Feb. 28 marked the one-year anniversary of the closing of the Junction Youth Center. It also means that it has been one year since the Hartford Youth Council transitioned to be its own entity, not attached to a drop-in center or larger organization.
As everyone is painfully aware, we are also coming up on one year of lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite this chaotic year of loss and readjusting to a new lifestyle, the Hartford Youth Council has been hard at work.
In the spring, the council completed strategic planning under the guidance of Katherine O’Day. We developed our mission statement, vision statement and core values:
■ The Hartford Youth Council’s mission is to improve the lives of young people in the Upper Valley by building nurturing communities, learning opportunities, and by providing partnerships with safe, askable adults.
■ The Hartford Youth Council envisions a sustainable, nurturing and valued drop-in center for young people in every community that wants one
■The council values freedom to have fun; relationships; knowledge; acceptance; versatile people, places, and things; and supported metamorphosis. We accept people!
These statements and values have been useful in serving as a structured guide for us. Having such planning has been useful in searching for funding as well.
Over the past year the council has applied for four grants and been awarded three for a total of $6,500. Applying for grants has accomplished more than securing funding. It has provided each of the council members with the opportunity to learn how to write thorough grant proposals.
One of the grants has allowed us to pay a member to function as a coordinator. Another grant was a participatory budget we used to put on three socially distanced workshops for youth in the community, chosen by youth in the community, over the summer. (We did tie-dye and self-defense at Ratcliffe Park, and ghost hunting at the Briggs Opera House).
As the weather cooled, we shifted to create virtual workshops on YouTube under the username Hartford Youth Council (check it out here: youtube.com/channel/UC4p7vgjPwqBvSB2ntyOAC7Q) and we dubbed it HYCon.
We released our first season at the end of October, we released our second season last week, and we are working on putting together our third season to publish at the end of April.
The Hartford Youth Council originally planned to become its own nonprofit organization and we did a workshop on becoming a 501(c)(3) in August, led by Emily Zanleoni. We later decided that it would be more valuable to request to become a branch of the Hartford Community Coalition as our mission and values align nicely. We proposed this to Coalition members at their November meeting and we look forward to hearing their thoughts once they have time to discuss this idea.
In addition, in the fall of 2020 we worked to develop a new membership agreement and application so all members can be on the same page. We look forward to recruiting more members (youth and adult allies) in the future.
Starting in January, the council shifted yet again to break into three committees; the Development Committee, HYCon Committee and the Community Center Planning Committee. Rather than having one large meeting for all council members once a week, each committee meets weekly and the whole council convenes once a month. These committees have allowed us to come together as workgroups that focus on different tasks.
The Development Committee has recently crafted our youth and family survey to gauge the desire and need for a drop-in center in the Hartford region (we would greatly appreciate it if you would take the time to fill it out here: https://forms.gle/n7twcJL5WZMw6AYd7).
The HYCon Committee, as noted, is working on season three of HYCon. And the Community Center Planning Committee has recently completed strategic planning for a future center:
■ The future community center’s mission is that young people in the Upper Valley will have a safe place to go, an askable adult to talk to, and something healthy to do outside of school and home.
■ Our vision is to provide a community where all young people ages 14-25 in the Upper Valley will have the opportunity to strengthen their emotional health.
■ We value physical safety, relationships, trust, reliability, inclusivity, fun, honesty, community, flexibility, transparency, community-based decisions, curiosity, strengths-based work, informed practices and supported metamorphosis.
■The committee is playing with the idea of creating a pop-up drop-in center over the coming summer months.
This past year has been a learning curve for the whole population, and the Hartford Youth Council is no exception. We have had time to develop skills such as strategic planning, time management, creating meeting agendas, writing grant proposals, social media management and building relationships within the community. We have learned how to work cohesively as a council and to accept that we don’t know everything. We have been able to adjust to life in a pandemic, and with that, being able to ask each other for help when we need it. We are continuing to learn and we look forward to the work ahead. After all that we’ve been able to accomplish this year, the council agreed we are all most proud of the same thing: We have met almost every week since the closing of the Junction.
Members have continued to show up and stay motivated to achieve our common goal of starting a drop-in center while remembering to have fun with one another. At the heart of it, we all truly care for each other and we’re excited to see what we’ll accomplish after another year of meeting weekly.
Thank you for all of your support and for taking the time to read this update. We hope you are staying safe, healthy, and warm.
Kirsten Kersey is coordinator, Jakya Ellison is head of communications, and T Boyce, Gabrielle Williams and Katherine O’Day are members of the Hartford Youth Council.