SLAG Members Attend Youth Voice Conference

Eight SLAG members, Mary Trice, Library Board Member, and I attended a state sponsored program to build youth leadership in communities. The Youth as Partners in Civic Leadership Conference began on Friday evening and we returned to the Library on Sunday afternoon. The conference was geared towards giving teens tools to help them “have a voice” in their community and beyond. SLAG officers also presented a program on their own experiences in our library. It was touching to hear them speak about how the library had made their lives richer.

We had valuable discussions with youth and adults from across the state. People were impressed with how excited our teens were about their library. Our teens attended sessions on public speaking, film making, creating public service announcements and using art to get your message across. Some of our teens created a very moving film about beauty and violence. As a group we taped a public service announcement about Teen Read Week. Several of our group attended a session on juvenile justice. I learned for the first time that in Wisconsin teens over the age of 16 are treated as adults when they are arrested. The outcome of this experience is that we will be writing a grant to get a library started in the County Jail.