Q&A
Motivations for youth engaging in subway surfing and program reevaluation
1:53:57
·
129 sec
Council Member Althea Stevens questions DYCD's Jessica Hernandez about youth motivations for subway surfing and how this information is being used to reevaluate programs. Key points include:
- Identified motivations include a sense of belonging, desire for recognition, and peer pressure
- Stevens emphasizes the need to use this information to reassess and improve existing programs
- DYCD is engaging youth to gather new ideas and trends to inform program development
- The discussion highlights the importance of addressing root causes like the need for belonging in prevention efforts.
- There's a focus on updating programs to better meet youth needs and interests.
- DYCD is actively seeking youth input to guide the development of more effective interventions.
Althea Stevens
1:53:57
So I know that you just said that you guys are doing focus groups, to get a better understanding with youth to engage who have been engaging in subway surfing.
1:54:04
What are was the feedback has the agency received about the motivations other than social media that are having these young people, engage in these high risk activities?
Jessica Hernandez
1:54:14
Absolutely.
1:54:15
So as mentioned before, and just to, you know, a sense of belonging, a sense of being able to, belong to a group, belong to a community, being able to, have likes.
1:54:28
And I know that you mentioned social media, but it's likes whether it's social media or any.
1:54:32
Mhmm.
1:54:33
Anyone that can actually say, like, hey.
1:54:35
You're really good at what you're doing and and keep doing it.
1:54:37
So those are the kind of things that we're noticing and we're hearing from, the peer pressure the peer pressure to actually see other folks doing it and figuring that this is what they need to do.
1:54:50
And so these are the kind of things that they've mentioned and they shared with us.
Althea Stevens
1:54:52
And so even just thinking about those things that you're saying, none of them are new or things that we don't know as adults and educators and folks who've worked with kids for a number of years.
1:54:59
So how are we then looking at the programs that we're providing to then reflect that in the programming to ensure that we're trying to at least reach it, because I think some of that is the issue.
1:55:09
Right?
1:55:09
Especially, someone had said at the day is that they are seeing it done during after school hours.
1:55:15
That's when we are at our prime.
1:55:17
Right?
1:55:17
That's when we're supposed to be game time.
1:55:19
So what are we doing to use that information from your, from the from your, from the focus groups to say, maybe we're not hitting the mark anymore in the programs that they don't feel belong, that they're not getting the likes and getting the connection.
1:55:34
So how are we using that to reevaluate some of our programs?
Jessica Hernandez
1:55:37
No.
1:55:37
Absolutely.
1:55:37
And that's that's the key goal, being able to engage all types of youth, to be able to tell us whether or not is there any new ideas?
1:55:46
What are they hearing?
1:55:47
What are those trends?
1:55:48
So we're right now looking, we're speaking to young people.
1:55:51
We are looking into our programs and engaging other folks that are involved in the development to make sure that we are including feedback and ideas and just also engaging other partners that may be able to support in this effort of developing these new programs.
