R-E-S-P-E-C-T
Youth Frontiers Challenges Edina Students to think before they act
EDINA Magazine, January 2007
By Julie Pfitzinger
Youth Frontiers founder and CEO Joe Cavanaugh has one straightforward and ambitious vision for school children: Change the way young people treat each other in every hallway, lunch line and classroom in every school in America.
Cavanaugh put this idea into action when he established the Minneapolis-based nonprofit almost 20 years ago. Born and raised in Edina-he calls himself "a proud graduate of Edina East, class of 1977"-Cavanaugh served as youth director at Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church for several years before responding to a need to reach out to youth with messages about kindness, respect, and the courage to be true to themselves and others.
Recognizing that schools are the place to connect with as many kids as possible, he created day-long student retreats featuring a vibrant and engaging blend of live music, storytelling, interactive play and small group discussions guaranteed to get kids thinking and feeling, while at the same time challenging them to consider the way they treat classmates on a daily basis. "I refer to our retreat days as 'MTV meets Aristotle,'" Cavanaugh says, "The experiences have the energy, pizzazz and hip factor of MTV, but with the philosophical depth and content of Aristotle."
The focus for each retreat differs depending upon the age group. For elementary school students, kindness is the topic of the day. "At that age, bullying is a problem. A kind person will not bully," Cavanaugh says. "It's about the issue of character and promoting positive virtues."
Courage is the theme surrounding middle school retreats. "Middle schoolers have so many fears: physical and psychological changes, peer pressure, fear of standing up for their values," he says. "Is there a better value to stand up for than courage?"
As teens enter high school, they attend respect retreats. "With great power comes great responsibility-that's a quote from Spiderman," Cavanaugh says. "This is what we try to show the high school students. They need to be responsible for the gifts they've been given. They need to be responsible for the climate of their school."
Since its inception, Youth Frontiers (www.youthfrontiers.org) retreats have occurred in almost every school in Edina. In the early days, Cavanaugh was the sole coordinator and presenter of the events. As the program grew in popularity, he assembled a team of retreat leaders-teachers, former camp counselors, youth workers and professional musicians-who travel across Minnesota and beyond. "This year, we'll lead close to 600 retreats in public, private, and parochial schools, and reach almost 90,000 students and educators," Cavanaugh says.
Partial funding for Youth Frontiers is provided by corporate and private donors; schools cover about two-thirds of the retreat costs through their own fundraising or donation programs.
After each retreat, teachers are provided with a curriculum and follow-up program called Frontier Roots. "This is a series of one-minute commercials that feature a quote or thought and a reflection question. They can talk about them in class, or maybe journal about the ideas," Cavanaugh says. The messages seem to sink in. An independent study, commissioned by Youth Frontiers, found that two months after a school retreat, nearly three-fourths of student participants reported that their classroom seemed to be a kinder place since the retreat.
When asked if students have changed in the 20 years since he started the organization, Cavanaugh says he thinks kids are basically the same, but the world around them is what changed. "I often refer to Columbine as the 9/11 of education," he says. "That was a tragedy that definitely changed the way educators look at schools and at their students."
It is the personal reactions of young people that invigorate Cavanaugh and his staff members-now numbering close to 40-and reinforce the importance of the difference they make in kids' lives. A ninth grade student offered a poignant comment on a Youth Frontiers feedback form that stuck with Cavanaugh, "I can't remember a day-until now-when someone didn't make fun of me in some way. Thank you." Another middle school student said, "I saw for the first time what my teasing was really doing to someone else. I don't want to create that kind of pain anymore."
Cavanaugh takes the reactions of students to heart. He says, "It is not uncommon that I hear from a student, 'This has been the best day of my life.'"
For more info:
Email or call us at 1.888.992.0222 to obtain our media and press kit. Joe Cavanaugh, nationally-known youth advocate and founder/CEO of Youth Frontiers, is available for speaking engagements as his schedule permits.
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