Youth Power: Leading Change in New Orleans and Beyond

In this episode of the Chat with a Changemaker Promly Podcast, host Shelby Edwards sits down with fellow intern Ryan Foreman for a powerful conversation about what youth leadership really looks like. From leading the Junior Civic Safety Council to co-creating the app Geaux Local, Ryan shares how young people are shaping safer, more inclusive communities in New Orleans. Tune in as she and Shelby reflect on what it means to have a seat at the table. If you’ve ever wondered how to start making change right where you are, this one’s for you.

Transcript

Hi. It's Shelby Edwards, promly intern. Welcome to another episode of the chat with the change makers promly podcast. If you haven't already, be sure to follow us at promly app on Instagram and check out the promly app to connect with others and hear more great conversations. This episode is all about youth leadership.

We're talking about what it looks like, why it matters, and how young people are stepping up to make real changes in their cities. Let's get into it. Today, I'm joined by one of my fellow Promly interns, Ryan Foreman. She's doing some really cool work in New Orleans from helping building an app called Go Local to being a founding member of the Junior Civic Safety Council at Tulane's Center for Youth Equity. Ryan, can you introduce yourself and share a little bit about what you've been working on?

Hi. Thank you for having me. I'm Ryan Foreman. I'm a freshman at Tulane. I've been working in youth leadership positions in New Orleans since I was a sophomore in high school and what my role has looked like, and that has changed over the years.

And, yeah, right now I'm working on the Junior Civic Safety Council. To get us started, Ryan, what do you think youth leadership is, and what makes it so important in bigger cities like New Orleans? Youth leadership to me is really valuing youth voice in a meaningful way that like puts youth at the focus because you can say like, a lot of entities can say that they value youth voice, but if youth don't actually have a seat at the table that's meaningful to them, then it's kind of all for show. So the different organizations that I've been a part of that have really I felt like I was heard as, like, somebody who is, like, a younger person is, like, we were leading the message. We were leading what we wanted to be done.

It was our plan, like, with the help of adults because, like, adults are very important when it comes to youth leadership because that's a part of the mentors and the, you know, accessibility to a lot of different resources. But youth leadership focus is putting youth at the center, which I think is so important because from my experience and the different youth that I've worked with, it's and, like, for myself personally it's young people want to get out there and they want to make a change and they want to be leaders in their community because they experience firsthand what issues are bothering them, what issues are most important to them, what issues they don't feel like are being fixed by, you know, the city or adults, and so when they have a spot at the table they can bring their priorities to light in a different way that adults ever could. Yeah. That totally makes sense. And kind of speaking more on that, where do you think the youth are feeling the biggest issue?

From my experience and the different youth that I've talked with, whether it was on, like, the New Orleans Children Youth Planning Board or the Junior Civic Safety Council, was very mental health focused. I think that was very much affected by the pandemic. It was a lot of youth have a lot of, like, mental health struggles and they feel like they don't have enough resources at school or at home to deal with that. Like, they know what's wrong, but they don't feel supported enough to make that change. And then also in New Orleans, like, specifically I don't know.

I mean, speaking to your experience might be something different from where you're from, but in the Junior Civic Safety Council, we're focused on violence prevention because violence in New Orleans is very prevalent it's very prevalent for youth youth as a youth as offenders sometimes and then youth as victims being surrounded by violence being in a hostile environment growing up is obviously not, healthy and can lead to also a lot of mental health issues later down the line or in the present, so so in New Orleans I would say it's definitely mental health focused and violence based focused. Gotcha. Yeah. I'm from LA, so the mental health piece, I think, worldwide is so big. And I think me and you both experienced that because we were in eighth grade when COVID hit.

So I think that's always been, like, something that's been really prevalent, and I think both of our lives To kind of keep on that same idea, Ryan, I know me and you just finished our freshman year of college. So why is it important, and why does it matter for older Gen z to really make sure that they are taking leadership positions? And then kind of for everyone who's gen z, why is it important to give us a seat at the table? Gen z voice, especially a bit of older gen z voice, I feel like is super important because we're now like you and I are freshmen in college, like we're now getting to the college age where we're about to enter the real world and, like, some of us have gone been able to, you know, have a voice at a younger age and kind of, like, develop that kind of voice and standing on a lot of opinions. But as you start to transition into, like, the real world, you kind of have to figure out how to navigate that and what's gonna be important to you and what's not, because you don't necessarily have your parents in the same way that you did or, like, the school or, like, a certain support to somebody you would have grown up with otherwise.

And so I feel like Gen z especially is a generation that very much wants to take on those roles that haven't been afforded to youth in the past. They really want to get out there, like, make action, make change, and be heard, and so that's why I feel like opportunities are really important for that because if youth have opportunities to to be leaders in their community, like, they're going to take advantage of it. I've been a part of so many different groups, like, in New Orleans throughout high school that I was, like, fortunate enough to find and be a part of. And just, like, this year, like, being part of those groups helped me as, like, a young person. Like, I felt like I could come into my own.

I felt like I could discover, like, different things that that I was passionate about that I wouldn't have found before. And so that's why it's really important for young people to get involved. Yeah. And I know me and you have both been very fortunate to be able to find, like, some really cool opportunities, being one of them. Do you have any advice when looking for that?

I would say how I found the New Orleans Children Youth Planning Board was through my high school. My college counselor, like, set out a blast and was like, this group is looking for young people. If anybody's interested, they should contact them. And so me and a few other girls, I kinda took the initiative to to go and try it out and just put yourself out there, which can be, like, really intimidating as a younger person because you don't know, like, what you're getting into. You're, like, what is this?

What do you mean, like, youth leadership in the city? This is a very foreign concept to me. So I feel like the more it's kind of in your environment, the more you might feel comfortable to take advantage of those opportunities. I would say because a lot of people don't have access to that in their schools, like, I was fortunate enough to have adults that were bringing those opportunities to me, so I mean how we've looked at outreach like right now through like the JCSE, the Junior Civic Safety Council, we've contacted schools for them to put out our flyer, we've done more social media engagement because obviously social media is such a a central tool for for young people and so if they can find it on their own through social media like that's also a really accessible option. And then we also targeted, like, through their parents.

We thought about the different angles, newspapers or something that an older generation might look into because if a parent really wants their kid to get involved, then that makes it more much more likely that, like, the young person will also want to do that. And so on both sides of that, like, whether it's an organization trying to recruit young people, like, think of every level of accessibility. And then also for a young person trying to find out, like, search your local organizations, talk to your school resources, like, if you have those, like, talk to other people that you know that are doing, you know, cool stuff that you might be interested. So it's really just feeling comfortable enough to put yourself out there and put yourself in the situation to be a part of those opportunities that you wanna be. Yeah.

And I know for me a lot of it was just who can I talk to? And I think that it's so often on campus, there are older people. I think never be afraid to reach out because nobody is gonna think you are crazy for going to someone older to try to figure out what opportunities they've had. I also think Google was my best friend in high school when I was trying to find stuff, like, mental health opportunities, search opportunities. Like, just googling any and everything just to try to see if, oh, this name keeps popping up.

Let me see if I can find who this is and send them an email. Nobody thinks you're ever, like, stupid for reaching out, so I think that's huge. Ryan, if you can snap your fingers and change an aspect of youth living in NOLA, what would you change? Anything at all. All funds.

No limits. I would change I feel like we keep on running into when we talk about problems, like, when I talk about issues that young people are facing with other young people, like, from their own experience. And then with also adults, it's, like, resources. It's, like, resources at school, extracurriculars, not enough things to do or, like, opportunities to take advantage of. Like, it's not enough counselors in school for, like, we were saying before, like, mental health or, like, job search or college advising.

In New Orleans, our public education system is is very, I think, behind for what it should be, especially, like, compared to the rest of the country. And so if I would change helping the public education system in particular in New Orleans to have more of those more of those resources, more of those opportunities, like like like we were saying for youth leadership, like, more counselors, more extracurricular activities, because, like, that's what we were super focused on with how we came up with the idea for, like, go local, which is, like, the app to find more, like, third places, more healthy, like, extracurricular leisure activity to do in New Orleans because there was such, like, a lack of that because New Orleans is very, like, adult focused. Like, it's very, like, drinking, partying, festivals, which is great when a young person is trying to find something to do on the weekend. Like, you don't wanna encourage underage drinking. So you wanna give them, like, healthy options to go and spend time with their friends and get out of their house and then, like, experience, you know, different things that they might like to do, like art or sports or soccer or outdoors.

Like you know? So if I could change anything in New Orleans, it would be the resources afforded to youth because they wanna take advantage of them, but I don't think there's enough. Yeah. And I know we had spoken about go local on the side, and I just think that is the coolest program. I just wanna give you a second to, like, plug that.

How do I get in to that? How it started off with, me and a couple girls from my school. We entered into this youth entrepreneurship competition, and we came up with this app idea, like, go local, like, g e a u x, like, you know, Nola flair. And we, like, proposed the app idea, like I said earlier, to find things to do in New Orleans for kids that, you know, wasn't partying. It was going out and experiencing different things in, like, in a safe and, like, healthy affordable way.

And so right now we're working on that in the JCFC to, you know, find those things to do in New Orleans in the first place because they're there, but it can be pretty hard to, you know, research and, like, make that accessible and just break down all those barriers that might be in the way of youth trying to get there, whether it be, like, transportation or money or, you know, any of that. So so, yeah, we're working on it right now. It's, you know, in the super early phases, but, you know, if you know anything that's going on in New Orleans, send it my way. Of course. And then last question, Ryan.

If you could give any advice to someone young trying to get involved, what would it be? I would say don't be afraid to put yourself out there because you don't really know what you're getting into. I mean, you might if you, like, did student government or something like that, but it still also looks so different when you're doing something, like, outside of school with, like, a separate organization. So I would say just don't be afraid to not know what you're doing because you don't have to. Nobody's expecting you to.

Nobody's expecting you to have all this experience and all these credentials and, like, know all the jargon. Like, no. They want to hear what your experience is and what's important to you. So as long as you bring that to the table and you're willing to show up, you're making a difference. You're making a difference for yourself.

You're making a difference for your community, and that's what's important. Well, thank you so much, Ryan, for coming on the podcast today. It was a pleasure to talk to you. Thank you for having me. And thank you all for hanging out with us today on the chat with the change makers promley podcast.

If you related to anything we talked about, DM us on Instagram at promly app and download the promly app to connect with people in a real intentional way.