This is a very late entry from the National Youth Leadership Initiative…

So here I am sitting back at my desk at District Office trying to remember all that we did! Too much to type or try to remember…you will get the just of it all if you read the youth’s blogs. 

 I would like to take a moment and talk about the youth individually and pump them up a little. Each youth that attended brought their own style and energy which allowed them to be successful through-out the entire conference.

Savannah,; thanks to your OCD which kept us on our toes and on task through-out the conference, before and after.  You are a true leader and remember everything.  In one of our sessions they spoke of those who sit back,  listen and observe, not always out in the fore front needing to be acknowledged but gets the job done…This is you and I thank you.

McKiah; outgoing, never afraid to be the first to say something, right, wrong or indifferent, ready to get the energy flowing, and willing to take charge.  You are a great narrator…

Woody, for your laid back demeanor, never gets in a hurry and does the job right the first time.  Always confident that things will go right, and gets peoples attention when you speak.  A great announcer!

Last but not least WILSON, I think I saw the most growth in Wilson, shy, but with authority, and boy can he dance… I know he was surprised in himself as he stated that he didn’t think he was a leader and throughout this conference he spoke with authority and confidence; people listened, and he may grow-up to be a dance instructor!!!  JUST KIDDING!  

Harney County was well represented at the NYLI in Aug. and we will as a group grow and create a working relationship among the youth and adults in the coalition and community. 

I would like to say THANK YOU, to the youth that accompanied me and Scott to Phoenix; you are superb young individuals and also very easy travelers!

Scott Smyth for being a chaperone and providing the years of knowledge you have as a resource to me and the youth.

DFC Committee; for supporting me through-out this event.

Parents, for intrusting your children in my care and for raising such wonderful individuals.

I look forward to the coming school year, hang on all it is going to be a great ride!

G~

Just got the last of the pictures up… Hope you all enjoy!!!

Sorry I haven’t blogged in a while. I have been resizing pictures and getting them ready to go on here. I also have been trying to be a kid while I am in Phoenix. I have been swimming and just trying to have fun. It really isn’t too hard to have fun here. I know I have not been living up to my name, the Blog Nazi, but I am blogging now. I am sad, but excited to be home.

Well, on Wednesday, we got up and got ready then headed to breakfast. After breakfast, we went to NYLI: The Amazing Maze. They has a grid taped on the floor and we had to figure out the path that got you from one side to the other without talking. We then had a break and went to NYLI: Advocating for Change. We learned about changing policies and creating policies to make your community a better place. We then went to lunch at Panda Express. After lunch, we walked home from the mall. It was so hot and Woody got into a cactus, so we had to help him get all the spines out. We then went to NYLI: Measuring Success and Sustainability and learned about how to evaluate whether our logic model worked or not and how to keep your coalition going. After we took a break, we found out that we would have to do a teach back. We were instructed that we had to figure out a way to teach the speakers what they had taught us and we had to do it in a creative way. We worked for a while and then went to dinner at Tuscany. After dinner, we went swimming and spent some quality time getting to know each other and becoming a better leadership team.

 On Thursday, we got up early so we could work on our teach backs. Our group, the Canyons, was tasked with the 5 parts of a community assessment, criteria for a problem, and parts of a problem. We decided to make it like someone was watching tv and we were the shows. We had an army show, a dancing show, and a dating show. We got a little breakfast and ate while we were working on our project. We were the second group to go and did an amazing job. After we had a wrap up of the week, we went and got lunch at Blue Sage then went swimming. I got sunburnt pretty bad. That night we went to a movie. McKiah and I watched Despicable Me in 3D. We went shopping and got some pizza for dinner. When we got back to the resort, we went swimming and I met some new people.

Today, Friday, We got up and packed then headed out to the airport. We got to the airport and went through security. It took us about a half an hour to go through security. We then went and got breakfast at the Blue Burrito. We boarded the plane and were then informed that we would have a 30 minute delay, due to them having to change a tire. After about 20 minutes, the captain came over the intercom and said it would be another 45 minutes. The whole delay ended up being abotu 80 minutes. We then took off and landed in Boise about an hour late. We drove to Ontario and got something to eat at KFC. We headed home and got home about 5.

I am now sitting on my couch and I am exhausted. I would like to thank all you guys that supported us. I guess this will be the last blog post, since it is the last day of our trip. Thank you all for reading my blog. I will have more pictures up very soon.

Savannah

OOPS.. sorry I’m a day late blogging. Well yesterday we worked on a thing called team teach back. We had to team up and work on a skit to teach back to the group! It was actually pretty fun. The group I was in was kind of like an army setting where we made up a little chant and the group repeated it. I was the drill sergeant it was nice! Haha. Woody was a talk show host and Wilson had to dance. Ha it was pretty entertaining. Savannah was a part of my group it was great. It made it so we had to work together as a group even when we didn’t know anyone. Great team building skills and can’t wait to bring back all the tools I have learned and help our community! I am completely great full for this experience and thank everyone who made it possible I am positive we all have so much to bring back. We are now waiting at Phoenix airport for our flight which will be a three hour flight then a three hour drive! Woo.. I can’t wait to be home in our weather climate.

Thanks again

mckiah

Well we had another great day learning how to identify problems in communities, and now we are starting to make presentations to teach back the information because we all know the best way to learn something is to teach it to someone else. So we are split up into groups developing creative ways to teach the information back. My group has decided to do a dance that explains the criteria of a problem. I was assigned to a dancing part……and was not very excited. But then I started doing the dance, an learned that I actually really enjoyed it and now I am having fun with it. That is pretty much what we have done so far today.

Day 1

Well…I should have posted on the first day…and the second day, but I didn’t. I thought it would probably be about time for me to post something. Anyway, I’ll start with the first day. On Sunday I woke up at 3:3o in Frenchglen, got ready and left at 4:30 for Crane. I got to Crane, and parked my car at Woody’s house and in less than twenty minutes Gwen was there to pick us up. We rode into Burns, picked up Smitty, McKiah, and Savannah. We then started our voyage toward Pheonix. We arrived in Boise around nine oclock I think, I’m not real sure though. We checked our bags in and then hung around in the airport for close to three hours. Once our plane started boarding we got on. The whole ordeal at the airport went rather well….except for McKiah and Woody being selected as people to do random searches on. Anyway, our plane took off and it took about an hour and thirty-five minutes. The only bad part was coming into Pheonix when we started getting into thermals with the plane, it got pretty bumpy. McKiah was holding on to her armrest so tight that her had was white. Once our plane landed we went and got our baggage, and were met by a chauffeur in the baggage pickup area and he took us back to this AWESOME black Lincoln Navigator. He drove us to the hotel which took about a half hour. Then we were shown to our rooms and got settled in. I think we went swimming after we ate dinner that night.

Day 2

We woke up at 6:45 to get get ready because we had to be in Canyon 7 ballroom for breakfast plenary.  We ate breakfast, which consisted of scrambled eggs, bacon, really good fried potatoes. During the plenary session we were spoken to by various speakers. We were also told what the general schedule was for the day, and where we needed to go. We went through the day learning about the SPF overview. After our sessions were done we went swimming, yet again (it’s pretty popular because it is averaging 107 degrees outside, and there is a lazy river flowing near the hotel), and then we joined in a meet and greet session. That session was fun because I got to meet people from all over the nation, hear their strategies, learn about their area, and just learn about them. We had a scavenger hunt during the session, and when we were done, we went swimming again. Savannah didn’t go though, because she was the only responsible one in the group and stayed in the room to upload pictures and blog.

Day 3

This morning we woke up at 7, had plenary at 8. Had the same type of SPF sessions during the day. Got done at 4:30 and then went to the mall about a half mile away and toured around there. It is THE biggest mall I have ever seen…so many different clothing stores….Aeropostale, American Eagle, Old Navy, No Fear, Journeys, Hollister, DSW shoes, it just keeps going. Savannah let me use her camera, and I took pictures for her, so there were a few pictures that had her in them. I bought a T-shirt and a pair of flip flops. We ate at an In-N-Out Burger place…it was simply amazing. Then we came back to the hotel and went swimming….yet again. We then came back to our rooms, and here I am blogging right now. So this sums up what I haven’t been posting for the last two days.

Wilson Witzel

P.S. Another thing that we find interesting in this hotel, is that the third floor seems to be magical. You can find it when you’re in the elevator, but there are no windows outside, and not railing the inside balconies….I just think that it is very interesting, McKiah has been puzzled by it all day.

Well hello people of the internet again, it has been quite a fun couple of days but it just has been way to hot, but that is usually cured by a nice dip in da lazy river but anyways, learning so much stuff that i can take back and share with all my peeps, next year will be great, hopefullly we will be able to send more people in the future. but that it isnt even the best part, the best part is meeting all the new people, meeting new friends and all that jazz. but this blogging thing is a little silly if you ask me but who cares

well people its been fun but time to go to sleep have to get up bright and early this morning, oooo what fun……….

woodrow xD

What a day, it started off at 6:30 when Gwen walked back in from her work out, then it became a mad rush to get ready and get out the door by 7:45 to be at our breakfast/ morning layout, you could call it that I guess. At this breakfast thing we discovered that the yogurt was anything but good.

After this meeting we headed across the hall way to where we started defining our community, as in seeing what the problem is. For us we discovered that it is underage drinking. I mean think about this… how many of you teens can be a family event and walk up to your parents and get a drink, or drink in front of them and they not care? Hmmm anyone…. Probably the majority of our school/community is able to do that. Why is this? Well we have talked and came up with a risk factor for this…. ACCEPTENCE, yes! Acceptance.. because some parents see it as “I did this as a kid and as long as they’re in my house or my watch full eye it shouldn’t matter, safer than them drinking in the hills” well I’m sorry, once you make it acceptable in the home the kids could end up thinking it’s okay to drink other places since its okay in the home. We also came up with other but you’ll just have to come to the meetings to hear about them. Well as the day went on we kept working on this and it soon turned into a logic model which we already had finished so that helped today.

When our final meeting was over we then went over to the malls and went shopping, fun for me but Savannah, Wilson, and Woody were not very enthusiastic, but that’s okay understandable. We then ate dinner at an in and out burger place mmmhhh very yummy!! Then came back to the motel and hopped into the lazy river. Ahh so relaxing!

Well  I must be heading to bed, long day ahead of me.

mckiah.

Day One… Late Entry, Sunday, gathered Woody and Wilson, headed to Burns to retrieve the other three and then headed for Boise, why you ask didn’t they just meet us at Buchanan???  It was all about me, I had to get a foo foo coffee and on our way home I have to pick up my DOG!  Unless of course Diane finally gives in and keeps her!  

Arrived at Phoenix, checked into our RESORT, registered for conference, had supper and went to the Welcome Reception, after we had an Orientation for the Youth Advisors and to bed at 10:30ish… LONG DAY!

Day Two… Also a late entry, The National Youth Leadership Initiative is Adult Leadership “Youthinized”… And not the Euthanized you are thinking!  The youth are learning the processes just as the adults did. Leadership Principles:  Integrity, Walk the Walk… Vision, Dream… Collaboration, putting differences aside and work together as a team, for a common goal… Altuism, doing for others even if it is inconvienient for you…and courage, you may be scared, but do it anyway… Courage was the leadership principle that our group had to define without words and they did so with the picture of a maiden in the tower and the prince slaying the dragon… Great thoughts, and it was easy to draw for them. So they say,  I can’t draw a stick horse.   To end the sessions the youth learned about Strategic Prevention Framework (SPF)… Coalitions Game Plan!   Skills required to implement SPF…ACPIE as Savannah calls it is as follows, A= Assessment, Scout out, see what the issues are? C= Capacity, who are the players, interested partners?  P=Planning, Strategize, how are you going to get there? I= Implementation, “Game Time” Put your plan into action… Evalutaion= How did you do? Did we play well?

So far a lot to take in…

There are eight Core Competencies the youth will learn during this training…  We have learned the first three Assessing the community, Analyzing the problems and goals, Creating Logic Models.

So here we are Day 3 of our adventure and it feels like we have been here for a week already!

Lots of info for the youth to absorb and it takes me back almost 2 years ago when we ( DFC Committee), sat for hours and brainstormed, hashed out ideas,  word smithed and all of those fun things that pertain to creating a logic model.  The great thing is the youth’s logic model is very close to the one we did when we wrote the grant…  

The youth have excelled, in all areas and it is fun to watch them hash out ideas just as we did through the grant writing process.  I have to say, we chose some very responsible and knowledgeable youth to bring to AZ.  They have a ton of great ideas.  Well my brain is done and I should have worte everyday because it is so hard to remember all they have done. 

Until tomorrow…

Gwen

It is day two, but it feels like we have been here a week! Although it is hot and humid, it has been a blast here and I am learning a ton of stuff. Today, we started out the day by going to a continental breakfast and listened to a speaker from SAMHSA. We then went to “NYLI: What’s the Problem?”. In the class,we learned about problem statements and we created one. After a short break, we analyzed our problem and picked out “But why?”(risk factors) and “But why here?”. Our problem was underage drinking and our risk factors were acceptance and access. We then had lunch at Starbucks again. After lunch, we built a logic model. A logic model is a outline of how you are going to fix your problem. There are seven strategies to an intervention: providing information, enhancing skills, providing support, enhancing access/reducing barriers, changing consequences(incentives/disincentives), physical design, and modifying/changing policies. We set up a plan and are going to present it to the whole committee when we get back. We then went to the mall and went shopping. We ate dinner at In and Out Burger and walked back to the resort. Well, I am going to go swimming,  so I will blog again tomorrow.

Savannah