Narrative Shift: NM Youth are Valuable!
Generation Justice (GJ) was responsible for the creation, design, convening and coordinating of the Narrative Shift Partnership. GJ’s responsibilities included the development or sharing of GJ curriculum in the areas of positive youth development, narrative shift and youth public policy development. The Narrative Shift partnership began in June 2019 for an inaugural year that included planning, recruiting partners, designing structure and working closely with DOH to get contracts out to partners, some of which had not been in the DOH system prior to our efforts.
Our initial design of a media campaign had to be altered as by March 2020, the global pandemic and health crisis hit New Mexico. We altered our plans and continued to build relationships through the time of the pandemic and planned for the possibility of a meeting with the NM Children’s Cabinet made up of key Department Cabinet Secretaries. New Mexico had a very well organized system of addressing the constantly changing needs during the pandemic. This level of organization took the talent and care of everyone in leadership in state government and therefore the meeting with the Cabinet Secretaries was not possible during this time.
On June 22, 2020, we were informed that a second year of funding was available. We again assembled the partnerships and used an asset based approach to include all of the partners in providing training curriculum or training sessions that highlighted the power of including youth in such important issues such as the Census and understanding voting rights. All of these training sessions were designed to culminate in a meeting with the Children’s Cabinet Secretaries.
Accomplishments:
GJ organized, coordinated and facilitated:
- 13 partner meetings
- 25 training sessions
- 1 statewide convening with 4 Cabinet Secretaries from the New Mexico Children’s Cabinet
Attendance for each of GJ’s partners at the full partners’ meetings and the meeting with the Cabinet Secretaries can be found in the table below:
As GJ and the Narrative Shift Partners have organized and presented training to youth participants, we have placed emphasis on addressing and providing education on important issues that will impact young people’s future as well as their day-to-day lived experiences. Below are the training curriculum that have been designed, developed,implemented and shared with the organization’s youth cohorts. GJ and the Narrative Shift Partnership implemented 11 training curricula and conducted 25 training sessions throughout the spring and early summer.
- Yazzie/Martinez v. State of NM. Trainers: VIA Sent to 6 partners. (3 trainings in this reporting period)
- Personal Narrative Trainers: GJ on April 24, 2021. Attended by 6 partners. (1 group training)
- Positive Youth Development Trainers: GJ on June 9, 2021 for 9 partners (1 group training)
- Decolonization & Theoretical Narrative Shift Trainers: GJ on June 9, 2021 for 9 partners (1 group training)
- New Mexico KIDS COUNT Data Analysis Trainers: NM Voices for Children, LAB and the Leadership Institute. (1 group training)
- Preparing a formal presentation to policy makers Implemented by ENLACE, GJ, VIA. (2 Training Sessions)
- 100 Years Timeline: Impact of Policy & COVID on Indigenous communities. Implemented by Leadership Institute on June 23, 2021 for all partners in Partner Training. (1 group training)
- Meeting Etiquette & Protocol Implemented by Steph Poston and GJ on June 23, 2021 for all partners in Partner Training. (1 group training)
- Relationship between Cabinet, Legislature, and Executive Implemented by EQNM and sent out to all partners. (9 training sessions)
- Who Are the Children’s Cabinet Secretaries? Implemented by the Children’s Cabinet (1 group training)
- Practicing communicating on Values and Recommendations Implemented by GJ (4 Training Sessions)