Our world changed tremendously one year ago and with it our thoughts about the future. During this time CASE leaders recognized the need to provide youth with an opportunity to talk about their life as it was a year ago, what it is today, and where they see themselves in the future.
What It Was
Students were encouraged to verbally process what they missed and what their routines were before the pandemic. They spoke about how they missed eating lunch with their friends, field trips, and parties at school with tiny slices of pizza and dixie cup drinks. They talked about working around the dress-code system,being in band class, and trying out for sports teams with their friends. Although remembering the past made some students sad, we encouraged them to use those memories as a bridge for the future - not to be stuck in it. We encouraged them to be adaptable, a profound life skill.
What It Is
By talking about the past, students were able to better take stock of the present. The youth realized that even though they were limited by social distancing, they were able to engage life and understand themselves in new ways. CASE encouraged this self-discovery through outlets like writing short stories where they imagined themselves in popular fairy tales. The staff introduced art projects inspired by their favorite books or shows, and the youth shared their new hobbies, such as learning Portuguese, Korean, Spanish, Mandarin, and even Japanese. In my curiosity, I asked them “Why are y'all so adamant about language learning?'' I was pleased to discover they wanted to travel, and that their outlook on the future was still embodied by a curiosity about the world around them.
What it will be
The youth have resiliently maintained their hopes for a bright future. It's my hope that we have supported them by modeling resiliency in our own lives. I tried to express my openness to the world by talking about how I loved meeting new people and helping them. I talked about how I traveled to El Salvador and worked on learning Spanish. By talking about our own hope, and encouraging them to talk about theirs, we built an environment of positivity. We encouraged them in wanting to learn languages for the places they wanted to travel to in the future. We listened with excitement when they told us about how they learned something new about the culture of the place they wanted to travel to. We would let them share the new words they learned with the class. In our time together, I slowly realized how important it is to provide positive role models that provide an example of how to face this time. It was as if the way we thought about the future became how they thought about it as well. Our positivity, hope, and resilience was transferred to them.
The Future Within
Although our world changed tremendously because of the pandemic, the youth are organizing their lives and new routines to prepare for what lies ahead. CASE leaders encouraged them in this and supported them in their desire to explore culture and geography through projects like writing their own cookbook, filled with recipes from different cultures. By surrounding them with positivity, they designed a hopeful future for themselves. Youth will always have a bright future as long as the people they look up to help them look forward with all the hope, creativity, strength, and adaptability needed to get there.
“Surely there is a future, and your hope will not be cut off. Hear, my child, and be wise,
and direct your mind in the way.” -Proverbs 23:18–19.
CASE is a program of the Nashville After Zone Alliance. The Nashville After Zone Alliance is a network of coordinated after school programming for Metro’s middle-school students. NAZA is a partnership among the Nashville Public Library, MNPS, and other existing youth-serving groups. It is modeled on successful efforts in other cities and is organized around geographically-defined zones.
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