When the young emulate the old(er)

We're experiencing a new phenomenon in the group. As I mentioned, we're having a bit of a changing of the guard, with all the old(er) youth away at college, the dynamics have really changed. Some of the 'middle' group - the ones who have been around for more than a year - have started fidgeting. And some of the 'younger' group have not quite stepped up as the middle ones expected. Fair enough.
So this week, one of the other adults involved lead a session in which we all dug deep and remembered why we were there, and what we brought to the group - as well as what the group brought to us. It was a great exercise. It made me think about how I had communicated a certain way for so long, and that worked fine with the older group. But this newer group isn't the same, obviously.
After we poured our thoughts onto paper, we started a discussion. One of the middle groupers, S, suggested that we really needed to have people step up and have roles, just like the older ones had had.
I was tickled pink by that! It had never even occurred to me that as soon as the middlers were the older ones, they'd take on the same ownership! Not that I didn't think they could do it - I absolutely do. But that they would WANT to step up so readily - and clearly feel like they were ready. That I loved.
A couple of the newest kids even stepped up and shared what some of their strengths were - what they could bring to the group.
I guess I've been so caught up in trying to get things done, and keep things going, that I forgot to stop and think about what the new group would look like. And who would step up. It speaks volumes to the older yutes, that these new middlers emulate them so much, and now want to have roles just like they did.
Leadership in yutes - it just keeps paying off.
And I'm loving it!

Finding New Talents

Tonight, the teens and I were working on a grant application. I'd outlined most of it, based on their ideas for the project. But some substance still needed to be added, and in true youth development fashion, they had to answer a couple of the questions.
One of the youth tonight is relatively new. I've noticed that she's a smart one, and also an amazingly caring and otherwise talented one. But it wasn't until she began re-phrasing some of the application that I realized how amazing her writing talents are.
N drafted the responses to the questions they had to answer, carefully selecting every word; and keeping the best to the very last sentence - "to blow them away," she said. Blow THEM away? She blew ME away.
I had stepped out of the room, to give them all a chance to really focus on their questions without me there. And after a few minutes N came to me and told me she didn't like how I'd phrased the goal, and what did I think of this new phrasing she came up with. Hm. I took one look at it and new I was in the presence of greatness.
This is the benefit of having the younger youth step up: they get their own times to shine, too. And shine they will.
I'm truely lucky to work with such a great bunch of youth. And grateful for N's passion for writing...