Young people thrive when they feel empowered in their environment. Adopt-A-Family’s Youth Success Manager, Ms. Vanessa, regularly observes this truth in her work with teenagers in our Youth Success Program (YSP), the agency’s out-of-school program for middle- and high school students. She recently completed training through Prime Time Palm Beach County focused on adult-student partnerships and empowering youth to self-govern. Ms. Vanessa decided to use what she learned to organize YSP’s first election for student leadership positions.
Ms. Vanessa designed four YSP officer roles: Event Coordinator, Volunteer Coordinator, Calendar Coordinator, and Snack Coordinator. The Event Coordinator will provide the student perspective on agency-wide events. The Volunteer Coordinator will assemble and organize student volunteers for agency events supported by YSP. The Calendar Coordinator will assist Ms. Vanessa in selecting field trips and discussion topics for afterschool sessions, and the Snack Coordinator will keep inventory and manage the Costco snack orders.
In the lead-up to the election, Ms. Vanessa explained the new initiative to the students. After outlining the process and the officer responsibilities, students signed up to run for positions. Election day took place on March 9 at the Julian Place Community Center, and each candidate gave a short speech to their peers.
One student who ran for Volunteer Coordinator talked about fairness and being democratic when assigning volunteer tasks. Another student talked about diversifying catering options for events. “I want to be helpful to all of you and to Ms. Vanessa,” another student said. “It’s for all of us, so we should take the time to do it right.”
Throughout the speeches, the students who were voting remained engaged. Votes were cast by paper ballot, and Ms. Vanessa tabulated votes and announced the winners at a later session. The process sparked collaborative discussions about potential program enhancements, which led Ms. Vanessa to suggest that committees be developed in the future.
Ms. Vanessa was impressed with the way the group approached the new initiative and shared that the students were respectful, thoughtful, and dedicated to making the Youth Success Program the best it can be. Ms. Vanessa hopes that the students feel they have a space where they can share their opinions and see their ideas implemented agency-wide. She wants them to know that their voices matter.
We are grateful to Prime Time Palm Beach County for conducting this training and sparking this important initiative for the young leaders at our agency.
