Letter to Nashville Youth Workers - Mayor Dean's Quest to help Nashville be a Great City for Young People

Dear Colleagues,

As you likely know by now, Mayor Dean appointed a Task Force five months ago to study, to strategize, and to develop a visionary and guiding document to help Nashville be a great city for young people; a safe, supportive, inclusive, engaging, and healthy city for young people.

 

On July 28 at 10am at the Youth Opportunity Center, MayTask Force will formally present this plan to the Mayor.

 

I am asking if you will join in supporting these efforts, but more importantly, if you can help us rally some young people to demonstrate their support for this work. While the specifics of the plan will not be launched until that day, I have put a brief description below if you would like to share it with your youth to explain the nature of the process and the event. Young people have been involved in every phase of this work, from the Mayor's Youth Council and the youth summit, to youth-led focus groups, to a youth-led survey of over 1200 students, to youth members of the task force and even a youth chair of the task force. Youth also submitted artwork, poetry, and even an original song! The commitment to youth has been practiced in the process.

 

This is not "just another task force." This is a huge step forward for our city in our coordination, commitment to and investment in youth, and it is a step that is already drawing national attention for both its scope and specificity. Please help us support these effort and celebrate on July 28.

 

I would appreciate it if you could let me know if you will be attending and if you will be bringing young people.

 

Thanks so much!

 

Description:

 

About 5 months ago, Mayor Karl Dean organized a Task Force of more than 50 Nashville leaders from all sectors of the community to come together and help develop a Child and Youth Master Plan. The purpose of such a plan is to set a vision and organize and prioritize strategies for the city to ensure that its young people grow up healthy, safe, educated and prepared for life.

 

The Task Force is divided into four committees whose focus is described briefly below and spans a variety of ages: 0-5, 6-10, 11-13, 14-18, and 19-21 years old.

• Education Lifecycle: What supports and opportunities do we need to focus on in terms of education in the life of a child/young person from 0 to 21 years of age? What is in place and working? What do we need to improve? What does success look like for a young person in regard to education?
• Health and Safety: What does it mean for our young people to be healthy? What does safety mean in regard to our young people? What are we doing that is working? What are the biggest health and safety concerns for children/youth? What do we need to improve on? What does success look like?
• Out of School Time: What opportunities do our young people have for out of school time activities? What does this look like across different ages? What opportunities do we want for our young people? What are we already doing well? What do we need to improve on?
• Youth Mobility and Stability: What are the key issues in regard to child/youth and family mobility and stability? What sorts of things cause instability (housing, jobs, etc.)? What can we improve to create more stability? How can we ensure access to positive mobility (like transportation)?

 

Anderson Williams
Director of Consulting
Oasis Center
615.983.6858

If you are a child or youth in Nashville, we need your help and your vision!

The Mayor’s Office and the Task Force of the Child and Youth Master Plan are seeking the input and
creative vision of Nashville’s children and youth to help Nashville become the best city in the United States
for children and youth.

We are seeking all forms of creative writing, essays, poetry, and two-dimensional artwork (drawing, painting,
photography, etc.) to help answer the following question:

If Nashville were the perfect place for you to grow up, what would it look like?

As you consider your answer, think about what kinds of opportunities you might have, what kind of people
would be around you, what kind of support you would have, what role you would play in the community and
anything else that would be part of your ideal Nashville.

Think BIG and DREAM BIG and share your vision for Nashville with us!

Submissions will be included in the Mayor’s Child and Youth Master Plan.

Guidelines*

Writing: all essays, poetry or other creative writing must be limited to a maximum of 500 words.

Artwork: all artwork should be two-dimensional and must be original. This can include original painting, drawing, photography,
digital images etc.

SUBMISSION: Please email all writing and digital artwork or photography submissions to Anderson Williams at awilliams@oasiscenter.org. Writing and artwork can also be dropped off at the Youth Opportunity Center at 1704 Charlotte Ave, Suite 200 with attention to Anderson Williams. If you have questions, email Anderson or call him at 983-6858.

***ALL SUBMISSIONS MUST INCLUDE YOUR NAME, YOUR AGE, YOUR EMAIL AND/OR PHONE NUMBER***

DEADLINE: JUNE 30, 2010

Thanks to Anderson Williams for sharing this post!

Nashville Organizations Nurturing the Most Common Youth Sparks

This information was shared by 145 participants at the 2010 Sparks Symposium in Nashville, TN.  The event was sponsored by Trevecca, Oasis Center, OJJDP, YLLC, STARS and the YMCA Center for Asset Development.  To find out more about research and tools related to SPARKS, visit http://www.ignitesparks.org/.

Animal Welfare
• Audubon Society
• Happy Tales
• Humane Association
• Love at First Sight
• Nashville Zoo
• Saddle Up
• Walden’s Puddle

Athletics
• Centennial Sportsplex
• Church sports leagues
• Community Centers
• Community Sports Leagues
• D1
• Metro Parks and Recreation
• YMCA

Creative Arts
• Art Embrace
• Barefoot Republic Camp
• Cheekwood Botanical Gardens
• Country Music Hall of Fame
• Express at Fellowship Bible Church
• Frist Center for Visual Arts
• JAM camp “School of Rock” – Brentwood
• Kids on the Block
• Nashville Public Library
• Nashville School of the Arts
Centennial Park Arts center
• Salama Urban Ministries
• The Village Cultural Arts Center
• Yeah – Murfreesboro
• W.O. Smith Music School
• Youth Speaks


Helping, Caring
• Boy Scouts
• Girl Scouts
• Habitat for Humanity
• Hands on Nashville
• Hands on Nashville Day
• Metro Parks
• Oasis Center
• Volunteer Tennessee
• Peace Corps

Leading
• Boy Scouts
• Church Leadership Teams
• Community Centers
• Girl Scouts
• Junior Achievement
• Metro Public Health
• Oasis Leadership Teams
• Oasis Youth Action Teams
• STARS
• Student Government
• TLT

Living a quality life ( joy, tolerance, caring…)
• Community Nashville
• Community Nashville/Building Bridges
• Kids on the Block
• Mosque, church, temple...
• Oasis Center
• Scarrit Bennet Center
• Special Olympics
• STARS
• TIRRC


Learning (languages, sciences, history…)
• 4-H
• Adventure Science Center
• Astronomy – Ted McWilliams
• Cohn Adult Center – Community Education
• ESL Classes
• Home Economics – Beverly James
• Junior Achievement (business)
• Language/reading – Carmen Sparkman
• Nashville Public Library
• Parthenon
• Scarritt Bennett
• Schools
• Summer Day Camps
• The Bridge
• Time To Rise
• UT Extension Service
• Warner Park Nature Center
• Y-CAP
• Youth in Government
• Youth Life Learning Center
• Youth Speaks

Reading
• Book ‘em
• Book club at school or community center
• Facebook – if used correctly
• Good Reads (website)
• Nashville Public Library
• Nashville READS
• Rep your voice
• TOTAL


Nature, ecology, environment
• Adventure Science Museum
• Cheekwood Botanical Garden
• Cumberland River Compact
• Dyer Observatory
• Farmer’s Market
• Harpeth River Watershed Assoc
• Kids For A Clean Environment
• Metro Beautification Committee
• Metro Parks: Shelby, Beaman, Bells Bend...
• Nashville Greenways
• Percy Warner Park
• Radnor Lake
• Shelby Park
• Sierra Club
• Team Green
• The Nature Center
• Truth & Reconciliation Project
• Urban Gardens
• Warner Parks

Spirituality, religion
• Churches, synagogues, mosques, temples...
• Good News Clubs
• Inner city ministry
• Pathfinders
• Salama Urban Ministries
• Walking daily with Jesus
• Young Life
• Youth Life Learning Center
• Youth retreats

Edited by Susan Ragsdale and Ann Saylor at the YMCA Center for Asset Development

Free Resource for Teaching Cooking to Your Students

Jackie Contreras (615-862-5995) with the TSU Cooperative Extension does a great job of teaching cooking in afterschool programs. She has a grant that allows her to do this without a fee AND she brings food with her!

Learning about nutrition is among proven “best practices” for out of school time programs, along with serving nutritious snacks. For more information, read this article: Research-Based Recommendations to Improve Child Nutrition in Schools and Out-of-School Time Programs

Y-I Love Myself Youth Health Summit

Corey Burton at the YMCA of Middle Tennessee planned this educational event for Valentine's Day, so it's titled with a love theme.  It's a very creative and active way to engage youth around health and wellness, so we thought you'd like to see their agenda.  The ideas could easily be adapted for a classroom or an after-school activity period.
Health Department “Nashville Moves”=> A special guest talked about small things youth can do to make large impacts on their health and well being. In addition, he spoke to them about youth obesity and how it effects them not only physically but mentally in the areas of confidence etc.


“Get in where you fit in.” => Corey Burton led this portion of the event, and at this session, they led the youth through a “Spin Class,” and took them on a tour of our facility. They gave youth pedometers before the tour, and talked to them about needing to live more active lives, and the purpose of the tour and the pedometers was to show how easy it is to log steps and to walk off calories etc. 


Nutrition Plannery=> We had an individual from Second Harvest that showed our youth how to make Parfaits. They loved this exercise. She provided the yogurt, granola, and a number of fruit options and showed them how to make these. In addition, she spoke to them about nutrition; showing them the impact of not living active lives with nutrition being an integral part of their diets.


Lunch=> “Lettuce Eat” At this, we provided youth with lunch. The only option was the salad, which we provided all the essentials to dressing up the salads. We had baked chicken, various healthier dressings, and other veggies that you could put in the salads. Going off of the fact that we left the event with no leftovers, we believe that the youth enjoyed the healthy lunch.


Vision Board=> All of the youth went through the vision board exercise. This exercise was aimed at encouraging youth to think about, plan for, and envision his/her future. We all know that this sort of preparation and thought helps bring these goals and dreams a reality.

Creating a Culture of Wellness in Schools

Two Nashville schools are piloting a project to promote health and wellness. The "Live It! Go For the Red, White and Blue" project is sponsored by Vanderbilt Children's Hospital, Glencliff High School and Wright Middle School.

According to the article in the Tennessean, their objectives are to increase healthy food choices, physical activity and community partnerships. They want to increase knowledge of health/nutrition and encourage families and staff members to adopt healthier habits that will lead to improved health.

Here are some of their project highlights:

• Teachers included 73 healthy lessons in their curricula with the help of 27 community agencies. • Students and staff increased their physical activity by logging 10,000 steps a day — 42,915,374,646 total steps.
• Students increased their fruits and vegetables to five servings of each daily, logging 12,320 servings of fruit, 100 percent fruit juice and vegetables.
• Teachers and staff served as examples to their students by joining a "biggest loser" weight-loss competition. Seventy-four participants tallied a weight loss of 507 pounds.

Lisa Beck is co-chairwoman of Alignment Nashville's Healthy Eating and Active Living Committee and vice president of the YMCA of Middle Tennessee. She is working with other community partners to create a sustainable model of health and wellness education to use throughout Nashville schools. If you want to get involved in this initiative, visit
www.alignmentnashville.org.

"Igniting the Hidden Strengths of Young People" Symposium

April 21, 2010
8:30 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.
Trevecca Nazarene University's Boone Center in Nashville, Tennessee
cost: $8 per person (includes lunch)

Learn what SPARKS are and why they matter as Mary Ackerman, Director of External Affairs from Search Institute, shares key findings from their latest research on awakening the spark that lives inside each and every young person.

Participants will explore the power of youth being able to name their SPARK, identify adults who support them, what we can do to promote opportunities for youth to practice sparks, and the role sparks play in giving youth their voice. Attendees will also engage in SPARK conversations and delve more deeply into the practicalities of putting SPARKS to work across Nashville.

“When kids can name a spark, every outcome you and I care about changes dramatically”  - Peter Benson, President & CEO of Search Institute

For Registration information, click here.

Sponsors & Partners:
J.V. Morsch Center for Social Justice
YMCA Center for Asset Development
OJJDP
Oasis Center
STARS
YLLC

Teaching Friendship Skills

My friend Julie volunteers as a Girl Scout Troop Leader. She just shared a great idea for teaching children about friendship skills.

She gave the girls construction paper and markers and asked them to decorate a heart. She let the girls spend a bit of time decorating, so they grew attached to their artwork. Then she told everyone to crumple their work into a ball. The girls were very sad, but with a little encouragement they followed Julie's direction. Then Julie told the girls to uncrumple their hearts, and smooth out the pictures. She asked the girls:

What did you think about your hearts before you crumpled them?
How easy was it to crumple them?
How easy was it to uncrumple them?
How did the pictures change from the crumpling?

This activity parallels our hearts and our friendships. It's so easy to 'crumple' a friendship by saying unkind words or taking thoughtless actions. It only takes a few minutes, and sometimes it doesn't feel like a big deal to hurt someone in a small way.

But 'uncrumpling' or restoring a friendship is never easy. You can say "I'm sorry" and try to make ammends, but the unkindness makes a lasting mark on our hearts and our friendships. Rebuilding trust is very difficult to do.

What can you do to protect your friendships? How can you guard your words and your actions to avoid hurting the people around you? Make a pledge to do those things today - remember the power of your actions to bless or hurt those around you.

3 Free Youth Development Workshops in Nashville

Introduction to Positive Youth Development
March 27th, 9am-12noon, Downtown YMCA
Instructors: Susan Ragsdale and Louisa Avery
This 4 hour training is built around the 5 principles developed by the Nashville Positive Youth Development Coalition. Together we explore strategies and understandings that keep us on the cutting edge in professional youth work. This training is sponsored by NAZA.

Structure & Clear Limits and Reframing Conflict
March 25th, 10am-12noon , Downtown YMCA
Instructor: Louisa Avery
This training covers strategies to create safety in your program as well as introducing an approach to support youth in solving their conflicts. This training is a Youth Methods Workshop and sponsored by NAZA.

Introduction to the 40 Developmental Assets
March 30th, 10am-12noon , Downtown YMCA
Instructor: Susan Ragsdale
This training gives an overview of the 40 Developmental Assets and strategies for incorporating them into your programs. Sponsored by the YMCA Center for Asset Development through the Healthy Communities - Healthy Youth Initiative.


To register for any of these workshops call or email Shai Rasmussen at 615-259-9622 x 70138 or srasmussen@ymcamidtn.org.

It doesn't just take a village -- it takes a whole village, a strong village and an informed village to improve outcomes for children and youth, reduce gang violence, support good schools and make good decisions.

Jan Richter, Editor at Connect for Kids

What do you know about Children's Health in Tennessee?

Alignment Nashville and Nashville Public Television are working together to help bring awareness to the children’s health crisis Tennessee is facing.

In response to the increased number of children facing risks from poor or non-existent prenatal care, the rising epidemic of childhood obesity, concerns about vaccinations, mental health issues, lack of specialty care and the consequences of risky adolescent sexual behavior, NPT is launching a three-year project aimed at building a community-wide conversation about the state of Nashville children’s health. NPT will produce a series of seven documentaries to encourage children and families to make healthy choices and help reverse the rising trends of childhood health problems in Tennessee.

Watch the debut on NPT - February 25 at 8pm.

(Reprinted from Alignment Nashville's e-newsletter)

FREE 2-hour IN-SERVICE - THE HIDDEN TREASURE OF ASSETS

Come learn about Search Institute's 40 Developmental Assets as we play the Hidden Treasures of Assets game. See why staff, teachers, parents and counselors are excited about these key factors that positively impact our youth! Improved grades, appreciating diversity, delaying gratification and maintaining good health are just a few of the results of this holistic approach to education and youth development.

Upcoming training dates for middle TN teachers: February 25, March 11, and April 8. Each training will be at the Downtown YMCA from 10:00 – 12:00 p.m. Reserve your spot by signing up on the ERO.

** A $400 value for agencies, churches and schools in middle Tennessee - free during spring 2010. Call us to schedule training for your group at 262-9676.


Find more workshops and resources at www.TheAssetEdge.net. Great Group Games * Service-learning 101 * Caring School Climate Retreat * Growing Kids through Literacy, Creativity and Play * Small Learning Communities * Empowering Youth to Lead

Nashville Positive Youth Development Coalition Update

The Positive Youth Development Coalition is meeting regularly with action teams in marketing, youth engagement, quality standards, professional development, and membership. There have been over 50 youth serving organizations or government entities represented in the coalition so far.

Recently, the Coalition met with the Forum for Youth Investment to explore becoming aligned with Ready by 21. Ready by 21 has Search Institute as one of its partners and potentially is a natural progression for taking the work started around the coalition to the next level. The work from the two positive youth development initiatives, Healthy Communities-Healthy Youth Initiative and Quality Counts, continue to weave together on many levels to create a tapestry of positive youth development for Nashville.

Stay tuned to see how things turn out . . .

I'm excited about the 10 Nashville schools that are deeply committed to service-learning and youth empowerment.

The Developing Community Leaders (DCL) program is a leadership development program offered in ten Nashville high schools that pairs a college-level leadership development curriculum with service-learning to equip high school students to be leaders now and in the future.

The Center for Asset Development has partnered with this group for a long time, helping to build community partnerships, develop curriculum, and train teachers. It's a great group of folks!

January 15, 2010 (8 am - 1:30 pm), DCL students and teachers will meet together with community organizations that are interested in working with the DCL program. Attendees will have the opportunity to hear from the students - they will share their vision for improving their own school and community, and organizations will learn more about how they can partner with students to achieve that vision.

To RSVP or get more information, email Melissa Jaggers at melissa.jaggers@nashville.gov.

(information from Alignment Nashville's e-newsletter)

Here's a really cool story about youth in Nashville that are making a difference!

----------

As many of you know, the Youth Mobilizers at Oasis Community Impact began many years ago (in 2004) doing their own research and educational workshops in East Nashville around critical financial issues that they identified as important to them and their families. You may also know that this work has led to the statewide Coalition for Responsible Lending in Tennessee which is working to develop education, alternatives and policies to end the usurious practices of payday lenders that prey on our low-income communities and keep our families trapped in a cycle of debt.

As another outcome of this youth-led work, Economics on MY Street represents a unique partnership between the Youth Mobilizers and Junior Achievement. With the desire to expand and improve financial education opportunities for students in under-resourced communities, our youth sought a meeting with Junior Achievement back in 2006 to share their work and learn more about Junior Achievement. What spawned from this meeting is a powerful partnership that brings the lived experience, local youth-led research, and real-world knowledge of our Youth Mobilizers together with the financial education and curriculum expertise of Junior Achievement. We are excited to share Economics on MY Street and believe it tells a powerful story of the insight and strength of young people and the impact of quality partnerships with adults and organizations.

(Thanks to Anderson Williams for sharing this great story - and for starting this dream-come-true!)

En route to Ohio for the Search Conference

We're headed to Cincinnati, Ohio to the Healthy Communities, Healthy Youth Conference hosted by Search Institute. They always have a plethora of powerful speakers, a great bookstore, educational booths, and hands-on activities to nurture creativity and imagination. And it's 3 days with educators, youth workers, pastors, parents and young people from all around the world.

If YOU will be at the conference, please stop by and say hello! You can find us leading these workshops and events:
Great Group Games
Growing Kids through Creativity, Literacy and Play
Change Your World
Author signing on Friday

If you're not going, mark your calendar to attend next year's conference! Meanwhile we'll be collecting resources to share with you here.

Building a Commitment to Learning: Art to Stem

(from Alignment Nashville newsletter)

The out-of-school time career exploration program, "Art to STEM" is off and running with 125 girls at six Nashville middle school sites including West End, Croft, Oliver, Joelton, Apollo, and DuPont Tyler. A seventh site is currently being added at Thurgood Marshall.

Activities for the girls will tie their interests in creativity and art to possible education and career options in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). Currently activities are focused on the design process. The girls are designing animated "creatures" using a virtual reality software which will then be produced and returned to them to demonstrate rapid prototyping. Girls will make site visits to three companies this week to see how these creative and technological skills are used in the workplace and will visit Tennessee Tech on Saturday.

Community agencies participating include Girl Scouts, Adventure Science Center, PENCIL, Tennessee State University, and Tennessee Tech. The effort's goal is to help girls make informed decisions about their high school career academy choices. Funding is provided by the National Science Foundation.

Commitment to Learning is one of the 8 categories of Developmental Assets, proven to nurture healthy communities and healthy youth.

Dancing to Build Assets

Rejoice Ministries uses the art of dance to teach 80+ inner-city children about faith and give them tools for successful living. Their instructors teach children at four sites in East Nashville. They provide top-notch instruction in ballet, jazz, modern and African dance classes.

This creative arts ministry is building in Assets in a group of young people that are given very few after-school opportunities, in neighborhoods colored by negative behaviors. Here are some of the ways we’ve seen Rejoice build Assets in their students:

• They provide a Supportive atmosphere with caring adult role models and a caring place to hang out.


• They build the Constructive Use of Time asset by promoting creative activities, youth programs and religious community.


• They focus on Positive Values in and out of the dance studio.


• They teach Social Competencies, helping children treat one another with integrity and respect, and helping students make decisions that fit their long-term goals.


• They build Positive Identity by nurturing self-esteem, sense of purpose and helping students see possibilities for their future.

For more information, visit http://www.rejoiceschoolofballet.org/ or contact Director Patricia Cross at (615) 210-1147

Shared Principles of Positive Youth Development in Nashville

Did you know that Nashville has a list of 5 principles to guide our work with young people?

These are factors that professional youth workers from 30+ community agencies developed together last spring. We hope youth workers, educators, mentors, parents, extended families and other caring adults will take time to digest these 5 principles and see how they might impact the way we nurture youth in our city. We believe that engaging youth in these ways will help young people to navigate adolescence and grow into adulthood in successful and thriving fashion. Be watching for more information soon!


1) Promote a Sense of Physical, Social and Emotional Safety. Youth must feel as though the adults in this setting will protect them from any harm. They also must feel they are valued and accepted by the group.

2) Encourage Relationship Building. Young people need many supportive long-term relationships to help them navigate their adolescence. They need guidance from caring adults as well as emotional and practical support from their peers.

3) Foster Meaningful Youth Participation. Youth must have an active role, voice and choice in shaping their experiences. They must have the opportunity to practice and develop leadership skills, and they must know their contributions are valuable.

4) Provide Opportunities for Building Purpose. Young people need to live purposefully and contribute in meaningful ways. Creating opportunities for youth to become involved in the community and for community members to interact with youth is a powerful way to foster a sense of purpose and develop positive values.

5) Engage Youth in Learning Experiences that Build Valuable Life Skills. Young people need opportunities for experiential learning that will help them build skills needed to succeed in every area of life.


(developed by representatives of 30 community-based providers and 8 Metro agencies; adopted 4/30/09)

Empowering Nashville Youth to Speak Out

Youth Speaks Nashville uses literary and performing arts to promote positive youth development. They focus on after school workshops, open mics, slams, and shows. They also have creative writing and spoken word poetry school residencies. They make education (especially various forms of literacy) relevant to young people, they teach presentation skills, and they empower youth to be leaders in their communities.

Empowering youth is a critical piece of their programming. “Youth Speaks believes that having knowledge, practice, and confidence in the written and spoken language is essential to the self-empowerment of an individual.” Youth Speaks especially seeks to empower youth in underserved communities, giving them “as many opportunities as possible to develop and publicly present their voices both live and in print, video, audio, and digital media.” And they believe that giving youth a voice is the first step in social change.

They build the Commitment to Learning asset by teaching young people in a hands-on, highly interactive atmosphere. They combine poetry, spoken word, and classroom settings to make education come alive.

Their focus on developing community helps to build Social Competencies. “Youth Speaks reflects diversity and engenders a community of young artists who reach across demographic boundaries toward self-exploration and growth, providing a platform where conflicts are resolved on the page or the stage, rather than on the street.”

Nashville is very proud of this nonprofit that nurtures our youth. Check out this teaser of their fall events to find a way that you and your youth might get involved!

THE STATE OF THE WORD WORKSHOPS - Nashville's top spoken word poets facilitate creative writing and spoken word workshops for writers, poets, and emcees between the ages of 15 and 19 during this workshop series..

SPOKES WORKSHOP - Youth writers and organizers come together to prepare and workshop individual and group pieces as well as plan and organize Youth Speaks events. Facilitated by Nashville's top spoken word poets.

SIGMA LAMBDA GAMMA POETRY JAM - A night of music, poetry, and dance featuring Vandy Spoken Word and Youth Speaks poets.

DOING THE RIGHT THING - Youth Speaks poets to perform at this Urban League event in honor of young Middle Tennesseans who are doing the right thing.

AFRICAN STREET FESTIVAL - The African American Cultural Alliance’s phenomenal family-oriented festival celebrating African and African American culture.

SHELBY CLASSIC GOLF SCRAMBLE - This four-person scramble tournament is a benefit for Youth Speaks Nashville.

SOUTHERN FESTIVAL OF BOOKS - Youth Speaks poets to present in the children's and young adults tent.

FESTIVELY LOCAL- Festively Local is a 3 day camping festival celebrating Regional Music, Food and Art benefiting Food Security Partners, Oasis Center, and Youth Speaks Nashville.

For more information on Youth Speaks Nashville and their many events, visit www.youthspeaksnashville.org.