Category Archives: Community Connections
Get Ready West Side, The Ambassadors for Youth Academy is Coming!
Over the past two years, St. Paul Youth Services has held 3 Ambassadors for Youth Academies graduating a total of 105 people who are making a difference in the lives of youth in the community. The academy is an 8 –week program that provides adults in the community the skills and knowledge to positively engage youth in their neighborhood.
This spring St. Paul Youth Services will be offering an Ambassadors for Youth Academy (AFYA) on Saint Paul’s West Side at the El Rio Recreation Center (inside of the Paul and Shelia Wellstone Center) located at 179 Robie St. E. Saint Paul, MN 55107 from 6:30pm – 8:30pm on Tuesday evenings, beginning April 10th – May 29th, 2012.
From AFYA alumni, here are the 5 top reasons why you or someone you know should participate in the program.
- People should join to network and build community. -Sheronda Orridge, Payne/Phalen AFYA
- It teaches parents how to show love, without ignoring discipline. Part of the communications between parents and youth should include respect for youth boundaries that only can be found by listening to them. – Haytham Ibrahim, Payne/ Phalen AFYA
- Receive assistance in creating a specific plan to aid youth and money to implement your action plan. – Holly Bell, Frogtown/Summit U AFYA
- Be a part of hope and change and make a difference in the lives of young adults by building leadership skills and becoming a mentor. – Iris Escalera, North End/South Como AFYA.
- Learn fresh ideas and gain a better understanding of how different situations affect youth. Also come and learn about the resources that are already in place in the community that serve youth. – Holly Bell, Frogtown/Summit U AFYA
Registration for the West Side AFYA is open and WE ARE STILL ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS. To learn more about the AFYA you can visit the Ambassadors for Youth Academy section on our website. You do not have to live on the West Side to participate in the program.
Apply today for the Spring 2012 Ambassadors for Youth Academy!
A Calling to Restore Families and Bring Them Back Together
I recently had the opportunity to interview one of our Payne/Phalen Ambassadors for Youth Academy (AFYA) participants Shatona Kilgore-Groves, who with her husband Jeff Groves completed the 8 week program nearly two years ago, in the Fall of 2010. While participating in AFYA the Groves were working on publishing their book entitled, A Black Parent’s Memoir: 30 Parents Tell Their Story. Their inspiration to write the book came from their concern about the rate of youth violence and murders in the North side of Minneapolis that had increased over the course of two years. The Groves wanted to make a difference and do something positive by making parents aware that they have more control than they realize on whether their children live or die as victims of youth violence. The memoir provides examples of African American parents around the Twin Cities who successfully raised their African American male children by being actively involved in their children’s lives and keeping them engaged in positive activities.
After successfully publishing their book and completing the AFYA, the Groves continued to follow their calling of restoring families in the community and bringing them back together by creating a new platform reaching out to parents through workshops that evolved into “The Black Parent Group (BPG).” At one AFYA session they listened to the presentations of other nonprofit organizations/initiatives like Campfire USA and Youth in Transitions (YIT), who were working with youth in the community. The presentations empowered the Groves to act on their idea of starting their own nonprofit for parents and children in the community.
In March of 2011, 5 months after AFYA, the Black Parent Group held its first meeting and began operating as a nonprofit in partnership with Prevent Child Abuse MN (who is their Fiscal Agent). The BPG has continued to meet over the past year. The BPG provides culturally specific workshops on numerous topics, such as How to Listen to Your Child, Learning to Praise Your Child, Helping Your Kids Learn through Failure, and many more topics in an informal setting to help parents and guardians to connect with local resources to see what is best for their children and family.
In its second year of operation, the BPG will continue meeting every other week on Mondays at 7pm at Washington Technology in the Multicultural Resource Center. Parents of all races are more than welcome to attend the BPG meetings. After leaving my interview with Shatona, I felt inspired that two AFYA alums were able to successfully accomplish their action plan of writing a book on raising African American males. They are truly following their calling and passion to make the community a better place for youth and their families. Jeff and Shatona’s involvement in the Ambassadors for Youth Academy was very beneficial to them. Participation in the program provided inspiration, encouragement, and even financial support because one of their fellow participants donated her stipend to them – providing them their first source of funding! The connections that they were able to make with like minded people through AFYA have helped to form lasting relationships with fellow AFYA alums, who currently attend and support the work of the BPG. We at St. Paul Youth Services are very proud of Jeff and Shatona and wish them the best as they continue their work with the Black Parent Group!
Applications for the Spring 2012 Ambassadors for Youth Academy are currently being accepted, visit the Ambassadors for Youth Academy section on the website to learn more information or to download the application.
The Ambassadors for Youth Academy is Back!
Having trouble with a child you are working with or a child of your own? Do their actions have you wondering just what planet they hale from? Maybe you’ve lost the fire you once held for working with youth? Or your passion for working with youth was perhaps stomped out by various disappointments? Fear not, for we have just the solution to your dilemma, The Ambassadors for Youth Academy (AFYA)! According to one of our alums, “The AFYA academy will help you realize that your work with youth has not been in vain; that the youth and their families need you!”
Here at St. Paul Youth Services we work with many families, as well as the community, to re-direct youth who are starting to get in trouble at home, at school, or with the law. One initiative we have taken to further this goal is the Ambassadors for Youth Academy. We have held two successful academies in the North End and Payne/Phalen neighborhoods and graduated 56 participants.
The Academy empowers neighbors to effectively engage with youth in a positive and helpful manner. It also enables adults to become advocates for youth in their neighborhood, thereby reducing the number of calls the police receive concerning youth behavior and allowing police officers to focus on the more pressing public safety concerns. In addition, participants gain the knowledge and confidence to engage with youth in their communities and the opportunity to network with like-minded folks who are connected with the well being of youth.
The Ambassadors for Youth Academy is an 8 week program that is held on Tuesday evenings from 6:30 to 8:30. At the end of the program we ask participants to develop an action plan based on what they learned from class. After successfully completing the program each participant receives a $200 stipend and a certificate for their participation.
Here are some examples of the action plans from our past AFYA participants:
One of our past participants wrote, “My plan is to form an after school program for girls ages 7-15 in the Oxford/Lafond and University/Rice area where we will provide after school snacks, homework help, incentives for good grades and a place to share ideas and concerns.”
Another participant founded a group called “Recycle America” which influences youth to take care of the environment. The group walks around the neighborhood on Saturdays and cleans up the litter in the neighborhood as well as collects recyclable items to turn into recycling centers to help fund their programming activities such as pizza parties and field trips.
The Ambassadors for Youth Academy is a great program and we enjoy learning from the participants. We are honored to have worked with some wonderful community members through our academy that are truly making a difference in the lives of kids on a daily basis. Below you will find some of the testimonies of our AFYA alums.
“The Ambassadors for Youth Academy (AFYA) was the training that I needed to catapult me into the next dimension of my career and self-employment. I was very blessed to be a part of the academy and I feel more confident in working with families and youth from the information that I acquired. Thank you St. Paul Youth Services!”- Shatona Groves, graduate of the Payne/Phalen Ambassadors for Youth Academy
“The academy gave me hope and confidence that I could use my experiences to help youth living in poverty. I give credit to the Ambassadors for Youth Academy for showing me the value in my life experiences and assuring me that my struggle was not in vain. I recommend the academy to anyone who wants to understand today’s youth and work with them to find the value they have to offer our society.” - Donald Ingram, graduate of the North End Ambassadors for Youth Academy
“The Academy allows you to share your experiences and hear the experiences of others in their work with youth, and perhaps most importantly, “You get to meet people like yourself who care about the future of their community and the youth of today.”- Emmanuel Woode, graduate of the Payne/Phalen Ambassadors for Youth Academy
The next Ambassadors for Youth Academy will be held on Tuesday evenings, beginning March 22nd to May 10th in the Frogtown/Summit U neighborhood at the Martin Luther Recreation Center located at 271 N Kent St St Paul, MN 55102. For more information or to register for the Academy contact Leila Paye, Community Connections Manager, at 651-771-1301 or email her at lpaye@spys.org
“Beyond the Bricks” Premiere in St. Paul
Beyond the statistics…are the real stories of the children
Beyond the obstacles…are the promises of the past
Beyond the bricks…are the hopes of tomorrow
The statistics tell us that over 50% of African American boys in this country do not graduate from high school on time.
But what are the real stories of the children…the promises of the past and the hopes of tomorrow? Those are the questions the documentary film Beyond the Bricks sets out to answer.
Please join St. Paul Youth Services on Tuesday, November 16, 2010 for the Twin Cities premiere of this important documentary. But more importantly, join the conversation about what we can do in this community to get beyond the statistics and solve this problem. Leading that discussion will be a panel of experts including Derek Koen, Director of “Beyond the Bricks,” and Dr. Ivory Toldson, Professor at Howard University and author of Breaking Barriers: Plotting the Path to Academic Success for School-age African-American Males.
When: Tuesday, November 16th from 9:30-12 noon
Where: Metropolitan State University, Founders Hall Auditorium, 700 East Seventh Street, St. Paul, MN 55106
To RSVP, contact Leila Paye at 651-771-1301 ext 1003 or lpaye@spys.org
