Supporting NH Youth Leaders Working for Equity and Inclusion

As noted in an earlier post, Hermence Matsotsa of uBuntuSpeaks, LLC and I have been engaged by the Civic Engagement Work Group of the NH Race and Equity Series to interview youth leaders and develop resources to support their efforts to promote racial justice. We conducted 18 interviews and, based on what we heard, are working to deliver impactful materials that embrace effective ways to act and think about complex problems.

Interviewees spoke of teachers and other adults who had a positive influence on their lives, as well as those who had impacted them negatively. “My biggest inspiration are people who believed in me,” one observed.  Another said, “Some teachers in public education are not supportive. If kids don’t feel respected by a teacher, kids won’t work that hard.” One young black woman told a powerful story of how a teacher had put her down in eighth grade, telling her she would never graduate, but the young woman managed to turn that into a positive motivator and later shared her perspective with that former teacher in an impressive way when they re-met many years later in Walmart.

Hermence and I are working to finalize a needs assessment report and develop a framework for the youth leader toolkit.