Karen Schantz
Where will you find young people from Erie County to Queens, Orange County to Oswego, preparing to make a difference in their communities? At Cornell University, hosted by the ACT for Youth Center of Excellence at Cornell’s Family Life Development Center. In July, ACT for Youth brought together middle school students, high school students, and adults from every corner of New York State to the Cornell campus for three days of team-building, networking, and leadership development.
The 50 young people and 40 adults who participated in the Youth Leadership Retreat are active in the 12 ACT for Youth Collaborations for Community Change, working to bring the principles of positive youth development to their organizations and communities. Though each of the communities has its own path to change, their shared interest in raising the status and positive power of youth found expression and support at the retreat.
Throughout the retreat participants were asked to work, think, and play together in games of strategy, action, and pure fun. The event got off to a flying start—almost literally!—with a day on the Cornell Outdoor Education challenge course. Overcoming obstacles together on the low ropes course and testing personal courage on the high ropes course offered an exhilarating experience of teamwork and self-discovery.
These physical and strategic challenges set the stage for the essential work of the retreat: identifying passions and building skills for social change. Engaging young facilitators from Leaders Today/Free the Children guided youth and adults to a better understanding of how to create positive change through active listening, assertive communication, public speaking, and action planning. Participants shared their own visions and values, naming the issues that affect them most powerfully and discussing how they want to make the world a better place, beginning with their communities. By the retreat’s close, each of the 12 groups had developed action plans designed to ignite change locally.
Will ACT’s leadership retreat make a difference? Youth spoke to the power of the event: new friendships made, deeper self-knowledge, and skills developed in a supportive and inclusive environment. Many of the graduates also expressed interest in forming a youth network that will focus on promoting youth voice throughout New York State, and the first meeting of that network was held at the retreat. They left the retreat prepared to take action at home and across the state. But the experience will have its greatest impact only if the home communities are ready to support these young people in their desire to act; willing to fully accept youth as partners who share decision-making power with adults.
Fortunately, networks of support are beginning to emerge at home. These young people are returning to ACT for Youth communities, where youth-serving organizations, backed by a grant from the NYS Department of Health, are beginning to partner with other community sectors to adopt the principles of positive youth development. Together with the ACT for Youth Center of Excellence, these long-term community collaborations ultimately seek to change in fundamental ways, growing into communities that value, cultivate, and utilize the strengths of young people, listen to youth voice, and share leadership across generations.
The ACT for Youth Center of Excellence is a partnership among Cornell University Family Life Development Center, Cornell University Cooperative Extension of New York City, the University of Rochester Medical Center Division of Adolescent Medicine, and the New York State Center for School Safety. The ACT for Youth initiative is made possible through the generous support of the New York State Department of Health as part of its effort to promote positive youth development and prevent risky and unhealthy behaviors among adolescents.