Skills for the New Millennium Tour

Hey Y'all!

So I'm a little late in writing this up as I am a massive procrastinator and busy little bugger but I'm here now so read on if so you choose.

A couple weeks ago I was invited to offer a Know Your Rights Training to the kids at a local Youth Shelter in Prescott Arizona. I was nervous at first, to be sure, since it has been a couple of years since the last time I even took a Know Your Rights Training. However once I got my outline in order and a handful of fantastic Know Your Rights fliers (compliments of the Civil Liberties Defense Fund) I was ready to rock and roll.
My audience was just under 15 people in a small meeting room which lent itself perfectly for a good conversation about messing with the cops instead of letting them mess with you. The kids were skeptical at first to say the least but within the first 10 minutes all but one of them were majorly engaged. I can't say I have ever had an experience where it seemed so obvious that ever person in the room was hanging on my every word. All sorts of questions and shared experiences made sure the training stayed alive and it seemed to have a positive effect on all involved. Myself included. It was awesome.
Then, since the PermiBus was still gonna be in town, we scheduled a Community Conflict Resolution Discussion for the staff meeting the following Thursday. This was also well received and, I feel, competently delivered. In fact, they liked it so much they asked me to have the same talk again, only this time with the kids, the following day. I. naturally, obliged, even though it meant a second early morning and long day in town. It was this second training with the kids that seemed to give us a real connection. We are all, relatively, age mates as I am only 16 (going on 17) and they are all in their teens. Yet, at the Know Your Rights training the dynamic seemed to be them looking up at me for the information I was offering. However as we began to discuss community and the conflicts inherent in community. The ways to deal with those conflicts and the various similarities and differences between members of a community. The dynamic shifted and they seemed to understand that I am not so different from them. Though I am traveling on the PermiBus, teaching, learning, being active and involved in what may see like a very adult way, I am still just a teenager who has been around poverty, substance abuse, violence and so many others of the things that tear people, and communities, apart.
In the end of my time there I felt like there was some connection in there minds that I had been able to offer. Some inspiration saying that it doesn't matter where you come from or what difficulties you have had to face. They are challenges. Challenges that can be overcome in a very real way to create a person, a community member, who does things that make a difference in their life and the lives of others. All they have to do it want it.

Many Greetings and Smiles,
Megan Coyote Wilson, Teenager
Outreach Coordinator
Skills for the New Millennium Tour
March 23rd, 2008