From the Windowseat

Amongst all the difficulties and imperfections and unfairness in life, amongst all the hard work and doubt, there are moments which stand out and, if you are lucky, there are entire days that are seared into memory as shining examples of human potential. Or, more simply put, as one of my youth said, “we had a good day”. 

This past Thursday, YOU and the Youth Centre hosted a Youth Summit. Youth Summit? What is that, you ask. It is an opportunity to put the youth center stage, to highlight the Centre’s successes and activities from the perspective of the participants themselves. Of course, there were a number of potential glitches to this idea. First, YOU had never done such an event before, Second, I wanted to invite quite a hefty list of past, current, and, most importantly, future stakeholders — representatives from the World Bank, CIDA, and a long list of Jamaica schools, NGOs, and businesses were expected to attend. To do this required a lot of calls, letters, emails, etc., etc., etc. The tird challenge was, perhaps, the most risky — the success of the show largely relied on presentations by young, inexperienced, and, consequently, very nervous youth. Youth who many people believed wouldn’t arrive on time or dress properly let alone write and present professional presentations. However, as most of my readers know, I often take the more difficult road, and, therefore, an untried idea with untried presenters was to go on…

Admittedly, even I had my doubts. As anyone who has organized an event knows there is always those nagging doubts that arrive despite all of the best preparation. Add that to organizing an event framed by different cultural expectations and the risky decision of turning age and power roles upside down, and I admit that I was nervous. What if the prominent Jamaican distrust in youth actually had some merit?

Despite that, as I sat in the back row, with all of the organization and planning complete I tried to let go of the doubts. The show started on time (an abnormality in Jamaica), the MC made the audience laugh, the Executive Director of YOU spoke, the guest speaker (a representative for the Minister of Youth) was quick and to-the-point. Everything was going well…but now my heart leapt to my throat…my first youth was up to speak. You could read the nervousness in his eyes. I mentally urged him to smile, to speak into the microphone, to be himself. The presentation was okay, not brilliant, but okay. But, then, slowly but surely, everything started to roll to perfection.

The MC reminded the audience that the speakers were new to their roles. The third speaker got the audience to laugh. The audience started to clap to points that they agreed with and nod their heads in understanding. The stories of youth who had previously rarely had their stories listened to were being absorbed by an audience of professionals. Every time that someone spoke the atmosphere got better and better. The audience was smiling and so were the youth. Unfortunately, in Jamaica, adults and youth aren’t expected to smile and learn from each other. I am not sure that this expected to happen in Canada.

During lunch, at the end of the show, stakeholders were telling me that they wanted to visit the Centre, work on finding money for the Centre, learn more about our activities, and, equally important, when I looked around the room, the youth were doing proper networking and speaking with their audience. When I had to call them together and get them on the bus they didn’t want to leave…and, truth be told, I also didn’t want them to leave. 

My goals for the Youth Summit had been about spreading knowledge of the Centre, developing our stakeholder networks, alleviating negative perceptions towards youth, but, perhaps, they should simply also have included having a good day. For, as one of my presenters later told me: “Miss Anna, we had a good day”. I agree.