Youth to Youth 2019

"One man said he could. One man said he couldn't. They both were right."

This was the theme of speaker Jesse LeBeau's talk at Youth to Youth Eastern States Conference, a substance use prevention leadership conference for youth in Rhode Island, over the weekend.

For Jesse, life is all about having the right mindset. A 5'10'' youth from the middle of nowhere in Alaska, all he wanted to do growing up was be a professional basketball player. But the odds felt stacked against him due to his environment and his peers who said he would never amount to anything due to his height.

He chose to not let their negativity affect him. He chose to believe in himself and his talents. He focused on his dreams, trained and worked hard until he created a career out of playing basketball. He said and believed he could and that made all the difference.

Youth to Youth focuses on empowering youth to step up, take over the reigns of their life and pursue their interests and goals.

Over the weekend, youth participants consistently heard that their voice matters and they should use it. The voice of youth needs to be heard and factored into policy decisions. They were encouraged to ask questions, and to not take information at face value, especially from alcohol and drug industries who often target youth with their marketing.

Youth had an abundance of great role models at the conference to look up. The youth and adult staff exemplified leadership, thoughtful listening, and how much fun one can have being alcohol and drug free.

Most of all, youth participants were able to get to know kids just like them, who want to make a difference in their communities, from all over the country. It was amazing to witness life long friendships being formed.

Stephie Siki, a junior at Winooski High School and one of our youth board members, and Elaine Ezerins, our communications and development manager, attended Youth to Youth Eastern States Conference from Thursday to Sunday last week. Lukas Zweres, a sophomore and WPP's other youth board member, attended Dover Youth to Youth in New Hampshire at the beginning of July.

At Eastern States Conference, Stephie attended four different skill building workshops, joined a youth action group with Burlington ATI to brainstorm ways to recruit more youth to their respective after school programs, watched youth skits about drug prevention, and participated in family group, a group of 10-12 of their peers that met seven times to have deeper conversations about the conference and what was going on in their life back home.

Stephie said her favorite memory from the conference was playing an inflatable game where you had to jump over or duck a pole that swung around the circle with her roommate and friends.

"The eight of us thought that we were going to be really good at playing the game but we ended up having so much fun failing. That experience taught me that you don't always have to be good at everything because most of the time you will have so much fun improving."

"Something that I learned from the conference was how great it can be to have a positive environment where people feel open to be themselves. In Winooski High School, I want other high schoolers to join ATI, an after school program where students have a safe place to be themselves. Because when a youth has a lot of positive factors in their life, they are less likely to go down the drug, alcohol addiction path."

Lukas said his favorite part of Dover Youth to Youth was doing a Samantha Skunk presentation to a group of 7 - 9-year-olds because they were able to practice the public speaking techniques they learned over the course of the week and teach the kids about the dangers of smoking in a fun way.

"What I would say to people that want to know about the trip is that you can have fun, learn public speaking skills, learn the dangers of using drugs/cigarettes/alcohol and practice your skills out in the field."

Stephie, Lukas, and Elaine cannot wait to bring what we learned from Youth to Youth back to Winooski. We would love to bring more Winooski students to Youth to Youth Eastern States Conference next summer to experience the power of youth coming together to change the world into a more connected, happier, healthier place for all.