VOTE - Who should be our 2019 Accelerating Youth Champion?

Community VOTE for the Accelerating Youth Success 2019 Champion

Each year, the Brooklyn Bridge Alliance for Youth celebrates a person(s) or program serving as a Champion for Accelerating Youth Success in the Brooklyn Center and Brooklyn Park community.

Mobilizing caring adults: Builds a trusting and supportive network of people that are committed to the success of youth.
Spreading social emotional learning: Creates an ecosystem that enables youth to cultivate essential life, social, and emotional skills.
Creating equitable access: Increases equitable access to resources and opportunities.
Creating systems change: Redesigns systems (programs, places, polices etc) to be culturally responsive so all youth succeed.
Providing youth engagement: Makes room for incorporating youth voice, leadership, and action.

Please read about each of our top 4 nominees and then vote for the 2019 Champion for Youth! The winner will be announced at the Alliance Board Meeting on January 22nd.

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* 1. Rank these 4 - for the 2019 Brooklyn Bridge Alliance for Youth Champion for Youth:

Luis Salado-Herrera former Coordinator of the BrookLynk Youth Employment Program

Mobilizing caring adults: He connects students to employment opportunities, and to other leadership opportunities like the Brooklyns Youth Council, and he made sure that youth had the resources they needed.

Social emotional learning: He would discuss [social emotional learning] with youth and discussed important topics.

Creating equitable access: He would help when needed and would go out of his way to make sure youth succeeded.

Creating systems change: He worked with employers, schools, youth and cities to build a new program for our community.

Providing youth engagement: He would talk to organizations and employers and make sure youth were heard.

Anything else you'd like to add about your nominee? Luis was the 1st BrookLynk coordinator and helped make the program what it is today.

Thomas Parks - Social Science Teacher at Brooklyn Center High School

Mobilizing caring adults: Mr. Parks ensures student safety and wellness while being in or out of his class. He is always talking with fellow teachers so that they can improve themselves. He stands up for students and talks with other teachers about students.

Spreading social emotional learning: Mr. Parks helps students when they are bad day by encouraging students not to give up. He is really understanding when they need some time for themselves. He encourages students and helps students when they are struggling. He has hosted health speakers in his classroom, will pull students aside and have individual check-ins, speaks on SEL in his class lessons.

Creating equitable access: Mr. Parks recommends students to classes or teachers that he think will benefit and help students. Talks about opportunities for students inside and outside of school. He brings up different opportunities outside and inside of school for the students.

Creating systems change: If he sees something wrong with a system, he is the type of person to speak up. Mr. Parks puts his student as his first priority and creates a safe place for them. He goes to workshops and advocates for constant change and improvement in the school system.

Providing youth engagement: Most of his lessons are conversation-based, and he makes an effort to get everyone to [participate]. He often has debates and lets students have their voices be heard and their ideas shared. His class is very student-engaging, and he encourages students to speak up for what we believe in.

Anything else you'd like to add about your nominee? He is a model human being. Mr. Parks is a really understanding and comfortable teacher that is easy-going and fun. He makes the mood feel comfortable and safe when learning with him. He really cares about his students and wants them all to do well in life.

Renee Starr - Afterschool Program Manager for 21st Century Learning at Brooklyn Center Community Schools

Mobilizing caring adults: Renee has been a staff team that has a passion and deeply cares about providing quality Out of School Time programming for our district. She has build a team that is committed to delivering and sustaining the quality programs that our students love to attend.

Spreading social emotional learning: Renee and her team feel that SEL work is imperative in a quality OST program. They have ingrained the SEL work along with our enrichment and targeted services programs throughout our district. She has partnered within our district and outside the district to provide a robust social emotional learning program. Renee also see opportunities for growth in this area ans has set goals to continue to create an eco-system that enables youth to cultivate these skills.

Creating equitable access: Creating an accessible program is one of Ms Starr's main goals and core belief. She has created a program that is open to all students, provides breakfast, lunch and dinner throughout the district. Her commitment to equity shows through her decision making and how she trains and grows her staff, her team is part of a youth equity group through the U of M and has brought their learning back to our entire department.

Creating systems change: Another one of Renee's goals is to establish processes and procedures that meet the needs of our students. She has sent the past year reevaluating our polices and procedures. Creating a staff and family handbook that focuses on helping youth succeed. She started in May and in the past 7 months taken an already established program to the next level just by evaluation and creating culturally responsive practices and policies for our 21st Century CCLC program.

Providing youth engagement: Renee has created strong youth leadership teams and councils. They provide feedback on current happenings in the OST program as well as what future programs look like. We even had one of our youth leaders on our interview committees as we conducted interviews and hiring for out secondary Youth Programs coordinator. Youth voice is a key part of the work that Renee does and she will always bring youth to the table as we look at decisions and planning.

Anything else you'd like to add about your nominee? Renee is awesome! She is a talented dancer, coach, social worker and champion for youth!

Pang Yang - Teacher at Park Center High School

Mobilizing caring adults: In her Hmong class, she does all that she can so that students can know about [the network of caring adults] and how [to access it].

Spreading social emotional learning: She expresses herself on how it relates and affects her. She is there to provide tips to those who need it and will be there to help people find help if needed.

Creating equitable access: She informs students about opportunities that are free and accessible, so anyone can join and participate in.

Creating systems change: She regularly hosts events and takes students on field trips that relate to systems change.

Providing youth engagement: She elevates her student's stories and narratives by helping them publish them in books so others can learn about them.

Anything else you'd like to add about your nominee? She won the Minnesota Council on the Teaching of Language and Culture's (MCTLC) 2019 "Teacher of the Year" award

Question Title

* 1. Rank these 4 - for the 2019 Brooklyn Bridge Alliance for Youth Champion for Youth:

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* 2. Comments?