The Voices Program
Expanding Youth + Family Voice: Joint Initiatives (JI) works to direct community-wide family and youth engagement efforts to ensure JI and/or partners utilize effective approaches to support a community where children, youth, and their families achieve their desired outcomes.
Program Overview
The Voices Program ensures that JI’s and our partners’ services are guided by youth and family voices. Towards these ends, the program promotes effective approaches such as racial equity, restorative justice, and two-generational programming, to support a community where children, youth, and their families achieve their desired outcomes.
PURPOSE
The purpose of the Voices Program is to ensure that the voice of youth and families who receive services both inform and guide JI’s and its partners’ efforts.
Expanding Family Voice
Joint Initiatives (JI) works to direct community-wide family and youth engagement efforts to ensure JI and/or partners utilize effective approaches to support a community where children, youth, and their families achieve their desired outcomes.
Centering around Youth and Families in our Community
JI is passionate about the role youth and families have in determining their destiny and allowing them to not only survive, but thrive.
JI’s Voices program centers its efforts on building a thriving community of children, youth, and families on key elements, including:
JI employs Youth + Family Advocates as part of its commitment to ensuring the expansion of youth and family voice.
JI’s commitment to Racial Equity includes continual work towards achieving annual Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Goals.
JI builds community connection through conversation by offering information on Practice Circles and Peer Support Circles.
Frequently asked questions
Giving young people a voice in those things that impact their lives, including school or programs, empowers them and makes them feel like they belong, they are valued, and their contributions matter. These feelings of competency also help youth fully engage and develop team-building and leadership skills.
Many people speak with their voice every day — to talk to people, to communicate their needs and wants — but the idea of “voice” goes much deeper. Having a voice gives an individual a sense of agency and power, allows for the expression of beliefs, and creates meaningful dialogue during decision-making processes.
DEI refers to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.
Diversity includes all the ways in which people differ, and it encompasses all the different characteristics that make one individual or group different from another.
Inclusion is an active, intentional, and ongoing engagement with diversity, which authentically brings traditionally excluded individuals and/or groups into processes, activities, and decision/policy making in a way that shares power.
Equity assures conditions exist for optimal access and opportunity for all people, with a particular focus on promoting policies, practices, and procedures that do not advantage one group of people over others.
Inclusion in the workplace is one of the most important keys to retention. Employees are more likely to remain with organizations that value their ideas, presence, and contributions.
Equality is about sameness or uniformity, while equity addresses universal fairness. When systems are built on equality, they assume that everyone is starting from the same point. Equity assures conditions exist for optimal access and opportunity for all people, acknowledging people have different needs and circumstances.
Allyship is critical to fostering an inclusive culture.
The right policies alone cannot shift culture. It’s critical that employees become part of the cause. That’s where allyship comes in. Research shows allies don’t just influence one person at a time. They inspire others to act as change agents, too, creating a culture of acceptance and support. Simply put, allyship is a powerful force for good.
But here’s the problem: Many employees are not showing up as allies.
While a majority of employees think of themselves as allies, relatively few white employees are performing basic allyship actions, such as advocating for racial equity or mentoring women of color. Allyship at Work helps to bridge this gap by helping employees at every level of your organization identify specific ways they can take action to make a meaningful impact.
Each family has unique needs and our Family Support Line offers assistance in navigating the many resources available to families with young children.
Call us at 719.205.2691 to:
- Get connected to parenting events, workshops, and classes
- Find child care
- Receive support to navigate resources in El Paso County
- Learn more about early intervention services or Child Find
- Receive a copy of our Community Resource Directory
- Learn about kindergarten transition and get connected to school readiness resources
Share our Family Support Line Flyer with others!