Megan Kennedy & Sid Peterson

Welcome to the Youth Worker's Spotlight for June 2010!

King County is home to so many amazing organizations and youth workers!  The Youth Worker Spotlight will highlight one of these people each month.  If you would like to nominate someone to be spotlighted please send an email to kcydn@childrenandyouth.org.

View past spotlights here

Megan Kennedy & Sid Peterson

Megan began her work with Youth Eastside Services as an intern in 2004.  She started facilitating a group called B-GLAD, a bisexual, gay, and lesbian adolescent drop-in, at the Old Redmond Firehouse.  She continues to work with B-GLAD to create a space for LGBTQ youth, allies and friends.  This program provides a place for youth over the age of 13 to be themselves, provide visibility and receive support. Currently, she is a licensed mental health counselor and oversees the outreach services at YES.  The Outreach counselors work with violence prevention, teen dating violence, Latino HEAT, Safe Youth, Bellevue Youth Court and place outreach staff at OFH, Ground Zero, Crossroads Community Center, Spiritwood Manor, and Latino HEAT. 

Sid believes that professional development does not have to be boring.  She hopes that Put This on the Map will demonstrate and inspire professional development opportunities that engage youth workers and deter burnout.  This vision comes from her experience as the former Director of the Kirkland Teen Union Building where she saw a need for interesting youth training for staff members.

In 2008, Megan and Sid teamed up to create a documentary training video and program for young people.  The program was designed to give a voice to LGBTQ youth and provide quality training for youth workers on the Eastside.  The teens involved in the documentary would participate in a program that trained them to be experts in the field and give them opportunities to share their training with the community.  The documentary, Put This on the Map, came out in October of 2009, and is now used as a teaching tool in schools and community organizations to frame an important conversation around gender and sexuality.  
 
What is your favorite resource?
Sid’s favorite resources include the Seattle Young Peoples Project and Advocates for Youth. 
As a YES employee, Megan takes advantage of the great internal resources offered by the organization.  Some of her favorite resources for LGBTQ youth include the Safe Schools Coalition, NW Network, and Queer Youth Space. 
 
Why is connecting with other youth workers important to the work you do?
On an organizational level Megan believes it is important to learn from other programs to grow.  For example, she has looked toward Solid Ground as an example of an antiracist organization.  Personally, it is important to solicit partners, share resources, give and receive support, and understand secondary trauma. 
Sid likes when youth workers come together to share training cost and build programs.  Professional Development should be an opportunity for youth workers to build upon what they already know.  When she was the director at KTUB, she started GOK as a network for the teen centers on the Eastside to facilitate shared training and space to hang out.