Welcome to Innovate, the Innovation Center for Community and Youth Development’s newsletter highlighting promising practices in youth and community development.

What do you see?

This edition is about seeing—not just looking, but truly seeing. We may walk by the same old shops, houses and people everyday, looking at them without really seeing them. Sometimes, taking the time to look deeply—using our minds as well as our eyes-- allows us to see things in a whole new light.

For example, on a bright sunny day how many stars do you see? The stars are still there—you just can’t see them with your eyes- yet if you think about it for a minute, you know they are there- hidden by the sunshine. You don’t need to wait for nightfall to see them.

The same holds true for our communities and our young people. Sometimes we need to look beyond the surface to see the untapped potential. We may walk by a group of kids in the neighborhood without stopping to see that they are eager for opportunities to be constructive. We may drive through a town that appears worn at the edges, limited in services, lacking spirit, without seeing the incredible potential for a vibrant and active community. Seeing is believing—because what you see is what you get.

Inside this issue there are many examples of people who chose to see things differently. In the course of doing so, they are changing the view for countless others.

Coastal Futures, a 4-H program in Northwest Oregon, is training young people and adults to define and achieve a new vision for their communities plagued by high unemployment and poverty that often goes unnoticed, overshadowed by the strikingly beautiful Pacific coast.

An article on community-based youth engagement offers practical tips for adults working with young people, which requires looking at them in a whole new way.

Lucinda Garthwaite wrote about how the Innovation Center’s Building Community tool kit enabled her to see the problems in her town in a whole new way. It also gave her the tools to organize her neighbors, involve people of all ages and look at old problems in new—and more productive—ways.

Also in this newsletter, you’ll find a special promotion for the Innovation Center’s Reflect and Improve tool kit. It offers practical tools for engaging youth and adults in program evaluation.

Enjoy this edition of Innovate. I hope it helps you start seeing things differently.

Wendy Wheeler