It was late October and too cold to be
out without coats, but there we were, pacing in the dark of a
parking lot. My good friend and colleague, Brian Reilly (Program
Officer, The Johnson Foundation) was fuming about being accidentally
locked out of his new house. Personally, I was glad to have the
time to talk, so I kept pulling his energy back to his work and
what he wanted to do with his role in Sustainable Racine, a whole-community
redevelopment project in Racine, Wisconsin. Eventually, we got
around to his passion for youth leadership. What emerged over
the next many months turns out to be one of my favorite stories
of organizing in open space.
...
...
In line with his passion for youth leadership,
Brian had been talking to a number of young people in the community.
He really wanted to get them together and get them more involved
in the work of Sustainable Racine. We went round and round in
the parking lot...intentions, resources, history, opportunities,
intentions, invitations, history, intentions, opportunities...and
finally to a plan.
Four weeks later we met again, for the first
youth conference, and first Open Space meeting, ever hosted by
the Johnson Foundation at their Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Wingspread
Conference Center. Thirty-five youth, ages 12-22, came to participate
in the four-hour meeting. In true Open Space style, they self-organized
and self-managed an agenda of 14 of their most important issues.
They captured hand-written proceedings and typed a contact list
so that they could keep in touch beyond the meeting.
Though their interests and proposed activities
were later clustered into six major areas for future work, the
dialogue in the closing circle focused on an immediate opportunity
for action and recognition. A 23-site, all-Racine meeting was
already scheduled for a Saturday, about six weeks later. With
that in mind, the group decided to table their main interests
and put all their efforts into getting as many of their peers
out to represent the youth perspective at the all-community meetings
day. Everyone pledged to contact at least three friends.
An estimated 1,000 people showed up to participate
the multi-site dialogues, about 100 of those were youth. Another
3,000 people watched on TV. Afterward, 12 out of 100 people selected
for the 'visioning committee' were under 25 years old.
This felt like the first success for the youth
group, even as they continued to debate whether they were a 'process'
or an 'organization.' By choosing to call themselves 'Youth Action,'
they made sure that the debate didn't slow their activity. Another
direct result of the first meeting was the emergence of a 'youth
art' newsletter.
Going back to that first meeting, one of the
major issues for the group was skate boarding. So when the development
of a new skateboard park hit the newspapers, some members of
the group worked to inject their interests into the discussions
of donors, developers, planners and architects. In the end, the
youth involvement made the front pages of the local papers and
the park location has been moved from its proposed industrial
park site, to a more desirable downtown park location.
In May, the group gathered for their second
large-group session in Open Space and returned to work on their
six main issues: art, internet access, the construction of a
youth center, skate boarding sites, sexually transmitted diseases,
and environmental issues. They also added an important seventh
issue: growing their circle(s).
This second meeting was scheduled from 5:37p
to 8:04p, in an effort to remind parental chauffeurs that "whenever
it starts is the right time" and "when it's over it's
over, and when it's not, it's not." (The first meeting had
run over by about 20 minutes, for which a number of folks apparently
took some heat.) At this meeting, the group grew to more than
60 members who recommitted themselves to looking into similar
projects in other cities and to finding adults and other resources
within the Racine area.
When they reconvened in July, still in Open
Space, they brought the fruits of their research and resourcing
efforts and the group expanded to 75, including some new adult
supporters. This meeting was also significant in that two girls
in the group did the honors of opening the space. (Brian had
facilitated the second open space meeting.)
These girls' leadership efforts and open space
facilitation work with the group also earned them an invitation
to attend a national conference sponsored by the YMCA Earth Service
Corps (a cutting-edge youth led, adult supported, environmental-
and service-learning program). There, they knock the socks off
of an impressive gathering of youth leaders and adult supporters.
Folks were so interested in their stories and successes with
Open Space, that a block of time was cleared in the conference
schedule so that the girls could demonstrate Open Space Technology.
They opened a small space there for the 100+ participants...a
little too small a space, actually, for one breakout group that
focused on 'race relations,' which could have gone on much longer
than the scheduled time available.
Currently, it seems that this group is becoming
an important cluster of activity within the overall Sustainable
Racine effort. They expect to keep meeting formally, in Open
Space, every two months or so, with lots of informal, supporting
conversations in between. A special meeting with an architect
for their proposed youth center is also in the works, with the
support of the Sustainable Racine project office. Finally, efforts
also are being made to establish a Racine Chapter of the YMCA
Earth Service Corps.
This story's come a long way from that cold
parking lot and Brian's three-paragraph invitation, last November.
And it may be just beginning. If this is something you'd like
to see happen in your community,
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who can connect you with Brian and the youth leaders
in Racine. You might also be interested in visiting the YMCA Earth Service Corps website or emailing
YESC Training Director Charlie
Murphy.
UPDATE: August, 1998...this just in from Brian, via email...
"Good news--open space as taught to Earth
Service Corps people by Dana and Becky replicates itself. I heard
from a woman today who has used it several times in Minneapolis!
Funny. As in funny-cool, not funny-ha ha..."
UPDATE: May, 1999
In April, 1999, three youth leaders attended
one day of the Chicago Open Space Training Workshop, where they
shared their learnings and questions with other leaders. This
helped them prepare for a presentation they made at the National
Town Hall Meeting on Sustainability, in Detroit, Michigan, in
May, where they shared their stories and did a short demonstration
of the Open Space Tech process. Work continues on the development
of their YESC chapter, currently the largest chapter yet established.