Why YesPVD Virtual Youth Summit in August is Needed Now More Than Ever
GoLocalProv News Team
Why YesPVD Virtual Youth Summit in August is Needed Now More Than Ever
With uncertainty around schools in the fall, students learning remotely, and looming questions about jobs and the economy, Wilson spoke with GoLocal about the educators and community leaders working to connect Rhode Island's youth during challenging times at the August event.
An information session is taking place online on Tuesday, July 28 at noon -- for more information go here.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTQ&A with Wilson
How important is it now -- more than ever -- for young people to feel connected to the greater community, with such uncertainty not just in schooling -- but the world at large?
Over the years we worked with the Rhode Island Department of Health (RIDOH) to connect the social determinants of health especially in socio-economic and cultural conditions where youth need support. Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE) would help distribute surveys to students to find out their interest and to recruit participants for the summit. This year that posed a challenge with limited capacity, so this past May #YESpvd! worked with Rhode Island After School Network (RIAN) to host their FIRST Virtual Youth Town Hall where young people were able to express how they were doing during this pandemic.
The participants expressed missing human connection and missing both in-school and after school activities that provided engagement. They expressed their challenges with handling independent studies and lack of some school supports. Some expressed having anxiety and mental health issues from lack of connecting with peers and teachers. The high school seniors are challenged with college decisions and what college would look like this Fall in this pandemic. A college student was concerned with employment and maintaining his studies. The positives were some students were able to self reflect and adapt to their current environment to keep motivated to move forward.
With our previous youth summits serving over 1200 youth with over 175 volunteers, workshops and presenters, getting youth and young people to explore possible career paths with presenters that look like them is still our goal and very important. We know that our “in-person” events contribute to that success. Unfortunately in today’s climate due to COVID-19 we were unable to host the youth summit in person this past Spring. It is still unclear where schooling will go and the world at large in the near future. Even with so much going online and with limited capacity events providing human interaction, one thing we are clear about is connection is key! It is more important than ever for youth to continue to engage even online to build and broaden their networks especially with the community. Both youth and adults will have to continue to learn how to pivot to adjust overtime with this “New Normal”. We hope #YESpvd! Will provide a space to do just that.
How does this event fit in with that? So much is going online due to current constraints -- what challenges, but also what positives does it present?
There is a lot going on online due to COVID-19. This is causing an imbalance in most of our lifestyles. I believe in post-COVID the world will grow a hybrid model with online and offline engagements with more of the world’s population. The question is balance.
This end of Summer #YESpvd! will introduce a NEW online platform for its first virtual youth summit that provides an “interactive and engaging” experience than most online platforms. We will also utilize something familiar to students like Google Classrooms and Google Meet to conduct workshops. We hope this will provide a positive and encouraging effect on participants to look for balance in an online world while we wait to connect in person with more capacity.
You've been involved in this effort for some time now. From what you've seen, talk with us about the benefits that students take away from this forum -- advice, mentoring, expanding horizons -- how important is it for young people to tap into the community to look to opportunities out there?
Yes I have LOL! Thanks to my fellow youth summit co-founders Dr. Taino Palermo, Angela Bannerman-Ankoma and Kobi Dennis I was inspired to be more proactive in my community ventures and working with youth helps with that goal. The benefits over the years with #YESpvd! the youth have learned to expand their networks early in life. They received both mentorship and advice from presenters, guest speakers and volunteers who resembled the members in their community.
#YESpvd! strives to provide an opportunity for youth to develop an understanding of human capital. We also spoke with youth summit alumni pre-COVID that are still connected to previous workshop presenters over the years. They said the experience gave them more self-confidence in networking and desire to keep connecting. Now we hope to achieve the same virtually.
Who should be looking to participate next month in the forum -- and why? Students, families, educators -- should there also be an even wider net of individuals, even people who might not have kids at school, to understand the complexities and concerns facing our next generation of leaders as they try and make sense of everything they're facing?
We welcome any youth and young adults that would like to participate, but the #YESpvd! targeted audience is the 13-24 in school and out of school population in Providence county. Going virtual gives access to a broader audience, so we are not restricted with boundaries. That presents an opportunity to have students, parents and workshop presenters from various locations the ability to join remotely.
The non-parents and business community should also support where they feel they can contribute by volunteering time and resources and/or donating to help with participation incentives, scholarships and cost. We have private sector first-time supporters including Amy, Avi and Tuni over at Venture Cafe Providence with helping us search for potential workshop presenters in various fields and GoLocalProv (thank you) as our first media sponsor. Ayana at Rhode Island Afterschool Network (RIAN), Wendy at PrepareRI and Kate A. at Providence Public Library (PPL) to help with student recruitment. We can use more help and support there and in other areas as well.
Youth Empowerment Society the presenters of #YESpvd! Youth Summit (Virtual Summer Edition) and the 365 Projects hopes to be a resource by building and creating more collaborative projects with youth programs, colleges/universities and businesses now and in the future. Support afterschool programming!
RI’s #1 Youth Summit goes virtual Saturday, August 29th, 2020 | 9AM to 2PM EST. More information at http://yespvd.com. Follow on ig/twt/fb @yespvd