FARMINGTON – In an effort to help youth understand the idea of giving back to the community, the Healthy Community Coalition held its annual summit, Activate, at Franklin Memorial Hospital all day recently.
Students from Rangeley, Jay and SADs 9, 36 and 58 all took part in the conference. With upward of 70 students from the five school systems, the ideas for workshops during the summit were completely generated by the students themselves.
“This was a way to empower the kids to make positive changes in their communities,” said Program Coordinator Nicole Ditata.
Through a youth-to-youth grant, Ditata has been able to work on the project for four years and now calls upon students who demonstrate leadership qualities to get involved. “We’re always looking for a community member with special talents to come forward and get involved,” Ditata said.
The importance of after-school activities was also stressed by Ditata, and thanks to the grant made possible by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, more and more interest is generated.
“We have a really good mix of people,” said Ditata.
The fifth youth annual summit also welcomed middle school students for the first time, and with representatives from as high up as grade 12, the group spent the day in a variety of workshops.
The workshops were not only geared toward activating the student’s interest in the community, but were a way of teaching them to better accomplish their goals. Twelve different workshops were offered, along with four separate physical activities.
Workshops dealt with fund raising, team-building, grant writing, time management and working with the media, while hip hop dance, cardio kickboxing and fly-fishing were among the physical activities.
The goal for the summit was for the youth from the different participating towns to take something away from the workshops and apply them to their own activities within their community.
Keynote speaker for the event was recent University of Maine at Farmington graduate Jasper Walsh. The day was made possible by several staff members from the Healthy Community Coalition, including many community and student volunteers.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
