W is for What Kids Can Do

by mike on January 21st in Choosing To Be Positive

Barbara Cervone and Kathleen Cushman co-founded the non profit organisation What Kids Can Do in 2001.

The video above highlights some of Barbara’s work that led to here winning the Encore Purpose Prize. You can discover more about Kathleen’s work via the following link.

http://firesinthemind.org/

Below are excerpts from the What Kids Can Do website. This contains a vast resource of materials for encouraging and enabling young people to shape their futures. You can discover more via the following link.

http://www.whatkidscando.org/

Who We Are

SEE OUR 5-MINUTE FLASH PRESENTATION, “WKCD: 10 YEARS AND COUNTING!”

Based in Providence, R.I., What Kids Can Do (WKCD) is a national nonprofit founded in 2001 by an educator and a journalist with more than 60 years combined experience supporting adolescent learning in and out of school.

Using digital, print, and broadcast media, WKCD presses before the broadest audience possible a dual message: the power of what young people can accomplish when given the opportunities and supports they need and what they can contribute when we take their voices and ideas seriously.

The youth who concern WKCD most are those marginalized by poverty, race, and language, ages 12 to 22.

While other organizations share WKCD’s message and commitments, our strategies and style are unique.

We view young people as active collaborators in every phase of our work.

We bring local stories, voices, and resources to international attention and vice versa.

We speak to influential adults and young people alike. We document the good work of others as well as sponsoring our own projects.

We bring a thirst for peace and justice to all of our pursuits.

Resources

WKCD provides many resources for young people and adults. Below is a video called Ned’s GR8 8: An Insider’s Guide to the Teenage Brain. Here is the introduction.

In this funny and fast-paced 6-minute “NED talk,” a hand-drawn adolescent brain – complete with backpack, zits, and a journal he keeps about school – knocks out eight powerful conditions of learning, from feeling okay to planning next steps.

The messages that Ned gives are that a young person learns best when the following things are in place.

I feel okay. It matters. It’s active. It stretches me. I have a coach. I have to use it. I think back on it. I plan my next steps.

Other Ventures

In 2005, WKCD launched its own publishing company, Next Generation Press, which develops and distributes books with youth voice at their center. Next Generation Press has published over 15 books (with over 150,00 copies in print).

In addition, WKCD develops books for publication by other publishers.

Two books, Fires in the Bathroom: Advice for Teachers from High School Students (The New Press, 2003) and Fires in the Mind: What Kids Can Tell Us About Motivation and Mastery (Jossey-Bass, 2010), both by Kathleen Cushman, have been best sellers in teacher education.

In the fall of 2010, WKCD began its Center for Youth Voice in Policy and Practice, a virtual center that showcases the power of youth as researchers, knowledge creators, and activists – real contributors to public discussions about policy and practice.

WKCD also works with youth internationally on photo documentary/photo essay projects in: Bangalore and Delhi, India; the Czech Republic; Beijing; Ethiopia; Hungary; Japan; London; Romania; South Africa.

Our youth collaborators have included Afro-Caribbean and Muslim immigrants in London, teenage slum dwellers in Delhi, and gypsy youth in Romania.

Meet WKCD staff and consultants