Activate the Change Agent Within Us
In our KEY youth restorative justice program, we define change agents as someone who promotes and enacts change motivated by unjust social issues. While we may not be able to entirely correct a system or institution, we acknowledge that there are steps we can take to effect change.
The final month of our school program has been focused on planning and implementing a mini community giveback project. This project gives students the opportunity to develop leadership skills, engage with their neighbors in a new way, and understand their role in building a stronger, more resilient community. It also allows students to play a role in mitigating the impact of social injustice issues. This year, poverty, gun violence, and racism were issues that our three session groups chose to confront and creatively develop a project to activate change.
Each group worked collaboratively as a team, learning what it takes to reach consensus, how to delegate, and what accountability looks like to make progress. With our students at the helm, our projects aimed to increase awareness and decrease harm caused by the issue through the following projects:
- creating and circulating a video that featured a student poem and invited viewers to donate to a local non-profit organization that supports low-income families with resources;
- creating a video campaign highlighting personal experiences with race and racism;
- hosting a peace circle about racism for youth to digest their personal experiences and actively consider how to impact positive change.
You may hear these project descriptions and think, what kind of impact could that have done? or that must have taken a lot of time and effort! Alternatively, I offer a different thought – change is not quantifiable; instead, “Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world” (Howard Zinn). I wonder what could happen in our society if this became a common saying that we heard, repeated, and lived by.
As we enter the summer season, I am excited to share about many opportunities to volunteer with New Community Outreach. Read on for more details! We are distributing produce, welcoming a cohort of 10 students and 3 student interns for our summer leadership program, planning our annual back to school fun fair, and fundraising to Race Against Gun Violence.
Whether it is with NCO or another avenue, I hope you will be open to the call to activate the change agent within you. And in doing so, take steps together in transforming the world for the better through small (and big) acts.
Thank you as always for your partnership,
Sonia Wang, NCO Executive Director
What’s Happening at NCO…
Garden to Table Program 2021 – We are looking forward to start our weekly produce distributions on Saturday, June 19. Thanks to all our partners – Chicago Foundation for Women, The Farm, Live Healthy Chicago, and New Community Covenant Church-Bronzeville.
Mid-October 2020 – June 2021: KEY School Year Program – We are wrapping up our school year restorative justice program with a final celebration gathering. Students, families, school partners, and board members gathered to eat, play games, hear about the amazing projects students developed and engage in one final circle altogether.
June -August 2021: KEY Summer Leadership Program (SLP) – SLP begins at the end of the month. We are excited to have 10 student participants, 3 student interns, and numerous guest speakers and trips planned for the program. We are excited to partner once more with the Chicago Bulls, who will provide learning opportunities for our student to develop skills in areas such as project development, budgeting, and pitching.
