The fruits of your labors may be reaped two generations from now. Trust, even when you don't see the results.

-Henri Nouwen

This year, we trained 6 young adult facilitators and engaged 18 youth in our Activism@Work program. Only 1 person failed to return after 2 sessions. Imagine, 94% of our participants stayed for all 4 sessions which ran during Saturdays for 4 hours. That is impressive! I don’t think I would have participated as a youth in a program that demanded my time on the weekends. And yet, several of our participants wished it was longer. LONGER??? I personally could not handle a longer program. Our team was burned out towards the end.

What is the reason for our success? It is a program designed by youth, facilitated by youth, and focused on youth owning their stories through conversations rather than adults teaching or lecturing. We created a space for young people to really explore topics that are relevant to them – how can they become the leaders who can impact their community? Who are they, who do they want to serve, how do they want to make an impact, and why do they want to make a difference? They are learning to own their voice and realizing their power. How amazing! I get chills just thinking about some of their discussions.

Here are some of their responses on the survey:

· I feel like the final discussion helped me the most with developing my self awareness because it made me realize words are nothing without actions and that my actions will cause change not my wishing and hoping with just words.

· The verb and noun discussion really helped because it made me realize I was being a noun in some things and it made me realize I had to change that.

· Our discussion on values most impacted my understanding of activism and how I could impact my social activism in mental health.

· The activity about what is false hope and hope. It made me realize that when you have false hope you sit there in the same spot hoping something will happen even though you’re not putting effort into it. It made reflect on situations in my life where I had false hope and gave up simply because nothing was happening but at the time I didn’t realize without effort nothing will come.

· The discussion of our passions in being able to see how I truly can make a change in today’s society even if it’s a small thing.

These words bring me joy. They get it; they really do.