Working with Teens as Staff and Participants

by Anne Lawrence, Program Officer

How to Work Effectively with Teens as Staff and Program Participants was the topic of the Robert Bowne Foundation’s final Networking Meeting for 2006. The meeting featured a panel presentation with an extended question-and-answer session. The panelists included both staff who supervise youth and youth staff members: Susan Matloff-Nieves and Marlena Starace from Forest Hills Community House, Meghan McDermott and Amanda Moscoso from Global Action Project (G.A.P.), and Sabrina Evans-Ellis and Elizabeth Sosa from St. Nicholas Neighborhood Preservation Corporation (St. Nicks).

The panelists addressed the following questions:

  • How does your program create a balance between the developmental needs of teens and the expectations of your organization?
  • Are these needs and the expectations aligned? At what points are they not?
  • What do you do at your program to understand the teens’ perspective?
  • How do you work in partnership with teens?
  • How do you give teens the ongoing support they need as participants and/or as staff members?

In this month’s Page Turner, panelists from G.A.P. and St. Nicks share their experience with and recommendations for supporting youth staff. You can read Susan Matloff-Nieves’s article "Growing Our Own: Former Participants as Staff in Afterschool Youth Development Programs" in the 2007 issue of Afterschool Matters (.pdf file).

The Robert Bowne Foundation Networking Meeting Series provides opportunities for practitioners to talk informally with each other about their programs and practice. If you are interested in receiving the notes from this or any other Networking Meeting, contact Crystal Williams. Last year’s Networking Meetings were well attended by a diverse group of practitioners, so we had interesting discussions. Join us in future networking meetings as we continue to explore the topics of family involvement, evaluation, and working with teens.

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In this Issue

 
Authors

Anne Lawrence
Amanda Moscoso
Sabrina Evans-Ellis
Elizabeth Sosa

Editor

Jan Gallagher

Web Design & Programming

David W. Hill

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We’d love your feedback on this issue. Complaints, kudos, suggestions for future topics? Please email the editor, Jan Gallagher