In Rock County 4-H and Community Youth Development work together to define the supportive adult relationships so that they include diversity, equity and inclusion. In the Weekly Update you often see one community opportunity, providing youth action slides in the programs. For example, the December program Call to Action can be found here. You have also seen experiential learning opportunities in the community.
Through our analysis of surveys last year in local schools, it was recommended by the youth and adults we consulted that an engaging next step would be to open the door further to youth voice in this area.
February’s program is called, Silence Speaks: Making space for critical youth and adult conversations Around Racial Equity and Social Justice. It will focus on what youth-adult partnership means when it comes to conversations about racial equity and social justice. The session will discuss what it means to be supportive adults who engage in an important role as interpreters of the world and best practices to create brave and safe enough spaces for youth to develop skills and knowledge to initiate and participate in uncomfortable conversations.
A complete program description is here https://sites.google.com/wisc.edu/notinvisibleink-credible/general-resources/youth-adult-partnership as well as the link to register for the virtual February program.
We will be collecting anonymous responses from youth and adults who work with youth in Rock County so I could use some help. Do you have a story or know someone we could follow-up with in order to find out more about tough conversations? I am partnering alongside Social Justice Edgerton to gather the responses in the formats that make the most sense for those interested. To start, you can add your comments to the padlets below.
Silence Speaks-Youth Feedback https://padlet.com/efconway/vlac00i0v3400hak
Silence Speaks-Adult Feedback https://padlet.com/efconway/4ofmjvbz1fvu6g5e
You can also view sample questions on the Padlets if that helps invite youth to participate.
If you are interested in providing a more in depth response, we can also do 1-1 interviews with interested individuals, small focus groups or alternative responses such as drawings, poetry or photography are also acceptable. We will gather the responses from now until the middle of January. We will then compile the responses for the February program and provide snapshots to provide the context for the questions to our panel.
The program is February 17, 2022 from 6-7:30. It will be recorded.
