Hi Trystan,
The Natural History Museum of Utah has a 25-year-old program focused on near-peer mentoring -- Youth Teaching Youth -- for ethnically diverse, low income middle and high school students. This year we have also piloted a Teen Explainers program, which draws from a much wider geographic area and involves teens in engaging visitors at the museum.
I would be happy to talk to you more about these programs as you research program models.
Working with teens is the best!
Linda
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Linda Aaron
Youth Development Programs Coordinator
Natural History Museum of Utah - University of Utah
Salt Lake City UT
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Original Message:
Sent: 02-27-2019 12:57 PM
From: Trystan Popish
Subject: Teen Volunteer Programs
Hi everyone,
I work with our teen volunteers here at Denver Botanic Gardens and am looking for some advice. We currently have a summer program and a teen advisory board/leadership group, but we're reaching the point where we should evaluate what comes next.
I'm doing some bench-marking to figure out what's already out there and what directions we could potentially go with our program. Does anyone either have at their institution or know of some amazing teen programs elsewhere? Or have ideas they haven't seen in action but think would be particularly great?
Any pointers (or pitfalls to avoid) would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Trystan
P.S. A summary of our current teen volunteer programs can be found on our website if anyone is interested: https://www.botanicgardens.org/teen-volunteer-programs
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Trystan Popish
Volunteer Coordinator
Denver Botanic Gardens
Denver, CO
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