Thanks to this week’s issue of the Chester Spirit, I finally got an answer why the 6th Annual Youth Empowerment Summit was cancelled.
Actually, someone did tell me it was due to the recent violence in town, but that answer didn’t sit well with me since the Youth Empowerment Summit is all about everything that’s good with Chester’s youth and the organizations that support them.
Now that I read that Ieasa Nichols-Harmon’s daughter was one of the shooting victims, I understand how impossible it would be to focus on arranging such a large event scheduled only a few weeks away.
My only hope, is that as her daughter heals, and life gets back to normal for the people involved, that we can still stage the Youth Empowerment Summit in the future.
To not have a Youth Summit, even if someone else has to take the lead, is akin to giving in to the bad guys. We should not let that happen.
I'm not familiar with ms Harmon but my prayers are with her and her family.
ReplyDeleteCanceling an event such as this especially for this reason is unfortunate yet typical. We don't seem to contingency plan very well. There should be at least two ppl in place who are familiar with the program and can step up to lead. Backups. Assistant program directors.
I wonder where the civil rights movement would be if everyone has just given up when Dr. King was killed?
Wow! And I thought I was tough. How do you sympathize with someone while letting them have it. Tough Love!
ReplyDeleteI agree with 4:02am. One would expect that a program with so much support would not have to pull up lame as a result of one person's tragedy. However, so many organizations are run by that single person with a huge passion and endless energy. It is hard to find good help and sometimes individuals take on the whole load just to get the job done right. Unless you build in a contingency plan, or a succession plan, these things happen. Hopefully, they've learned a lesson and others will be groomed to keep the program going.
ReplyDelete12:36 p.m., that wasn't an assessment of ms. Harmon. It was more of generalization of us and how we have come to work. Succession planning and contingency planning are standard PREPARATION parts of any organization.
ReplyDeleteThat is, we are not supposed to launch any initiative until that plan is in place. As a matter of fact, it is usually part of an orgs bylaws.
We don't do contingency plans, we don't do by laws, we don't do wills....it is just frustrating that we keep having to start all over in our movement instead of building.
In any case, I hope they get a chance to reschedule the event. It is too bad that the youths won't get a chance to empower themselves in this area as far as crime is concerned. It would seem that with so many of them being killed that they need a voice on this subject. We should hear what our future leaders have to say about their own future.
ReplyDeleteThe Summit was not cancelled. It was postponed. The hope is to conduct the Summit on another date. This tragedy did not affect one person, one family. It affected an entire community. Unfortunately, the misdeeds of one impacted many, again. When will our young people learn that negative actions have consequences. I hope this summer will be peaceful so that our children can have opportunities to have fun. Being locked down in a state of emergency will ruin the summer for many, especially our young people.
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