This story is part of a series created to elevate the voices of young people in collaboration with the Blue Water Area YMCA. These stories are based on listening sessions at the Y and are independently reported by The Keel with assistance from the YMCA.

The adolescents chatted, laughed, and ate pizza in the conference room at the Blue Water YMCA. When asked about what is important to youth in Port Huron, they grew quiet. When asked what’s impacting their communities, they became awkward, not used to being questioned about what mattered to them.

Josh Chapman, CEO of the Blue Water YMCA, hopes to change this with the Voices of Youth program, which targets children 5-14, and learn what’s important to his younger members. After growing up in a neighborhood near Pine Grove Park, he wanted to enhance the communities in the area and create a place for youth to learn and grow.

“I did not see a platform form outside of social media that really gives young people the opportunity to express their thoughts, their views, their opinions, and their fears,
he says. “I think now more than ever people are talking about a lot of different things, but I do not think we are focusing enough on youth.”

Chapman believes that youth now face a deluge of information from the internet, causing anxiety and fear. Because of their environment, he feels that children do not have the skills or decorum to express their opinions healthily.

He also believes that because of social media, young people have poor role models who lack civility and diplomacy.

K-6 youth at the Voices of Youth listening session.

“The Y wants to able to give kids their voice and letting them know that their voice, their thoughts, and their opinions matter, that their perspective is important,” he says. “My concern is that they are not getting any of that and they don't even know that that’s a real thing because that's not how their world operates."

While sitting on the K-12 school board, he also realized that kids are not getting exposed enough to journalism and writing and have few creative spaces to interact with each other.

“We have sports figured out, we have gym figured out, we have academics figured out, but don't have creative outlets for kids,” he says. Chapman would like to create a long-term journalism program and piggyback off the Voices of Youth to provide a space for writing, artistic endeavors, and interacting with other talented young people.

He acknowledges some challenges with the program. The biggest challenge is reaching young people from all demographics and getting them to share their thoughts. The other is funding the program long-term, but he is confident the program will be successful.

“I'm really proud of our team and the folks that were the brainchild behind getting this opportunity going and looking forward to kids expressing themselves and being at the center of attention. I am interested in hearing their thoughts are and perspective,” he says.

It will also be difficult to measure the program's success in the short term, and it will rely on how much exposure and interest it creates. In the long term, he hopes that the youth in the program gain enough support and inspiration to excel in their lives.

“I think success on this is so long term that I'll never know how the program impacted young people,” he says. “Voices of Youth could be the launching pad for the next great American writer or the next president.”

All photos by Leslie Cieplechowicz.