Home > News > New Youth Advisory Board to take action!
New Youth Advisory Board to take action!
15th of March 2011
SBY’s goal is not to fix youth, but to provide the supports essential to youth development and to challenge them to achieve their highest potential. To meet this goal, our services must remain youth-centered and relevant to the changing needs and culture of young people and families.
We must incorporate client feedback into our service development and delivery processes on an ongoing basis. For this purpose, Jasmine Williams, a resident of our Transitional Living Program, has assembled a group of her peers to constitute the SBY Youth Advisory Board. Jasmine speaks about this important new project below.
As a Sasha Bruce Youthwork client, I can honestly say that this organization values youth-adult partnerships. The agency has implemented an agency-wide youth advisory board made up entirely of young people who are involved in various SBY programs. The board is an opportunity to give feedback to each of the agency’s programs, incorporate a youth voice in decision-making, and a learning experience that will look great on each youth’s resume. The board will also give youth a chance to express themselves creatively, take part in community organizing efforts, build public speaking skills, and confidence.
The board held its first official meeting on March 15, which was a success. Right now we’re in the planning stages, including coming up with a mission statement, roles for each board member, and just how we’d like to tackle the task of giving the organization feedback. However, this board is will not benefit the agency alone. We’re also brainstorming community service projects that will benefit both Sasha Bruce and our communities. As we move forward with this endeavor, some of the issues in our communities we hope to address include teen pregnancy, jobs for young people, and improving the quality of our education.
How can you help? The board has lots of ideas and our team could use all the support we can get. Being available to help us promote, set up, or host events would be appreciated, as would coming to speak to the board members about how to effectively complete our tasks and gain support from our communities. This is a learning experience as much as it is a goal-oriented effort.
If you have any time to spare….or ideas for our new Youth Advisory Board, please contact me at jwilliams@sashabruce.org.
Truly, Jasmine Williams