JUST helping youth get a good start
The recipient of a Millennium Scholarship when she graduated from Bathurst High School in 2007, the 19-year-old daughter of Darryl and Linda Knowles of Janeville wants to take what she is learning and help youth reach their full potential. Through the Millennium Scholarship Foundation, she applied for a grant to allow her start a program in Bathurst this summer called JUST Youth.
"I thought I should do something with what I'm studying," said Ms. Knowles, a third-year bachelor of arts student at St. Thomas University in Fredericton. "I'm doing criminology and...youth studies. This year, I took a child and youth at risk course, and a young offender's course, then in psychology I took child development."
Ms. Knowles first approached one of her professors to help her come up with an idea. "I said I wanted to do something that has to do with kids and youth, maybe youth at risk if I could, but I didn't know what I wanted to do," she explained. "She (Dr. Susan Reid) designed a fourth year seminar course based on that idea. I took that course, even though I was only in my second year, and got my feet wet as far as interviewing and dealing with kids.
"As part of the course, high school students in the Fredericton area were asked to be part of focus groups that dealt with different topics. Like policing, why kids commit crimes and alternative measure to jail," explained Ms. Knowles. "We broke up into different groups and kids discussed these ideas, along with problems, barriers and solutions about each topic. From that we took what kids want and what could prevent crime."
Ms. Knowles and her classmates also went to the New Brunswick Youth Centre and had a focus group with inmates there." Ms. Knowles used all this information to create JUST Youth. "It is a play on the words Justice," she said. "It is an empowerment and mentorship program."
As soon as she returned home for the summer, Ms. Knowles approached Superior Middle School to continue gathering information for the project. "I said I'd really like to start up a program but I need a group of kids...to give me feedback," she continued. "I said I don't want to know any of their backgrounds, but I don't want the kids who do everything. Superior was really responsive to that."
In all, about 80 middle school students attended two days of workshops with Ms. Knowles in June. She then asked 20 of those students to attend a conference at the Bathurst Youth Centre, where she is working this summer. "We just talked about empowerment, labeling and bullying and stuff like that," she said. "Those are kind of heavy topics, but you keep it to their level and it is fine. They are the ones that are coming up with the ideas and what I wanted to do was to create an atmosphere where they weren't limited. We talked about decision making and choices and they had to do worksheets."
Her next step was to come up with a series of activities for the students to take part in throughout the summer. Those activities have included a pick-up sports day, a movie night and scrapbooking.
The program is something she is passionate about. "I had a lot of opportunities growing up that I'm really grateful for, she concluded. "I want to be able to help those that don't have those opportunities, or that don't have the self esteem or the confidence to do that kind of thing. If I help out one kid, that will make my summer worthwhile."
Peter Assaff
11 August 2009
