Youth summit provides day of learning for area students on MLK Day

ALBANY — More than 70 area students spent the Monday King Day holiday not glued to their phones but learning life skills and participating in activities meant to help them bond with others.

A youth summit, sponsored by the Albany Recreation and Parks Department with assistance from the United Way of Southwest Georgia and Youth United, allowed students to participate in team-building exercises and hear speakers discuss relevant topics.

Participants’ reactions came in quickly as 100% of those who took a brief phone survey gave the Healthy Lifestyles & Smart Decisions summit good grades, according to organizers.

Giving the students, ages elementary to high school, something to do on the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday seemed like a good idea, ARP Director Steven Belk said.

“This embodies what Dr. King talked about … educating our youth so we can put them on a path of making good decisions, walking a better path,” he said. “A lot of challenges have been happening in the city with the youths. They want experiences. They want an opportunity to express themselves in a positive way. We’re just trying to engage them in a different way than social media.”

Belk said he sees the summit as the beginning of a larger effort. The department plans to offer a leadership summit for young people in the future and is trying to enlist as many community partners as possible to join in the effort.

“We’re building character here today, and and if you’re building character, you’re building better citizens,” Belk said. “These youths are less than 60% of our population, but they’re 100% of our future.”

The students took part in group and team activities and also had several breakout sessions that included social media awareness, leadership development, conflict resolution and street gangs.

Westover High School junior Kameron Pratt said the summit was a good experience.

“I was with United Way, so I wanted to see what the community thinks, how they would react to things like this, about speaking, about bullying,” he said.

The Youth United Teen Mental Health Coalition is a youth group formed last year through United Way and funded by the city of Albany. Currently it has about 25 members who hold at least two sessions each quarter. Prior sessions have included bullying prevention and suicide prevention.

The talk by Albany Police Department Cpl. Dramoski Franklin on gangs was well-received, Pratt said.

“Everything is not what it seems,” he said. “According to the police officer, it (gang participation) might seem cool. They might give you things, but in the end they want you to do things, that are going to get you in trouble.”

The “Teen Feud” game, based on the “Family Feud” game show, which featured teams writing their answers to a series of questions, was meant to help the students learn how to work together, said Gistacy Brown, a former Dougherty County educator who is now principal at Okapilco Elementary School in Moultrie.

“They had to work together, to talk together,” she said. “It just taught them how to work, how to focus on ‘we’ instead of ‘I.’ I told them there’s no ‘I’ in team.”

Earnest Brown, the ARP’s manager of health and wellness who put the summit together in his first week on the job, said he hopes it will become an annual event.

“This is my sixth day,” he said. “I’m hoping next year, with me being in place for another 12 months, we’ll have 200 kids.”

The survey that the participants responded to via cellphone showed 100% enjoyed the summit and all would attend another one, he said.

“Today is an off-day, and we didn’t want kids to just sit around,” he said. “We’re glad 75 decided to come out and do something constructive instead.”

The students also received free admission to an afternoon Albany State University basketball game.

Moving forward, the department would like to see more participation from community organizations, said Velvet Pool, the department’s event supervisor. Poole can be contacted at (229) 854-0742.

“We’re always looking for partners in the community to do programs,” she said.

Staff Photo: Alan MauldinAlanMauldin[email protected]
Staff Photo: Alan MauldinAlanMauldin[email protected]