June 30, 2014
#CANFIT20: From Seed to Salad - Growing Youth as Leaders
How do we help young people attain livable wages in food and fitness careers? Executive Director Arnell Hinkles shares her struggles and what she senses as opportunities.
By Arnell Hinkle
Over the past 20 years CANFIT has worked with an amazing assortment of young people – all from low-income, communities of color, and all passionate about their health and the health of their families and friends. Many of these young people are not/were not destined for college. I have been struggling with how we can do more to assist these young people in attaining careers that pay a livable wage and honor their experiences in community health planning, urban gardening, youth advocacy and physical activity programming. Towards that end, I recently co-facilitated a workshop, entitled From Seeds to Salad: Growing Youth as Leaders at the WK Kellogg Food and Community Gathering in Detroit.
During the workshop, 15 participants from all over the country who were interested in providing youth with career opportunities discussed the types of skills and program supports needed in their communities to get young people that have been engaged in food and fitness work onto career tracks. We realized that a great deal of advocacy is needed to ensure that young people involved in youth action and community food and fitness projects have opportunities to learn skills that will increase their employability, and are exposed to networks and contacts that can lead to jobs at places like food hubs and distribution centers, transportation and planning offices, park and rec centers and restaurants.
CANFIT is working on a concept paper and set of guiding principles about youth career pipelines for organizations that engage youth in food and fitness projects. If you are interested in receiving the youth career pipeline document or being a part of the conversation, let us know at: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
#CANFIT20 celebrates CANFIT’s 20-year anniversary with a monthly blog on the 20th day of each month beginning in August 2013 and other blogs, tweets, and social media posts on history tid-bits on CANFIT’s journey to helping low-income communities strive for healthy eating and physical activity environments. Worked with CANFIT before? Share your stories and thoughts in our 20th Anniversary Assessment today and have your chance at a monthly drawing for a CANFIT gift box valued at $200!
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