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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE UNLEASHING THE POWER OF YOUNG PEOPLE TO CREATE CHANGE New tools help organizations work with youth Takoma Park, MD (May 20, 2005) – The Innovation Center for Community
and Youth Development has produced two new tool kits to help community
organizations involve young people as leaders and conduct successful
evaluations of community-change work. The tool kits, Reflect and Improve: A Tool Kit for Engaging
Youth and Adults as Partners in Program Evaluation and Learning and Leading: A Tool Kit for Youth
Development and Civic Activism, build on the Innovation Center’s
experience working with local groups to involve youth, build community
and strengthen organizations. “The Community organizations often view evaluation
as a necessary evil-a drain of staff time and money done only to pacify funders. The Unlike many other evaluation tools and practices, Reflect and Improve involves young people throughout the process. “Young people are not only key stakeholders of an organization, they are a huge and often untapped reservoir of energy, talent and vision,” says Wheeler. While many young people steer away from traditional youth organizations, they are often eager to join community groups that work towards social change. Based on research demonstrating how effective civic activism programs can engage often hard-to-reach young people as leaders, Learning and Leading guides organizations to start and sustain programs that build youth leadership and civic engagement. The facilitator’s handbook helps engage young people as organizational leadership abilities on three levels: personal leadership, organizational leadership and community leadership. It distills best practices from community organizations in urban and rural areas across the country. Featured organizations include: ·
Leadership Excellence, an ·
OUTRIGHT, which
creates a safe, positive, and affirming environment for young gay, lesbian,
bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ) youth in ·
Youth Ministries for
Peace and Justice,
a faith-based organization founded to foster peace and justice in Learning and Leading includes success stories, lessons learned, adaptable activities, and guided reflection to help organization reach out and engage young people as leaders in their communities and in their own development. “When young people get involved in community change, it’s not only their communities that benefit. Young people grow in ways we never quite appreciated until now. Learning and Leading was written with both young people and their communities in mind,” says Wheeler. ****** The |
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