Jennifer Hatchett of YouthServe Talks Youth Empowerment and Radio
Jennifer Hatchett is the Executive Director of YouthServe, a group that empowers youth leadership through community service. The students worked with WBHM this summer to produce their own radio stories. She talked with WBHM’s Gina Yu about the program.
Hatchett says YouthServe promotes a continuum of youth engagement where all kinds of different opportunities are available. Hatchett explains that students in the program learn about youth leadership and civic engagement. They then take the topics out of their discussions and adapt them into a community service component. Past projects included hosting educational talks about drug and alcohol abuse in different schools.
Youth and Radio
YouthServe recently included a radio storytelling component into their program and asked WBHM to help. “I think when you give a voice to young people, they bring energy and vitality to it,” Hatchett says. “Because they know that this is their future.”
One recent group of students decided to focus on homelessness. They visited a feeding service and interviewed various people there. “They began to understand the systemic barriers of people who are experiencing homelessness,” she says. “They learn a lot about things they see. Youth are so passionate. They’re going, ‘You know, this isn’t fair. This is crazy’.”
Hatchett wants to encourage her students to take their experiences and discoveries and share them with their communities.
Opportunities for Positive Growth
“If we give youth, the opportunity to positively develop, then they will positively develop,” she says. Programs like YouthServe exist to meet students where they are. The focus is to celebrate their passion and compassion. “They’re sensitive to things happening in their community,” Hatchett says. “With all the noise out there in the world, so often, they just feel so small, like there’s nothing they can do about it.”
Youthserve hopes to be one of many programs that offer opportunities for students to make positive choices and meaningful impacts on their communities.
Hear one of the Youthserve radio stories here:
At least three people dead from a tornado in North Dakota
At least three residents were killed in the Enderlin area by a tornado on Friday night after storms hit North Dakota and Minnesota.
One daughter’s search for a father detained by ICE
Francisco Urizar, 64, was detained by ICE while on his work route delivering tortillas. His daughter Nancy is trying to find out what happened to him.
Star bassist Carol Kaye rejects Rock & Roll Hall of Fame honor
One of the most in-demand session players of the 1960s, Kaye was listed alongside the late record producer Thom Bell and the late pianist Nicky Hopkins as inductees in the Musical Excellence category.
Pilot who died in N.C. plane crash tried to avoid a turtle on airport runway
The pilot of a small plane that crashed near an airport tried to avoid hitting a turtle on the runway, according to a National Transportation Safety Board report. The pilot and a passenger were killed.
Day after day, Palestinians in Gaza risk harrowing journey in desperate search for food
Israel has begun allowing food into Gaza. Most of the supplies go to GHF, which operates food distribution points. A trickle of aid goes to the U.N. and humanitarian groups. Both systems are mired in chaos.
Photos: Why it took courage for these women to pose for the camera
Wearing traditional cosmetic face masks from their homeland of Madagascar, they agreed to be photographed to take a stand.
