Harrison, thank you for your kind words. I wish that I had written down all of the stories over the years as they happened. You are right that the OST work we did with the youth produced so much more than what I mentioned in my posting to the list. Self esteem grew, conflicts were resolved, street gangs 'left their weapons at the door' and participated in the community centers, and held regular meetings to determine the running of the centers. In other words, the youth started to expend their energies in more life nurturing activities including the running of their community centers.
When they left, they still picked up their weapons for out on the street. But with frequent use of OST meetings, a lot of progress happened. Birgitt Well done Birgitt! And you might tell a little bit more. What I remember from our conversations back in those days is that the kids involved not only came back and talked – but also, and I think this is an important point, seemed to grow in self-esteem. And that, of course is an excellent way to start down the path of self-renewal. Harrison Harrison Owen 7808 River Falls Drive Potomac, Maryland 20845 Phone 301-365-2093 Open Space Training www.openspaceworld.com Open Space Institute www.openspaceworld.org Personal website http://mywebpages.comcast.net/hhowen/index.htm [email protected] To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html -----Original Message----- From: OSLIST [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Birgitt Williams Sent: Saturday, January 03, 2004 11:44 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: coping with drug use Dear Avner, during the 90's we had many many OST meetings with two different groups of youth in the inner city. One group were what are referred to as 'street youth'. The other group were new immigrant youth generally from war torn countries. In both cases, drugs/gangs/violence were significant complex and apparently hopeless issues. We didn't have much success engaging the youth in discussions until we started having OST meetings. We then had a lot of success in keeping the youth talking with us, bringing their concerns to us, and so on as a result of the OST meetings and the follow up we did from those meetings. The professionals in the community were involved in the OST meetings and often were really challenged by the youth to change their way of doing this as professionals to help the youth. We used the OST to reach the youth in a different way as a collective instead of one to one approaches. We did not use the OST as a program to get youth off of drugs. However, from the OST meetings, several youth made decisions to change their lifestyles, developing the will to get themselves out of gangs and off of drugs and so on. We then linked the youth up with professionals and services that could best help them with this specialty area. We referred youth to the 12 step programs including Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous, both of which as you probably know have a good chance of really being helpful with addictions. The OST meetings were 1. a gateway to development of the will on the part of some youth to make changes and 2. provided guidance to professionals and to the youth themselves of different ways of support. Blessings to you and to all with whom you make Genuine Contact, Birgitt Birgitt Williams of Dalar International Consultancy www.dalarinternational.com We provide inspirational and practical “how to” guidance for leaders who want to achieve healthy and balanced organizations to produce exciting, tangible results for the organization and for its people. View the calendar for upcoming training in the Organizational Health and Balance series of workshops featuring the Genuine ContactÔ program at http://www.openspacetechnology.com/training.html We invite you to join the Genuine Contact list serve at http://www.smartgroups.com/groups/genuinecontact Contact information for Dalar International Consultancy: Po Box 19373, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA 27619 Raleigh, North Carolina USA Phone: 919-522-7750 Fax: 919-870-6599 Founders of the Wellness Revolution for Organizations Founders of the International Alliance for Mentoring Creators of the Organizational Health and Balance series of workshops featuring the Genuine ContactÔ program -----Original Message----- From: OSLIST [mailto:[email protected]]On Behalf Of Avner Haramati Sent: Saturday, January 03, 2004 11:57 AM To: [email protected] Subject: coping with drug use Dear colleagues A small city in Israel (about 50,000 people) is interested in the use of OS on the issue of coping with overuse of drugs, especially among the youth. The local agencies and the educational system feel quite helpless. Do any of you have an actual experience with this kind of OS? Avner Haramati Jerusalem * * ========================================================== [email protected] ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of [email protected], Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html * * ========================================================== [email protected] ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of [email protected], Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html * * ========================================================== [email protected] ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of [email protected], Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. 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