U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government, Department of Justice.

NCJRS Virtual Library

The Virtual Library houses over 235,000 criminal justice resources, including all known OJP works.
Click here to search the NCJRS Virtual Library

Listening to At-Risk Youth

NCJ Number
220139
Journal
Child and Youth Services Volume: 29 Issue: 1/2 Dated: 2007 Pages: 201-247
Author(s)
Niall McElwee
Date Published
2007
Length
47 pages
Annotation
This article describes the micro “risk society” of Limerick City and St. Augustine’s Youth Encounter Project (YEP) in terms of the social and cultural background of the interviewees, their perceived family and community identity, and their wider socialization influences.
Abstract
Interview transcripts illustrate perceptions of risk and at-risk articulated by young people of St. Augustine’s Youth Encounter Project (YEP). Past and present students of St. Augustine’s are viewed in the context of family, school, and community while considering three broad questions: (1) what are the important risk factors associated with each setting; (2) what factors at the individual level are associated with resilient outcomes; and (3) what mechanisms at the social ecological level promote resilience in individuals? St. Augustine’s YEP has been a safe haven for children and youth since 1977. This article presents direct quotations from young interviewees organized around the risk concept in their own dialect and inflections. It is written in an interpretative, relational child and youth care perspective. References and appendix