What Do Our Youth Think?

The 2010 Civic Engagement component of PRO 100 consisted of four sessions. Three focused on basic knowledge and skills that the interns needed to be effective advocates in any setting. Those three sessions included discussion and interactive activities on:

• Civic Engagement and Framing Your Message
• Statehouse Tour and Mock Committee Hearing
• Understanding the Electoral Process and a Mock Election

The Civic Engagement component concluded with a Breakfast with elected officials representing 3 school boards, Indianapolis/Marion County city-county council and Indiana Legislature. The questions below were developed by the youth and used as discussion starters at the breakfast with elected officials. These questions give a good reference point of the concerns that young people, age 13 to 19, in the Indianapolis Metropolitan area have about their community. Education Issues / Concerns:

• General observation: Why is the community/state so focused on IPS rather than the education of township and private schools?
  
  
• High School Dropout Rates
  • Why is the African American male dropout rate so much higher than white males?
  • How does the dropout rate affect the community?
  • What could be implemented to ensure less dropout rates?
  
  
• Middle and High School Students in the Same School Building
  
  
• School Budget Cuts
  • What is the process for determining the school budget?
  • As a school board member, do you agree with where the money is being distributed?
  • How can students have more of a say in what happens with the school budget?
  • How does the school budget cut affect the district's faculty and staff?
  
  
• School Activities
  • What are some things teenagers can do to get our school activities back in action?
  • When the school board members agree to cut the sports teams, where do they intend for the money to go?
  
  
• School Policing
  • Why is the government cutting school police?
  • Can we have more gang resistance education and training in high schools?
  • Can anything be done to help IPS keep school police? We need security in our schools.
  • Can we get the GREAT (Gang Resistance Education & Training) program in all inner city schools?
  
  
• Parental Involvement
  • Why is parental involvement lacking in the public school systems and most township and private schools require parents to have some kind of involvement in the schools with their children?
  • Where do we go to, as students, when we feel like the higher authority in the school is not listening to us?

Employment for Youth and Felons

• Why is it so difficult for teenagers to get jobs?
  
  
• Why is it that adults are taking jobs that were meant for youth?
  
  
• Why are there teen labor laws? If teenagers want to work then why shouldn't we be able to?
  
  
• How can you get a job if you have a felony?
  
  
• Can we do more in the community to have jobs for those that have felonies?
  
  
• Can we have more strong transition programs for inmates? They are needed for inmates getting ready to be released from prison.

Gang Violence & Community Violence

• Can all people in the community get justice for their murdered loved ones?
  
  
• Can all people in the community get justice when it comes to policemen looking for murder suspects?
  
  
• Why are policement judgmental in the urban areas?
  
  
• Why are police so mean in the "Hood"? When we go to other places in the city, police are nice.

Recreation Opportunies for Youth

• Can anything be done to keep Parks Department community centers open in the evenings?
  
  
• Can we get money to repair pools in the inner city so everyone has a chance to swim?
  
  
• Even though funds are low, help us understand why the community centers close early and the pools shut down leaving youth no recreational facilities in their neighborhoods?
  
  
• Can more money be spent with the Parks Department to have block parties and lock-ins to give young people things to do on the weekends?

Drug Abuse in the Community

• Do you think marijuana should be legalized and why or why not?
  
  
• In your opinion, will medical marijuana ever be legalized in Indiana?

Unsanitary / Unhealthy Restaurants

• The concept of posting restaurant cleanliness rates for the public knowledge interests us. Does Indiana & Indianapolis have a restaurant cleanliness rating system? What would be the necessary steps to make it a law that ratings must be posted? Would you support the idea of a restaurant cleanliness rating system? i.e., cleanest restaurant=5; least clean=1. What would be the pros and cons of this idea?

Prevention of Sexually Transmitted Disease & Teen Pregnancy

• Is there a law that allows parents to know about children that have sexually transmitted diseases?
  
  
• How do you think STD's affect the community?
  
  
• Do you think the state of teen pregnancies and STD's is critical in 2010? If so, what could adults do to promote safe sex or abstinence?

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