Youth Voices Guide - Introduction (2-7) by Youth Voices Research Group

YOUTH VOICES (guide) i

A Guide for Youth Expression and Action Authors Andrea Ridgley, Charlotte Lombardo, Meg Morrison, Blake Poland and Harvey Skinner

In partnership with: Supporting Our Youth and Beat the Street- Frontier College

Current Information and Downloads For current information about the Guide and the research of TeenNet and its partners: www.teennet.ca The Guide may be downloaded at: www.GlobalYouthVoices.org

Acknowledgements This Guide was developed with the support and feedback from TeenNet community partners, students, and staff. Special mention must go to:

Staff Harvey Skinner Blake Poland Vanessa Anievas Oonagh Maley Malcolm Koo

Students Sarah Flicker Javeed Sukhera Sandra Chin

Partners Beat the Street esp. Rob Davis Supporting Our Youth esp. Suhail Abulsameed Regent Park Focus esp. Adonis Huggins Dryden Youth Centre Midland Youth Centre Smith Falls & District Club for Youth Solid Rock Youth Centre

*A special thank you to all the incredible youth who helped create this inspiring process*

Funded by The Wellesley Central Health Corporation

Copyright © Copyright by Dr. Harvey Skinner and the TeenNet Program, University of Toronto, Canada Material from this booklet may be reproduced or distributed for personal and non-commercial use only, providing that you keep intact all copyright and other propriety notices. Modiﬁcation of the materials or use of the materials for any other purpose is violation of the copyright. Funding of this program has been provided by the Wellesley Central Health Corporation. The views expressed herein do not necessarily represent the ofﬁcial policies of Wellesley Central Health Corporation.

Cover and Layout design by Vanessa Anievas

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Table of Contents: Acknowledgements ...............................…....................... i Introduction and Overview Section ..................................... 2 The Guide ........................................................... 3 Background ......................................................... 3 Youth Voices Guiding Theories & Models ......................... 4 Youth Action Projects that Used Youth Voices Process .......... 5 Helpful Hints ........................................................

Engage ....................................................................... 8 Expression and Group Building .................................... 9

YOUTH VOICES: “ How do you See your WORLD?” WORLD? ”

Identify ...................................................................... 10 SHOWeD ........................................................... 10 Plan .......................................................................... 12 Issue- What is your issue? ........................................ 12 Goal and Objectives- What are they? ............................. 12 Target Audience- Who are they? .................................. 13 Message Development - What do you want to say? ............. 13 Action – What are you going to do? ............................. 13 Resources- What do you have? What do you need? ............ 14 Supporters, Stakeholders & Challengers – Who are they? ..... 14 Timeline ........................................................... 14 Evaluation ......................................................... 15 Project plan ....................................................... 15 Act ........................................................................... 16 Check-In, Evaluate and Adjust .................................... 17 Reﬂect/Research/Reward ............................................... 18 During the Project ................................................ 18 End of Project ..................................................... 19

Sustain

..................................................................... 21 During the Project ................................................ 21 End of Project .................................................... 22 Future Project .................................................... 23

Appendix .................................................................... 24 Engage Appendix ................................................ 24 Identify Appendix ................................................. 29 Plan Appendix ..................................................... 35 Act Appendix ...................................................... 37 Reﬂect/Research Appendix ....................................... 38 References ............................................................ 41-42

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Why use this guide?

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it is the only thing that ever does” Margaret Mead

Youth Voices.... Effective at engaging and working with youth Promotes authentic youth participation and ownership of projects Contributes to the personal growth and conﬁdence of participants Powerful process for promoting dialogue, critical reﬂection and community connection Builds strong communities Impacts on programming & policy Can be used with existing methods and programs

Introduction and Overview

Youth Voices is a process for promoting youth expression and community action. Young people reﬂect and speak out about their lives and communities, and address issues of importance to them.

The Youth Voices process is a cycle of six main phases:

1 Engage

Youth are motivated to work in a group to take action on a community issue

2 Identify

Youth group identiﬁes issues of importance to them and their communities

3 Plan

Group identiﬁes goals and objectives, and creates a plan for taking action on a selected issue

4 Act

Youth implement their plan to take action on the identiﬁed issue

5 Reflect, Research & Reward

Group reﬂects on the outcomes and successes of the action project and celebrates their work

6 Sustain

Group decides how to sustain the group and/or the action project

Though Reflect/Research/Reward and Sustain are stand-alone phases, they also have important elements that are central to all Youth Voices phases and must therefore be continually considered throughout the process!

tip:

Browse entire Guide before starting...

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“Without this guide, the project still may have worked …but the Guide made the process deeper, more thoughtful.” Youth Voices community partner

For examples of youth action projects in Canada and internationally: www.GlobalYouthVoices.org

The Guide Meaningful youth involvement benefits both youth and the community. It follows that youth who have opportunities to learn skills, connect with others and have their voices heard will be better equipped to make sustainable personal and community change. Youth also bring energy and ideas about their communities that adults often overlook. The challenge is to find ways of engaging and empowering young people that honors this knowledge. The Youth Voices Guide can assist in this journey. This Guide was created for facilitators, agencies and groups who want to develop organizational involvement by youth and/or engage youth in community action projects. It is also useful for anyone who wants to work more effectively with media technology. The Youth Voices process has been applied with 11 Community partners, in 13 projects with over 100 youth in Ontario and internationally. Participatory research was used to evaluate these experiences, to test and refine the Youth Voices model and processes. For more information on our research, visit: www.teennet.ca This Guide features an overview of each of the six phases, followed by appendices that include outlines of specific activities. These have been drawn from our experience of what has been effective. However, it is not meant to be prescriptive. The Guide is intended to be modified to fit with preexisting organizational programming, models and approaches. Multimedia is encouraged to be used in the Youth Voices process. Media technologies often stimulate youth to participate by attracting them to the project and providing an accessible forum for self-expression. However, if the use of multimedia is not desirable or feasible other activities can certainly be used. The point is to meet youth where they are; to work with them using mediums that they are interested in.

Background TeenNet Research Program

Youth Voices is a project of the TeenNet Research Program. TeenNet is led by Dr. Harvey Skinner and is based in the Department of Public Health Sciences in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto. The project was established in 1995 to generate new knowledge and develop practical ways to engage youth in health promotion using interactive technologies. TeenNet works with a diversity of youth and a network of collaborating partners locally, nationally and internationally. For more information visit the website: www.teennet.ca

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Youth Voices Guiding Theories & Models The Youth Voices approach is informed by several theories and models, a few are: Youth Engagement

There are many ways that youth engagement can be deﬁned. We think this is a nice one: "Youth Engagement is the meaningful participation and sustained involvement of a young person in an activity, which has a focus outside of him or herself. Full engagement consists of a behavioral component (e.g., spending time doing the activity), an affective component (e.g., deriving pleasure from participating in it) and a cognitive component (e.g., knowledge about the activity).” (Center for Excellence on Youth Engagement, 2004).

Participatory Action Research (PAR)

PAR has a long tradition of research that values the experience of individuals to determine their own goals, objectives and indicators of success. This process is inﬂuenced by the ideas and methods of Paulo Freire. Freire’s belief that people can learn to critically analyze their social/political/economic situation and thus recognize their role and potential to transform their communities is at the core of Youth Voices (Freire, 1970).

Community Based Research (CBR)

CBR is research with a substantial level of community participation for the purposes of community improvement and social change. Principles such as: community initiation, capacity building, community relevance, varied methods, collaboration, and action outcomes are paramount. (Loka Institute, 2002).

Health Promotion Theory & Practice

Health promotion seeks to advocate for health by improving political, economic, social, cultural, environmental, behavioral and biological factors for individuals and communities. It seeks to enable people to achieve their fullest health potential through equity in health and equal opportunity and resources. Finally, it seeks to mediate between various sectors including public, private and voluntary working towards a common goal. (WHO, Ottawa Charter, 1986)

Youth Media

Youth media is an approach that combines multimedia with the goals of social action and community development. It encourages creative self-expression, prepares youth for negotiating a digital world, and allows young people to develop their own representations of their lives and communities (Tyner and Mokund, 2003). Multimedia is used to facilitate the Youth Voices process. Involving/engaging youth with video production, photography, and website development are effective because youth are already familiar with these tools and prefer to express themselves through popular culture (Cloonan & Street, 1998). Using these tools also produce compelling and tangible results and thus have potential to go beyond the community.

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Youth Action Projects that used Youth Voices process www.globalyouthvoices.org

P I C S ‘ Z I NE : E D I T I O N 1

Volume 1 June 2003

Neighbourhood Centre youth group R’ View

Group Media: photo -graphy used to identify issues in community e.g. friends, body image, violence, grafﬁti and drugs. Action: community art exhibit of photos and commentary Project partner: St. Stephan’s Community House- Toronto social service agency that provides programming for youth.

Group media: photo -graphy, theatre, writing and music used to identify issues in community Action: created ‘Smokin, a drama about youth and smoking. DVD made for distribution Project partner: Davenport Perth Neighbourhood Centre Toronto program for youth to develop life skills and contribute to their community.

Smoke Free World (SFW)

Group media: internet and video used to identify tobacco issues Action: developed a website, video and an interactive workshop on the globalization of tobacco. Presented their workshop to over 400 youth and adults at schools and conferences. Project partner: youth were recruited from previous Toronto TeenNet youth groups.

PICS

A group of street-involved youth who want to eliminate the stereo types and negative attitudes towards street youth.

Perspectives of Inner City Street Youth (PICS) Group media: photo -graphy to identify issues e.g. stereotypes towards street youth, impact of discrimination and lack of housing Action: Community survey, photography and written pieces were published, online, by Young People’s Press and created a ‘zine for distribution. Project partner: Beat the Street, is a learning center for street-involved youth in Toronto

Peace Power Group

Tough Guise

Group media: photo -graphy to identify issues e.g. the way masculinity is portrayed in popular culture and its link to the practice of tough posing and violence among boys Action: Developed a peer violence multimedia awareness presentation Project partner: Regent Park Focus, a program of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto.

Group media: used video, photo -graphy, drama, break dancing and music production software to identify issues e.g. surviving day-to-day as a street-involved youth, barriers to accessing support and services, poverty, homelessness, betrayal, racism, and lack of access to outlets of self-invention. Action: created songs and music and a presentation delivered to over 700 youth and adults. Project partner: Beat the Street is a learning center for street-involved youth in Toronto

Rock the Boat

Group media: art, drama, poetry, photography and website development used to identify issues related to their recent immigration Action: built a website for young gay, lesbian, bi, transgender and transsexual newcomers to Canada. Project partner: Supporting Our Youth, a volunteer organization that works to improve the lives of LGBTT youth in Toronto.

Youth VoicesMiddle East

Group media: Bedouin youth in Tuba, northern Israel & Segev Shalom, southern Israel, used photography to identify community issues e.g. cultural pride, violence, suicide and smoking. Action: photography exhibit where presented to each other and their communities Project partner: Canada International Scientiﬁc Exchange Program, CISEPO.

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‘A lot of youth are not asked their opinion…project based learning is the real thing. They get to make the decisions’ Youth Voices community partner

Helpful Hints! Working with Youth: Respect

This Guide is intended to assist those who are interested in supporting youth development and empowerment. One of the keys to working with youth is to respect their autonomy and their knowledge. Issue identiﬁcation and action should always proceed from a philosophy which acknowledges that youth are the experts on their lives and communities. It is also important to remember that youth are not one homogenous community. Young people come from diverse life experiences and have differing perspectives in relation to: diversity such as age, sex, gender, class, race, sexual diversity, ability, etc.; their worldviews, their social groups and how they interact with others; their lifestyles, the amount of commitments and responsibilities, etc.

Transparency

Another important element to working with youth is to have clear and open discussions about the expectations of them and the project. Let them in on the challenges and constraints of the project be it at a facilitator or organizational level e.g. funding, organizational policy, etc. Too often, adults underestimate the ability of youth to understand and negotiate boundaries.

Be flexible and have fun. No two groups or experiences will ever be alike. Bring who you are to the group and share your past experiences. Be open to new ideas and suggestions. Remember that even chaos can produce innovation. Evaluate and readjust as the group proceeds. Debrief with group members and solicit their feedback whenever possible. Listen to what your group members have to say. Do not lead. Let the group lead itself. Your role is to partner, to provide support and to assist the youth through each phase of the process as they work through it themselves, taking their action project wherever they want it to go.

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The Youth Action Process AIM To engage youth in identifying and taking action on issues of importance to them

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Identify

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Engage

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Youth Voices is a ﬂuid cycle, not a step-by-step process. There can be a lot of movement back and forth between the phases. The cycle can also be repeated several times, with each repetition building on itself. The goal is to move towards action on issues that young people have identiﬁed. It is also worth noting that the process of going through the phases is as important as any resulting action and that this process occurs on both an individual and a group level.

We Recommend that Every meeting has… Check-in, Warm-up, Recap, Review, Recognize Successes and Check-out Check-in: Everyone states how they are doing (emotionally, work/school, etc.) Warm-up exercise: Conduct a warm-up exercise to bring group together Recap previous meeting: Recap what happened in the previous meeting Review: what needs to be done at meeting eg. have an agenda or outline of what you are going to cover in the meeting so important issues are not forgotten Recognize Successes: review success from previous meeting, reﬁne and build on Check-Out: Everyone states how they are doing (emotionally, how was the meeting?) Keep Meeting Records: You always think you will remember what happened at each meeting…Records can be used for reports, grant proposals and presentations. Remember that some part of the meeting should be spent hanging out and touching base.