Youth Voice: Developing A Speakers Bureau

Topic area: Youth as Contributors

Type: Workshop

In our extremely age-segregated society, public perception of youth is largely shaped by secondhand information, much of which comes from mass media that disproportionately depict what youth do wrong. Only a good public relations campaign -- coupled with direct experience -- can correct those misperceptions and build the intergenerational bridges of understanding, respect and trust that are required for youth and adults to work together to solve today's tough problems.

This workshop introduces a process for developing a Youth Speakers Bureau: a cadre of committed and articulate youth able to make strong and effective presentations to business, governmental, school and other community groups on a variety of topics. Participants will explore several areas including:

• How to recruit and select youth
• Skills required for involvement
• Developing the "talking points" and materials for presentations
• Mapping and profiling key community organizations and groups
• Identifying the variety of roles/tasks -- speaker, equipment, contact, etc.
• Possible funding and public relations sources of support

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