Onsite and Virtual PD Options
STREAM 1: Personal Journey
The opening session welcomes and honors participants, establishes the equity vision and purpose of the school & district, builds essential community agreements, and establishes a foundation of tone & trust to celebrate and consider the rich complexities of our personal culture and social fabric.
STREAM 2: Justice for All
The objective of this session is for participants to share experiences and spark conversations that elevate our awareness of barriers and dynamics of social dominance, both interpersonal and institutional, that impede progress toward a more equitable learning community.
STREAM 3: Creative Expression
The application of our imagination into the learning process and sharing in community spaces is an opportunity to accelerate our growth of stewardship. This session explores a unique creative resistance that transcends conflict and tension to restore dignity in our human relationships.
STREAM 4: Community Action
Integrating the inclusive and collaborative idea of shared intergenerational power, this session maps the journey toward an inspired school climate & culture where more students engage at a deeper level and achieve at a higher level more of the time without having to leave essential parts of who they are at the door.
STREAM 5: Listen Out!
Year 1 culminates with the Listen Out! event - a presentational format of music, poetry, visual art, storytelling, open space dialogue, and film documentation of the YES! experience that invites family and the extended school & local community to enjoy and understand one another.
“Part of the YES process is creating spaces and places and conversations where that creativity can emerge and again it’s all about connecting the heart and the head.”
—Benjie Howard, Co-Founder, Youth Equity Stewardship
Onsite and Virtual PD Options
In Year 2, YES Ambassadors will develop the skills and awareness to translate their learning into action. They will develop critical skills in the art of facilitation, participate in action research, and initiate actions such as student-led professional learning, peer learning and student advisories.
STREAM 6: Art of Facilitation
This session establishes the groundwork for effective facilitation for peers, younger students and adults in the strategies learned within the YES! experience. This train-the-trainer model is co-designed with the partnering school district to ensure we open doors of opportunity for on-site engagement.
STREAM 7: Sustaining Stewardship
This session is designed as a collaboration with Youth Equity Stewards and school administrators to establish long term implementation of Streams 1-5 at the site or district level.
STREAM 8: Student-Led PD
Youth Equity Stewards work along-side YES consultants to co-deliver equity/ stewardship professional development for staff with a focus on Streams 1-4.
“Youth Equity Stewardship is one way to help systems work better for the kids who are in those systems; making sure that we’re meeting the needs of every kid that comes through these buildings.”
—Benjie Howard, Co-Founder, Youth Equity Stewardship
Onsite and Virtual PD Options
STREAM 1: Personal Journey
The opening session welcomes and honors participants, establishes the equity vision and purpose of the school & district, builds essential community agreements, and establishes a foundation of tone & trust to celebrate and consider the rich complexities of our personal culture and social fabric.
STREAM 2: Justice for All
The objective of this session is for participants to share experiences and spark conversations that elevate our awareness of barriers and dynamics of social dominance, both interpersonal and institutional, that impede progress toward a more equitable learning community.
“There’s something about being given the invitation to be yourself that opens up an avenue of joy. And for me, the YES work is about witnessing that breakthrough.”
—Wade Antonio Colwell, Co-Founder, Youth Equity Stewardship
Onsite
Virtual Option: 90 minutes
Borderless: An Intergenerational YES Journey
Through Folk and hip-hop musical expression, video storytelling and interaction, Benjie Howard and Wade Antonio-Colwell share their journey as teaching artists working with K-12 youth and adults in schools across the country, and in wilderness environments. They will share methods for engaging adults and students together in equity learning. They offer an integrated pathway for youth-centered action toward reducing and eliminating educational disparities.
Virtual option only: 2 hours
Virtual Youth Equity Stewardship: For Learning Communities Navigating an Inter-generational Equity Journey
Youth Equity Stewardship (YES) is a sustainable, inter-generational, creative facilitation process for youth and adults that enables learning communities to enthusiastically engage and advocate for culturally responsive and leading practices. YES is rooted in arts-based methods that aim to elevate youth vision and passion to the forefront of policy and progress for an evolving twenty-first century school system. The program process amplifies student partnership and supports young people in understanding their personal journey and social accountability through a "stewardship" lens that creates a living example of commitment to inclusion, equity, and a new frame for educational excellence.