Context
For years now, the Dowd Education Center has been centered around Project-Based Learning pedagogy. OYLPN fits what we, at the Dowd, think is best for youth development. That is, offering real-world challenges and problems to our youth in order to acquire a deeper knowledge through active exploration. Doing prevention education for our youth, especially in their cultural context, aids in building safe and strength in West Columbus.
The students forming our group come from within the Dowd Education Center enrollment, both present and past students. Students grade K-8 are enrolled with the Dowd coming from Columbus City, Southwestern City, and Charter Schools. For this project, the Dowd Education Center invited a number of high school students who have aged out of Dowd programming to join OYLPN. The aim for this project is to focus on youth living on the West Side of Columbus, specifically looking at job/internship opportunities and creative outlets/programming that are able to introduce and/or teach youth various skills that might lead to future careers/trades. We want to do this project by addressing the challenges youth face looking for safe,teachable spaces that will prepare them for adulthood.
Youth Characteristics and Recruitment
Middle school students at the Dowd Center are invited to participate in this project. A majority of the students in our group have been part the Dowd from their elementary years and, being in middle school now, are invited to join the project. Also, the Dowd Center goes to Open Houses, hosted by Columbus Collegiate Academy and other middle schools to recruit student enrollment. Any middle school student(s) enrolled is invited to join the project.
Participating students are motivated to become involved in this project because it offers: an outlet on the weekends, pizza at each meeting, and to learn Digital Arts and be mentored by a professional Digital Arts team (UA Creative Studios).
Collective Participation
There have been as many as twelve students working together on the project. The group meets monthly, on the second Saturday of each month. The meetings usually last three to four hours. On average, we have eight students attend the meetings. This group has been working on the project since June 2018. Mr. Anthony has attendance sheets that we use to track participation.
Since our group members are part of our after school program, our group has also been able to meet as needed throughout Dowd programming to work on our project.
Adult Involvement
Mr. Anthony and Mr. Jermaine are the main leaders from the Dowd Center for this group. For this project, our group has partnered with Mr. Jordan from Y.E.S. (Youth Empowerment Sessions), Ms. Angie, and Ua Creative Studio. Mr. Anthony and Mr. Jermaine are full-time staff for the Dowd Education Center. Mr. Jordan works with youth all across the west side of Columbus, Gladden Community and Dowd Education Centers for example. The staff from Ua Creative Studios does digital arts education throughout Central Ohio. Mr. Anthony and Mr. Jermaine give oversight to the entire project, making sure the students are present, etc. Mr. Jordan helped in our earlier meetings to help us consider and focus on our own cultural context here on the west side. Ms. Angie facilitated leadership trainings over a weekend-long retreat. And the staff of UA Creative Studios has done digital arts education throughout the entire project.
Parents are not asked to do anything more than having the group members ready for the meetings, but are always welcome to be involved with any Dowd programming. The Dowd Education Center has obtained digital arts equipment for the students to learn and grow in the skills being taught
Group Structures
The students have a weekend activity to participate in, which is no small thing. This project gives group members the opportunity to learn a hard skill that might not learned. Group members are also provided lunch at each weekend meeting (pizza). Part of the sustainability of the programming going forward will be able to offer students community service hours with future filming projects.
When group decisions need to be made, the question is presented to the group by Mr. Anthony. Mr. Anthony sometimes will offers a few examples that can spark creativity from the group. Group members are free to asks questions for clarification, and when questions are raised, peers are most often given the opportunity to answer the questions raised by their peers. If there is more than one decision to choose from, the group consents to go with the majority vote. Group members have had an ongoing relationship with all the adult leaders mentioned above. Most times, the group focuses on the project, however, there are planned 15-minute and lunch breaks throughout the meetings where youth and adult leaders can discuss music, school, and other topics. As far as youth roles goes, group members have been able to help in making decisions on the video being made. They have also been able to choose different roles in making the video, from camera footage to audio, narrator to interviewer and video editors. The entire video is being filmed and edited by youth group members. Outside of resource mentioned, the organizations that have agreed to be part of the video, Highland Youth Gardens and Franklinton Cycleworks, have made themselves
Group Climate
The group has learned and exhibited resiliency while working on this project. When challenges presented themselves, the group thrived finding solutions and answers to keep the project going. For instance, the group was challenged when they learned that each of the three organizations they wanted to interview weren’t able to participate. The group went considered other organizations to fill the void. Because the group is made up of students already enrolled in the Dowd Education Center, there is already a great deal of group cohesion, collective efficacy, and outcome efficacy. The group is part of an enrollment that meets everyday for after school programming. The intentional work adult leaders do is emphasize a working environment that is safe, respectful, and responsible.