Youth Tech Leadership & Training Academy Pilot Project

During the summer of 2007, Trinity Community Development Corporation, the Detroit Community Justice Partnership (DCJP), and the Michigan Council on Crime & Delinquency (MCCD) graduated 12 middle-school-aged youth from the “Youth Tech Leadership & Training Academy,” or YTLT!

This academy seeks to address and counsel the mental, social, and emotional issues of school-enrolled youth with one or more incarcerated parent and teach youth safe and productive ways to deal with these issues by expressing themselves through new media. The 8-week pilot project, funded by DCJP and MCCD, ran from July 8-August 31, 2007. The youth met at Brightmoor’s Mt. Vernon Missionary Baptist Church computer lab Tuesday-Friday from 10:00a-2:00p.

Children whose parents are incarcerated are five to six times more likely to be incarcerated than are their peers. These youth are most vulnerable to feelings of fear, anxiety, anger, sadness, depression and guilt. The behavioral consequences can be severe, absent positive intervention, emotional withdrawal, failure in school, delinquency and risk of intergenerational incarceration.

The objectives of YTLT are to:

• Integrate technology to strengthen TCDC by broadening its scope of services to the public;
• Provide youth the opportunity for developed leadership and stress-coping skills;
• Introduce youth to non-traditional vocational and professional career areas such as computer science, information technology, math, science, and engineering by introducing these areas to them in an interactive, interesting, and self-healing manner;
• Encourage youth to obtain higher education by enhancing and developing their technology skills and improving their quality of life;
• Provide opportunity for economic growth to an underserved population.

The life-skills and digital audio programs were implemented using Urban Tech’s evidence-based Youth Leadership Academy (YLA) curriculum. The final project is a fully operational web site, www.brightmoorteenspeak.org, that addresses issues the youth face, things they would like to discuss, and stories they would like to share. This, along with other forms of new media, will be used to inform community leaders, policy makers, educators, and other stakeholders of their needs, insights, and ways to improve their quality of life.

Additionally, the youth that graduated from the summer pilot program will serve as team leaders for the participants in the future semesters of the program. If your family is interested in participating, please check back for these dates and registration information.