Oehrlein of the department of education, and youth development consultant Janet Madzey Akale.