ABSTRACT
The City of Chicago has a long history of investment in the youth work field including professional development and training initiatives, college and university courses, field building not-for-profits, and processes designed to improve program quality. Not all of these have successfully survived a changed funding environment and the ever-changing challenges provided by the local, state and federal political context. The Chicago Youth Agency Partnership, with its citywide convening and networking capacity, folded in 2003; Aurora University closed its downtown group work degree completion program targeted at youth workers in 2000; and as of 2008, the Chicago Youth Program Standards have been abandoned. However, a community college program has sustained itself for most of the last decade and continues to successfully provide diverse youth workers with relevant professional education experiences from a distinct philosophical viewpoint that connects more solidly to the ideology associated with the UK system of qualification for professional youth workers. This chapter details the emergence and implementation of the Harold Washington College youth work program and utilizes student assessment data to highlight the patterns of reported practice changes that occur when diverse youth workers come to college to learn more about youth work.
