By Tyler S., Saad A., Rayyan B.
February 3, 2020
We looked up what “Challenging Growth” means in a Developmental Relationship:
a) Respect me – Take me seriously and treat me fairly
b) Include me – Involve me in decisions that affect me
c) Collaborate – Work with me to solve problems and reach goals
d) Let me lead – Create opportunities for me to take action and lead
Here are our thoughts on how adults can Share Power with youth in their lives:
Having an adult as a leader opens up many new avenues for people on the Milton Youth Action Team. We now have more connections than the average teen. For example, we would never have been able to host two entertainment stages at the 166th Milton Fall Fair this past September if we didn’t have adult support. If we (a bunch of teens) went to the town council and asked them if we could host 2 events they would have said “no”, but since Lily knew someone at the Milton council it opened up a new door for us and let us participate at the fair. This is an example of Lily “sharing power” with youth in order for us to grow and challenge ourselves.
Another example of how adults and youth in group settings can work on sharing power is to create a fundraiser with adult and teens to the address the issue of homelessness and poverty. We can collaborate with adults to help accomplish this task. The fundraiser would benefit people who are homeless and/or living in poverty and help youth gain experience in leading a fundraiser and help us with future events. We can also hire other volunteers to help us with the fundraiser, and this will raise awareness of the reality of homelessness and poverty in our community, since it is seen as an invisible issue here in Milton.
Here are some other suggestions that we had for how adults can work on sharing power:
Get out into the community and volunteer! Being involved with a youth project can help better a community.
When it comes to youth getting a bad reputation in neighbourhoods and stores, having an adult who respects and listens to young people can help fix problems in a community. Youth are less likely to behave negatively if they feel connected and respected in their community.
Since youth spend a lot of time outside, they know the community better than anyone. Teens could lead fundraisers to help the spread awareness about local charities with the support of caring adults.
Michelle from the Town of Milton connected us to the Milton Fall Fair which was a HUGE opportunity for our group to connect and showcase our skills. It required a lot of collaboration between youth and adults during a 3 month whirlwind of volunteerism – our group collectively volunteered over 500 hours to pull off two entertainment stages at the Milton Fall Fair!