 St. Paul Youth Commission's Work
The Saint Paul Youth Commission is a group of 20 youth from around the City of Saint Paul who work on self-determined, self-directed social justice projects in order to make their community a better place. This year, the Youth Commission focused on three different topics and subcommittees: Bullying prevention, transit accessibility,and for youth
sex trafficking awareness.
The Bullying subcommittee has received a bullying prevention curriculum kit. The Commissioners have been customizing these resources for rec centers and other out-of-school time uses. Workshops were facilitated during the month of May, but the project will be continuing into June.
The Metro Transit subcommittee led a Metro Transit pass pilot program, giving 14 free, unlimited transit passes away to students at Harding and Central High Schools. Participants who received bus passes answered weekly surveys about their transit use. The subcommittee worked with Wilder Research to analyze data from the surveys, and created a video with SPNN to show the stories of the youth who received passes.
The Sex Trafficking subcommittee partnered with 180 Degrees to organize a youth-led conference for their peers. "Humans: Not For Sale” was a highly successful event: 60 youth, 15 teachers/youth workers, and staff and volunteers attended the conference. The participants left with action plans customized for their group.
Applications are now being accepted for next year’s Youth Commission! If you or any young person you know has bright ideas and is driven to make positive change in Saint Paul, APPLY NOW!
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 Mayor Coleman speaking at the kickoff
The kick off event for HSA Cohort was held on May 13 at the Minnesota Humanities Center. Sprockets' Executive Director Eyenga Bokamba introduced the purpose of this pilot and how it is designed to build the capacity of community providers to support young people and their families. A welcome address by the Mayor of St. Paul, Christopher Coleman, followed that underscored the support the city and metropolitan area had for youth and their social emotional learning and development. The HSA pilot is a two year pilot which follows the social emotional learning of the youth in each organisation.
 Summer Learning Institute
On June 11, the Summer Learning Institute will be held at
Metro State. The SLI is designed to provide front-line staff the tools they
need to create safe, engaging, and fun summer activities for youth. Workshops
are designed for first-time youth workers as well as those with more
experience. Veteran staff are encouraged to attend not only to refresh their
own practice but to contribute to the learning of others.
This year we are adding a day long (uses all 4 workshop
slots) Quality Coaching workshop as well.
This is geared to lead staff and supervisors.
 Neighborhood Learning Community
There are no Neighborhood Network Team meetings in June.
Learn more about Neighborhood Network Teams, and let us know if you'd like to be on the listserv for one or more of these groups.
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Transportation continues to be a challenge in the out-of-school time (OST) world. Many youth depend on rides from a
parent or other adult in their life, and can’t attend programs if that adult is at work or doesn’t own a car. Without safe,
easy, reliable transportation to OST programs, youth miss the many benefits that OST participation can provide.This toolkit is meant as a resource to increase the number of youth biking, walking, and using public transportation to
access OST programs. Check out the full Transportation Toolkit.
Now that summer has begun and youth are flocking to summer programs, here are some simple tips to determine quality. Sprockets offes in-depth quality analysis but these are a couple quick ways to determine whether the program your connected with is quality.
 
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