Change the Trajectory of Our Youth

The school year is winding down and our last program is coming up this week. It will be a three day, two night retreat for a middle school from San Francisco. These are always exciting opportunities to truly build relationships with the youth, get them out on hikes, make garden burritos from the education garden, strengthen their compassion muscles, and connect to our natural world. What a great way to end this school year!

Our Youth Development intern, who comes to the end of her time here at Hidden Villa in the coming weeks, speaks to some of the work that she has experienced: We challenge our youth through teaching them wilderness survival skills and team-building, both on the high ropes course and on the ground initiatives. Through engaged discussion of hidden food costs, including unjust treatment of farmworkers and inaccessibility of healthy foods for all, students learn about relevant issues of justice around the United States as well as food deserts in their own communities. Many come to recognize their power to create change as consumers and future voters.

It is Youth Development’s hope that after youth leave this land, they walk away having learned something new and also feeling empowered to create change in their own lives and communities.

Links:

• Youth Development at Hidden Villa
• Internships at Hidden Villa

The Youth Development department at Hidden Villa kicked off the year with a bang. We hosted our first ever Volunteer Training where seven volunteers joined us to learn about how they can be supportive chaperones, especially for our multi-day retreats. We’ve also been busy attending conferences and workshops, gaining skills and perspective along the way. This work and preparation has paid off as we start a new season of learning and growing with Bay Area youth.

Most recently we visited a Redwood City high school to meet the students from an AP Biology class that will come for an environmental program at the beginning of February. We did a short program for four classes, one after the other. The students seemed to deeply enjoy meeting some of our hens and participating in one of our environmental activities. When students saw an egg in the chickens’ cage, one asked me, “Is it alive?” We talked about that as a class.

Taking the class outside, Jay led an activity in which students simulated the process for retrieving water from their original sources. One group transported water from the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir to a Bay Area tap. The other groups, the Southern Sierras and the Colorado River, delivered water to Los Angeles. “That was fun!” they said at the end of the activity. We talked about water as a precious resource and all of the work that goes into transferring it from the source to our homes. We are looking forward to seeing these students soon to explore water and land as resources with them while we have some fun.

If you’d like more updates on Youth Development at Hidden Villa check out our blog where we’ll be posting information about programs and impactful experiences.

Links:

• Youth Development Blog Piece