Working Together Maximizing Youth & Adult Partnerships

Working Together

• Maximizing Youth & Adult Partnerships

Youth & Adult Partnerships

• Commitment/reliability

• Building trust with youth

• Access – not enough young people

• Communication

• Less or limited ability (they’re not professionals)

• Instilling passion

• Hard to get young people to “own” projects

• Schedules/availability/travel

Test Your Teen Knowledge

• Who is the lead singer of the popular group, Destiny’s Child?

• a. Pink
• b. Beyonce’
• c. Monica
• d. Mya

Test Your Teen Knowledge

• These two celebs ran “Project Greenlight” in partnership with HBO:

• Tom Green and Carson Daily
• Freddie Prinze, Jr. and Sarah Michelle Gellar
• Ben Affleck and Matt Damon
• Sarah Jessica Parker and Chris Rock

Test Your Teen Knowledge

• Which of the following bands was not created in conjunction with a television show?

• O-Town
• Eden’s Crush
• 2-gether
• Dream

Test Your Teen Knowledge

• In which movie did Josh Hartnett get his first acting role?

• The Faculty
• Halloween H2O
• Virgin Suicides
• Pearl Harbor

Test Your Teen Knowledge

• Which hip-hop artist did Ashanti pair up with for her hit song Always on Time?

• Jay Z
• Ja Rule
• P Diddy
• Usher

Test Your Teen Knowledge

• Which of these popular actresses is a featured regular on the website Voxxy, where she talks to teens about things that matter to them?

• Gwenyth Paltrow
• Jennifer Love Hewitt
• Jennifer Anniston
• Kate Hudson

Test Your Teen Knowledge

• Which percentage correctly reflects those teens who obtain their spending money through full or part-time jobs?

• 60%
• 14%
• 30%
• 47%

Test Your Teen Knowledge

• On average, teens spend how many hours per week on the computer?

• 17.6
• 2.3
• 11.0
• 7.2

Test Your Teen Knowledge

• Which band was watching Jim and Nadia on-line in American Pie?

• Bush
• Linkin Park
• Blink 182
• Creed

Test Your Teen Knowledge

• Which magazine do teens read most?

• Sports Illustrated
• Seventeen
• Teen People
• Rolling Stone

Test Your Teen Knowledge

• Cribs is a show on MTV about:

• Gang violence throughout the nation, hosted by a former gang member turned VJ
• Fashion in urban areas, hosted by various top models with bandanas on their heads
• Entertainers homes (no host)
• The latest in new generation technology, hosted by various models with bandanas on their heads

Bonus Questions

• The old get old

• And the young get stronger

• May take a week

• And it may take longer

• They got the guns

• But we got the numbers

• Gonna win, yeah

• We’re takin’ over

Understanding the Teen Audience

• They have never known…

• A major war

• A cold war

• An Evil Empire

• A cultural revolution / major movement

• A recession

• More than one Pope

Understanding the Teen Audience

• Video games

• CDs

• Faxes

• Walkmans

• MTV

• Cable

• e-mail

Understanding the Teen Audience

• Family life is different…

• Less time spent with parents (down 1/3 since 1970)
• Less supervision -- more independent
• More scheduled lives
• Less free time
• More adult responsibilities
• More adult concerns
• 25% in single parent homes (13% in 1970)
• 80% have working moms (30% in 1970)

Understanding the Teen Audience

• More choices

• More pressure to grow up faster

• More violence

• Less Insulation

• Earlier onset of puberty

• Media saturation

• Sound-byte society

Understanding the Teen Audience

• Generation Y – Defining Traits

• Optimistic
• Technology-driven
• Achievement-oriented
• Pragmatic
• Resilient
• Self-reliant
• Embrace diversity
• Socially aware

Understanding the Teen Audience

• Teens more receptive to “taking care of themselves.”

• Form own support systems… own sense of community

• cliques
• sports
• after school jobs
• Brands = identity
• the web – Bolt.com

Understanding the Teen Audience

• Brands are very important to teen culture. They associate themselves with brands based on:

• Quality

• “For people my age”

• Unique

• advertising

• “cool” friends / peers use it

Youth & Adult Partnerships

• Insight into the teen audience

• Peer-to-peer is most effective way to communicate our message

• Bring energy and enthusiasm

• Can infiltrate youth culture

• Programs are youth-focused

• Mandated

Youth & Adult Partnerships

• Allow youth to lead more

• Trust them

• Involve everyone – don’t rely on the same youth all the time

• Make time to work with them – even if I’d do it better/faster myself

• Be a mentor and a teacher

• Make some organizational changes to empower them

• Curb youth entitlement

Youth & Adult Partnerships

• Be more reliable; keep their promises

• Try harder

• Understand our point of view

• Accept our guidance and insight – don’t reject it

• Care more

Youth & Adult Partnerships

• Keys to overcoming challenges

• Provide opportunities at many levels
• Create accountability
• Recognize and reward

Youth & Adult Partnerships

• As individuals we have different ways of defining who we are that we reinforce by seeking out opportunities

Youth & Adult Partnerships

• What opportunities does your or could your organization offer?

• Examples of opportunities:

Youth & Adult Partnerships

• Young people (and adults, too) are notorious for not following through on commitments

• Creating a culture of accountability is critical to your success

Youth & Adult Partnerships

• Keys to success

• Assign projects/duties
• Set clear deadlines
• Remind them of their commitment
• Follow-up, follow-up, follow-up

Youth & Adult Partnerships

• Keys to success

• Assigning projects/duties
• Involve youth in the process
• Whenever possible, have youth self-select responsibilities
• Define roles, responsibilities, commitment
• Ask them to identify their peers that may be able to help
• Make assignments in a group (with them)
• Don’t always rely on the same youth – spread the wealth
• Assign tasks based on their individual skills
• But be flexible, allowing them to try new things (provide opportunities for them take chances!)
• Don’t be afraid to assign jobs to others if they don’t fulfill obligations (but tell them why)

Youth & Adult Partnerships

• Keys to success

• Follow-up, follow-up, follow-up
• Create a task list with them
• Hold them to deadlines that are set together
• Remind them of their commitment
• Assign other staff/youth to follow-up, too!
• Communicate on their terms
• How do they want to be contacted?
• Memos are NOT good
• Remember, they hold strange hours (not 9-5)
• IM and e-mail works really well
• Don’t overload them with too many words

Youth & Adult Partnerships

• Ultimately, your young people are volunteers

• They are not involved for money

• But, that doesn’t mean they don’t expect something in return

• There is nothing wrong with offering something in return for their efforts

Youth & Adult Partnerships

• What do they want?

• Recognition
• Someone to listen to them
• Someone to praise them
• Someone to thank them
• Reward
• To learn new things and be involved in new ways
• Experience (helps them in the future)
• Personal reasons (family member died from tobacco)
• To be “honored”

Youth & Adult Partnerships

• Food – taking them to lunch

• CDs

• Software

• Personal thank-you

• Group thank-you

• Thank you cards/personal note

• Great “assignments”

• Concert/sports event tickets

• Gift certificates

Youth & Adult Partnerships

• Re-cap

• Youth involvement is critical to the success of your organization
• We need your help, but you need our help, too!
• Keeping youth active and providing a range of opportunities will do wonders for retention
• Accountability is key to effectively involving young people
• Recognize and reward youth – they deserve it, and need it
• Involving youth is a commitment on everyone’s part

Youth & Adult Partnerships

• Ten Commandments of Working with Youth

• Don’t underestimate youth – they’re savvier than you think

• Always encourage youth to offer input and make decisions

• Talk with them – don’t preach

• Listen to their ideas

• Keep it simple

• Work with them to assign roles – they’ll tell you what they can and cannot do

• Be a good manager – help them understand what needs to get done and how to do it

• Reinforce good ideas

• Youth know youth – encourage a peer-to-peer approach – it really works

• Get in touch with your inner teen

Youth & Adult Partnerships

• Ten Commandments of Working with Adults

• Be responsible for the work you promised to deliver

• Be gentle with adults! They may be nervous working with teens

• Be honest about the amount of time you can offer based on your other commitments

• If you are uncomfortable with a project, let them know you need help

• Remember, their jobs come with different levels of responsibility and pressure

• Adults are looking for ideas from you – don’t be afraid to offer them!

• Give adults feedback on their ideas, too – as a teen, you have great insight into other teens

• Adults have lots of advice, experience, and help they can offer you – take advantage of it

• Adults worry about you when they don’t hear from you - keep in touch!

• They are responsible for you when you are away from home or school so please respect them and follow their rules