In partnership with College Now, a free CUNY dual-enrollment program that allows New York City high school students to earn college credits before graduation, the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office hosted its fourth annual Youth Summit on June 4 at New York City College of Technology in downtown Brooklyn.
For the first time since its inception, the summit, titled “Where Are You? A GPS Roadmap for Your Life,†was entirely youth-led. Nine youth ambassadors with the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office coordinated the forum from conception through planning and execution.
Lawrence Washington, director of  the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office's multimedia department, said the summit was the culmination of eight months of collaboration during which participants identified the root causes of verbal and physical conflicts based on their lived experiences and developed de-escalation tools and techniques.
“We came together once a month and talked about what they wanted to create a workshop about, and as they were creating that, we thought, ‘Why don't we let them be the people who are leading the youth summit?†Washington told Brooklyn Paper. “We do this youth summit every year, and while it's great for young people to hear from adults, what better way than for them to bring this work that they've been working on and what they've been creating to other young people?â€
The youth ambassadors — Massaigur Gordon-Browne, Savannah Parks, Cameron Harper, Henry Solmo-Brewer, Asil Ravshanov, Madison Powers, Mary Lanier, Amiyah Greenidge-Best and Mahnoor Ahmed — said the summit's workshops focused on social-emotional learning and conflict resolution.
They said the youth-led format encouraged peers to share lived experiences and explore pathways for personal growth and leadership during breakout sessions focused on navigating life's challenges and building foundations for mental, physical and spiritual well-being.
“We want the students to feel vulnerable, and we want them to be truthful, that's the whole idea of there being youth leading the youth, is allowing them to have that safe space,†Mahnoor Ahmed, a freshman at Brooklyn College, said. “Just having that space where they feel comfortable, because it's not always comfortable to talk to adults, it may be intimidating, so that's kind of where we come in.â€
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Seventeen-year-old Mary Lanier said the brainstorming sessions also helped youth ambassadors develop their own tools for navigating challenges.
“[We] also kind of found ourselves and kind of understood how we can navigate this and how we can find our own tools, and I think that's why it's so impactful that we are youth teaching youth, because we've had to work through this ourselves,†Mary said. “So I think that vulnerability that hopefully we can really find today is what will make this impactful.â€
One strategy young people can use is stepping back when tensions are high, Cameron Harper said.
“I think it's important when you feel like tensions are high with someone, and like a conflict is going to escalate, I think taking a step back from the situation, or having a clear mind, is very important, because you want to be rational so that the conflict doesn't escalate,†he said.
Leslie “Buttaflysoul†Taylor, a trainer and curriculum coordinator for Momentum Education Teen Basic whose work focuses on social and emotional learning, partnered with KCDA to support the youth ambassadors in developing the summit's curriculum.
Taylor told Brooklyn Paper that through the process he learned the importance of honoring every voice and giving people time to process.
“It's always fun when the people in the room respect each other, right? Like it's something about when humanity is with humanity, there's not a whole lot of need, a whole lot of need to negotiate. We're out, we're actually just together navigating this road map called life together. I never stand in front of young people thinking I'm the authority; I always show up as the student,†Taylor said.
The Youth Summit is part of the Brooklyn  District Attorney's Office's youth initiative, which provides internships, leadership development, anti-bullying education, career exploration and violence prevention efforts.
Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez emphasized the importance of youth engagement through initiatives such as the Youth Ambassador Program, encouraging young people to achieve collective success.
“We want to make sure that public safety is a lot about not just enforcement, but prevention, and this is the greatest age group to talk to, making sure that they feel supported,†Gonzalez told Brooklyn Paper, noting that it was as important to listen to the concerns of young people as adults.
“If we want to keep our city safe, listening to what young people tell us are their priorities and what they feel they need to feel safe, and also how to keep them out of trouble, and when you keep young people engaged, and you keep them motivated, and you give them something to shoot for,†Gonzalez said. “When you put these supports in place [for] young people, especially when they're in high school, it gives them the encouragement to think that they can achieve something, and they can go to college.â€
