The voices of youth and the adults who care about them are vital to implementing the Youth Master Plan and ensuring a difference is made in our community. The Palm Beach County Youth Services Department Outreach and Community Programming Division recently held three community conversations at Palm Beach State College campuses in Belle Glade, Loxahatchee, and Palm Beach Gardens.

The community conversations were open to the public and structured to support community input while providing information about relevant data regarding children outcomes and services.

Gulfstream Goodwill Industries “Going the Distance” Mentoring program mentors and mentees were invited to the February 18 conversation in Palm Beach Gardens to collaborate with other members in the community and express a desire to make a difference for youth. The mentees participated and spoke up regarding issues that concerned them, and their voices were heard.

After the event, Joseph Hayes, mentoring coordinator at Gulfstream Goodwill Industries extended a heart-felt appreciation for inviting members of the “Going the Distance” mentoring program to take part in the conversation.

“Furthermore, you as a funding agency make all of this possible, and we here at Goodwill are proud to be a part of this great initiative,” Joseph stated in an email to Youth Services Department staff. Birth to 22: United for Brighter Futures is an alliance of community partners with a common mission to support the healthy growth, development, and education of children and youth. Birth to 22 members collaborated to create the Youth Master Plan, serving as the blueprint on how to get this movement into action.

Six themes consistently emerged from the 2016 community conversations as challenge areas for youth and families. These became six Action Areas with 16 workgroups working diligently to start addressing gaps and building bridges with other agencies to provide services, represent these themes. Community conversations continue to take place throughout the County aimed at youth, parents, and youth supports.

Each community conversation begins with an explanation of how we got here and where we are looking to go. Each Action Area is represented at its own table with a Birth to 22 facilitator. In each of the 2020 sessions, the youth participants consistently led group conversations. They addressed concerns around safety, college readiness, mental health, and teacher support, among other topics.

Then they are presented with the data: What has been done so far? Are there still gaps? What else can be done? Students were candid and open with their answers. At the end, each table presented their concerns and how they are or are not being addressed by the workgroups. Students offered suggestions to fill the gaps and elaborated on additional areas of concern.

Community conversations have been consistently constructive, keeping the workgroups abreast of their successes and continued areas of concern to ensuring that the trains of change are on the right track.