Shaping Youth BETA BLOG

Aug 5, 2010 Meet Sabore Ole Oyie. My teen’s about to, as is her BFF and BF.

Yep, this afternoon I’m bringing a few teens for a “reality show” not to be missed at the Global Leaders for Justice Innovation dialogues. (video of Sabore’s water access project after the jump)

Sounds heady, oui? I see it as an open, public opportunity to expose kids to what’s going on in the rest of the world without the media filter of American myopia or vapid celebrity gossip.

As I wrote yesterday, when 21 representatives from 13 different countries don their colorful native garb and speak their visions as change agents and cycle-breakers, the global interconnected influence has the capacity to give a much needed jolt and a bracer of exposure to the harsh realities taking place on the rest of the planet, with teens THEIR age.

When stories unfold from young girls staving off lion’s roars to reach water after grueling miles of dangerous terrain, teens sit up and listen. Fifteen year olds empowered to break free of the sex slave chains of human trafficking in India to survive and THRIVE anew? Jaw-dropping work akin to GEMS-Girls right here in the US…How can we best use media to make it matter?!  (more…)

August 4, 2010 My teen dialog yesterday: “Did you have fun waterskiing with your dad?”

“Yah, we did, how was your Global Leaders for Justice thingie? What’d you DO all day, mom?”

“Um…well…let’s see…I got to work with Sabore Ole Oyie, a Masai Chief trying to build a local well so girls wouldn’t walk all day for water vying for turf with wildlife that could gobble them up en route…(GWLN video of Sabore and his Olsonyo-Rasha Water Project here partnering with BluePlanetNetwork) I met Smarita Sengupta a young woman empowering teens in Calcutta to escape the sex trafficking slave trade…”

“I got jazzed about using cell phones for health with Blanche Angeline Pitt from Tanzania who wants to deliver medical info to midwives in rural villages to prevent childbirth deaths and debunk taboos…And I made a local friend with Yolande Poirier, an Oracle pro who’s big on raising women’s visibility in tech, STEM, and media imprints.”

“Did you get to see GWLN alum? Anyone I know from ‘07?” (Yours truly, Amy Jussel, was honored to be a USA delegate for Women Leaders for the World, and my teen grew close to several of the attendees) “Well…no one YOU knew was there this time, but you CAN meet some of the 2010 leaders if you wanna come with me Thursday to the Global Innovation Dialogues when they all state their visions for change…“Cool. So there are GUYS in the program this year too?”

“Well, no, GLJ is different than WLW but it’s all GWLN.org —the event is free, open to the public (Aug 5) if you wanna bring a friend or two, but I CANNOT have you squirming or edgy or rushing me before I’m ready to go, you got it?” (rolls eyes/stomps off with a hrumpf) “Gawd mom…I’m 15, not 5, REALLY.” (more…)

June 20, 2010 In honor of Father’s Day, we’re interested in deconstructing roles portrayed through mainstream media in the hopes that sensationalized headlines will ‘catch up’ to the reality of new media/new reinventions of manhood to see how they compare and contrast to life’s own “reality shows” in today’s homes.

Examples? Dismissive missives like the Atlantic’s ‘Are Fathers Necessary’ answered by Roland Warren’s response as head of the National Fatherhood Initiative, who countered in print on CNN, “Are Dads Necessary? Ask Kids!” We want to hear YOUR take on media’s representation of YOUR world of fatherhood— knowing full well the values will be as varied and vast as the digital support groups depicting what it means to be a father today…

From fatherhood forums with tips for live-away dads, stepfamilies, military dads, gay dads, blended families, to raising kids with special needs and developmental disabilities, and empowering disabled dads it’s mind-boggling to see that we’ve expanded the global conversation of masculinity yet there’s a media myopia of portrayal of dads.

New media men like Chris Singer of Stay At Home Dad in Lansing (aka Tessa’s Dad, pictured above) are taking the helm to help turn this tanker around and represent the POSITIVE portrayal of men in media that keeps getting buried in the mainstream press or flashed as an ‘awww’ moment soundbite and summarily dismissed. (more…)

June 16, 2010 Personal post today to welcome (in over 325 languages) Shaping Youth advisory board member Dr. Robyn Silverman’s new son into the world of global digital citizenship.

Born: Mr. Noah Stone Silverman today at 8:25am – 7lbs 4oz. – 19” already making his premiere on Facebook, Twitter and Shaping Youth!

What does this have to do with media and marketing’s impact on kids? Plenty. For starters, the very way we communicate has uncorked new conversations in digital connectivity.

It’s uplifting, heartening, and downright astounding to see how this ‘brave new world’ has transitioned to be  the digital womb for birthing new relationships, familial bonds and lifelong ties that bind.

Whether it’s the ability to find ‘half brothers and half sisters’ via the voluntary Donor Sibling Registry, important medical and research advances for special needs children or the information silo funneling domestic and worldwide open adoptions into the digital sphere for life-changing actions, the terra firma has shifted forevermore. (more…)

June 13, 2010 One week from Father’s Day and media is awash with ubiquitous tie and techie ads for Father’s Day finds. Meh. Better ideas? Experiential fun for memories in the making…

How would YOU fill in the blank, “My Daddy Taught Me To…?”

It’s no secret I’m a water rat and an island girl who spent much of childhood splashing in the surf or sprawled on one of Hawaii’s many beaches…but when I saw the new kids’ book “My Daddy Taught Me To Surf” by surfer-dad Joseph Tomarchio I laughed aloud, since my dad doesn’t remotely share my affinity with water, hails from the Midwest flatlands, and isn’t too comfy even swimming.

That said, as I listened to the roar of the surf on their site and read that a portion of their profits go to The Surfrider Foundation I fell further in love with their mission: “Our goal is to promote the love of surfing, the passage of heritage and the bonds between parents and their children through reading and learning together”

I knew this book would succeed in opening up a larger conversation about parent-child experiential learning…expanding far beyond surfing to unwrap the gifts each of our dads have brought to us. What did your Dad teach YOU? And what will you teach YOUR children? (more…)

June 10, 2010 It’s ironic.

As schools let out for summer and kids in the US fist-pump with glee that they’re OUT, there are young girls in Africa doing the same thing when they find out they’ve gotten IN to school via scholarship or fundraising to pursue an education.

She’s the First.org is all about breaking barriers in developing nations to be ‘the first’ to achieve their goals and triumph over circumstance to rock their dreams…so what better way to fund these girls than to host a Girls Who Rock concert tonight in New York City!

This energy-packed, youth-driven amped up crew of volunteers is bustling around to pull off a mega concert to help send girls to school in Tanzania, where 95% of girls DO NOT graduate high school because it’s not free. In a classic nod to the world changing media message of  The Girl Effect, this is literally girls helping girls in real time, making change tonight, and you can be a part of it!

Live-streamed, in person, via donor dollars or social media, YOU have the opportunity to rock their world…Right here, right now. Here’s 25 year old Ashley Shuyler, founder of AfricAid (video after the jump) with more about her She’s The First partnership to bring education to these worthy girls… (more…)

June 5, 2010 As high schools pour out cap-flipping whoops and hollers from an elated senior class, the hidden layer beneath reveals a wee bit of queasiness about entering a lousy economy fraught with adult foul-ups, oilspill disasters and uncertainty…

So grads? Josh Shipp’s inspiring rap is a free gift for YOU. (video after the jump—my favorite line is captured above, reflective of every single job experience I’ve ever had in 25+ years, including this one!)

I’ve written about Josh Shipp, the youth advice slinger before, so it’s no secret I’m a big fan of  ‘Hey Josh.com’ for teens, as he not only taps into the youth zeitgeist brilliantly to create worthy media, motivational speeches and “teen advice on demand” with his online video shows…He even has a division called ‘Hey Josh for Grownups’ so those of us who graduated oh so long ago can hopscotch into teens world to visit some of those “you don’t even know” moments and try to get a clue about what 21st century kids are facing in their worlds.

Josh Shipp has earned accolades like Top 10 Youth Marketing Minds in 2010 recently awarded by Mobile Youth, Inc. magazine’s 30 under 30, and landed on CNN’s Young People Who Rock segment about a year ago, opening his personal foster care stories as living life lessons to engage and inspire ALL ages who have ‘been through the fires’ and come out warmer and wiser instead of burned and bitter. So without further ado…“Greetings, class of 2010…” (more…)