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To give youth in the community a chance to be heard, the Boy Mom Marathon along with J.U.M.P. (Juvenile Uplifting Mentoring Program) is hosting a Youth Council meeting at 6:30 p.m., Oct. 7 at J.U.M.P.'s location, second floor, 734 W. Fourth St.
"We have lots of conversations in the community about young people, but we don't always have those conversations with young people," said Loniqua Howell, of Boy Mom Marathon.
"So this is the space where we're creating for them to speak for themselves about their own experiences, their challenges that they are facing, and what they believe would help make the community better for them," she said.
Too often, Howell said, adults talk about what they feel are the issues that youth are dealing with, but they don't take the time to listen to what the youth are telling them in their own words. The Youth Council is a space for that and Howell hopes that not only the youth but other members of the community will come to the first meeting.
"I would love for individuals to not just listen, but also place themselves in the shoes of some of these youths. Listen to their stories and try to get where they're coming from,"she said.
"We want to encourage them to talk about who they are, what they've experienced, and get some of the adults that don't quite understand some of the aspects of youth culture … the opportunity to listen, take in what is being said... for those that don't have the opportunities to sit and have conversations with some of our youth," she said.
Howell pointed out that although you have two people, one being African-American and the other white, they may have the same experiences, but one has more resources and opportunities than the other and she feels people don't quite understand that.
"Just having that opportunity to sit there and actually listen and get a better one-on-one perspective of what's really going on with some of our youth is, I think, that's the key. Getting to know some of these kids personally, I think that's where the understanding of them comes around better," she said.
Ultimately Howell would like to see the Youth Council meetings happening a few times a year.
"The goal out of this is to sit with the youth, have them talk to us. Let us know what we can do for them, because different things can affect different youth for different reasons. It could be school issues, teacher issues, recreation, mental health, safety, transportation-all of these different things that affect our youth in different ways. Some of them don't have certain conversations with adults because they don't feel comfortable enough.So if this opens up the opportunity for more people to listen, maybe more youth will begin to speak to us," she said.
Although youth are encouraged to register in advance to speak at the council meeting, there will be opportunities for those who haven't registered. Registration can be done by emailing: boymommarathon@gmail.com or by calling or texting Howell at: 570-360-4299 or by contacting Intisar Martin at J.U.M.P. Anyone speaking is urged to be polite and respectful.
The group is also offering incentives to encourage youth to attend and information about that can be found on the Boy Mom Marathon Facebook page.