•YOUTH COUNCILS• A how-to kit with suggestions, examples, and directions to help get you started
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 03 Before you begin‌ - What is your purpose? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 05 - Setting forth expectations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 06 - Setting forth goals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 07 Infrastructure - Recruiting youth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 09 - Determining level of commitment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 - Determining structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 - Creating a mission statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 - Developing rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 - Establishing funding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 - Project ideas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 - Sharing and communication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Evaluation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
INTRODUCTION This toolkit was created by Yollocalli Arts Reach, a youth initiative of the National Museum of Mexican Art, in Chicago, Illinois. We are a platform for innovative, urban art practices that generate youth agency. Our model is based on creating a space for experiential learning, collaboration with emerging artists, and the autonomy for youth to realize their own vision. Yollocalli is a safe and nurturing environment that enables a progressive dialogue in urban and youth culture. Our vision is to strengthen the value of art by providing equal access to communal, artistic, and cultural resources that allow youth to become creative and engaged res community members. In 2012, we established the Yollocalli Youth Council with the assistance of Hive Chicago to help further our mission of creating student-centered programming with an emphasis on youth culture. The following pages outline our steps in designing and implementing a youth board. Remember, not all youth councils will look alike- the main goal is that it meets the needs of the youth enrolled in the program. 03
BEFORE YOU BEGIN
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SETTING FORTH EXPECTATIONS When working with teens, there is a fine line between too much freedom and too much structure. Establishing some expectations and goals will help guide teens and ultimately empower them as you assist them in reaching their goals. Expectations: you vs. youth: First, we determined what we as adults would provide to the Fir council. They were: - A promise to be advocates for youth and teens - Facilitation (aid in identifying core issues) - Documentation (photos, notes, meeting minutes) - Experts (training and support on future endeavors) - Rewards (How can we give back to the youth who commit so much time and energy to our organization? Hint: teenagers love food. We also provide community service hours for their time.) Next, we established what we expected from the youth: - An agreed upon set of rules and guidelines - A mission statement - Output (idea generation- projects, events, grants, etc.) - Social media output (sharing and communicating the endeavors of the council to the world- Facebook/ Tumblr./ etc.) It may be impossible to establish all of these roles with absolutionespecially before you know your youth. You may find that they want more/ less responsibility, or you may see these roles change over time. However, identifying some of the responsibilities of the group and making them clear will help your council know what they can expect from you and what you need from them. SETTING FORTH GOALS SETTI Before even meeting with our youth, we also set forth some specific goals and activities that we wanted to accomplish: things we already knew the organization needed more youth input on, and ways we could help empower our youth. This provided us with some direction and a plan of action early on, during the development phase of the council. 06
We set forth the following goals: - Work as a team (staff and youth) to address issues relating to Yollocalli - Foster a greater involvement of youth in surrounding communities - Provide youth with opportunities to develop themselves into active members of society by having them: - Propose and implement events, classes, plans, and other ideas - Provide input on current classes - Research, interview, and ultimately hire future teaching artists - Assist in planning, promoting, and implementing programs and services - Participate in skill-building workshops We also kept in mind that our youth would be full of their own great ideas and projects that they’d like to implement through Yollocalli; the possibilities of our youth council will be limited only by our imaginations.
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INFRASTRUCTURE To best ensure your infrastructure meets the needs of your youth, it is best to establish this framework with the help of your youth. RECRUITING YOUTH Know your youth: Who does your program target? How old are they? Where do they live? You’ll want your youth council to be a good representation of the group you serve. Will you handpick youth you already know? Will there be an open call to all youth? Once established will youth interview interested candidates? What will be the criteria for selection? For us, an open call worked best. Rather than limiting our admittance based on age or geography, we wanted all committed, active, interested youth to join; this included some alumni (who are currently attending college). Also, we wanted as many interested candidates to join as we could handle- so far having “too many” hasn’t been an issue for us. 09
DETERMINING LEVEL OF COMMITMENT How often will you meet? How long will your meetings be? Is there a base commitment level (6 months, 1 year?) you expect of your youth prior to acceptance? These decisions will be different for every council, and will probably change as your council progresses. We began by meeting every other week (supplementing our meetings with informal, online chatting), but quickly realized that this wasn’t often enough for the amount of projects and special events we had hoped to accomplish. Start with what your youth feel most comfortable committing to, and edit as you see fit. We now meet weekly, for about 2 hours, and take breaks (one week off) after a large project ab is completed.
DETERMINING STRUCTURE Some youth councils mirror government structure (President, Vice President, etc.), however, this framework is not required for a successful council. It will be useful to determine how your youth council will function with the help of those involved. Rather than assigning overarching roles, our youth step up to different roles depending on the project or task at hand- this is a great way to keep ideas fresh and share responsibilities. Our youth prefer a more informal approach. This structure probably works best for us since it closely reflects how we also structure our classes here at Yollocalli: democratic in nature, student-centered, and driven by youth interest. If your organization is formally structured, mirroring that design in your youth council will probably make the most sense for you and your youth. A word of caution: As an adult mentor, you are there to help guide them and keep them on track. Keeping this in mind, it is important that some structure is established so that youth can fully understand the power and potential the council has. 10
CREATING A MISSION STATEMENT Writing a mission statement with your youth will provide clarity and transparency: it sets goals, helps you focus, and gives you purpose. Start by asking: Why are we here? What do we hope to accomplish? Start drafting your statement by asking these questions of everyone involved; do not edit, and give everyone a chance to be heard. Look for overlapping themes and concepts that possess broad consensus. Our mission statement began as a lofty list of ideas that we pared down to: Our mission is to represent the youth voice of Yollocalli by: - Providing our input on current and future classes P - Proposing special events, grant ideas, and other plans - Assisting in planning, promoting, and implementing programs/ services This youth involvement will allow us to learn from one another and share our creativity to better Yollocalli and the community. Keep in mind, it may be necessary to review, fine-tune or rewrite your statement as your council develops and it’s mission becomes more clear.
DEVELOPING RULES Allowing youth to create their own set of rules gives them more ownership over the council. This is theirs, and you want them to feel it and own it. Before meeting with our youth, we thought about the idea of having Be them establish a set of rules regarding behavior, membership, elections, attendance, etc. However, when the youth were tasked with writing their own set of rules, they decided they only needed one: Respect. While more may arise organically, this one rule has been more than sufficient for our council. 11
ESTABLISHING FUNDING Securing money is always an issue with any organization, but do mon not let the amount of funding you have determine how much your youth council can do. Consider approaching outside organizations for funding donations, look into local grants to finance special projects, establish annual fundraising events, or consider membership dues. Trust your youth with money. Making the budget transparent will empower your youth to make wise decisions regarding spending, and encourage them to to think about sustaining the council long-term. Because we are an arts organization, we generate a solid income from youth-created merchandise with original artwork. We can easily make inexpensive items like stickers, buttons, and notebooks in-house and make a profit. Use what you have. What are the skills of your council? How can you turn that into a profitable project?
PROJECT IDEAS We knew we wanted our youth council to have a hand in class development by selecting class topics and hiring teaching artists, present more youth-centered events in our gallery space (movie nights, student exhibitions, etc.), and we wanted to encourage them to apply for youth-specific and local grants to secure more funding. Having these ideas in mind before formally meeting as a council gave us some direction while the council was still finding its footing. Once we were meeting regularly, completing projects, and expanding, it was easier for the youth to think and share more openly about their own ideas for what the council could do.
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SHARING AND COMMUNICATION Since Sin our council started by convening only once every two weeks, it was hard to keep the momentum of our meetings up. We tried to rectify this by creating an online sharing space, where we could continue to ideate, communicate, and stay informed. For this we chose to create a Facebook Group page; it’s private (invite-only) and since all of our youth use Facebook regularly it was easy to assimilate to using (Google and Yahoo both have group page options as well). Here we all share ideas, links to cool art sites, and project progress. We can even create events specific to the group, reminding members of our meetings and allowing everyone to RSVP. Whether or not your council has a “secretary” position, it is important to record your meetings in some fashion. For us, it is as simple as taking note of: the date, members in attendance, important phrases/ topics/ quotes, and a to-do list to complete before the next meeting. If you choose to use an online sharing space, it’s a great idea to upload these meeting notes here. Keeping notes and to-do lists public helps keep members on-track, accountable, and up to date if they missed a meeting
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EVALUATION It’s a dirty job but someone has to do it. The good news is if you’ve written your mission statement (or defined your goals in some way), then you’re already halfway there! Once your goals have been defined you can assess them by asking questions like: - How are the program structure, activities, and staff supporting those goals? What can be done to improve support? -W This can be completed with your youth in a number of different ways: informal conversations, small group discussions, one-on-ones, or questionnaires, to name a few. Sporadically assessing your program and projects via informal Sp methods can help keep them in line, focused, and goal-driven. A final summative evaluation at the end of the program (or after a significant amount of time if your program is continuous) should be more substantial, more formal, and have documented results. This will give you and your youth an opportunity to look at the council’s progress, and have a hand in how it grows, changes, and improves. Plus, it will provide invaluable documentation of the program for funders, your institution, and future council members. 15
RESOURCES
Yollocalli Arts Reach: www.yollocalli.org National Museum of Mexican Art www.nmmart.org Hive Learning Networks: www.hivechicago.org Walker Art Center Teen Programming Guide: http://media.walkerart.org/pdf/wac_teen_kit_booklet.pdf Adultism Resources: www.freechild.org Find this and other guidebooks at: http://issuu.com/yollocalli 17