Empowering Strengths

The youth who come to Hopeworks are often emerging from a culture of violence that structurally, socially and personally marginalizes their personal identity, devalues their sense of self-confidence, instills in them defeatism, and undermines opportunities for success.  Hopeworks is radically different in that it nurtures and cares for a culture of hope.  This culture of hope maximizes personal identity, appreciates self-confidence, creates success-oriented, hope-filled, optimistic outlooks, and supports the youth with opportunities for success.  While structural and social behaviors throughout our training and literacy programs support these developments, it is the specific goal of formation to recognize the strengths and assets of each youth in a manner that will activate, mobilize and empower those strengths to support the youth within this culture of hope.

To this end, Formation adopts a strengths-focused model of learning: appreciative inquiry.  We ask the youth to focus on the positive, life-promoting, self-enhancing aspects of their lives and to convey those through positive stories of achievement and success.  We recognize that each youth contains within themselves a limitless potential for progress.  To transform that potential into progress, the youth must rely upon her or his strengths.  To recognize (literally, “to know again”), these strengths, we must uncover them from the past and highlight them in the present.  Our Formation Program, therefore, is constantly seeking stories of success from the youth to do just that.  In each and every Personal Development Plan meeting with a trainee, we have them tell these positive stories in a focused and direct way to highlight her or his strengths.  By being intentionally positive, we do not ignore the weaknesses or negative aspects of a youth’s performance but rather transform those weaknesses with the concentrated energy we find in the positive. 

This process of appreciative inquiry is youth-driven and highly participatory in such a manner that the youth are able to transform their inner dialogue from that of a culture of violence to that of a culture of hope.  That inner dialogue shift stirs creativity and stimulates vision, promoting their path to success.