Authored by activists and educators Keith Strickland and Lucas L. Johnson, Youth Change Agent is your comprehensive guide to the best practices for your work to prevent young people from going down the wrong path.

Youth Change Agent empowers adults dedicated to preventing young people from taking the wrong path. You can become the change agent youth need to succeed. Authored by activists and educators Keith Strickland and Lucas L. Johnson, Youth Change Agent is your comprehensive guide to the best practices for your work to prevent young people from going down the wrong path. Youth Change Agent sheds light on the critical aspect of preventing incarceration altogether. It delves into the pressing issues that plague today's youth, from drug abuse and gun violence to risky sexual behavior and destructive materialism. In addition to presenting tips and techniques for productive conversations with young individuals, the book delves into the crucial topics of trust-building and risk assessment. Strickland and Johnson emphasize the importance of creating a nonjudgmental environment that fosters open communication and encourages young individuals to explore their potential without fear of criticism or disapproval. By gauging the highest risks youth face, the authors offer insights to help readers understand and address the root causes of risky behavior while inspiring young individuals to envision a brighter future. Drawing upon Strickland and Johnson's vast experience working with schools, courts, law enforcement agencies, and correctional facilities across multiple US states, this book provides invaluable guidance. Whether you are a mentor, therapist, social worker, or concerned parent, this indispensable resource will allow you to make a positive difference in the lives of our next generation.

A change agent wants to alter the way the world works. Creative, driven, difficult, these people have visions that they wrench into reality. Steve Chalke turned a church into the hub of its inner-city community. In Change Agents, he shares lessons he learned---hard-won, wryly told, and immensely practical---as his vision took form and life.

Sentenced to sixty-five years in a Texas prison, Damon West once had it all. He came from a great family, in a home full of God, love, support, and opportunities to reach any goal. A natural born leader, an athlete with good looks and charm, he appeared to be the all-American kid pursuing his dreams. Underneath this facade, however, was an addict in the early stages of disease. After suffering childhood sexual abuse by a babysitter at the age of nine, Damon began putting chemicals into his body to alter the way he felt. Once he was introduced to methamphetamines, however, he became instantly hooked—and the lives of so many innocent people would forever be changed by the choices he made in order to feed his insatiable meth habit. After a fateful discussion during his incarceration with a seasoned convict, Damon had a spiritual awakening. He learned that, like a coffee bean changing with the application of heat and pressure, he was capable of changing the environment around him. Armed with a program of recovery, a renewed faith, and a miraculous second chance at life, Damon emerged from over seven years of prison a changed man. His story of redemption continues to inspire audiences today.

Art as an Agent for Social Change explores through original research, experiences, and personal narratives the role of the arts in bringing forth social change within three interconnected themes: community building, collaborations, and teaching and pedagogy.

This textbook showcases innovative approaches to the interdisciplinary field of childhood and youth studies, examining how young people in a wide range of contemporary and historical contexts around the globe live their young lives as subjects, objects, and agents. The diverse contributions examine how children and youth are simultaneously constructed: as individual subjects through social processes and culturally-specific discourses; as objects of policy intervention and other adult power plays; and also as active agents who act on their world and make meaning even amidst conditions of social, political, and economic marginalization. In addition, the book is centrally engaged with questions about how researchers take into consideration children’s and young people’s own conceptions of themselves and how we conceptualize child and youth potentials for agency at different ages and stages of growing up. Each chapter discusses substantive research but also engages in self-reflection about methodology, positionality, and/or disciplinarity, thus making the volume especially useful for teaching. This book will be of interest to students and scholars across a range of disciplines, including childhood studies, youth studies, girls’ studies, development studies, research methods, sociology, anthropology, education, history, geography, public policy, cultural studies, gender and women’s studies and global studies.