In the Community:

Trainings and Workshops

How it Works:

Current Youth Experience

• 17-21% of 9th and 11th graders are home alone or otherwise unsupervised every day after school; about a fifth aren’t aware of after school programs available to them

• 30% of 9th graders have had significant problems with feeling trapped, lonely, depressed, anxious, and hopeless about the future

• Up to a sixth of 9th and 11th graders have considered suicide

• 13% of high school juniors believe adults in the community care about them very much

• 15% believe adults in the community don’t care about them at all

Our Response

We train staff of youth-serving organizations like libraries, mentoring associations, and police departments to transform their cultures and practices to become more effective advocates for youth.

We do this through consulting and at workshops offered throughout the year.

A community organization was calling the police 2-3x a week in the summer to deal with disruptive youth. After receiving our training, they were able to build more positive relationships with youth and didn’t feel the need to call the police again.

Testimonials:

"We worked with SPYS to overhaul our youth development training for teen employees because the way we had been doing it for a long time was no longer meeting the needs of our program. Dr Tracine and her team not only delivered on the training we asked for, but helped me and our team with the learning – and unlearning – that we needed to begin to truly live into our mission. That kind of learning is hard work, and the SPYS team knows how to stretch a team and hold space for change and growth."

-Katherine Debertin

Youth Programs and Services Manager

Hennepin County Library

Youth Programs and Services Manager at Hennepin County Library

“My favorite part was the conversation about tying things back to our mission, vision and focus areas. I can use this language when communicating with volunteers”

—Training participant

”[My Favorite part] was Talking openly about how our organization  does or does not align with mission/vision.”

-Training participant

“I learned that it's important for me to believe that I can make a difference and that young people have great potential to be change makers but the adults in their lives have to be willing to provide the space, resources, times and share their hopes and dreams for making this world a better place for them and the future generations.”

-Workshop Participant

“[The workshop was] space to talk about issues within youth programs and how most of the issues start with us (the adults)! It was nice to discuss and have a community to relate to. Also enjoyed watching the videos of the kids your services are positively impacting :)”

-Workshop participant

“Really liked that it was a useful snippet - there were pieces I can directly incorporate into my work and a lot of space to learn more.”

-Workshop participant

These youth-written and youth-produced videos are a part of a series St. Paul Youth Services commissioned from the youth on Intermedia Arts' Media Active team.