Reginald Griffin

This month, KCYDN talked with Reginald Griffen at Horn of Africa Services.

Tell us about your organization and specifically your program.

“Our mission is to prepare youth at Digital Connectors®, Horn of Africa Services (HOAS) to become leaders in their community by improving the quality of life of individuals, families, groups, and organizations throughout the region. This is accomplished by providing a high quality, comprehensive, learner-centered educational experience focused on financial literacy, team building, and youth development trainings in technology, media development, computer maintenance and advanced internet use. Digital Connectors and HOAS are committed to promoting the strengths of diversity through education, research and service.”

Why is your program amazing? 

“In the East African community, kids don’t have the opportunity outside of school to be exposed to programs,” explains Mr. Griffin. Other minority groups may have resources to connect through their religious affiliations or cultural centers, but the East African community relies on HOAS and programs like Reginald’s Digital Connectors to promote positive developmental opportunities for these youth and their families.

What is your favorite program resource? 

The King County Youth Development Network is a favorite resource for Mr. Griffin (yay!), because when he first started the Digital Connectors program, he needed assistance in embellishing the curriculum and KCYDN connected him to these helpful resources. “Curriculum can be challenging to hold the students attention.” Mr. Griffin succinctly states that “all day [youth] are in school and I don’t want them to be in my program and feel like they are in school again.”

What is the piece of advice that you have to help guide others who are implementing youth programs?

Mr. Griffin shares without hesitation that his best piece of advice is “to be patient…[youth programming] is not a process that is very easily learned.” Youth come with a variety of challenging issues, cultural differences, and various backgrounds. Referencing the phrase, “it takes a village to raise a child,” Mr. Griffin says that today, we need to empower the community to get involved in raising our youth. In order to do this, youth workers must become part of the community that they are working with. In Mr. Griffin’s case, this meant learning about and immersing himself in East African community activities so he can be viewed as a leader within the East African community and better understand the youth that he works with. 

Why is connecting with other youth workers important to the work you do? 

“Because I don’t have all the answers,” says Mr. Griffin. People already have been through the tribulations of running a program, someone already has created best practices, and youth workers can benefit from sharing this information so we can all focus on implementing higher quality youth programs.

See previous Youth Worker Spotlights here.