Reflections on the National Youth at Risk Conference

We had the opportunity to debut our new book, co-written with Keith L. Brown, at the 22^nd Annual National Youth at Risk conference last week.

We were thrilled to share some of the concepts of Motivation, Education and Transformation: The Change Agent’s Guide to Reaching Our Youth and Lifting Them Higher during a number of small and large-group discussions, including a session featuring Mr. Brown.

Keith, as always, was masterful in his presentation, which analyzed how perception – the we view the world – is basically our reality. Keith went on to challenge some of our perceptions, including how we view and treat minority and low-income students and the impact our perception has on our professional practice.

Some of the other highlights of our time at the conference – which is definitely our favorite of the year because of its tendency to draw like-minded people -- included:

• Chatting with people who stopped by our table to ask us questions about the book, as well as the work that we are currently doing at the Institute;
• Meeting with several clients about future projects;
• Shooting footage for a video trailer discussing our book;
• Attending a social gathering featuring MESHELLE: The Indie-Mom of comedy, along with a number of other conference goers who jumped in and shared their spoken word poetry and other talents;
• Hearing about the work done by leaders of a number of like-minded organizations, as well as information on the latest educational research – all from the perspective of how to most effectively serve at-risk youth;
• Meeting with teachers and sharing information on our upcoming Teacher Project Retreat, which will be held in Southern California July 8-11.

We left the conference recharged and eager to continue moving the work of the Institute forward through our blog, book and grant writing, our consulting work with non-profit organizations and schools and through some other projects we plan to announce in the coming months.

Thank you to all of the passionate, like-minded people we met at the conference. You encouraged us in our work and served as a poignant reminder that this work do, collectively, with and for youth matters tremendously.