http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">After facilitating, researching, and observing youth involvement efforts for 15+ years I've identified a number of points throughout our lives where we each individually connect with the world around us. By "connect" I mean feel drawn towards and within something or someone else. In my own life, my deep connections include my home, my families' homes, and my friends' homes. For other people, deep

http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">The following are some explorations of the multitude of terms that I'm working out in relationship to what is addressed at Freechild and what I often hear "in the field" - youth agencies, schools, and other kinds of places. I hope that by defining these we can begin to make these terms less ambiguous, and consequently less likely candidates for the co-opting and abusive use many currently suffer

http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Who's job is it to ensure that young people are engaged in this work of changing society? In a lot of the training I've facilitated, I have heard adults admonish their peers for not getting youth involved. Teachers, youth workers, activists- we all do it. Somehow, in our mightiest righteousness, we assume responsibility for bringing children and youth "into the fold" of social justice.

While that

http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">I was interviewed by Marshall Kirkpatrick for NetSquared on Friday. We had a spirited discussion about how Freechild currently uses technology to fulfill our mission, and what our plans for the future are.

I laid out what we've done in the past:
Website Listserve Discussion forums (gone) Amazon links Amazon wishlist
CafePress store TakingITGlobal partnership (done)
And what

http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Welcome! This is the new home of The Freechild Project blog. Its a place where the various people associated with Freechild - including staff, volunteers, our Advisory Board, and others - will sound out and share their experiences, ideas, and reflections on social change led by and with young people around the world. We're going to use this blog to encourage youth and adult allies to share their

http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Remember from my earlier post that "connection points" are the places throughout our communities where the broadest applications of social change actually occur. Civic engagement, youth empowerment, cultural border-crossing, and critical encounters all happen in these places all of the time.

Considering the various connection points throughout our communities, it may be important to consider the

http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Its happening to me again and again. For the past several days I've been traveling the San Joaqin Valley in central California, training students and educators from almost 50 schools about youth empowerment. Picture this: groups of 4-6 middle school students, accompanied by teachers and/or principals, gathering with 3-4 other schools in their area. The adults break off to one room, I take the

http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">A few years ago I started a pilot project called the SoundOut Student Forums. Its a lengthy process for schools that are committed to meaningfully involving students in the systematic school improvement process. The Forums involve training adults in the school, training student facilitators, students facilitating peer forums, students sorting the information (data) gathered during those forums,

http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Finding heroes is a tough thing to do, and in these days I'm not sure we even need them anymore. At least the larger-than-life, superhero types like Mother Jones or Dr. King. Their flags have flown, and today's movements for social justice are a lot broader and more diverse than those times.

That much said, I do think that we still have a lot to learn from those heroes. My thought for the today

http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">I am not a techy, nor do I want to be one. However, as their language grows more ubiquitous, I am drawn towards the concepts presented therein. For instance, take "Web 2.0". From my understanding, Web 2.0 describes
a social phenomenon referring to an approach to creating and distributing Web content itself, characterized by open communication, decentralization of authority, freedom to share and