CONNECT. EMPOWER.
CHANGE.
Using
Youth Voice
To Shift The Culture And Climate Of
Your School
Matt Gress
Eric Johnson
Jeannie Carr
What is
Youth Voice?
Youth Voice
Youth Voice is the perspectives, ideas,
experiences, knowledge, and actions of
young people. Youth voice doesn’t mean
talking loudly or shouting to be heard, and it
is not about drowning out other people's
voices, including adults. Youth voice is
about considering the perspectives and
ideas of young people, respecting what
everyone has to say, taking risks, listening,
sharing, and working together.
Culture and Climate
What defines the
culture and climate in
a school?
Culture and Climate
Educators and Students Must
Work Together
What Is
Current
Reality?
Overcoming Obstacles
The MAP
This activity focuses on finding
alternative routes to obstacles and
breakdowns
Listening and Communicating
The Bug
This activity is listening/drawing exercise
that illustrates how we listen/communicate
from different perspectives and biases
“When people talk, listen
completely. Most people
never listen.”
― Ernest Hemingway
How can you
empower students
to use youth voice?
Building Relationships/Working Together
Human
Machines
This activity illustrates that each individual is
important to the vision. Each person is valuable.
THE POWER OF 5
The Ultimate Team Member
This activity will encourage
students to explore their
individual and collective
strengths, examining how they
will be useful in pursuing their
goals for their school and
community.
FIND YOUR
THE MASK
Be yourself. everyone else is already taken.
Today you are you, that is truer than true. There is
nobody else who is your-er than you.
-Dr Seuss
Honesty and transparency make you vulnerable.
Be honest and transparent anyway.
-Mother Theresa
Lay Your Weapons Down
Empathy is the ability to vicariously
feel what another person is feeling, to
understand and connect to where that
person is. In other words, it is the
ability to “step into someone else’s
shoes.” Empathy is not an emotion; it
is a skill set that can be taught.
Definition from: Merriam-Webster
IDEAS THAT
WORK
MOVE2STAND is a highly interactive and experiential training that
empowers student leaders to become part of the solution to end bullying
and harassment in their schools and communities.
MOVE2STAND is a one-day youth summit that challenges students to
examine their attitudes toward bullying. It is an effort to create empathy
and foster school connectedness by helping young leaders understand
how bullying impacts school climate and their communities.
More Ideas That Work
Examples:
Student Leadership Clubs
Lunch for Lunch Ladies
Thoughts That Stick
Weeks of Kindness
Mix It Up
Locker Notes
Welcome Committees
Videos
Flash Mobs
Give Back to the Teachers
Cross Age Mentoring/Presentations
Pay it Forward
You Make A Difference Cards
Catch Someone's Kindness
Birthday social
Lunch bunch crew
A new student welcome pack
WHAT WILL
YOU BUILD?
THE
RAINSTORM
“It is from numberless diverse acts of
courage and belief that human history is
shaped. Each time a man stands up for
an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of
others, or strikes out against injustice,
he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and
crossing each other from a million
different centers of energy and daring,
those ripples build a current that can
sweep down the mightiest walls of
oppression and resistance.”
Robert F. Kennedy in South Africa in 1966
Find Us Here
Connect.
Spread The Word.
www.starsnashville.org
www.starsnashville.org/move2stand
Facebook.com/MOVE2STAND
Twitter@MOVE2STAND