YouthSpeak Initiatives

“We train youth leaders using entrepreneurial ventures”

Overview

One Light International places a high priority on the lives, needs and interests of youth. Youth of all ages, typically from grades 2 – 12 as well as young adults, have benefited from the diverse array of “YouthSpeak” programs that have been developed and offered by One Light International throughout its 16-year history. 

The principle that underlies OLI’s “YouthSpeak” initiative is a passion and belief that all youth—when provided with a level playing field that allows them to be nurtured, to learn and to grow—can accomplish great things.  OLI believes that youth are the bright hope and promise of our nation’s future. 

The focus of our “YouthSpeak” initiative is to provide young people with the educational, intervention and resource skills, and experiences, that tap into their vision of themselves and their hopes for their futures.  OLI’s core area of service is in the urban community of South Central Los Angeles—an area beset with both great economic and social challenges but, also, great promise.  The young people served by OLI’s programs are typically bright and determined girls and boys who often need the encouragement and support of caring adults—especially adults who make a commitment to stay involved and engaged in their lives for the long haul.  OLI’s leadership team gives them that as both Dr. Velma Union, Dr. Alonzo Anderson and many others have consistently served youth and families who live and work in South Central Los Angeles since 1990.  In short, the kids know our names, our faces and our desire to help them live happy healthy lives.

To that end, OLI has devised a set of core programs, under the “YouthSpeak” umbrella, designed to meet the needs and expressed interests of the children we serve.  These core program areas also tap into the strong and growing professional backgrounds and strengths of OLI’s leadership and program staff.

YouthSpeak Through Health and Culinary Arts

The fact that American youth are significantly heavier than their counterparts a generation ago is well documented.  A March, 2005 report by Duke University and the Foundation for Child Development found that, despite welcome declines in teen pregnancies, smoking and drug use, an estimated 15 percent of U. S. children are overweight or obese.  At the same time, the report found that the poverty rate for families with children climbed to 17.2% in 2003—the worst it’s been since 1998.  There is a direct relationship between poverty and inadequate nutrition and poor eating habits.  This nutritional crisis is prevalent among low-income children of color and it’s just one of many factors that have contributed to a sharp rise, in recent years, in the development of type-2 diabetes, high blood cholesterol and high blood pressure among today’s youth. 

OLI’s leadership team recognized this alarming trend more than 10 years ago and embarked on what has become its largest, most successful and enduring program, “Youth Speak Through Health and Culinary Arts.”  Led by an accomplished Los Angeles Unified School District health educator and professional chef, Joyce Burkhalter, this program, to date, has served more than 500 students, many of whom have gained advanced education and high paying jobs as professional chefs, catering or food service professionals.  Burkhalter, along with Dr. Velma Union and Jerri Hallyburton, a RN and a nutrition and diabetes specialist, have led a series of high profile, fun and educational programs for young people utilizing the industrial kitchen that’s part of the Juan M. Walker Cyber Café. 

Over the course of this program, students have successfully motivated their parents or guardians to reduce the amount of salt and fat intake in their diets.  A growing number of students who’ve participated in the program for more than a year have gone on to pursue specialized education in the culinary arts.  Today, several are working as well-paid chefs and industrial service workers throughout the Los Angeles region.

Inner-city youth have to be enterprising to get ahead.  For children whose life experience often does not reflect the commercially-driven, or ‘bling bling’ culture they see 24/7 in all forms of media, the idea of having a dream and fulfilling that dream through entrepreneurship is a strong one for today’s youth.  One Light International’s leadership team, program staff and volunteers bring a wealth of professional accomplishment and entrepreneurial expertise to bear to help hundreds of children who live and dream in South Central Los Angeles to gain real life experiences that help them fully realize their hopes for the future. 

The strongest and longest-running YouthSpeak initiative is the YouthSpeak Through Health and Culinary Arts program.  However, with the recent addition of a strong and growing journalism and multi-media initiative as well as a growing number of after-school and summer camp experiences that focus on skills development and “life mapping” for the future, OLI’s track record of community success in this area is positioned to grow.

Our program and development team are developing collaborative relationships with business and community-based organizations throughout the U.S. that provide internships, mentoring and other types of career enrichment opportunities.  Our passion and commitment is to continue to expose young people to the full range of professional opportunities that are open to them in today’s rapidly changing global economy. 

Youth, today, are creative, brash, energetic and bold.  They’re both driven and heavily influenced by contemporary music, fashion, technology, the arts and, increasingly, politics.  With the white line of the Apple iPod hanging virtually ubiquitously from the ears and necks of today’s teens, tweens and 20-somethings, the so-called ‘Generation X’ continues to increasingly redefine popular culture.

A lot of what today’s youth have to say comes from urban communities—the streets—the place where the international musical juggernaut that is “hip-hop” was born more than 30 years ago.  Hip-hop was conceived on the street corners and the dance floors of New York, Los Angeles and other top urban cities.  It was born through the passion and energy of young men and women who, despite the structural disinvestment in the arts by America’s public schools, still found a way to give voice to what was on their hearts and minds. In the words of renowned rapper and actor Ice T, “Hip-hop would never have been invented if everyone around it was rich.” 

OLI’s journalism program, launched in earnest in 2005, is building from the success of its first summer school initiative in 2005.  Its goal is to create a vibrant program that exposes interested students to various facets of news and entertainment production and management.  Led by a national award-winning marketer and professional journalist, Sharon Jenkins, the program is in the process of seeking collaborative relationships and funding support that will aid students in their pursuit of d.j. and mixing board skills, CD production, print production—including periodic production of its “YouthSpeak Global Times” newsletter—and live film and broadcast opportunities.  Plans include the expansion of OLI’s weekly radio program, “About My Father’s Business,” on KTYM-1460, AM radio in Los Angeles.  OLI is also working to develop strong and lasting ties with leading film and entertainment industry contacts all designed to provide the youth it serves with exciting, informative real-life experiences.  

After all, theirs is a power that starts with passion and a good idea.