Kansas youth to train peers as community facilitators
Citizenship in Action slated for Feb. 14-15
Feb. 9, 2021
MANHATTAN, Kan. – The Kansas 4-H program will alter course in more than one way when the annual Citizenship in Action event takes place Feb. 14-15.
For the first time ever, Citizenship in Action – an event to help youth ages 13-18 understand how government works and how they can be part of the legislative process -- will be held online only instead of at the State Capitol building in Topeka.
But Aliah Mestrovich Seay says organizers are also shifting gears to encourage trained youth facilitators to teach their peers facilitation skills so that they, too, can lead challenging discussions in their own communities.
“That’s really a capstone moment for (Kansas 4-H) because we have never done this before,” said Mestrovich Seay, a Kansas 4-H youth development specialist for community vitality. “Youth who have already learned facilitation skills are going to take their level of mastery to a new level by being able to impact other youth.”
Listen to an interview by Jeff Wichman with Aliah Mestrovich Seay on the Feb. 8 4-H segment that aired on Agriculture Today
During Citizenship in Action, youth will take on a pair of current issues: policing, and division in the current U.S. political system. Kansas youth voted to address those two topics from a list of topics provided by the National Issues Forum.
“These topics go hand in hand because these are both salient issues that are impacting our world today,” Mestrovich Seay said.
More than a year ago, Kansas 4-H launched the program, Community Conversations, to train youth to lead discussions in their communities on controversial topics. Now, with dozens of youth trained, the organization is gradually expanding its reach.
Youth will learn the value of conflict resolution and civil discourse. Mestrovich Seay said some of the steps that youth will go through include setting ground rules for discussing the controversial subject, introducing each side’s opinion and coming to consensus.
Rather than creating an argument, the conversation “is a deliberation,” Mestrovich Seay said, “which means people carefully examine options and compare tradeoffs before making a decision.”
“This is a collective way of finding a common good, which means there is going to be some tradeoffs, too.”
Mestrovich Seay said the trained youth facilitators are guided by a ‘Facilitator Fast Five,’ which means being:
- Neutral.
- Friendly.
- Inclusive.
- Helpful.
- Respectful.
“We dive deeper into what neutrality means, and what it means to be inclusive, which is bringing all voices to the table so that everybody is heard regardless of their background,” Mestrovich Seay said.
“Neutrality is the foundational piece of being an effective facilitator. It’s a way to start off deliberation and dialogue with a clean slate. Even non-verbal language must remain neutral. Facilitators are not allowed to interject their opinion. If they do, that could alter how the participants show up in that deliberation.”
Nearly 150 Kansas youth are expected to participate virtually in Citizenship in Action. Registration closed on Feb. 1.
More information about opportunities available through Kansas 4-H is available online.
