The second time I walked into the Camden YAP office to conduct a focus group, the environment was very different. The boys were playing Hangman and were laid back and relaxed. As more participants started coming into the room, you could feel the fun, light atmosphere around you. Already you could tell this was going to be an entirely different group, even though they consisted of the same participants.

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Imagine, if you will, being an African-American youth living in Camden, New Jersey. What would your life be like? What do you know about Camden, NJ? What are your perceptions, assumptions, and thoughts? This is what I wanted to start with in my focus group in Camden.

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After my day spent speaking with staff at Camden, I was invited to participate in a Life Skills group that meets in the evening. This group helps to teach youth basic living skills such as filling out job applications, the steps required to rent an apartment, how to do your laundry, etc... Tonight's topic was a part of a series on Job Management. This particular group was focused on discussing what can get you fired from a job.

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Camden is impoverished. Camden houses many, many gang members. Camden has a high homeless population. Camden is dangerous. Camden is dirty. Camden is...

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As a native of suburban Minnesota, I am very unfamiliar with city life. Newark is somewhat close to what I expected it to be, mind you I had a lot of people telling me what to expect. I suppose I had a more negative impression of what Newark would be, as most people were warning me to be careful and giving me statistics about the high crime rates and levels of gang violence. I will admit that seeing all the graffiti on the walls of anything and everything along my journey to the YAP office did deter me a bit from wanting to be there. However, I also believe that appearances can be quite deceiving, and to really get a feel for a new place it is necessary to spend a lot of quality time there.

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Hi, my name is Bree. I'm a Senior Graduate Student at Monmouth University in New Jersey. My program is International and Community Development in Social Work. I have been interning with Youth Advocate Program, Inc. (YAP) since September, 2009.

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