Old York’s youngest members help to shape its future

It's Jan. 10 at 3:30 p.m. and the members of the Museums of Old York's newest board sit in the conference room with mixed looks of apprehension and excitement. These individuals are not your typical board members and having never served on a board, or for that matter entered a board room, none of them seem quite sure of what to expect at this first meeting. The group consists of youth, ranging in age from 8 to 15 years old, who have been hand selected to be on Old York's first Youth Advisory Board.

While most organizations have a board of directors to advise, make decisions and share ideas on adult issues, rarely is there an organized group of young people to offer advice on youth issues. With the opening of the Remick Barn and the expansion of children's programs at the museum, we in the Education Department want to make sure we are heading in the right direction. We hope to encourage young people of all ages to participate and engage in activities at Old York but as new ideas are produced for after school programs, family activities and vacation camps, we keep asking ourselves the same questions: Will children like and sign up for the programs we offer? How do we know whether our ideas will be popular with people so much younger than ourselves?

With no answers to these reoccurring questions it occurred to us that what we needed was a group of young people to answer them for us. After all, how can adults really know or understand what children want without talking to them? Our solution was to start a Museums of Old York Youth Advisory Board.

Recruiting for the board was done by me, eighth-grade teacher Lisa Graziano and fifth-grade teacher Suzi Young. While Graziano and Young hand picked students they knew to be creative, loquacious and interested in history, I invited children who had attended multiple programs at Old York and I knew to have an interest in activities at the Museums. The result was a group of 12 young people ranging from fourth to ninth grade, some of whom have attended countless summer camps and school programs and others who have only been to the museum once. Our hope is that the diverse range of ages and experiences in the group will allow the Youth Advisory Board to better represent the varied youngster we are trying to serve at the museum.

Our first meeting proved to be a success! After everyone had introduced themselves we set to work on our first order of business: planning children's programs for the 2008 summer. I brought to the meeting a basic framework with themes for morning adventures and summer camp. It was the job of the Youth Advisory Board to brainstorm creative program names and decide which crafts and activities children would enjoy most. At first, people were reluctant to share their ideas for fear that they might seem silly or off target. But quickly the group warmed up and soon opinions, thoughts, and inspirations were flying. Within an hour the dry-erase board was full of potential names, crafts and activities for summer children's programs at Old York. At 4:30 p.m. everyone agreed that the meeting had been both productive and fun. 

The plan is for the Youth Advisory Board to gather every other month to assist the education department with youth programming. Our next meeting is scheduled for March, and on the agenda is choosing a mission statement to put into words the board's purpose. Once a mission statement is decided on, this articulate group of youngsters can continue guiding the education department at Old York towards the interests and desires of children.