New Youth Leaders Connect and Co-Create at the Village Institute
“The purpose of the retreat was to connect with each other, and to connect with our why,” says Village Institute executive director, Ellie Adelman. She’s describing the Institute’s peer facilitator’s retreat to YMCA of the Rockies in Estes Park in August, where five youth leaders and staff spent time building relationships and training to facilitate Village Futures programming.
The Village Futures peer facilitators group was piloted in 2023, with the intention of supporting existing leadership in the organization’s refugee and immigrant community by creating a pathway for them to facilitate the organization’s key youth programs. “Young people are already doing a lot of navigating, translating, and advocacy work to make sure their communities get access to needed health care and mental health and social services,” says Adelman. “We learn from them.” The natural next step was to put these youth in charge of facilitating Village Futures programs, like the career readiness curriculum.
The first cohort of facilitators—who were all previous Village Futures participants—comprised youth from Rwanda and Afghanistan. This year, new facilitators from Mexico, Nepal, and Afghanistan joined the group. “These are some of the largest communities we see at our center,” says Adelman. “It’s important that we be representative of our community, and that we can ensure language access and cultural connection for the participants.”
In addition to learning curriculum, watching and discussing the film A Place to Breathe, and creating self-portraits, Adelman shares that the retreat also prioritized relaxation and fun. “We made s’mores over the stove because there was a fire ban, and we went for hikes. I think the joyful, silly parts are just as important—not just for the youth, but for all of us. It’s how we can remain passionate and engaged in the depth of our work.”
“Young people are already doing a lot of navigating, translating, and advocacy work to make sure their communities get access to needed health care and mental health and social services. We learn from them.”
Ellie Adelman