A Unique Approach to Youth Development and Community Improvement

Imagine a Joining Forces community meeting or summit... designed and led by youth. A Youth-Led Community Summit is not just another 'feel-good' day, and not another forum for the adults to talk -- it is:

• A youth development and training program through which young people sharpen vital job and life skills and showcase themselves as resources, contributors and leaders;
• A community improvement process in which youth and adults work together to build bridges of understanding and actually respond to the real challenges confronting their community.

What sets these youth-led gatherings apart from a regular Joining Forces Summit is the central role youth play in the design and implementation of the event.

Why is it needed?

If we are to resolve the major problems -- like violence and drug use -- that confront our society, we must become much better at:

• Engaging our youth in dialogue, working with them in partnership, and recognizing their efforts;
• Creating real-life opportunities for young people to sharpen their skills, access the public spotlight, and participate in solving the problems that affect us all.

The Youth-Led Community Summit produces both of these outcomes.

How are youth involved?

All too often, youth have been "passengers in the back seat." In this summit model, young people "get behind the wheel," but have experienced "driver trainers" alongside for guidance and support. Specifically, youth play key roles in the planning process and during the summit itself.

• On the steering committee, youth are intimately involved in designing the summit and carrying out the plan. For example, they write press releases, speak with local business owners to secure support, make presentations to community groups to invite participation, and make arrangements for all of the logistical details.
• During the summit, young people not only welcome and register participants, introduce speakers and activities, handle logistics like lighting and sound, and facilitate table discussions but they contribute their own ideas both as participants and as featured speakers.

How are adults involved?

Adults participate in two distinctly different capacities:

• Adults actively coach and mentor the youth on the steering committee, and provide support to those who are serving as small-group facilitators.
• In addition, they represent their respective agencies and organizations - like law enforcement, schools, and local government - in both the design of the summit and its execution.

Benefits - for Youth, Adults, and the Community

Current research shows that if young people are to become competent, caring and responsible contributors to their communities, they need meaningful opportunities to participate, to lead, to contribute, both side-by-side with adults and on their own. Why? Because such 'stakeholder' opportunities satisfy their very deep-seated developmental needs for belonging, recognition and power, and help them develop the skills and values they need to succeed in school, work, and life.

As participants in the planning process and the summit itself, youth and adults have concrete opportunities to:

• Sharpen skills like writing, public speaking, creative problem solving, facilitating, negotiating, building consensus from divergent viewpoints, as well as planning, organizing and project management;
• Build new relationships - and strengthen existing ones - not just between groups and organizations like schools, law enforcement, business, government, and service, but between the youth and adults who must together resolve community issues;
• Gain confidence, "presence," and the capacity for more effectively utilizing those skills and relationships in the service of their community;
• Experience a strong sense of "place," of belonging and significance, of being a stakeholder - "I can do it. I can make a difference." - through being a vital part of the summit process.

The community at large also benefits from the summit program:

• More youth have the opportunity to be contributors, instead of consumers;
• Perceptions are shifted as adults experience youth in new ways, and vice versa.

How Community Matters helps make it happen

To insure successful outcomes, Community Matters provides vital support and expertise throughout all stages of the summit planning and implementation, including:

• Technical assistance with initial planning, to insure that a viable steering committee emerges and develops a workable plan for creating the summit;
• Multi-day training of the steering committee in youth-adult partnerships, team skills, event planning, and other areas as needed;
• Comprehensive planning materials, including timelines and task lists for subcommittees, sample letters, publicity tools, logistical checklists, and more;
• Technical assistance for the steering committee and subcommittees as they prepare for the summit;
• Training, coaching, and support for the youth facilitators, and their mentors;
• Facilitation and coaching on the day of the summit, plus any related meetings, briefings, press conferences, etc.;
• Technical assistance with evaluation and follow-up;
• Post-summit training, coaching, and technical assistance for leaders of the project teams that may emerge at the summit (optional).

Imagine a community...

• Where youth perceive themselves as valued and necessary members of their community
• Where youth learn and practice critical employability and citizenship skills as they solve real community problems and meet genuine community needs
• Where youth voices are heard and their contributions are welcomed

A Youth-led Community Meeting, Forum, or Summit can help make it happen in your community. To explore the possibilities, contact us.