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About Adam Fletcher

 

Adam Fletcher (Sasse) is the founder and coordinator of The Freechild Project. An internationally recognized expert in youth engagement, Adam works with organizations and communities as they recognize the changing roles of young people throughout society.

 

Born in Calgary, Alberta, Adam grew up in North Omaha, Nebraska. As a youth Adam was instrumental in starting a local youth-driven environmental campaign as well as a community youth council for the low-income, predominately African American neighborhood where he lived. His early experiences teaching other young people about theater and nature drew Adam towards youth work; opportunity and privilege kept him in the field. Over the next ten years Adam worked in his own neighborhood, in Lincoln, Nebraska, in Alberta, Canada, and then in Olympia, Washington as a teacher/naturalist, after-school program coordinator, independent living skills instructor, ropes challenge course director and youth center coordinator.

 

During that time Adam also served three terms in the AmeriCorps national service program. While serving in Nebraska he developed a mentoring program for Kurdish and Iraqi refugee students; in Washington State he operated a ropes challenge course on the Hood Canal for students from a transitioning military community and low-income areas of Tacoma; and in Taos, New Mexico Adam was an AmeriCorps Leader, supporting Members as they implemented service learning programs in area K-12 schools.

 

In 2000 Adam became a Youth Engaged in Service (YES) Ambassador at the Washington State Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI). The position was part of a fellowship program operated by the Washington, D.C.-based Points of Light Foundation. After completing the program Adam became OSPI's first Student Engagement Specialist.

 

Responding to the perceived lack of access many youth and youth workers exclaimed regarding resources to engage youth in their communities, Adam worked with a group of friends and colleagues across the United States to found The Freechild Project in 2001. The popular Freechild website launched shortly thereafter, and Adam started providing training and technical assistance as well.

 

Adam received his BA in cultural studies from The Evergreen State College in 2001. He completed the FireStarter Youth Empowerment Curriculum in that year, as well. In 2003 he co-authored the first edition of the Freechild Project Guide to Cooperative Games for Social Change with Kari Kunst, Freechild's education coordinator. In 2005 Adam co-authored the Guide to Social Change Led By and with Young People with Freechild intern Joe Vavrus. In 2005 Adam also became a contributing editor to the Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies, an academic journal published by Routledge.

 

Late in 2005 Adam worked with a group of educators, youth workers, and researchers to found CommonAction, a national nonprofit organization focused on youth engagement in schools and communities. He is currently the Executive Director, working with schools, youth organizations, foundations, and government agencies to provide training, technical assistance, and tools focused on youth engagement throughout society.

 

In 2006 Adam authored the Washington Youth Voice Handbook, published by CommonAction. He is also continuing to pursue his Masters in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies from the University of Washington. Since 2001 Adam has worked with more than 500 community-based organizations, government agencies, K-12 schools and districts, and universities to design, implement, sustain, critically examine and re-envision their approaches to youth engagement. He has traveled across the U.S. and Canada, to Brazil, Scotland and the United Kingdom to provide workshops and keynote speeches, and publications have been cited around the world.

 

Adam is currently completing the SoundOut Student Voice Curriculum.

 

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