Youth Forward MKE’s Fall Meeting Dives into Data

Youth Forward MKE’s fall coalition meeting on September 27 dove headfirst into data, exploring the struggles our youth are currently facing and uplifting solutions that have proven effective in addressing them.

“There’s no story without data, and there’s no data without story,” shared Amy Rohan of Data You Can Use. “Behind every chart you see, every time you read some statistics, that's somebody's life behind there.”

The data shared during the meeting provided a meaningful glimpse into the stories happening all around us. Particularly, Data You Can Use shined a light on the stories of Black youth, SKY Schools illuminated how their curriculum is creating change, and our own Youth Forward MKE Ambassadors revealed what they’ve learned so far from their conversations with local youth and community members.

Data You Can Use

Attendees view sheets of data during Youth Forward MKE’s summering meeting.

Data You Can Use is a “small but mighty” team that aims to advance community access to data and to the skills needed to drive data-informed and equitable decision-making in Milwaukee. A recent report in the journal Child Trends around Black youth achievement in the US inspired them to create their own report, which shines a local lens on important trends and struggles impacting Milwaukee’s Black youth.

The report is based on eight data chats – small, focused conversations similar to focus groups – which were held this past April. Sixty individuals participated, conversing on struggles, solutions and meaningful next steps. The resulting themes have been compiled in a 20-page data report created for partners and the larger community to use.

“One of the themes – and perhaps this surprises nobody – but this was just so strongly elevated in all of the data chats was mental health,” said Amy. “And the main thing…is that there's a real lack of culturally competent care. There have to be more Black therapists. There have to be more people that Black youth truly want to talk to.”

Reducing the stigma surrounding mental health – particularly in Black youth – is also important. Despite COVID shining a light on the need for open discussion on the subject, many Black youth still don’t feel free to talk about the matter and their needs openly.

Other trends included a dip in Black students pursuing traditional college degrees, but a rise in technical college enrollment and entrepreneurship. The idea of Black resiliency was also strong, yet so was the idea that negative narratives still represent a real barrier to their success.

Data You Can Use was quick to say that this is only the beginning. Now that they’ve found these common threads, it’s time to dig deeper and discover what’s needed in Milwaukee.

SKY Schools

SKY Schools’ Matt Nink and Susan Ramsundarsingh at the summer Youth Forward MKE meeting.

SKY Schools’ Susan Ramsundarsingh started off with a question: “Imagine if you went into the world fearlessly being your natural self. How inspiring would that be and what type of change would you see?”

The SKY Schools curriculum aims to help students and teachers to do just that: show up and bravely be themselves in whatever space they inhabit. By applying physical activity, breathing and cognitive tools, participants are able to reduce their stress, boost their social-emotional learning and even change ingrained behaviors.

Susan came armed with an arsenal of data to show just how powerful this curriculum can be. Across three different high schools in L.A., for instance, all students using this curriculum showed a decrease in impulsivity and an increase in empathy. In a separate study through the neuroscience department at UCLA, participants demonstrated a significant decrease in anxiety and fear. In Milwaukee in particular, they’ve found a consistent decrease in school violence, ranging from 55%-90%.

Altogether, SKY Schools showed that they’ve been able to move the need on serious youth issues like bullying, depression and anxiety, while boosting self-efficacy, coping and problem-solving skills, self-awareness and emotional regulation. Even educators and parents benefit from the program, reporting better sleep, more energy and an increased ability to remain calm in stressful situations.

“We're always hesitant to ask people to give three days, two and a half hours a day of their time to do the program,” said Susan. “And yet when they do the program, the most consistent regret is that they didn't do it sooner.”

The SKY Schools curriculum is an integral part of Design Your Future Proposal 1, which seeks to make mental health a standard practice in schools. This year, it was piloted at North Division and Pathways high schools, with the hope of expanding it to other schools in the next few years.

“We are excited to continue to promote this work and expand it into more high schools and ensure that more students, more young people, more adults and folks who work with our youth have access to these techniques so that we can all benefit from their positive impact,” said Clintel Hasan, Milwaukee Succeeds’ strategic initiatives manager.

Community Listening Sessions

Youth Ambassadors gather feedback from the community at the summer Youth Forward MKE meeting.

Since this spring, the Youth Forward MKE Ambassadors have been engaging with youth, community and other partners to discuss what and how students should be learning and who they should be learning it from. Their goal is to utilize the feedback to inform the structure and programming for the Autonomous Youth Council, part of Design Your Future Proposal 3.

Ambassador Tailus Rush shared the main themes that have emerged through these conversations.

“Many people believe that students should learn life skills. And the second runner up for that question was emotional and mental wellness,” he shared. “As for how they’re learning…students should learn through experiences such as hands-on activities and field trips. And for the who should students learn from…people wanted to learn from subject matter experts. They also want to learn from peers in their overall community.”

Not only did the Ambassadors share what they’ve learned from the community, but they also discussed what they’ve learned about the process and how those lessons are shaping their efforts.

According to Ambassador Kaylee Marsh, the youth leading these sessions have learned to be adaptable and innovative in the way they collect responses. Most importantly, though, they’ve learned that “the community is eager to see a radical shift away from traditional classrooms and instruction.”