Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

A Voice For Our Future: High-Risk Adolescents' Perceptions And Experiences About Help And Healing Interventions, Cameron Dale Norman

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This critical ethnography examines the perceptions of adolescents at-risk with respect to their experiences of help, both formal and informal. Ten (10) adolescents who had been involved with the Bridges psychoeducational program, an interagency partnership intervention for high-risk youth in the Waterloo region, were interviewed about their experience with the programs and people who attempt to support them. Placing great importance on using the adolescent’s words to speak to their own needs and experiences, this study's main findings suggest that adolescents are not given voice by many helpers; most help agents fail to truly help these adolescents in a meaningful …