Youth Cultural Fluency: Passport to Excellence in Youth Leadership

presented by Alejandra (Alex) Vila, Community Programs Director at Life Academy, Alternatives in Action

Alternatives in Action has developed this training for adults working with youth to provide the tools and skills necessary to build inclusive environments. Our goals is to support youth workers in creating programs and organizational cultures and systems into transformative spaces where diversity is celebrated and honored. This training will offer opportunities for skill development for adults that want to create youth and adult partnerships for social change.

Learning Objectives

• Participants will learn the key elements of youth culture and how to use them to empower young people to become agents of change

• Participants will understand a framework for power dynamics to implement in their projects around young people and systems of power such as policy makers and traditional institutions

• Participants will become aware of reclamation theory as a tool to help youth heal and thrive in oppressive environments

• Participants will take back two strategies to engage youth as leaders in a community impact project

What About the Boys?

presented by Dan Rice, Answer

This keynote will provide the most up-to-date information available about how boys learn. The vast majority of sexuality education curricula and programs are created with the needs of girls in mind. Even if we don't believe It ourselves, the saying "boys will be boys" pervades sexuality education programming. Girls are set up as the sexual gatekeepers and decision-makers. Boys are either set up to be feared or widely ignored. This keynote will provide the most up-to-date information available about how boys learn, how co-ed sexuality education programming has failed boys and what educators and service providers can do to be sure to reach all students and workshop participants.

Learning Objectives:

1. Understand male socialization and the messages boys receive regarding how they are supposed to behave in society.

2. Understand adolescent male development and relate this understanding to improving communication with and education for boys.

3. Explain the impact of media Images on male attitudes, behaviors, body image and relationships.

4. Identify factors that contribute to and support behavior change and relate these to their work with males.