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SPRING/SUMMER 2011: Minnesota Department of Transportation - Minnesota GO!

Students Speak Out convened groups of teens across Minnesota, both in-person and online, and asked them to craft a vision for the future of transportation in Minnesota. As usual, they were very insightful! Their perspectives were presented to the Minnesota Department of Transportation and informed the development of their statewide strategic vision.

As teens discussed their vision of Minnesota's future five key themes emerged. Teens:

  1. are extremely concerned about the environment and energy efficiency,
  2. are somewhat pessimistic about the life in 2061,
  3. place an emphasis on public transportation,
  4. described a future with closer community connections, and
  5. emphasized the importance of preserving in person, face-to-face interactions.

The transportation vision adopted by the state includes a direct reference to teens' top priority: environmental health.

In addition, teen participants said that the three most important values in transportation planning are:

  • aligning the system with other public purposes, particularly environmental stewardship (26%),
  • expanding choice, with an emphasis on public transportation options (20%), and
  • maintaining existing infrastructure before building new (16%).

These values were also included as guiding principles in the strategic vision, which states that the state transportation system should "support other public purposes, such as environmental stewardship..." and recommends that critical existing infrastructure be strategically maintained and upgraded.

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2010: Parks and Trails Legacy

The Minnesota Legislature tasked the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) with creating a plan for how to spend money from the 2008 constitutional legacy amendment. In November and December 2010, teens' advice on a draft plan helped co-create a vision for the legacy of Minnesota's parks and trails.

Teen insights and experiences are important to the DNR, as young adults, teens and children are one of the groups the DNR is targeting for increased participation. The DNR is seeking to reverse a state and national trend of declining per-capita participation in nature-based recreation.

Teens' primary insights included:

  • Of 83 survey participants, 37% said they would have confidence the state is on the right path in spending the Legacy Funds if in 3-5 years many more people were using parks and trails. Twenty-nine percent said that the quality of experiences with parks and trails will have improved. Opportunities for physical exercise are highly desired.
  • Teens are interested in parks and trails, but not sure what they'll do, what they will be allowed to do, or how well they'll be received when they arrive. They seek exposure to more ways for using parks and trails.
  • Teens want to use parks and trails to become more well-rounded. Also, they seek employment and academic learning opportunities.
  • Teens seek real and impactful responsibilities and opportunities to contribute to DNR.
  • To get teen visitors of one park/trail to gain interest in using other parks and trails, consider Web-, smartphone- and school-based marketing.
  • Teens agreed with adults involved in the Parks and Trails Project that "legacy worthy" projects will be long-lasting, but also emphasized that no long-lasting investment will be worth it if we don't also make short term investments to inspire their generation to use parks and trails in the first place.

The DNR's final plan included the following, as well as a detailed section on recommendations from youth. DNR officials explained they will continue to use teens' insights as they roll out the plan.

  • Expanding volunteer, internship and employment opportunities for youth and young adults.
  • Including youth and young adults in planning processes for facility and program development.
  • Expanding service-learning opportunities to help young people develop knowledge and skills through hands-on work at parks and trails.
  • Investing in relationship-building with schools, recreation centers, and youth groups in order to reach youth and young adults. Promote opportunities for field trips, site visits, and summer camps.
  • Involving youth in the 25 year long-range parks and trails advisory committee planning efforts in order to build ownership in Minnesota's parks and trails.

For more information about teens' contributions to the Parks and Trails Legacy project, view their project space here.

SUMMER 2010: Students Speak Out Design Challenge

In August 2010, the Citizens League hosted two Students Speak Out Design Challenge in-person events in Minneapolis, Minnesota and Orange County, California. We asked teens to review three civic engagement Web spaces and, considering what they experienced, design their own SSO Web site and strategies. While they designed, we listened.

» View Report: Seven Ways to Engage Teens in Civic Problem-Solving Online (PDF) January 2011

SCHOOL YEAR 08/09: Milwaukee Student-Led Groups

On the SSO Web site, students know their ideas and experiences are seriously considered as part of the public conversation. With an investment from Futures First, two groups of student leaders determined over two fall 2008 SSO Issues Conventions public problems that they wanted to address at their schools. Over the next six months, the students took part in a four-step civic engagement process to learn more about the problems, define them for themselves, and address them.

The "safety and discipline group" uncovered hidden costs of MPS's School Resource Officer program. The student leaders at first wanted to eliminate the SRO program all together. But contrary to their expectations, the young leaders learned through two months of information gathering online and on video that their peers and their families indeed felt safer due to police presence. They would also document a negative consequence of the program, however. Program implementation was reducing students' sense of community in their schools as well as their trust in the police at large.

After much discussion about how to improve opportunities for authentic relationships between students and teachers, the "quality teaching and learning group" defined the value of productive advisory periods. The determined that advisory periods ought to be in every Milwaukee middle and high school and would be structured to allow for the following (see their attached platform for their rationale):

  • Cultivation of relationships/community between teachers and students.
  • Give students input into school-level decision making.
  • Stress management.
  • Organization.

On April 3, 2009, students presented their platform to about 25 professors and candidate teachers from the School of Education at Cardinal Strich University. Read more about students' work:

SPRING 08: Workshop Series

In the spring of 2008 SSO Milwaukee hosted two workshops in small chartered schools (which are sponsored by Milwaukee Public Schools) and a third workshop at an organization called Runnin' Rebels with students who have been in juvenile detention and are transitioning back to school. Students produced 20 videos on subjects of their interest: school discipline strategies, the importance of a sense of community at school, school design, what is "good teaching," and more. Later, our Milwaukee-based associate compiled their videos into a single, 5 minute piece (above) that presented the nature of their work. Also, the students had online forum discussions about the content of their videos with other students and teachers they recruited from their schools.

SPRING 08: I am Minnesota's Future Video Contest

In May of 2008, Minnesota celebrated a big birthday—150 years of statehood! But Minnesota youth will inherit the results of decisions that adults make (or fail to make) today. SSO asked students to create videos describing the state they want to live in as an adult, and what they think ought to be done to make sure that happens.

The contest winning video is shown below:

SCHOOL YEAR 07/08: Student-Led Groups

During the 2007/08 school year students led the discussion on two special projects: Alternative Schools and School Safety. The student leaders from each group encouraged other students to share their stories on SSO via video and written posts. To see what they learned, you can visit their groups and read the findings below. The bullying group ultimately presented their findings at an Minneapolis Public Schools teacher training. The alternative schools group plan to present their findings to Representative Carlos Mariani of the Minnesota House of Representatives.

FALL 07: Video About Students Speak Out

SUMMER 07: Students as Commentators on Ed Policy Ideas

In the summer of 2007 prominent adult leaders like Chris Stewart and Dick McFarland asked our Minneapolis student panel to respond to their ideas and questions about declining enrollment. Check out the archive for rich discussions that will stimulate your thinking.

» View the Commentator Archive