Design Your Future Proposal Underway

The 2021 Design Your Future Fellowship was a lesson in youth leadership. 58 young people from around the city came together to learn about their own power and brainstorm ideas to improve high school for Black male youth.

This year, implementation coordinator David Emmanuelle Castillo of Equitable Systems Consultants took these outstanding youth-generated ideas and consolidated them into three proposals. Proposal 1 aims to make mental health a standard practice in schools, while Proposals 2 and 3 will provide wraparound supports and create an autonomous youth council.

At the September 28 Youth Forward MKE Coalition Meeting, Strategic Initiatives Manager Clintel Hasan provided an update on the status of the proposals.

Thanks in part to a $25,000 Violence Prevention Grant from the Greater Milwaukee Foundation, Proposal 1 is officially underway! The funding was awarded to Sky Schools, who have been tasked with piloting the proposal at North Division and Pathways High Schools this fall. Through the project, they’ll be creating targeted mentoring and mental health curriculum aimed at improving the lives of Black boys and boys of color.

Delonta Henderson, a current Youth Forward MKE Ambassador who participated in the Design Your Future Fellowship, shared his thoughts on what it meant to be part of the fellowship and how it feels to see his ideas in action.

“Part of the proposal was one of my suggestions,” he said. “To know that one of my suggestions is actually being implemented and is going to help youth in the city, it makes me happy.”

Couldn’t make the Coalition meeting? No worries! Catch up on the action here.