Community Youth Mappers, Summer, 2009
Part of Youth ImPact’s mission is to respond to problems in Windham County that young people have themselves identified: nothing to do, poor relations with adults, not enough jobs, not enough low-cost activities, etc.

To that end, NEN is employing and supervising several small “youth mapping” teams throughout the county. In order to identify resources and opportunities that exist in their community, youth “mappers” will canvass various agencies and businesses in Windham County, searching for free or low-cost activities and free food.

Using this data collection strategy, young people will identify a host of resources that may not be found in traditional directories. Youth contact various businesses and agencies and conduct interviews, gathering the kind of information that they are interested in learning about, and describing opportunities from a youth perspective.

Once the data is collected, they will enter the data into a computer program so that it can be used and distributed to youth and adults in the county. After being trained in oral and written communication techniques, mappers will develop their own script in order to talk with businesses in ways that will be both effective and professional. They will also learn appropriate techniques to handle both the negative and positive responses they might get during their canvassing.

We expect that mappers will gain important experience practicing the skills of interviewing, data gathering and analysis, research and technical writing skills, computer skills, map reading, presentation skills and conflict resolution. They will gain confidence in their ability to communicate with adults and gain a sense of purpose and power in working to make changes in their community.

We will be conducting this work throughout the Summer, 2009. Some “mappers” will work for course credit and others will receive small cash stipends.

Transportation Collaborative
The entire collaborative recognizes the need for rural youth to access the services available in Brattleboro. Since the Boys and Girls Club employs a staff that also works at the Guilford school, an effort to use the Boys and Girls Club van to bring young people from the school became a "no brainer." The Boys and Girls Club offered their van; the staff member offered to drive the young people as part of his work since he would take that route in his regular routine, and the Guilford Church offered to pay for the gas expenses. The Boys and Girls Club talked with interested youth from the Guilford School and got them registered as members of the club and secured permission from the school. The club also asked students at the Guilford school to pre-commit to coming on a weekly basis and asked their parents to commit to bring them home. The project currently is reaching a younger group of youth (5th grade) than originally targeted for concern, though everyone is hoping that through successful experiences, the effort will grow to reach the older youth. Though the project has experienced all these successes, there are still some challenges to be worked on: some parents are not willing to have their 10 year old unsupervised in Brattleboro and since they are being dropped off at the club, there is no one that can insure that they stay there. So, there are program structure and parental “buy in” challenges. The collaborative is thinking about expanding this concept to other schools. It seems that since the Boys and Girls Club has two vans, that simple access to drivers and gas could solve some of our transportation problems.

Addiction Support Group
Our collaborative originally envisioned creating addiction support groups that would provide a resource for young people in Windham County who represent the spectrum of youth affected by drugs/alcohol: actively using, newly in recovery, in long term recovery, with parents struggling with addiction. We planned to model this group after the successful "Making Change" groups available in White River Junction (http://www.secondgrowth.org/). "Making Change," is a resource for young people who are considering or committed to recovery. Not AA or NA, but an experience that encourages 12 step involvement, "Making Change" is a starting place for youth that engages them in a dialogue about choices. The group features information, motivation, and peer support in a straightforward style that uses a structured format to address some of the most critical issues of early recovery for young people. The groups would be housed in the two Boys and Girls Clubs, Brattleboro and Bellows Falls. Though staffed by Youth Services, the Boys and Girls Club staff will also become more aware and skilled in supporting youth affected by addictions as well as create welcoming policies for youth on all sections of the substance abuse spectrum. This project is temporarily on “pause” while it is being evaluated for effectiveness and Youth Services diligently works to evaluate all their programs for best practice and grow their “activity based” interventions, which are already considered “best practice.” Please refer young people with potential alcohol and drug problems to Youth Services for triage into counseling and support and Boys and Girls Club for safe, structured activities that address alcohol, drug use and coping skills.

Youth Entrepreneurial Project
Our vision is to create an award winning business plan for a local business effort that will make enough money to provide funding for many of the youth service programs in Windham County. Modeled after other successful social ventures around the world, “Cabbages and Condoms” in Thailand which subsidizes AIDS education and prevention or the local hospice which raises 60% of their operating funds from their thrift store or the Girls Scouts with their cookies, Youth Service’s Executive Director, Allyson Villars is searching for the appropriate project that will eventually employ our youth as well as provide through its enormous profits the much needed funds for our local youth programs. To that end, we are planning a conference for the Fall of 2009, which will gather members of the Vermont Business for Social Responsibility, economic development council, entrepreneurs, philanthropic organizations, educators, and investors for a powerful gathering in Vermont. A full day or overnight affair, this event will not only showcase young entrepreneurs with formal presentations of the businesses they have started, but provide a think tank of possibilities with the hope this meeting might inspire an someone to champion this social venture.

Drop-In Night
Working in collaboration with NEN, Youth Services and the Brattleboro Boys and Girls Club are proud to provide a weekly Youth Drop-In Night. Every Thursday night from 6:30 to 9pm at the Brattleboro Boys and Girls Club, youth between the ages of 16 and 21 are welcome to enjoy a free meal, hang out and participate in a fun range of activities.

The Youth Drop-In provides a safe, substance-free space for youth with discussion and activities facilitated to increase youth's knowledge and awareness on a variety of issues, including sexual and reproductive health, substance use and abuse, healthy relationships, and civic engagement. Street outreach workers and support staff are present to provide supervision and resource information. The Youth Drop-In Night has been in operation since September 18, 2008. Serving an average of 30 individuals per week, we look forward to continuing and expanding our program to reach larger numbers of youth in our community.

COSA at the High School
The Guilford Church, which has played an active role facilitating dialogues responding to racial violence in our community, is expanding its role to co-develop a training program that increases the capacity of the community to respond to incidents of violence when they involve youth, both at the high school and other community locations. A collaborative of staff previously from the Community Justice Center and the high school are developing a pilot program for adapting the Circles of Support and Accountability (COSA) concept to serve youth who have been involved with incidents that infringe on others.

Circles of Support and Accountability has been a model used with adults coming out of prison which stresses the restorative justice rather than a punitive approach. The philosophy stresses accountability, providing volunteers who will listen and ask questions in meetings with the violator, to uncover the reasons for actions and whom it will affect directly and indirectly. They then create a plan to repair as much of that damage as possible. Initially, the consultants will develop a brush-up training for those already involved with this work, creating adaptations specifically for working with young people. Eventually, these adaptations will be documented in a manual to guide future trainings for other congregations or schools.