MINNEAPOLIS YOUTH AGENDA UNDER CONSTRUCTION

by Jane Leonard, YCB Strategic Coordination Manager

Creative ideas and intense youth engagement stood out at the first in a series of community hearings/focused conversations hosted by the Minneapolis Youth Congress on July 7 in their ongoing effort to craft a Minneapolis Youth Agenda and work towards achieving their motto: “No decision about us, without us.”

The topic on July 7 was education, specifically: What are the ideas, activities, and strategies to create interesting and engaging schools for all youth?

Over 100 youth from North and South Minneapolis participated at the North Community YMCA Youth and Teen Enrichment Center. Several adults also attended, including Mayor R.T. Rybak and a few of the current school board members and board candidates.

But the night belonged to the young people, who clearly demonstrated they had serious thoughts about improvements to their schools, including stronger attention to diversity and culture, more hands-on learning, more math, arts, and entrepreneurship, and more passionate teachers who want to help kids succeed.

The conversation is part of a year-long progression to build a Minneapolis youth agenda. It started at the January, 2010 Minneapolis Youth Congress convention and continued into the spring to include training sessions for youth as facilitative leaders, racial equity training, connections with a wide array of community initiatives that involve children and youth, and roundtable discussions with community leaders, decision-makers and legislators.

The Youth Congress will be meeting with city officials to discuss their findings for a Minneapolis Youth Agenda that will carry through to the 2011 Youth Convention and state legislative session in early 2011.

More conversations this summer will be held across the city to address the recommendations and priorities identified at the convention in January 2010. These include:

• Education, which involves a partnership with the Minneapolis Beacons Network (top recommendation: engage elementary and middle school youth in options for their future)
• Safety, which will involve roundtables as well with Minneapolis police (top recommendation: police should become more involved in conversations with and in the community)
• Health, (top recommendation: set in motion a comprehensive sex education curriculum in our schools)
• Housing/Homelessness, (top recommendation: more resources available for homeless youth, better marketing - to connect youth before becoming homeless)
• Employment, (top recommendation: work with jurisdictions to create a variety of jobs for youth; assist youth in acquiring interviewing skills, job exploration and expectations to sustain employment over time). Note: the Minneapolis Step-Up program and other summer worksite efforts do provide employment and life skills readiness for 2,300 youth this summer, but there is always need for more employment and training opportunities for Minneapolis young people.
• Transportation, (top recommendation: create a youth transportation system that works for youth in Minneapolis; cheaper bus fare for youth)
• United Nations, Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC): unanimous support by the Minneapolis Youth Congress to move this resolution forward..

Future hearings/focused conversations on elements of the Youth Agenda are planned for mid-August. Watch the Minneapolis Youth Coordinating Board website for updates and specific details on date, time, and location (www.ycb.org ).