U.S. roundtables

I just returned from an extended trip to the States. During my time there I organised two youth leadership roundtables - one in San Francisco and one in Los Angeles. Some of the leading organisations in California attended these sessions, and we explored best practice in youth leadership and some of the key challenges organisations face.

Whilst I'm still drafting the reports from these sessions, what's clear is that there are challenges common to organisations working in this space all over the world.

We also looked at innovative practice by some of the participants - and here are just a few!:

• Many organisations provided incentives to young people for participation in their programmes, whether in money that went to a savings account (in the case of Larkin Street Youth Services) or financial rewards for perfect attendance (for example, with Glide YouthBuild). Another group, Youth Together, helps young people to explore and develop their talents and then acts as their promoters - helping them to become self-sustaining entrepreneurs.
• YouthNoise, a website that engages young people in US and internationally about issues that they’re passionate about, recently used dance-offs in New York City to engage young people as bloggers and activists.
• Many organisations in attendance at the L.A. roundtable, including Khmer Girls in Action,  Californians for Justice and YouthSpeak include young people on their Boards of Directors.

There will be more to come as I finish writing up these transcripts and reports - so watch this space!