One Woman's Experience with YouthAim!
Aleah came to YouthAim! five years ago at age 14. Her family--mother, sister and two nephews—lives below the poverty line. She struggled with mental health issues (depression/anxiety) which, over time, were addressed through Family Service counseling and medication. While she tended to isolate herself and struggle with trusting people, YouthAim! was a safe haven, a place where she felt very connected with other youth leaders and program staff. For the first time, she understood her life could be valued and she can make a difference. YouthAim! was been a turning point in Aleah's life.
She became a peer group leader; speaking at youth conferences on the East Coast; participating in creating two documentaries on facing youth issues; and regularly serving as a group discussion facilitator, teaching other youth about social justice issues and making them question long-held beliefs. She co-facilitated a youth leadership program for 30 teens from Jamaica Plain and Roxbury in summer 2008, leading two sessions weekly for six weeks. At a presentation of the group’s major summer project—a photography exhibit called Exposed, showcasing the challenges of inner city life—she was the featured speaker.
Aleah is a poet and an artist, and YouthAim! enabled her to utilize these talents to reach other youth. Normally very shy, she shone when doing group facilitation and generating discussion about the social justice challenges that stir her. This hss been only the beginning. With YouthAim! support, Aleah was accepted at a major Massachusetts university—a place she could not imagine being not too long ago—and enrolled for the fall 2008 semester.
