Better Baton Rouge – YOUth World Workshop

Better Baton Rouge – YOUth World Workshop

Anna Penido from Harvard’s Advanced Leadership Initiative collaborated with BRYC to bring her You^th World Workshop to Baton Rouge. The You^th World Workshop engages young people in in-depth conversations about how their roles in reducing inequalities in their cities and how adults can enable them and collaborate with them in this effort. This past summer, Anna traveled to cities in Bangladesh, France, Mexico and South Africa to train facilitators and launch her original project.

In October, Anna came to Baton Rouge and over the four-day workshop, five BRYC Fellows produced their own original video based on their stories and observations of our city and its relationship with young people from all backgrounds. The angles students took and the issues they raised were entirely their own and emerged from workshop conversations.

Pastor Raymond Jetson of Star Hill Baptist Church spent last year at Harvard University in their Advanced Leadership Initiative. There he convinced a number of his colleagues that Baton Rouge is a city both in need of their attention and ready for transformation. Last November, his colleagues convened here and the Better Baton Rouge Initiative was born. During the Better Baton Rouge Leadership Fellows Retreat held on November 4th, BRYC Fellows launched the “Youth Cluster” of Better Baton Rouge and released this short video: BRYC Fellows: How Young People Can Transform Our City.

Thank you, Pastor Jetson, for your sponsorship of this invaluable project and believing in our youth. Our hope is that this video will bring young people into the Better Baton Rouge movement through the newly created Youth-Adult Alliance and serve as a catalyst for wider changes our city needs.