Here is
a special guest post from Taylor Kuyk-White, Youth Bike Education and
Empowerment Program Coordinator at Neighborhood Bike Works in
Philadelphia:
Philadelphia
is a city that loves bicycles--to commute, to exercise, to recreate, to
socialize--the list is about as diverse as the population that uses them. Among
the myriad bike shops in the city, Neighborhood Bike Works is a
favorite of Philadelphia's youth. That's because Neighborhood Bike Works is no
ordinary bike shop. Neighborhood Bike Works (NBW) is a place where youth become
self-sufficient mechanics, traffic savvy riders, and young leaders.
A nonprofit
community organization, NBW uses bikes as the hook to engage young people in
building skills and developing healthy habits that support them in and outside
of their passion for all things two wheels. We do this work with young people
in a multi-tiered layer of programs we call our Youth Bike Education and
Empowerment Program. Youth ages 8-18 can join any one of our entry level
programs (Earn A Bike, Ride Club, and more) to than have access to many
graduate and advanced level programs that revolve around activities like
racing, kinetic sculpture building, weekend open wrenching, and many, many
more.
One of
these advanced tier programs is our Leadership and Advance Mechanics Course. In
this class, youth ages 14-18 crystallize professional mechanic skills, practice
public speaking, build networks with bicycle industry professionals, learn
valuable teaching methods, and get some real life job interview experience all
over the course of eight weeks. During the 2016 graduation of this course that
took place in early March, youth reflected on how many job opportunities had
opened to them in the bicycle world that they never would have dreamed existed.
Nasir
shared, "When I came to Neighborhood Bike Works I wanted to train to
become a bicycle mechanic. I thought that was all you could do as a job with
bikes. Now I realize there is a lot more out there—engineers, city planners,
bicycle coaches—and I know the people in those fields that could help me build
a career in that direction."
Beyond
networking and professional development, one of our keystone programs was one
dreamt up and implemented by the youth of NBW themselves: the Youth Council.
This core group of young leaders prides themselves as the youth voice of the
organization, collaborating with the wider graduate network to ensure that
NBW's values, goals, and decisions are consistently aligned with those of the
NBW youth body. The inspiration for the council was gained by four NBW teens in
2014 when they attended the annual Youth Bike Summit (YBS) in NYC.
Unsurprisingly, participating in the YBS has become an important annual
tradition for this group. This year they are gearing up to lead a presentation
at the YBS walking their audience through their process for setting up a
successful youth council!
As the
Youth Council Advisor, I have often found myself pulling upon the insights I
gained from my work with One Street in 2010 and 2011. In both years I had the
privilege to attend an international advocacy conference called Velo-city. The
value and pure magic of participating in those summits lends great motivation
to my work with the youth council as they prepare themselves for the Youth Bike
Summit year after year. Further to the benefit of supporting the Youth Council,
I was able to attend the Velo-city conferences only through my efforts on two
years of creative fundraising and sponsorship drives. As you might imagine,
these youth now have also gained important skills as fundraisers and event
coordinators in service of their own goals!
In the
end, NBW is not about one-way teaching of youth. Instead, we guide these
incredible young people into the skills they need to become teachers and
leaders no matter where they go from here. Neighborhood Bike Works aims to
outgrow the all too common youth service model and step into a generation of
Youth Led work. The outstanding members of our Youth Council are helping us
take one more step in this direction!