SMART Youth Invites You to Our Visioning Workshop

SMART Youth is excited to invite you to come to our up-coming Visioning Workshops on Thursday, November 21, 2013.  We want your opinions to about how to design our brand-new project, SMART's Mobile Cooking Classroom. Below is the flyer detailing the workshop and the time of the youth workshop from 4:30pm-5:30pm.

We are working with Hester Street Collaborative to ensure that residents’ voices will be heard in the design of this project since it is funded through the Participatory Budgeting process in District 8.  All are welcome to attend.

All the sessions will be held at our office space in SCAN LaGuardia (307 East 116th Street).  It would be a great experience to attend the workshop and see how you can be a part of the process!

SMART Youth Calendar November & December 2013

SMART Youth is excited to share our November and December calendar. You are invited to come by and join us for any of our meetings.  See you soon!

Making Connections- How to Network Successfully

On Friday, November 1^st, we had a workshop about networking. Networking involves interacting with other people to exchange information and develop contacts.  SMART Youth learned about the importance of networking both in advocacy and in our future career paths.  Plus, we learned new skills to use when connecting with others! Here are just a few of the things we learned:

1. Networking is about making a genuine connection with another person. It isn’t always about using someone or a connection for your own benefit.
2. Giving off a good first impression is important. To give a good impression, make sure you introduce yourself first, have a firm hand shake, and have good eye contact.
3. Nonverbal communication is just as important as verbal communication! Your body language can say a lot about you! 
4. Before going to an event or meeting, know your goals for meeting other people. 

We also did role-plays to practice our skills. In the coming months SMART Youth leaders will put their skills to practice at community events. We are ready to go out and meet others and share the important work that SMART Youth does in the community!

Honey, May I...?

Here is the basic break down of CONSENT.
It seems to be something that is lacking in our society now-a-days.
No one likes to check in with people anymore for fear of "breaking the mood."
But I think miscommunication later can kill a mood even more.
When sexual consent is not clear or taken into consideration, even more traumatizing things can happen!

To get you started on logically thinking about consent in your life, here is an awesome video clip about sexual consent:

In an educational skit from NiteStar, this quote always stuck in my mind, "NO may not always mean NO, but NO ALWAYS MEANS STOP!"

No may not always come in the form of NO.

Here are a few ways someone might try to get the point across without actually saying no, but they are all synonymous!
-Back Off! (or some more aggressive language)
-I'm tired tonight.
-Can we just watch a movie?
-I'm not interested.
-You're not my type.
-I'd prefer to do... (some other activity)
-SILENCE
Anything else along those lines. I think we've heard a few in our lifetimes. (You can leave some of your favorite examples in the comments if you'd like!)

I've mentioned a "Yes, No, Maybe" list in previous blogs (Yes, No, Maybe So )
This is a wonderful tool to get to know YOURSELF.
You should never consent to anything unless you feel comfortable. That is the whole point. Know yourself and then other people can get to know you and experience things with you.

This is the main point of consent. To communicate. Body language is too broad of a gesture to make assumptions about.

If you are unsure about anything, JUST ASK. It may be uncomfortable, but at least you will KNOW for CERTAIN. The only time you get a true "Green Light" with consent is if an enthusiastic and unpersuaded "Yes!" is heard.

The only time a "yes" is disregarded is if someone is intoxicated or pressured to changed their mind. This means that the consent was not fully their choice, they couldn't make a complete judgement of their actions, and so forth.

Let us just ingrain this notion into our minds and go forth and have conversations with our partners, friends, and families!

It is a process but will pave the way to a better and clearer future for many!

 

 

This week at SMART Youth we watched “How to Survive a Plague,” a documentary about the activist movement around HIV/AIDS. This Academy-Award nominated film, which was released in 2012, followed activist groups such as ACT-UP from the early 80’s, when HIV/AIDS was just beginning as a public health crisis all the way through the late 90’s, when effective HIV treatments began to improve the quality life and increase the lifespan of those living with HIV. The film shows how effective activism can be to bring attention to an issue that is not on the national or international radar as well as force people in positions of power to take action.

After the movie, we had a lively discussion about what the youth were surprised to learn from the film, why activism is necessary, and the differences between HIV/AIDS issues in the 80’s and today. SMART Youth leaders also discussed how important it is for us to continue on this work, especially as it relates to advocating for greater funding for prevention efforts and HIV treatment as well as helping to end the stigmatization of HIV. We also recapped the Halloween party, ate popcorn, and welcomed new youth. It was a great movie night!

 

 

SMART Youth's Halloween Party!

On Saturday, October 19^th, SMART Youth hosted its 9th annual Halloween Party for NYC youth! With a DJ spinnin’ some beats, great food, and MAC makeup artists making everyone look fabulous, the party was a huge success.  Plus, it ended with great dancing and a fun costume contest with some great prizes!

This year we added a new twist. Every youth received gold or silver beads when they arrived to the party. At 3 different times during the party everyone had to meet someone they didn’t know and exchange necklaces, as many time as they wanted. At the end of the party we revealed that gold necklaces meant you had unprotected sex and silver necklaces meant you had protected sex. This meant every time you exchanged necklaces you might have had unprotected sex not only with that one person, but also had sex with every one of their previous sexual partners. The activity showed how important it is to make the decision to use a condom every time someone has sex!

Thank you to all of the youth who came to the party and made it a success! Special thanks to Julisa’s for hosting the party, and to DJ Ski HI for donating his time, and to our fabulous MAC makeup artists Shaun Thomas Gibson and Nicole Cerro. 

SMART Youth Sex Ed- She Didn’t Ask For It!

On Friday, October 11th, SMART Youth was fortunate to have Marlene Edelstein, a health educator from the Mount Sinai Adolescent Health Center, and our very own Ann Rodwell-Lawton present She Didn’t Ask For It! The workshop focused on understanding the role of acceptance of sexual violence in our culture and how it is present all around us. This is commonly called Rape Culture.

We worked towards understanding that Rape Culture is the normalization of sexual violence and a culture that perpetuates this norm. Breaking down this complex definition, we also brainstormed how this affects our lives and gave examples we’ve seen around us.

It became very clear this issue permeates all aspects of our society including politics, media coverage, pop culture, music, authority responses to sexual violence, and how we interact with our friends and family.  We also explored the unfortunately reality of victim blaming and slut-shaming in our culture.

Now that we understand rape culture and how it affects us, we can start to change and make our society a safer place for everyone.