One watched her distraught mother turn to drugs; another joined a gang because she was looking for someone to care about her; still another didn’t want to go to sleep at night, worried he would wake to a beating.
During Wednesday’s Bridges to Youths Community Partnership Conference, Schenectady youths spoke candidly about troubled childhoods and what they feel needs to be done to help kids in city neighborhoods where the needs of residents outstrip the resources available to help them.
The workshop at Proctors drew close to 400 representatives from human service organizations, schools and health care facilities, along with youths and adults living in the places where need is greatest. The aim was to explore how they can work as a team to help young people succeed.
“We have an entire community coming together to talk about where are we with how we support youth to be successful in our community in a number of ways — not just in school but in the neighborhood, in their homes. I don’t think we’ve ever had this kind of large, broad conversation,” said Robert Carreau, executive director of The Schenectady Foundation, the organization that sponsored the day-long workshop.
The event included a two-hour role-playing experience that simulated what it’s like to live in poverty. There were workshops on topics including teen pregnancy, the juvenile justice system and intergenerational parenting. The conference ended with a call to action for transformative change.
Ten local youths, ages 13 to 23, answered questions as part of a live panel Wednesday morning, while others shared stories about their home lives, bullying, school suspensions and more in three video segments.
“We don’t change youth as leaders. We create the conditions in which change occurs, and if we want to know how to empower youth, we need to ask the experts, which are the youth,” said panel facilitator Damonni Farley, who works as a YouthBuild AmeriCorps project site supervisor for Northeast Parent and Child Society.
One of the early questions for the young panel was, “What would help you to be empowered?”
“Let us know that you guys care and be there,” replied a 20-year-old girl.
An 18-year-old boy said more funding for school programs would help.
“I know there’s not enough money for the clubs. They’re gonna cut sports and all the extra stuff that we come to school to do — sometimes not for the education but for the sports, for those art classes, for those music classes — the only thing that us youth, we see as interesting. If you guys cut those, we ain’t gonna be coming,” he said.
When asked what could be done to break the cycle of violence in neighborhoods and schools, a 20-year-old girl suggested using mediation to help diffuse school feuds.
A 13-year-old girl added: “You guys should stop assuming that we fight because we want a reputation. Half the time, we don’t know how to express ourselves, so the easiest way to do it is to hit the other person. You need to talk to us. You need to understand that we have a reason for everything that we do. It’s not just because we want a name.”
Carreau said he hopes Wednesday’s workshop will motivate community members and organizations to work together for positive change.
“Today is going to be a little messy because we don’t have this all packaged up nicely and neatly. We don’t know yet how this is going to end. It’s really going to depend on how we open up and talk to each other about what we’re really willing to do,” he said.
When asked what they’d like to see more of in their community, panel members suggested clubs where they could feel safe, a place to talk to someone trustworthy about their fears, a fitness center and volunteer opportunities. They said existing programs aren’t always well-advertised or don’t offer activities that interest them.
“We might feel unwanted there, so we don’t go,” one girl added.
“If I had a community building where I could offer all of these things for the youth, I would have ceramics, music programs,” said an 18-year-old boy. “Teachers are losing their jobs. This is an opportunity to hire these guys.”
He said his center would also include poetry, sports and music programs and have an expressive arts therapist on staff.
Categories: -News-
