The Malibu Foundation for Youth and Families will host a leadership summit for the city’s youth the end of April as one of several events to inspire and empower teens.
By Olivia Damavandi / Staff Writer
The Boys and Girls Club, a recreation and mentorship center in cities nationwide for children of all ages, has recently launched “Be Great,” a national campaign intended to inspire and empower teens by connecting them to their passions. To accompany the campaign, the Boys and Girls Club of Malibu Teen Center has organized a number of local events that will take place through fall to help inspire teens and increase their community involvement.
Kasey Earnest, chief professional officer of what is known as The Club, said in an interview last week that the “Be Great” campaign will be especially effective in Malibu due to complaints that a lack of recreational and career-oriented resources for teens has contributed to heightened drug use amongst some youth. The campaign, she said, will help direct their career paths, inspire and connect them to the community.
“We are working to change the image of kids in the community,” Earnest said. “I think the majority of the community would agree that teens generally have a negative image, that they don’t get employed by local businesses and don’t take things seriously.
“Kids in this community are very privileged and that can stifle their goals,” she continued. “When kids are empowered they are inspired to do more.”
Daniel Stern, president of the Malibu Foundation for Youth and Families, a local nonprofit organization that founded the Boys and Girls Club Malibu Teen Center, said the theme of the national campaign and the local events is to help youths rise up and fulfill their potential.
“There are problems in the community but the campaign is about positivity,” Stern said in an interview last week. “There are possible dangers of living in a privileged community like Malibu, but there is also a lot of potential [in its youths].
We are focused on the direction, focus and opportunity to make their lives, the community and the world a better place.”
The events that will take place are diverse, Earnest said, but serve the same purpose: to provide opportunities for teens to become more actively involved in the community, and to inspire them to explore how they, too, can “be great.”
The events include a program called “Be Connected Through Laughter” which will take place March 27, that teaches the power of laughter through numerous creative exercises such as improvised acting, a performance by the Element skateboard team, who will also deliver a drug-free message of empowerment, and a teen skateboarding competition on April 24.
Additionally, the Malibu Foundation for Youth and Families will host a leadership summit on April 30 to create a plan to better the community by utilizing, involving and empowering teens.
“We do believe they are our community’s most under-utilized resource,” Earnest said. “They’ll be involved in the summit from greeting the guests to participating in discussions. What we’re trying to do is be the bridge for teens to have alternative options.”
Stern said the construction of a teen center, with a job bank, internship opportunities and seminars by qualified guest speakers about how to advance certain career paths, would also be discussed at the leadership summit to help inform the community and get its input.
Stern also mentioned “Career Launch,” a program created by the Boys and Girls Club and the Malibu Chamber of Commerce that teaches high school students to write resumes and interview for jobs found within the city and its surrounding areas. The program has been in operation for a number of years and has taken place on a once-a-year basis, but Stern said he would like to expand it and make it “permanent and ongoing.”
“It [Career Launch] is a beautiful program because the kids learn what the real world is like and their employers get to know what the kids of Malibu are like,” Stern said. “We want them to be adults, they want to be adults. The best thing we can do is to start them on the path of responsible adulthood, and being on the workforce is the real world.”
A location for the potential teen center has not yet been decided but council members at previous meetings this year have mentioned the renovated Malibu Public Library, the expanded Michael Landon Center at Bluffs Park and the recently vacated Coldwell Banker building (on the corner of Pacific Coast Highway and Webb Way) as possible venues, he said.
Earnest and Stern said the city is “100 percent supportive” and wants to be involved with the campaign, but the financial aspects of its support have not yet been determined.