Cole's Youth Work Blog

Hey Jax!!!

Of course I remember you! It’s been too long and I miss you too :) Perhaps string tricks have given you something to do during quarantine, haha.

This is good motivation for me to get another string trick vid up on my youtube channel. I lost access to that channel for several years (!!), but want to post string videos again.

Some nice reflections on antiracism and parenting.

I do wish they’d spoken a little to the structural changes needed for community/society to improve.

Wow! How many useless tech info links did students get when their schools started to meet digitally? The shift to a world with severely-reduced contact has been rough and inequitable; we’ll need more than Zoom instructions to emerge on the other side of the pandemic.

Klee, from Camp Stomping Ground, is out here giving kids something they actually need: the skills & practice to manage conflict online. I believe we need a broad cultural shift toward embracing priniciples of transformative justice. Restorative practices will be key tools in the long process of undermining the violence of settler colonialism, white supremacy, and the totalitarianism of global capitalism.

More activist organizations need to be doing this: getting people affected by oppression, amplifying their voices, and helping accomplish their goals. Especially with youth, especially especially with young people of color.

Here we hear what KY students have to say about state legislators trying to force cops with guns back in schools after the local district got them out.

Some summer camp folks had a conversation recently talking about playing “diverse” musical artists at camp. This article does a great job of portraying the author’s personal experiences and how those connect to systemic racism.

Playing predominantly White musicians can (tends to) contribute to an oppressively White space. Playing a lot of Black musicians can also exacerbate the racism of a White space..

From the article (a great read)

Embracing Black music is not the same as embracing Black people

This one should hit home for camp people:

How many times, while our music plays, have one of us been dismissed, followed, or harassed in these spaces?

95% of resident camp directors are White

I like that this article talks about dealing with abuse from the past in camps’ histories. I love that they’re giving advice on how to deal with abuse from the past.

This is great:

Reach out to all camp families and stakeholders. Inform them of your positions and policies and ask them to hold you accountable

My camp just hired its first two full-time people of color, both cis men. One is the Equity Director and one works in the kitchen as the Food Services Director.

I love Jessica Ringrose & QuERI’s research. Great work with youth about gender & sexuality in schools. I do find myself wishing I came away with more things to do with young people at camp.

I do think camps’ phobia of all things technology tells kids that camp people will be totally unhelpful with anything related to the digital world. The classic camp advice of “turn off your phones and get outside” does nothing to help kids navigate social media, much less digital sexual harassment and abuse. In fact, I suspect it’s more likely to encourage unhealthy avoidance and not help kids exist in the networked society we live in.

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