[Ailist] Has AI been used effectively with teen-agers and drugs

Tue Oct 16 07:14:31 MDT 2007

Dear Cheri and Anna: 

Here's an AI story that you'll like. Maureen (Mo) McKenna and her partner,
Sue Anderson (the SueMo Experience) invited me to join them for a very large
AI summit with the middle schools in Toronto. The Toronto District School
Board is the 4th largest in North America so we're talking a LOT of great
kids. Also, Toronto is now more than 50% of the population foreign born. The
project was called: Imagine Student Success. We did the usual pre-summit
training and had several terrific young people in the training/planning
session. And they played a major role during the summit.

In preparation, there were hundreds of interviews, videos of the process,
group sessions and other activities to get the students involved. We had a 1
day summit (all the time we could get!) with about 1000, most of them middle
school students -- the idea being that they would be around to use what they
learned.

This is a long story and Mo is the person to tell it. It is still on-going
thanks to a fabulous Principle at one of the schools and Mo's commitment to
continue to work with the kids. Twice a year for the past 6 or 7 years, Mo,
Ralph and I (and Sue when she can) offer an AI Foundations workshop in
Toronto. Since the "Imagine" summit, we make 4 slots available for free to
students who want to expand their AI work. There are a hundred stories about
what these kids are doing.... many of whom are now in college (and they were
"at risk" students before the project) and still using AI in their lives and
work. 

If you want to hear more about this, I'm sure Mo will be glad to hear from
you. And, by the way, colleagues of ours in Williamsburg are now working in
one of the middle schools there!

This stuff spreads like wildfire.... and it works miracles. The kids really
"get it" quickly.

Thanks for your concern about such a major tragedy for our children in this
wealthy and blessed country that seems to be losing its way these days. Our
work can help!

Blessings to all of you, 

Jane

Jane Magruder Watkins & Ralph Kelly
Appreciative Inquiry Unlimited
An Organization Development Center for Teaching, Consulting and Mentoring

Office & Home
233A Woodmere Drive
Williamsburg, VA 23185
(757) 259-9942

MarshHaven Retreat Center
P.O. Box 541
1702 Wheat Patch Road
Belhaven, NC 27810
(252) 964-3072 

www.appreciativeinquiryunlimited.com

Appreciative Inquiry: Change at the Speed of Imagination by Jane Magruder
Watkins & Bernard Mohr can be ordered from Amazon.com or JosseyBassWiley

-----Original Message-----
From: ailist-bounces at lists.business.utah.edu
[mailto:ailist-bounces at lists.business.utah.edu] On Behalf Of Cheri
Sent: Tuesday, October 16, 2007 8:28 AM
To: Anna spector; ailist at lists.business.utah.edu
Subject: Re: [Ailist] Has AI been used effectively with teen-agers and drugs

Anna,

I have been thinking about teenagers quite a bit lately as I have a 14 year
old and I don't think it is just a matter of shifting their mindset.
Several things have stimulated my thinking--one of the first is that as a
middle school kid, my daughter wanted to volunteer in the community to help
with animals.  She was willing to do this anywhere--even clean cages in a
pet store for free.  No one would have her--too young, she was a liability.
We went to location after location in TN and we were told the same thing.
THen we moved to NC and as a 13 year old, she was told the same thing
everywhere. As you can imagine, this was very frustrating--stiffling the
desire to serve and find meaning at an early age.

Then her Spanish class did a service project.  She came home so excited
because the adults got caught up in a conversation after they told the kids
what had to be done, but before they told them how.  She said the kids
organized themselves quickly and had the job done fast.  The adults
afterwards said their system was much faster and better than the previous
and they were going to use it.  And then her 8th grade class did a community
project where kids found out all about  the community and wrote letters
giving their suggestions to make the community better.  One proposal they
had was for youth to have a representative on the City Council--they said it
didn't need to be a voting member, but at least a voice and that all kids
could channel their input to this one person who could then be the voice for
youth in the city.  The whole class was very excited about it.  What they
were met with, as you can imagine, was adults council members telling them
all the reasons it would not 
 work. 
Very few community folks took an interest in their project or showed up for
the final open house.  The disappoint and sense of hopelessness the kids
then felt was awful for me to watch.  Here were these 8th graders with good
ideas, time on their hands, and interest in making the community better and
they weren't seen, their voices "didn't matter".  My daughter said, "It
would have been better not to have learned all this stuff about the
community and get our hopes up that we could make a difference if no one was
going to listen."

When voices are stiffled, groups do not come together and share ideas that
matter, and people do not feel their voice can make a difference--the
culture decays.  

My current thinking around all of this is that our communities have GOT to
find a way to bring our youth back into them in meaningful ways.  When life
has no meaning, no one values you as a being, why not do drugs? Why not have
sex? Who cares?  There is such a valuable resource available in every single
community being not only wasted, but lost--like your cousin.  I don't think
this is an "AI talk" thing, I think this is an AI systems design thing.  Out
of "care" for our youth, we have taken away their opportunity to contribute
and participate in meaningful ways.  

What do you think?
Cheri

-----Original message-----
From: Anna spector anna_spector at yahoo.com
Date: Mon, 15 Oct 2007 19:04:30 -0500
To: ailist at lists.business.utah.edu
Subject: [Ailist] Has AI been used effectively with teen-agers and drugs

Dear AI Community,
  Yesterday I attended a memorial service for my seventeen year old cousin
who passed away due to an accidental drug overdose.  He was bright,
handsome,cared about the planet, but unfortunately,had an addiction that
claims so many teen-agers each year.  The grief therapist in charge did a
poor job and focused mostly on the tragedy, etc.  Needless to say she took
the laughter out of any conversation we were sharing about the times we
appreciated him.  It was truly a downer.  So, I have been reflecting on AI a
lot and I was curious if anyone had worked with teens involved with drugs
and was AI a powerful enough influence to steer them away from drugs and
into something more productive?   Thank you again for letting me share this.

  Warmly,
  Anna Spector- Seattle
  MA, Organizational Psychology

---------------------------------
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