On Wednesday, March 2, HCN Ma’at Youth Leadership Coordinator De’Janay Mathews (DJ) hosted a Social Justice Showcase to highlight, persuade, and inform the community on topics that the youth leaders are passionate about.
The four youth presenters are members of the Ma'at Youth Leadership program at HCN. This program brings in African/African-American/Black identifying transitional age youth from all over the city to receive one-on-one mentorship in academic, employment, and life skills.
HCN host De'Janay Mathews believes that, "to be an informed person in your community is very powerful because you cannot create change if you're uninformed on the issues. Each youth picked a topic that directly affects them/their families."
De’Janay was very impressed by the presentations youth gave and their commitment to educating their community.
The four youth leaders covered topics such as private schools vs. public schools, immigration, the school lottery system, and the importance of families having access to fresh produce. Each speaker gave tangible solutions to the challenges they raised and created a persuasive and informative platform for the community members to digest the information presented.
Ma’at Youth Leadership Coordinator De’Janay Mathews explains, “I think it is important to showcase these topics to the community to allow the youth leaders to get comfortable with public speaking but to also highlight the things we are doing in the program to the greater community.’’
The youth leaders were passionate about their topics and presented with such grace and empathy.
Events like these give Ma’at youth leaders the opportunity to showcase and build up their public speaking, storytelling, advocacy, and research skills.