1. What is the Washtenaw Youth
Development Initiative?
The Washtenaw Youth Development Initiative is a collective of
youth-serving programs, from across the County that will create and support
a shared community vision of positive youth development. One of the main
ways the Initiative will achieve this goal is through creating meaningful
and regular opportunities for programs to work together and build genuine
youth and adult partnerships.
2. What will the Initiative do exactly?
The Initiative will engage in a host of activities to help build
and support this vision of positive youth development including networking
meetings and events, evaluation projects and activities, and joint training.
These events will include both staff and youth members, in order to help
programs build authentic youth-adult partnerships.
3. Who makes up the membership of the Initiative?
The membership is made up of youth-serving programs throughout the
County. Youth is defined as 13-21 years of age. The membership will include
non-profit organizations, school-based programs, County and City-based
initiatives, library-based programs, youth councils – essentially any entity
whose mission includes youth development and that involves youth working
with adult staff or volunteers.
4. How will my organization benefit if we join the
Initiative?
The Initiative is focused on helping existing programs strengthen
what they do by providing both youth and adults support in training
and evaluation and opportunities for resource sharing and networking.
Training, evaluation and resource sharing can be expensive and challenging
for individual agencies to make happen. Through this collective of youth
programs, supported by the County, youth-serving agencies will be able to
receive support that most do not have the capacity to have on their own.
Research shows that not enough young people are adequately prepared for adulthood— ready for college, work and life. Only four out of ten young people are doing well by the time they reach adulthood. We believe that by creating a common vision for youth development and working together to implement that vision we can help create a community that values youth as partners and provides them the supports and opportunities to contribute now and succeed as they bridge to adulthood.
5. What is the Washtenaw County Youth Development Initiative Summit scheduled for November 7th? The Summit is an opportunity to formally kick off the Initiative and to bring together existing programs that want to be the leaders in defining youth development for our community and beginning the process to make that vision a reality. There will be training for adults and youth, brainstorming sessions, and an outlining of the next steps to engage the community in a focus on youth development.
|
The Summit is scheduled for Wednesday, November 7 from 9am-in Ypsilanti. The training is free to attend; the only requirement for admission is that 2-4 youth accompany the adult staff from your organization. |
6. How can I register for the Summit?
The training is free to attend; the only requirement for admission
is that 2-4 youth accompany the adult staff from your organization. We
require that each participating program bring both adult and
youth representatives, so that we begin a true collaborative process between
adults and youth and so that both groups begin working together to create
and carry out a shared vision of positive youth development for Washtenaw
County.
To register, go to: Register Here
7. How is the Washtenaw Youth Development Initiative
different than other county initiatives like Washtenaw Area Teens for
Tomorrow (WATT)?
The Initiative builds on the work of Washtenaw Area Teens for
Tomorrow, but specifically has a focus on the building the capacity of
individual programs, through youth-adult partnerships. WATT has a goal of
supporting the youth of Washtenaw County through a number of program and
policy initiatives which focus on increasing the number of safe places for
youth, increasing the funding of safe places, building transportation
opportunities county-wide, and providing mentors, internships and job
shadowing opportunities with caring adults.
8. What is the connection between the Initiative and
the Community Collaborative of Washtenaw County?
At present, Washtenaw Area Teens for Tomorrow (WATT) is an
affiliated initiative of the CCWC. We are proposing to replace WATT
with this larger Youth Development Initiative so that all agencies involved
with youth development in the County can get together to join resources.
9.How does my organization join and how can I learn
more?
The best way to join the Initiative and learn more is to attend the
Summit on November 3rd. You can also contact various steering committee
members involved in launching the initiative, including:
· Denise Dalrymple at Washtenaw County: dalrympled@ewashtenaw.org
· Katie Doyle at Ozone House: kdoyle@ozonehouse.org
· Chana Hawkins at Cooperative Extension: hawkinsc@ewashtenaw.org
· Lori Roddy at Neutral Zone: lori@neutral-zone.org
· John Weiss at Neutral Zone: weiss@neutral-zone.org