Staffing a Youth Program

If you will be running a program for youth you must be careful about the staff you hire. Because of the climate in which we find ourselves, we encourage you to talk with other youth programs in your community about background checks on all facilitators and volunteers. Protect the program and your reputation by never having one adult meet with a youth in private. If it is necessary to have private conversations with a participant make sure it occurs within sight of another staff person.

Community Service Organizations/ Speakers

The We Lead! program uses the local community to bring information to the participants by inviting guests to speak to participants. Speakers are used during the first week to explore the history and culture of the disability rights movement. Throughout the first and second week speakers from local organizations who may anchor the community service project are invited to present information about their group.

Throughout the written curriculum we have indicated specific days that, in our experience, a speaker would have the most impact. Speakers may be found at your local Disability Network organization (Center for Independent Living), a college disability office, or a statewide disability advocacy organization. Speakers should be people with disabilities as often as possible.

When selecting a speaker for your program you may want to consider the following:

• Does this person understand the philosophy and goals of We Lead!?
• Have I explained how much time the speaker will have, and to what topic I want them to speak?
• Is this individual a member of the disability community? Do they have pride in their disability?
• Will this speaker be able to relate to the participants?
• Do they understand the concepts of disability history, culture and pride?
• Are my speakers culturally diverse?
• Do I need to rely on an “expert” or does one of the participants have experience and wisdom that would be beneficial to share with their peers?

Before We Lead! begins you will want to identify various community service organizations that work on volunteer projects in their community. Staff should set up dates with these organizations to have them come speak to the participants. You will want to let these organizations know that they will be “pitching” their organization to the participants. They may want to come prepared with various ways that the We Lead! participants could volunteer or plan a community service project for their service organization.

Make it clear that the participants may choose NOT to work with their organization for this project, but maybe participants will choose to work with them on their own time in the future. It is the expectation of this curriculum that the participants will identify the issue and program for their community service project, staff are only setting up a chance for participants to interview different agencies in their community.