I can’t believe we only have a week left and my time at AMOS
is coming to an end. This past week we had our youth group meet along with some
new faces that came for a 4-day gender equity training. During the training we defined
gender and discussed our perceptions of gender and how structures are set up to
keep things “in order” I learned so much from the training every single day and
I’m so glad I could be a part of a place where so many youths felt safe to
express themselves and share their ideas and experiences.
By the end of the
training, we all reflected on our experiences with our parents. When everyone
shared there was a common theme that emerged. Many of the traits they liked about
their relationship with their parents they also wanted to change. They split
into groups and made an action plan on how they could change their relationship
with their parents from education programs to something as simple as talking
without technology present. Each day we learned something new. Each day we
broke down barriers. The final activity we made a promise to ourselves. The promise
I made to myself was to work on being comfortable with being uncomfortable.
Before coming here, I knew nothing about Community-Based
Participatory Research (CBPR). Now I’m leaving with so much experience on how
to use CBPR and why it’s so important to work “with” the community and not “for”
the community. There are some many details we don’t think about when we don’t
involve the community and I’ve got to see first hand the difference. My time
may be ending here for the summer, but it doesn’t stop here. I can’t wait to bring
CBPR back and use it in the future.
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