Seeking advice: mixing youth & adults at OS + video

[loughrey]

I just returned from doing a mixed adult/youth OS - we had about 65 people
ranging in age from about 15 to 85 (about 50% youths and 50% adults).  The
theme was  how to increase and strengthen youth/adult collaboration to
strengthen our community. We did an evening of story telling which lasted
about 2 and a half hours including desserts and coffee, etc.  The stories
were quite amazing and I would say that about 95% of the people told stories
about the topic  "people who had made a difference in their lives and how".
Some of the stories elicited applause from the group. Also the stories
surfaced about the importance of treating each other with respect.  The next
morning, the feeling in the room to start the one day open space was very
warm and friendly, only about 3 people had not attended the evening session.
We had 17 sessions posted and about 15 that actually took place.  That
seemed quite small to me for that number of people, but certainly both youth
and adults posted topics. All the sessions had a mix of adults and youth
until the very last sessions and the adults were quite upset that there were
no youths in a session. My learning was that youths in our culture are
accustomed to being finished school around 3:30 and that's about all you are
going to get from most of them.  Our late afternoon was also compounded by a
serious impending spring storm, with those having to travel wanting to get
home before it started, not to mention that it was a Friday - which seemed
unavoidable given the parameters in which the sponsor was working.  We only
had about 50% of our number for the closing circle but as always it was
amazing.  The comments I received from the sponsors was that what had been
missing when trying to work on this issue before was the mixing of adults
and youth and that they were going to do a series of these kind of sessions.
I might comment that many of the youths were recovered drug addicts, single
mothers or youths who were in an alternative school setting because they had
been unable to function in the regular system. And of course the "right
people" came, so the adults were very supportive of youth and interested in
hearing from them.

The session was videotaped, by youths with an adult advisor, but people were
asked to let the video people know if they didn't want to be shown.  I
didn't notice that it inhibited anyone - except perhaps me!

Carol  Loughrey
Canada

-----Original Message-----
From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU]On Behalf Of Susan
Partnow
Sent: March 31, 2001 7:15 PM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: Seeking advice: mixing youth & adults at OS + video


Plans continue for the MAVIA/SAVE conference on "Victory Over Violence"
converence in Tacoma, WA Saturday, April 21...  THanks to all of you on
this listserve who have supported us in the past.  One concern that
continues to be raised is how the presence of adults and youth in OS
sessions will work. Some students are concerned their voices will be less
likely to be heard -- and/or individuals able/willing to speak up in mixed
sessions.  Some students want to be able to post "youth only" sessions.
One of our OS facilitators feels such restrictions would close the space
and thus violate the spirit of OS...  What experience do any of you have
with this issue of adult/youth?  Recommendations?  Thanks for your advice!

One other issue:  we have an opportunity for a team of students, led by an
experienced teacher, to do some intereviewing and videotaping of the event -
- leading to a needed outreach/educational/inspirational video.  Do you
have expereince with the presence of videographers?  Any sense of how it
might impact the spirit and openness of discussion?

With appreciation and thanks for the wisdom of this list,
Susan Partnow in Seattle, WA

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