Service Learning Youth Initiative - Passion, Purpose, Project … Party!
The My Purpose Party™ (MPP) youth program, founded by actress Ari Meyers, is centered around the belief that young people have an innate desire to give and doing something they love – for a cause they care about – has a transformational affect on how they see themselves and what they are capable of achieving.
MPP is built on a strength-based model and helps young people build self esteem; it encourages their ability to be creative and it fosters a sense of having something valuable to offer the world. The Party experience provides the concrete results young people crave for their efforts, and the affirmation that what they are doing truly matters. MPP is a process that guides participants to conceive of, and plan, a one of a kind “Party” that raises goods, funds or awareness for, or provides a direct service to an individual or a group in need. The MPP structure provides the opportunity for youth to be both leaders and collaborators, to celebrate their individuality, and strengthen their sense of being a part of something larger than themselves.
Passion, Purpose, Project
Participants are asked three questions: What do you love to do? Who do you want to help? How do you want to help them? A guided facilitation process helps them determine their party concept and “giving goal” based on the answers to those questions. The youth are then matched with mentors based on their “passion” “purpose” and “project.” and the mentors work with them in realizing their Purpose Party vision.
Preparing Youth for Adulthood
The teens recruited from Harlem Dowling’s Preparing Youth for Adulthood (PYA) program determined that their party should raise awareness about the challenges they have faced in foster care, as well as support other kids dealing with similar experiences. They all expressed their love of performance; singing, rapping, dancing, and writing poetry. These became the “passions” around which their My Purpose Party™ was created. Harlem Dowling’s Adolescent Permanency Specialist, Perquida Payne worked with Meyers to facilitate team-building activities and discussions around honesty, shame, and what it means to be an advocate for change. This exploration led to a creative process wherein each teen wrote a “To Whom It May Concern” letter in which they could share whatever it was they felt people should know about them and their lives.
These letters became the basis of their show, “To Whom It May Concern.” The letters also provided an opportunity for the teens to share some difficult truths about their lives; stories and feelings that some of them had never shared before. The therapeutic value of communicating within a safe, supportive group committed to a common goal was cathartic and bonding. This trust-building process within the group environment was an essential first step in the teens being able to shed some of the layers of anger they had around the difficult issues in their lives.
The Process
My Purpose Party™ then brought in writing and acting mentors, an art therapist, a graphic designer and a choreographer. Professional event planner Juliet Dickey helped the youth make their “Party” vision a reality. Directing mentors, Mfoniso Udofia and Erin Washington guided rehearsals and the performance, which took place on November 22, 2009. The evening was an overwhelming success with luminaries from the acting world, Ruby Dee and Rosie O’Donnell, attending to lend their support. Each participant expressed how thrilled and amazed they were by what they had accomplished, individually and as a group.
The Party that Pays it Forward
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