Staff and youth volunteers from the Great Lakes Center for Youth Development are visiting local organizations with a presentation titled “Youth Priorities 08-09: What Youth In Marquette and Alger Counties Want You to Know about Their Healthy Development.” The presentation serves to teach local groups about why young people in Marquette and Alger counties are talking about restraint, adult role models, and planning and decision making.
The priorities were established by students from schools in the two-county region who met in October to look at the results of the Profiles of Student Life: Attitudes and Behaviors survey. They compared it to personal experiences in their schools and communities, and decided on three areas of concern in which they would like to see improvement.
According to the report, students would like their communities to help them focus on:
- Restraint – Youth want all students to be equipped to respond to risky situations.
- Adult Role Models – Youth do not need adults to be perfect, but they want adults to be authentic and model responsible behavior.
- Planning and Decision Making – Youth want support in helping to build the decision-making and planning skills of all students – not just student leaders.
Areas of strength identified by summit participants included safety, family support, and a positive view of personal future. These results and more information have been published in the Youth Priorities 08-09 report.
“The purpose of our presentation is to help organizations discover ways they can build these assets in their communities,” said Linda Remsburg, GLCYD youth development associate. “Most people, youth and adult alike, already build what we call ‘assets’ in the lives of the young people they know. Our goal is simply for them to do it in a more intentional way.”
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