About: Practicum at Abbotsford Youth Commission
I had an opportunity to do a practicum for Abbotsford Youth Commission (AYC). It is a non-profit organization in Abbotsford that receives its funding from the government. It also has different programs like youth night, after-school activities and youth focus sessions where the youth can come and talk about different things, can showcase their different skills like creativity, communication and leadership. The locations of AYC are located in both the recreational centres of Abbotsford: Matsqui Recreational Centre (MRC) and Abbotsford Recreational Centre (ARC). All the teenagers at AYC are between the age of 12-18 years old and it is a safe place for every culture and promotes inclusion and diversity
Projects
Coaster Painting
Being a practicum student, I was supposed to plan an activity at any of the two locations and engage the youth to participate in it. I spent most of my time at Matsqui Recreational Centre and therefore, before planning the activity I analyzed the interests of the youth present there. I came up with this idea of a painting activity because it was engaging, fun and creative. It was an open activity, and the youth was supposed to paint anything they want or imagine on a coaster or canvas. This was a fun activity, and I was very happy to see that participation of the youth was much more than I expected.
International Women's Day
I have had an opportunity to lead the activity of coloring the printouts with motivational quotes to celebrate International Women's Day in March. This activity was about educating the youth about women's empowerment and respect. This activity was planned by the AYC staff as they celebrate all the days and holidays at the centres to promote inclusion and diversity between the team members and the youth.
Lunar New Year 2023
AYC staff has planned an activity to celebrate the Lunar New Year where the youth was supposed to make an envelope following the instructions on the paper and decorate it afterwards. I led this activity by helping the youth follow the instructions and helping in decorating the same. Most of the youth were excited to participate in this activity and show their creative skills in decorating the envelope along with celebrating the Lunar New Year!
Self-Reflection
From this practicum experience I have learned
The differences between this project and other projects has been
I organized my specific project deliverables by doing
This gave me an opportunity to
What surprised me most was
My greatest learning came from
If I did this again I would
The skills I will value the most post-university are
From this practicum experience, I have learned how to be adaptable to a given situation or environment. I have never worked with youth before so this practicum was a new experience for me and has taught me how to deal with youth and maintain a positive and safe environment.
The experience with this practicum and other projects are different in the aspect that practicum is a real-world experience and involves accountability and responsibility while other projects involve collaboration, leadership and teamwork. However, one thing that is common between the two is teamwork. I believe that this real-world experience has taught me a lot about the workplace environment.
I organized my specific project deliveries by monitoring my progress and ensuring that all my required tasks are done on time. In addition, making adjustments to my schedule and resources.
This practicum experience has given me an opportunity to experience real-world experience and to develop skills like communication, problem-solving, adaptability and leadership by engaging with the youth and providing them safe and welcoming environment.
The thing that surprised me the most was seeing siblings coming into the centre and even after coming from the same background, they have two entirely different personalities. Another thing that surprised me was that I assumed it would be challenging for me to work with the teenagers as they are going through a significant change in their lives and may have some developmental issues however, when I started working I realized that it was easy to deal with the teenagers with skills like adaptability which have helped me a lot throughout.
My greatest learning came from addressing the issues at the centre in a manner that maintains a safe and healthy environment for all teenagers. The AYC staff has taught me a lot about dealing with different issues, teamwork by helping the staff with different opening and closing shift tasks, engagement with the youth and, being responsible.
AYC has a very supportive staff/ team, if I got an opportunity to be a part of AYC again in future, I would like to get connected with the team members more because there were only a very few staff meetings that I could attend while being a practicum student. Therefore, I would like to get to know more about the staff members and engage more in the activities with the youth.
The skills that I have developed through this practicum and will value post-university are communication, problem-solving, adaptability and time management. I have improved these transferrable skills by engaging with the youth, and solving conflicts between them which happened very occasionally. And, as this was my first experience working with the youth, I have learnt adapting to different situations and environment easily. I believe that these skills are very important to be successful in my professional as well as personal life.