From Street Life to Community Life

This study strives to extend our knowledge of the ways in which young Black males develop and perform their understandings of the street life that they observe in their neighborhood. It involves a phenomenological investigation into how a group of eight young Black males make sense and meaning of street life and street gangs in their neighborhoods. It involved conducting one, two, or three interviews with each of the eight participants. The participants ranged in age from eighteen to twenty-five and all of them had grown up in working poor neighborhoods with a considerable amount of street life. The interviews were semi-structured with the questions progressing from basic background information such as “What neighborhood are you from?”; “How would you describe your neighborhood to a complete stranger who has never seen it?”; “What are the biggest strengths of your neighborhood?”; “What are the biggest challenges that it faces?”; “What were your earliest memories of being aware of street life?”; “How did/do you choose to be involved or to avoid it?”; and “Why did you make those choices?” to follow up questions to extend and clarify their original responses. Then, in another interview, a final question: “What would you want all youth workers who work with young Black people to understand more accurately or correctly?” All of the interviews were then coded for major themes and sub-themes after member checking my understandings with the participants. The findings and their implications were then written up.

Author dc:creator

• Sharon Frieda Rubin (23291710)

• Youth Studies

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

DOI dc:identifier

https://doi.org/10.25417/uic.31451464.v1

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:figshare.com:article/31451464