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Family & Youth E-Newsletter, Lake Charles, LA October 2010 |
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Civic Engagement Training Institute for Youth by Tiffany Fontenot
In today’s society
many people believe the youth of today will not be able to be
I believe that the attendance to this experience should increase because it would greatly benefit each and every young adult that participates by allowing them to understand that there are people that care about what they think. The students that have an active role in youth groups, organizations, leadership institutes, and local clubs are most likely to do better in school and care about well-being of their community. The main focus right now for many of leaders in our community is the youth and our graduation percentiles. Programs like the Civic Engagement Institute are wonderful self-esteem and confidence builders for young teens who believe that what they have to say does not matter, because it does! This experience was beneficial to me and to my many new friends that I have gained, thanks to the TLC department of Family & Youth, and we all believe that it needs to go on for many more years and have a better attendance. Because we will not be the “youth of today” for long, we would like to see the institute grow and progress to the highest ability possible to benefit our generation and the generations to come. Many people believe that the youth do not have the skills to be future leaders, but I would have to disagree. I know now after the institute that our voices can and will definitely be heard.
The next Civic Engagement Institute for Youth is set for November 10 and 11, 2010. For more information about The Leadership Center and the Civic Engagement Institute call Family and Youth at 337.436.9533.
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Family & Youth web page is designed for educational and informational use only. You should not rely on this information as a substitute for personal medical and/or mental health attention or treatment. You may contact us at 337-436-9533 for further information. Family & Youth, 220 Louie Street, Lake Charles, LA 70611, 337-436-9533, www.fyca.org Copyright Family & Youth Counseling Agency, Inc. 2010 |
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the leaders of tomorrow. As one of these youth, I see many of my
counter parts facing the struggles of drugs, premarital sex,
separated families, underage drinking, the education system, and the
economic situation. But in Southwest Louisiana there is one
organization that is run by the staff of Family & Youth Counseling
Agency that wants to teach and guide the “leaders of tomorrow.”
This department at Family & Youth is called The Leadership Center
(TLC). I was honored when asked to participate in the Civic Youth
Engagement Institute. The main idea of this experience was for the
youth to be able to voice their opinions on the issues going on in
our community, state, and country. We young people, felt that
others did not want to listen to what we have to say or think about
the struggles that we face, but participating in the Civic Youth
Engagement changed our minds.
The
20 students that attended represented schools throughout the parish
and were 15 years – 18 years old. This venue gave participating
students an opportunity to speak for the rest of the youth of
Southwest Louisiana. The first day of the institute was basically to
build relationships and to figure out what the most important issues
of today’s society, and which ones were most important to us as the
youth. We also chose the problems that are most important to us so
that later on we could brain storm and research these issues. On the
second day we were broke into groups to work on an introductory page
to our slide/power point presentation. This introductory page would
be brought to the leaders in Washington D.C. in the summer by a
group of students chosen from the youth that participated in the
Institute. Then, at the end of the second day, we were able to
present our power points that our groups had created in a matter of
six or so hours to some of people in our community who are of high
importance. These people of high importance were called our “VIP’s”.
These leaders represented law enforcement, education, civic groups
of the community, and local businesses of the community. After our
presentations they asked us questions to see if we could give them
well educated answers in a way that everyone who attended
would understand. These “VIP’s” had outstanding questions that
covered most of the key points we had hit on just a few minutes
before. They are true role models for us as youth because they have
an active role in their community and care about out everyone’s
ideas and thoughts, not just their own.