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This is an introduction and preface to
the FireStarter Youth Power Program, written in 2001 by Adam Fletcher.
 Too often, the information
that young people, educators, and youth workers need to strengthen
their work is kept behind lock and key. Those barriers have to
do with accessibility: whether its money, or training, or energy,
creating empowering, enlivening experiences for young people is tough
for some.
The Freechild Project
introduces the FireStarter Youth Power Guidebook here in HTML for the
world to see and use. This is not a definitive document, an
all-encompassing resource or a complete testament. More
accurately it would be described as a learning tool for its creator,
Adam Fletcher. Adam used this guidebook with more than three
hundred youth in 2000-2001 in Washington state and the province of
Alberta, Canada.
Make sure you visit the
homepage of the
FireStarter Youth Power Curriculum. The
Facilitator's
Guide is very useful, as are the instructions for a dozen more
activities you can use to empower young people to lead social change. For more
information on facilitating the FireStarter Youth Power Curriculum,
please write to
info@freechild.org.
Preface
This guidebook is
designed to be a hands-on, interactive tool. You will read the
examples of young people from across North America who are solving
serious problems in their communities TODAY. There are descriptions
of activities you can do with your friends to help inspire them to do
something. Included are action planning forms to help guide you in
your effort to change our world. At the end of the Firestarter
Handbook you’ll find a list of resources that can inspire and educate
everyone on how to help our world, including organizations and
websites that YOUth and adults can use.
Young people have
an incredible energy and vitality that can be embraced to promote
social change. By promoting young peoples’ self-awareness and
capacity for leadership, communities can encourage Youth Voice and
involvement in decision making and problem solving activities.
All Firestarter
participants will develop a social change project during the
Firestarter workshop, and are encouraged to implement it immediately.
These project proposals will be presented to other participants, and
collaboration will be encouraged for success. The key elements of
these projects will be compiled and distributed as key elements for
positive social change in our communities and world.
The Firestarter
Series was created with a group of young people in 1997. The first
program focused on teamwork and problem-solving skills, the second on
social responsibility and personal involvement. Firestarter will
encourage young people to solve serious social problems through
effective skill building that incorporates multiple learning styles
and a highly interactive workshop format. By applying progressive
education methods (including experiential teaching methods and
service-learning), I believe young people can be empowered to change
the course of negative outcomes that await bored, uninspired and
apathetic youth. Firestarter employs those methods, and veers away
from over-simplified “pizza-box” youth programming.
Through hands-on
support and applicable education, young people can change the world
they live in. Firestarter participants will develop a meaningful and
realistic Action Plan to start making a difference in their community
and world. But that is just a spark. You’ve gotta spread the flame!
Adam Fletcher
Olympia,
Washington, USA
June 2001
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