Innovate, the Innovation Center’s quarterly newsletter, highlights promising practices in youth and community development.

The Innovation Center tool kits capture and build upon the insights and experiences of young people and adults who have worked creatively and steadfastly to strengthen themselves and their communities.

The strategies and resources in the tool kits are not theories. They have been proven successful in the real world. For example, Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice in the Bronx, New York, developed a sophisticated approach to interest young people in community organizing. They have had several successes, including convincing the city to build a new park for local children. Leadership Excellence in Oakland, CA, helps young African-Americans connect with their heritage as an entry point to understanding themselves.

Designed to be adaptable to the unique situation of each community, the tool kits support a wide variety of community-building and youth development endeavors. This edition of Innovate features stories from three people who are strengthening their organizations and the work of others through their use of Innovation Center tool kits in different contexts.

Steve Henness: Involving Youth Leaders in Missouri

Steve Henness is Program Coordinator for the 4-H/Community Youth Development VISTA Program, in association with the University of Missouri Extension. He is part catalyst/part cheerleader in statewide efforts to give youth a greater voice in the community: “I tell them, ‘here are the tools; here are processes; how can you put them in action?’”

Working with youth trainers, he has trained communities to use the Innovation Center’s Building Community tool kit in a number of contexts. One noteworthy project is based in St. Francois County in Farmington, Missouri where a team of youth and adults, led by VISTA member Branson Merrill, was instrumental in developing a countywide youth-adult council with 16 seats out of 32 held by youth. Steve notes that “The council’s goal is to expand the role of young people in local organizations and demonstrate what can be accomplished through youth/ adult partnerships. Many activities from the Building Community tool kit were used during the process.” The council has formed work groups and is now planning projects, including a financial aid fair to assist people of all ages in getting ready for college.

Under Steve’s leadership, youth and adults throughout Missouri are also using the tool kit to support efforts to develop youth centers. Steve says, “The tool kits help surface assets and strengths that young people bring to the community.” A state youth civic leaders summit is on the agenda for 2005. The summit will bring together approximately 100 youth leaders and adult facilitators to celebrate accomplishments and create local action plans for engaging more youth and adults.

Both the Building Community and Learning and Leading tool kits are important resources in planning the summit.

“We’re seeing a national movement to get youth involved in decision-making and governance. But I’m most excited about the groundswell of interest and support from local officials in involving youth. The tool kits are a great resource for helping us facilitate what communities want to see happen,” says Steve.

Beth Tucker: Community Development in Kenya

Beth Tucker is a lead trainer for the Innovation Center’s training cadre in addition to her work as Coconino County Extension Director and an educator at the University of Arizona. As a long-time partner of the Innovation Center, she helped develop some of the tools in the Building Community tool kit. Over the last ten years, she’s also facilitated community-building activities overseas during leave and vacations. She says, “I found the tool kits helped increase involvement, encouraged reflection, and increased ownership of the process whether I was leading an activity in Kenya or in Flagstaff.”

In a recent trip to Kenya, Beth facilitated a series of meetings with a women’s cooperative group using activities from the Building Community tool kit. In order to help the group think creatively of ways that young people could contribute to the village’s handicraft business, she asked them to explore the skills that older men and women contribute and to consider what young people bring to the table.

The participants realized that while women traditionally made the crafts and men sold them through travel to other towns, young people could play a role, too, and expand the market. This was a groundbreaking realization as young people suddenly had an important role in the economic life of the community.

On a return trip nine months later, Beth found that the lessons learned had stuck and had helped fuel a tremendous increase in young people’s involvement. The groups were mobilizing their sales force and looking for new opportunities. Using asset-mapping activities from the tool kit, young people identified opportunities in the community, including new markets like the local hospital and school. An AIDS orphan group made up of young people ages 15 to 25 had formed and begun identifying their own business opportunities.

She thinks the secret to success is allowing the people who are using the tool kit to make it their own. This creativity is especially true when young people are running the show. “I’m constantly amazed by what I learn from the young people I work with,” Beth said. “Their energy and fresh perspective can bring new life to an organization that’s treading water. It’s empowering when community members realize that you can get things done on your own.”

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© 2005 Innovation Center for Community and Youth Development