Process minutes: 2018-10-04

Minutes:

Minutes of 10-4-2018 Skill and Thrill ad-hoc group meeting

Attendee: John Weiss (from Neutral Zone), Yi-Miau Tsai, Kelly Clark, Susan
King, Emily Adama

We began by saying how the ad hoc group started (skill and thrill) and what
steps we’ve taken so far (teens met with outside facilitators).

John commended on our effort. Without such effort, how do we expect them
to become productive citizens in the community to make decisions? At
Neutral Zone, 50% on board of directors are teens.

He thinks we seem to have reached a process that could lead to a teen
advisory group (many names but similar idea) which is desirable. The group
is composed of a group of high school students and a couple of supporting
adults that meets regularly.

The group’s first step is something they call “quick win projects”. Those
projects are fun, clear, and take about 2 - 6 weeks to complete. It could
be an open mic, a mural, etc. Quick win project build team, it also helps
other adults to see teens as competent partners.

Once they identify a quick win project. They can promote, make flyers,
they can select food, invite friends, play music etc. They can ask for
resources such as money for food.

We have 2-3 teens interested in a music event, does that sound like a quick
win project?

Teens can learn that we are working toward a teen advisory group that has a
voice. And we are meeting where they are. It seems they want to organize a
music event, ask them if they’d like to work on that at a first project.

What about boardwalk around the pond?

The consideration is teen voice. It seems there will be adults in charge
and there are protocols to follow.

Questions for GO is “Do we have the capacity to support them?”

This means to help the advisory group meet at least once a months, best is
2 times a month. Always provide food, it really helps.

What skills is needed to support them?

A few principals such as don’t ask questions before they stuck. And when
you do, ask open-ended questions. If you see ideas are becoming too
ambitious, ask “What is plan B?” and move on to let them work on their
ideal plan.

Teens do not run meetings the way adults do. We put post-it easel on the
wall. Ask them to draw their community and then place bright dots on places
they like to hang out; dark dots where they feel less excited about (like a
dot storm).

How do we nurture intrinsic motivation?

Intrinsic motivation arises through enjoyment, meaningful relationship,
competence, and a sense of autonomy and control. If they are not
interested, reflect and respect that - that way you offer them a sense of
control.

What do they get out of this?

They implicitly learn meeting skills, know how to plan and lead meetings.
That’s a useful work skill. They learn the flow of meetings: starting with
community building, then brainstorm, planning and reflecting. John shared
a list of active meeting strategies.

We have 7 high school students mostly juniors and seniors, do we include
middle school students?

A lot can happen between now and June. It’s worthwhile. Middle school
students are somewhat different animals. John said this from being a
middle school teacher. He work mostly with high school students. It’s
better to start with same age group and include middle school students at a
later stage and maybe only quarterly. Maybe the teen advisory group
develops their mission to help younger kids in the community and they can
do more with younger kids.

What consultation do you provide at Neutral Zone/ Youth Driven Space?

We do full day training, typically from 10 - 4. Ypsilanti library recently
did two of those. The critical mass for those session is 8-12 teen and 2-4
adults.

We also do peace-making circle, or Adolescence 101 for adults.

It’s a resource for teens. We have more than 22 programs running every
week. We list a fee of $200 per year but 70% receive scholarship.

What about rites of passage?

John doesn’t know much about it. Is that voiced by the teens as something
they’d like to do for themselves?

Examples of quick win projects:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B3dH8J6NKo44dzZ4QWFvamE5WFhqV3VKMjhmSFpTMDVKTXlv

Active meeting strategies:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B3dH8J6NKo44TGo4OUxkWTN5Njk4NjdsUEVXWkVJbFpYTS1F

end.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://gocoho.org/pipermail/process-minutes_gocoho.org/attachments/20181112/00d054f1/attachment.html>