A City Fit for Kids, part five:
From Talk to Action
By the afternoon of the youth summit, two issues emerge as the group’s top concerns:
Tolerance, a broad term meant to encompass issues caused by prejudice, cliques, and stereotypes
Substance abuse, a problem teens say is exacerbated by peer pressure and lack of attractive alternatives for recreation
"These aren’t easy issues," Denton tells the group, "and they’re not unique to this community. But you have a chance to deal with them here, now."
In a free-wheeling, noisy brainstorming process, they attempt to
do just that. By the day’s end, group applause is loudest for two specific kick-off projects. Clean Rock, which Oppenheimer’s table imagined, is intended to be an alcohol- and drug-free entertainment event featuring musicians who can double as positive role models. A Kindness Celebration, for which James and others have advocated, is envisioned as a way to showcase the community’s diversity and involve teens as mentors to younger students. These two projects will be the next activities that Community Youth Connection sponsors.
Oppenheimer hopes the energy will carry past this one-day event and spur more teens into action. Community involvement, he has learned, "is like an escalator. If you step on, for the right reasons, it keeps taking you up and up."
Jayne Ho-Setantha smiles as she watches the teens get excited about their own ideas, even though she recognizes the hard work that awaits if they’re going to move from talk to action. She’s already up to her elbows with other youth-friendly projects. By year’s end, she’ll be busy coordinating the Youth Hall of Fame, a public art project that honors young people who have contributed to the community. The Community Youth Connection’s Youth Action Council hopes to launch a newspaper for teens. And today’s summit has resulted in dozens of other good ideas that, with the right energy from motivated young people, could make Boise a better place to grow up. But Ho-Setantha is wise enough to be patient. "We have time," she says. "We can make it happen."
Mayor Coles is already looking forward to three years from now, when researchers from the Search Institute will return for a follow-up assets survey. He’s hopeful that some key numbers will improve, especially those measuring whether teens are likely to avoid risky behaviors. "We ought to be able to push this the right way," he says. In the meantime, there’s plenty of work to do. Building on the strengths of Boise’s youngest citizens, Coles says, "energizes our whole community."
