Building Hopes, Building Futures

I often tell people I have the BEST job in the world because I get to interact with children and youth on a regular basis. I am often amazed at the depth of thinking that I hear when I take the time to listen to what children and youth have to say on the topic of hope. Here's just one example.

Sitting around the table with five junior high students who are embarking on the second phase of the Hope-Focused Service-Learning program where we begin to determine where in our community we need to bring hope to others, our conversation turned to what we know about hope to help us proceed. This is what they said to summarize what they learned thus far in phase one of exploring hope and service:

- Hope can help people come out of anything.

- We know what brings hope into others' lives because we share our hopes with each other.

- There are people who don't have a lot of hope.

- Hope is easy to get and give.

- Whether or not you have hope depends on the kind of person you are and where you live. For example, you might be a child in Africa and you may not have hope until someone notices you.

- If you give hope, you get hope back.

- If you give respect, you get respect back.

- To have hope we need to trust each other to share.

I don't know about you, but I find these statements pretty insightful. In a previous post I talk about the power of being open to what we are noticing about hope in our daily interactions and activities with each other. The above list is the first list we have made since beginning our work together some five months ago(one hour a week).

The next step as I see it, is for us to search for examples to demonstrate these understandings so as to build new understandings - individually, as a group, and in the work we do with others in the community. In so doing, we will begin to tell the individual and group stories of what it means to use hope as a guide in our daily interactions with each other.