This summer marks one year since the inception of Youthprise’s Innovator Collective. The program was established in 2012 as a way to integrate young people into the mission and work of
Youthprise.

The current Innovator Collective is composed of:

Shanell McCoy, Arts

Alexandria Rice, Youth Engagement

Alyssa Roach, Development

Paris Carruthers, Research and Evaluation AmeriCorps Promise Fellow

De’ Arreon Robinson, Research and Evaluation AmeriCorps Promise Fellow

Bella Larson, Focus Group Facilitator

Jorge Rivas, Focus Group Facilitator

Shanell McCoy, who was a Youth Innovator in the pilot collective, reflects on the impact the Innovator Collective had on her life and her hopes for the next collective.

High school is a place that teaches you to conform. From the first day of school to the last day, and every other day in between, you had to belong to specific group. You had to eat, walk to class, attend sports games, and go to prom with that group. You had to dress, think, and act like that group. Whether you were an athlete or an outcast, you had a group. I hated high school. My motto was, “as soon as high school ends, my life will begin”.

Graduation had to be the greatest day of my entire life. I was that prisoner that was released from a decade of confinement. I could see light! I had the world in my hands at that moment. The only problem was I didn’t know what was to come next. I had the world but I didn’t know what to do with it.

The summer of 2012 will go down as one of the best summers I’ve ever have. I was one of seven interns at Youthprise. Of my fellow interns, some were in college and some had just graduated college. Some were a little weird, some were quiet, and some were very talkative. My instinct was to fit in. Who in this group could I most relate with? Who did I have the most in common with? Who could I tell jokes and laugh with?

Initially, I formed relationships with people who fit my criteria. I conversed with the interns I thought I could identify with most. I created one or two friendships and kept a polite acquaintance with those who I figured I’d have no connection with. The interns were friendly but not very close. We came in the office, did our work, and left.

Around late July or early August, some of the other interns had planned to meet at another intern’s house. When I was invited, initially I said no. How weird was that to just to go to somebody’s house? What were we going to do? I had my perceptions about certain people in the group. I didn’t just want to start spending time with them. But then again, maybe the brain formed by the exclusivity of high school turned me into some popularity seeking loner. Maybe I needed to step outside of my box just one time and see what these people were really all about.

Eventually I agreed to meet up with the other interns. I couldn’t lie to myself, I was excited. The other interns said something about doing this thing called Circle. It started with one of the interns explaining the concept of the activity. He read an excerpt about the beauty of silence. After, he asked the group to fall into silence and just listen. I was skeptical at first, but listening to silence was actually relaxing. I listened to the sound of the wind blowing past the trees, birds chirping, and the hum of the air conditioner. This was the start of my new mind. My mind was free. Suddenly I was open to listening.

At that moment I realized that life had a deeper meaning than the artificial goal of “fitting in”. The Circle activity with the other interns taught me how to listen and to accept different perspectives even when I disagreed with them. The people that I worked with suddenly became friends. Although we were different, we were human. We were young and we had opinions about everything. I learned how to engage in intellectual conversation. I figured out where I stood on certain issues. Circle with the interns revealed to myself who Shanell McCoy really was.

There was a different energy in the office the next day. We weren’t colleagues, we were friends. We laughed together, shared our work with each other, and talked about things other than the job. We were called the Innovator Collective. We never really owned that title until the day after Circle. We were innovators in that we all brought something different to the conversation. We were a collective in that we shared a common goal.

I walked away from that summer internship at Youthprise a completely different person. I still hated high school, but I had a new appreciation for life. Life was not about fitting in and being an outcast when you didn’t. Life was about finding your own happiness, accepting the differences around you, and learning from the things you least understand. My world as I knew it began to make sense. I had security in myself for the first time and actual friends I could relate to and have intellectual conversations with.

By the end of the summer many of the interns moved on with school and other job opportunities. When the new Innovator Collective started this spring, I was very skeptical. I didn’t know how these new innovators would compare to the ones I had become so close with.

It’s too soon to tell. The vibe in the office is definitely different. Having more youth in the office again is wonderful. I feel like we’ve just started to break the ice. I am very excited to see what this collective will turn into.

Although it’s only been a year, I have grown so much since I graduated high school. I owe a lot of my growth to Youthprise and the Innovator Collective. I hope that the new innovators will walk away with the experience I have. Time will only tell!

-Shanell McCoy

CBASS is not letting the stalled reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) keep us from pressing our policy priorities in DC. Two weeks ago, we met with local delegates and staff from the Senate and House education authorization and appropriations committees to discuss our policy recommendations. As much as policy change in DC may be gridlocked, we left the Hill inspired by staffers’ hunger to understand from education leaders what works and what doesn’t, and how our on-the-ground work can inform legislation.

Here’s what we discussed:

Maintain the stand-alone 21st Century Community Learning Center program.
We continue to be dismayed by House Education leaders’ partisan approach to reauthorization and insistence on block granting discretionary education funds, such as the 21st Century Community Learning Center (CCLC) program. We continue to fight for a stand-alone funding stream to ensure these critical resources are available to communities in need. President Obama’s proposed $100 million increase to the 21st CCLC is a promising step in the right direction to ensure that more kids from high-need communities have opportunities to thrive and learn beyond the traditional school day.

Ensure strong partnerships between schools and community partners are required for all 21st CCLC programs.
In a scan of just our CBASS communities, we learned that partnerships are often prioritized in state policy, but not required. We believe all communities, both urban and rural, have the ability to transform learning experiences by leveraging the combined power of school and community partnerships. We shared with staff our stories of how intermediary organizations like the Nashville After Zone Alliance brings community partners like the YMCA and Girls, Inc. into the schools to deliver inspiring programming. Programs like this have doubled the participation rate in after-school and broken new ground with the school district in creating mechanisms for sharing information around school attendance and other academic outcomes.

Encourage participation of intermediaries to help leverage resources, increase efficiencies, and promote sustainability.
Policy makers are extremely receptive to learning about the impact of intermediary organizations, particularly how we improve program quality, maximize community resources, and target high-quality services to kids in high-need communities. Underscoring this recognition of the value of intermediary organizations, in 2012 the Senate Appropriations Committee recommended that the U.S. Department of Education use local and statewide intermediaries to provide technical assistance on developing strong school and community partners. We shared new research on TASC’s leadership in designing a national ExpandED Schools model, which has led to gains in math performance, school attendance and school climate. TASC has also led efforts to help schools and community organizations cover program costs by braiding a variety of funding resources.

21st CCLC funds should not be used for the redesign of the school day.
Standing language from the 2011 Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee ESEA bill allows the use of 21st CCLC funds for redesign of the school day. CBASS released a memo expressing concerns about allowing the use of these relatively modest funds for administrative costs involved in comprehensive school redesign, as compared to Title I or other monies. Funds from the 21st CCLC program should continue to be used predominantly for direct services for programs that expand opportunities for students from low-income communities. As our partner, Jennifer Peck, recently explained in the Huffington Post, “While a redesign of the school day for all students is well worth exploration, funding should be pulled from multiple federal funding streams” for whole school redesign models.

Read our full list of policy principles, and share your thoughts and reactions in the comments below.

You can read the original article here.

“What matters is not what you are called; what matters is what you answer to.”

These were the words of 2011 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Leymah Gbowee of Liberia, making the link between bullying and violence during the Upper Midwest PeaceJam Youth Leadership Conference held in North Minneapolis, April 27-28.

With North Community High School and nearby Oak Park as centers of activity, the nonprofit youthrive convened about 400 PeaceJam participants from a five-state area to explore peace-building. A weekend of workshops, service-learning projects, and conversations underscored the theme “ Hope: Ignite Action to Break the Cycle of Violence.”

Gbowee shared her stories of organizing and activism among Christian and Muslim women, which helped bring an end to Liberia’s civil war in 2003 — first with the PeaceJam participants and then with incarcerated youth at Stadium View in Minneapolis.

Later that afternoon, she joined PeaceJam participants in painting bikes for the community, dancing in a flash mob to bring attention to gender-based violence, painting a mural, planting a peace pole, and cleaning up Oak Park Neighborhood Center’s playground to prepare it for summer. In short, all built connections and celebrated peace-building in what felt like the Twin Cities’ first taste of summer after a very long winter.

But summer can also herald a resurgence of violence, and every step taken that weekend worked against the prevalence of gun violence during the same months that get Minnesotans outside.

During a public talk Saturday night in Brooklyn Park, youthrive cabinet member Kevin Nguyen asked Gbowee about the role of young people in ending violence, to which she answered: “Embrace diversity… We must learn to talk with each other rather than at each other.”

Peace Jammers responded in kind. Many led Sunday workshops on hip hop messaging and nonviolence, girls’ empowerment, and healthy dating relationships. Youth leaders emceed as groups presented their “Global Calls to Action” to Gbowee — local service-learning projects that are tied to international issues identified by the 13 Nobel Laureates that work with youth across the globe through PeaceJam.

All had studied identity, difference, power and privilege, civil discourse and nonviolence — elements of the PeaceJam curriculum implemented in out-of-school and in-school settings from West Fargo High School, to Hennepin County Juvenile Justice Center, to a Unitarian Church in White Bear Lake.

Reminding PeaceJam participants that “It doesn’t take a lot to make change,” Gbowee advised young people to: “Walk humbly; love mercy; and do justice.”

Since PeaceJam, Nguyen has already been “doing justice” at Highland Park Middle School in St. Paul. As a high school student facilitator, he has been involved in a two-day Youth Frontiers conference designed to build positive school communities, leading small group discussions and team-building activities. One of the event’s topics has been courage, so Nguyen says he has been quoting Gbowee in conversations about name-calling.

Throughout these recent events, Nguyen said he was reminded that “We’re not the only ones carrying out the service; millions of other kids are also helping.”

His work as a peace-builder is an example of the kind of systemic change that Gbowee stakes Liberia’s — and the Twin Cities’ — nonviolent future on.

As Gbowee said: “We tell young people, ‘Tomorrow you will take over. Well, tomorrow’s here!”

To access the PeaceJam training and curriculum, visit www.youthrive.net or call 612-354-7571.

McKnight invested $25 million to the program and chose two partners to lead this charge: RE-AMP, a network of over 150 nonprofits and 14 foundations working in eight Midwest states dedicated to making significant reductions in climate changing pollution; and the Energy Foundation, a grant-making organization that focuses on expanding the clean energy market. McKnight’s board adopted this refined focus because of the tremendous opportunities it represents for Midwest businesses and communities to innovate and lead toward a clean energy economy, particularly for the youth of Minnesota.

As an intermediary dedicated building effective out of school time systems, and innovation in youth engagement, Youthprise understands the need to invest in environmental initiatives – especially those that incorporate youth development into their work. One example of a youth centered program that works on behalf of clean energy is the Kitty Andersen Youth Science Center, a Youthprise partner/grantee. Two paid youth crews of the STEM-In-Action Program learn and advocate for green policies and actions: the Earth Buzz Crew and the Climate Change Crew. The Earth Buzz Crew learns about human created environmental issues and innovations, and investigates solutions to these local and global challenges. The Climate Change Crew uses hands on activities, community events, and partnerships to learn about the local impact and solutions to climate change. Through these participatory activities, the youth in the STEM-In-Action immerse themselves in their community and science learning.

The Kitty Andersen Youth Science Programs are significant because they target students from communities underrepresented in STEM disciplines: 75% of participants are from low-income families, 60% are girls, and 90% are youth of color. This objective is intertwined with the idea of environmental justice. It has been noted that low income people and people of color disproportionately bear the burden of environmental pollutants, and this program seeks to engage the young leaders of today in making sense of this moral dilemma and implementing programs that combat it.

Another Youthprise partner/grantee that is committing itself to building healthy communities through environmental justice is Tamales y Bicicletas. This group focuses on fostering Latino and immigrant communities through bikes and cultural empowerment. Some programs Tamales y Bicicletas offers are Cuatro Elementos Leadership Camp, Pedal Poder bicycle workshops, and the DREAMER Engagement and Empowerment Project. Each of these programs does its part to support sustainable transportation, local foods access, and youth development. The group refers to themselves as the “Urban Solution to Pollution,” utilizing youth and community building to fight the problem of climate change locally.

As the McKnight Foundation goes forward in its quest to make the Midwest ground zero for environmental innovation, many youth-focused organizations in Minnesota stand ready to join McKnight in spearheading this goal. Inclusion of youth into these goals is paramount, as young people are the ones who are not only inheriting this planet, but will be the innovators and advocates of the clean energy policies and technologies of the future.

Sincerely,

Wokie Weah

The Minnesota Youth Council is looking for youth-adult pairs from across the state of Minnesota to join us in expanding youth voice and being a part of decision-making processes at the state and local level. The MYC uses a youth-adult partnership model, where youth and adults actively collaborate to lead the initiatives of the Council together. Each youth applicant should apply with an adult partner - a youth worker, AmeriCorps Promise Fellow, teacher, family friend, etc.

Qualifications:

• Be a youth and adult pair
• Live in Minnesota
• Youth must be entering 8th-12th grade

Expectations:

• 4 hour per month time commitment (please note this does not include monthly meetings, retreats, or special events)
• Must be able to travel to Twin Cities approx 5 times per year
• Must be excited about expanding youth voice in Minnesota
• Must be passionate about issues that affect youth

Benefits for Members:

• Opportunity to receive training on the legislative process, community organizing, outreach and social media, leadership, community asset mapping and youth-adult partnerships, and philanthropy
• Engage in dialogue with policymakers, elected officials and other community leaders
• Opportunities to organize, lead and engage in events promoting youth voice
• Develop communication, leadership and research skills that may be reflected in future scholarship, college and job opportunities
• Be provided with the tools needed to bring about change in your community and the state
• Have a chance to network and connect with other youth from across the state

How To Apply

• Follow the link here to fill out the online application
• Youth and adult pairs should apply together
• We will contact you for an interview
• Applications are due May 10th by 6pm, and interviews will take place the weeks of May 13th and 20th!

For more information contact Ashley Barnes at promisefellow@mnyouth.net

As we participate in Minneapolis Youth Prevention Week (March 18th-22nd), we should acknowledge that there’s an important, untold story about reduction of violence in the Twin Cities. As President Obama did on his recent trip here, we need to acknowledge and engage youth in helping to reduce violence in our communities. Instilling a culture of peace among youth and utilizing their ingenuity to create solutions with adult decision-makers are some of the best ways to reduce violence across generations.

Recognizing that young people have 2,000 hours of discretionary time – nearly twice the time they spend in school, Minneapolis wisely has helped curb youth violence by emphasizing the central role of youth engagement and high quality out-of-school time programs.

The peak hours for youth involvement in violent crime — both as perpetrators and as victims — are between 2 and 6 p.m. A California study of afterschool programs showed that violent acts decreased by more than 50% for youth involved in afterschool programs. Closer to home, we have seen a reduction in youth violence in recent years. The Minneapolis Blueprint for Action on youth violence has helped strengthen protective factors for youth, through involvement in intervention programs and connections to caring adults.

This broader way of thinking about the time youth spend after school can help reach the young people who are most at risk of causing or experiencing violence. A good example is the award-winning Brotherhood Inc., a Saint Paul nonprofit that helps young African American men ages 16-24 who are involved or are at risk for involvement in gangs or the criminal justice system.

Brotherhood recognizes that African American males have moved from being at-risk to being in crisis. They face the highest rates of unemployment and homelessness, and the greatest high school drop-out frequency. As Nekima Levy-Pounds of Brotherhood Inc. explained, African American males represent 7.4 percent of Minnesota’s overall juvenile population, yet account for 38 percent of total arrests for violent crime and 65 percent of arrests involving curfew, loitering and runaway infractions.

With Brotherhood, these young men build leadership skills through employment in a social enterprise and meetings with policy makers in government and law enforcement to provide input and insights. Sharing their unique perspectives as young men who have been in the system, the youth train new police recruits, engage in public speaking, perform plays based on their experiences, and work with policy makers to identify alternative approaches to interacting with African American youth.

Another nonprofit, La Opportunidad, is helping to achieve the same goals in the Latino community, working with youth to develop strategies for peace such as healthy relationships, anger management, conflict resolution, and positive family relationships. La Opportunidad focuses on youth at high risk of gang involvement.  It plays an active role in the life of a young person, intervening at the first sign of their becoming at-risk and providing positive opportunities, particularly after school.

Youth play a central leadership role in La Opportunidad.  As Eloisa Echavez of La Opportunidad explains, for 13 years, high school Latino youth has organized a Latino Youth Peace  and Leadership Conference which now involves students from 15 high schools. Youth meet weekly for ten months to plan and develop all conference elements and play a central role in managing the event. Like Brotherhood, their work is grounded in understanding and promoting the strengths that come from their culture.

Solving the problem of youth violence requires a multi-prong approach. While efforts to limit youth access to guns will certainly help, an emphasis on creating enriching opportunities that empower youth to realize the role they can play in developing a better world for themselves and their communities is essential.

Wokie Weah is the president of Youthprise, an intermediary that champions learning beyond the classroom for all Minnesota youth. She serves as co-chair of the Minneapolis Youth Violence Prevention Commission along with Mayor Rybak and Ben Knoll of Greater Twin Cities United Way. www.youthprise.org. 

In 2010, political change ignited in Tunisia when a young street vendor set himself on fire as a deep expression of helplessness in the face of lack of opportunity.  The shocking image was spread online and generated unrest.  As protests spread, people poured into the streets and began to organize themselves with cell phones and Facebook. Social media sped up the process of organizing and let the rest of the world watch and offer support.  It provided new sources of information repressive regimes could not easily control and was crucial in shaping how citizens made individual decisions about participating in protests.

In addition to the technological revolution in mobilizing people, a significant reason for the success of these uprisings was the huge participation of women.  Young girls, mothers and grandmothers flocked to rallies wearing veils, jeans, and miniskirts.  Throughout the region, women emerged as change agents.

A powerful example of one woman’s leadership is Tawakkol Karman, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate from Yemen. She was the closing speaker of the Forum.  She has been called by Yemenis the “Iron Woman” and “Mother of the Revolution.” She is the first Yemeni, the first Arab woman, and the second Muslim woman to win a Nobel Prize and is the youngest Nobel Peace Laureate to date.

Karman is a Yemeni journalist, politician and human rights activist who heads the group “Women Journalists Without Chains,” which she co-founded in 2005. She gained prominence in her country when she led protests for press freedom and later expanded weekly protests to include issues for political reform.

There were six major messages in her address to the Forum participants.  1) If you suffer, don’t sit and wait.    2)  Get yourself some strong ideas.  3)  Freedom of expression is our #1 human right.  4)  Peaceful struggle is the only way to lead. Confront bullets with roses. 5)  It is the youth who have dreamed of a state of equal citizenship, a state that guarantees freedom and dignity of life. 6)  Together we will achieve all our dreams.

Robin Wright, opening keynote on Global Day at the Forum, is a Senior Fellow at the U.S. Institute of Peace, a journalist, author and foreign policy analyst whose book, Rock the Casbah: Rage and Rebellion across the Islamic World, won the 2012 Overseas Press Club award for best book on international affairs.  She described spoken and visual arts such as song, poetry, comedy, and even comic books fueling and nourishing change in the Middle East.

Rap became the rhythm of resistance.  As uprisings began, many sang a song a rapper had put on his Facebook page.  Lines from poetry became chants as protesters streamed into the streets.  A series of superhero comic books, The 99, became very popular having been translated into 12 languages.  Each superhero possesses a different superpower and is from a different country, and the heroes are equally divided between being male or female.  New young Muslim comedians emerged, bridging Western and Muslim worlds, one group calling itself the Axis of Evil Comedy tour.

At least 500 songs were created by artists in Yemen’s protest movement. After musicians perform them live during protests, the songs instantly reappear as mobile phone ring tones or as mixes on YouTube.

The process of political change is echoed throughout our lives wherever elders teach young people to stand up to injustice and youth are empowered to freely express their visions and truth, unite through discussion and action, and are given equal voice in creating solutions to injustice.

”Political changes are coming

Close ranks for the great day forward

One heart beats, one voice shouts.”

-Liz Brekke

Youthprise

In April, the Upper Midwest Affiliate to PeaceJam, youthrive, is bringing Gbowee to the Twin Cities for their annual two-day event, PeaceJam. The theme of this year’s PeaceJam is “Hope: Ignite Action to Break the Cycle of Violence.” The youth conference, which features Nobel Laureates and connects them with youth communities across the country, will take place on April 27-28^th. It is open to the public and will be held at North High School in Minneapolis. A public talk will be held Sat., April 27, from 7:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. at Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Brooklyn Park. Through a strategic partnership, youthrive and Youthprise work together to promote authentic youth engagement  in Minnesota and advance youth-adult partnerships.

Gbowee’s dedication to building a peace movement in her home country that draws on a strong base of women leaders shows how important it is to recognize the potential of women as leaders. Her continued work in sharing her story and inspiring millions around the world to build movements around peace shows how powerful the rhetoric of non-violence can be. And her partnership this year with PeaceJam, an organization dedicated to forming connections between Nobel Laureates and young people across the country, shows that she recognizes the power behind working with young people as leaders.

In honor of International Women’s Day and our dedication to youth around the world, we would like to thank Gbowee for all of the incredible work she has done, and for the generations of young people she continues to impact.

Lizzy Shramko

Communications Associate, Youthprise

*Photo credit: Michael Angelo

JDAI is a nationally recognized, evidence-based juvenile justice system reform project launched in 1992 by the Annie E. Casey Foundation.  The purpose of the Juvenile Justice System, as agreed to by the Ramsey County JDAI Stakeholder Group, is to attend to public safety and foster positive youth outcomes that are fair and equitable.

The Cultural Wellness Center is a community-initiated organization that mines and synthesizes experience-based knowledge to both explain problems and deliver solutions. The Cultural Wellness Center is in the business of positioning community knowledge at the forefront of community health and economic development ideas.

More on these initiatives can be found here: http://www.ramseyjdai.org , http://ppcwc.org

This year’s Black History Month Celebration (#BHMC2013) is already upon us! Youthprise and Cultural Wellness Center have organized two full days of events for “Renewing Hope in the Promise of Minnesota’s Youth”, featuring Dr. Joseph L. White, the “Godfather of Black Psychology”. This year Youthprise had the opportunity to partner with organizations across the Twin Cities community, you can view the full list of partners on page 3 of the program.

You can view the full list of #BHMC2013 events here, and click to view a full program of events here.

To follow the events on twitter or to add your own reflections use #BHMC2013 and #RenewHope on Twitter and help add to the conversation!

To provide an intergenerational context, please check out this insightful piece from Youthprise’s Youth innovator, Shanell McCoy, that was published in Insight News. Shanell reflects on the legacy of history and what Black History Month means to her as a young black woman. The piece is excerpted below.

An Excerpt from BLACK HISTORY MONTH GOES LIKE THIS

Teaching positive messages pertaining to culture and history play a very important role in the foundation of future success. History teaches that through determination, resilience, and ingenuity one can overcome any obstacle in the face of any form of adversity or oppression. Compared to the circumstances present in most of our history, this generation has unspeakable, tremendous opportunity to do and be anything. However, as stated before, if we don’t know where we came from, we’ll never know where we’re going. Considering the magnitude of the advances made throughout our history, how could we not use what we know to further transform our society and engage and empower youth at the same time? Leveraging culture and history as tools to develop leadership among youth will help build better futures. Furthermore, the advancement of youth in the present based on the knowledge of the past will lead to the prosperity of Minnesota in the future.

To read the full article click here.