Hopewell Youth Collective Update
Greetings friends,
Throughout the summer I have had the opportunity to meet with many of the youth connected to the Hopewell Community and hear about what problems they see in the community and passions they have in their own lives. In these conversations I was also able to share with them some of the hopes and dreams for this Collective including the focus on it being a youth-led, youth organized platform for development, community engagement, mutual support, and spiritual growth. In sum, our hope for the Hopewell Youth Collective is that it will be a space that is safe for the youth in this community to serve, lead, and build relationships with one another. These conversations and relationships led to the identification of a few topics the youth in this community care about: racial justice, environmental justice, economic equality, and mental health. On September 14th, we had our first Hopewell Youth Collective interest meeting where any interested youth and their friends were invited to eat ice cream, begin to develop relationships with one another, ask questions, and share their ideas around these four topics and share additional topics they care about including the LGBTQ community. 14 youth came to this initial meeting held at Aunt Chubby’s where a majority shared an interest in serving in the inaugural HYC Youth Leadership Team. We laughed, met new friends, and shared excitement for next steps. These next steps will include a leadership specific meeting in order to have a designated leadership team for this year, a newsletter and a fall service project. Our next meeting will be next Tuesday at 7:30pm on October 5th to specifically discuss our fall service project. If you or a youth you know would be interested in jumping on board this exciting new opportunity in Hopewell, please don’t hesitate to reach out or join for our next meeting!
Peace,
Deborah Jodrey
Director of the Hopewell Youth Collective