Discussion

The Meeting Place
Name
Institution Affiliation
Abstract
Teenagers are normally at risk of going astray in the event they are not engaged responsibly. It is necessary to guide them into making better decisions, developing leadership skills, having good health and being socially responsible. “The Meeting Place” is an example of a community program that seeks to help address some issues of teenagers. It seeks to after-school activities to inner city youth ages 12 to 18. It is a youth center which is located in an urban business district where teens can meet, interact and engage in various activities. The center is ideal for this program because it is either walking distance or on the bus line that is near the teens’ home, schools, and other community resources. The community program seeks to provide experiential activities which are not just about games, the vital aspect of this lie on the thoughtful reflections guided by adults who are trained in the process.
KEYWORDS: Experiential learning, leadership skills, inner-city youths, Teenagers

Vision, Mission, objective, and outcome
It is often said that young people are the future leaders of this world. One way that a community can become great is for people to address the issues among the youth collectively. “The Meeting Place” is a community program that offers after-school activities to inner city youth ages 12 to 18. The vision of this community program is to empower the youth through recreational, academic and social activities.

The mission of this program is to provide opportunities that help teens succeed in academics, obtain health and well-being, and develop leadership skills. The community program seeks to give opportunities for the youth aged 12-18 to acquire certain important skills such as leadership skills, develop individual strengths, moral values, and ethical reasoning. One of the objectives is to increase their physical activity to improve their health and physical well-being. The program seeks to engage the youth in collaborative experiences, networking, and teamwork with peers, which is intended to transform their social well-being. The expected outcome of this program is to have young people who are socially responsible, healthy, with leadership skills.
Experiential learning normally occurs when an individual is engaged in an activity, critically looks back at it then determines what was important or useful to remember (Boyd, 2001). This information is later used to perform another activity. In order to meet the objectives of this community program, the youth will participate in various activities such as yoga, cross-fit, athletic leagues, community service projects, vocational counseling, job readiness classes, cultural art opportunities and gender-specific programs. Such activities will be possible in collaboration with various community stakeholders. We will partner with various schools, institutions, and other relevant community stakeholders to access certain facilities for some of these activities. The community program is a form of nurturing the young people to grow into responsible members of the society and leaders. It is also a way of engaging them to distract them from indulging in other bad activities such as drugs and crime.
The program will have mentors who have volunteered to guide the youth through recreational, academic and social activities. The volunteers will mainly come from the participating schools and will help in guiding the youth to develop individual strengths, moral values, and ethical reasoning. Religious leaders and professional counselors will also be brought on board to contribute towards the mission of this community program. After the program is up and running, some changes are expected to occur among the youth. However, these changes are expected to occur gradually because personal development is a gradual process that takes some time. However, six weeks after active participation, we expect to start receiving positive feedback through various testimonies and through observable behavior change. The learning outcomes normally come from ideas and thoughts created by the experiential process.
It is vital to note that the community program will require certain resources to carry out these actions. Some of these resources include personnel with professional skills and experience in various activities such as sportsperson, artists, professional mentors and professional counselors and positive role models who will facilitate self-development both individually and cooperatively. The program will also require sporting facilities such as school pavilion or a venue for undertaking these activities. The experiential activities are not just about games, the vital aspect of this lie on the thoughtful reflections which are guided by adults who are trained in the process (Boyd, 2001).
Reference
Boyd, B. (2001). Bringing Leadership Experience to Inner-City Youth. Journal of Extension, 39(4). https://www.joe.org/joe/2001august/a6.php