Standing with two friends on a wooded shoreline about to push off in a hand-built canoe, Shaneka Williams was quick to admit she felt a little out of place.

“I don’t do this. I don’t really like the water,” the St. Paul teen said. “I don’t really swim. Anything that has to do with water, I get nervous.”

Two dozen black teens from the St. Paul Youth Services YouthPower Leadership Institute recently wrapped up two weeks at the Minnesota Zoo and the School of Environmental Studies in Apple Valley as part of a summer Creating Healthy Black Futures initiative.

During that time, the youths paddled lakes on the zoo’s grounds and researched the health and biodiversity of the water bodies. They also hand-built a canoe with the help of Urban Boatbuilders of St. Paul.

Getting people out of their comfort zones is a big part of what the YouthPower Institute does — and not just for the teens who are participating. The program aims to transform the people and institutions its teenage members interact with.

“It’s really become a focus of kids changing systems instead of systems changing kids,” said Tracine Asberry, executive director of St. Paul Youth Services. “That’s what YouthPower is all about.”

CHANGING THE SYSTEM

Born two years ago from a pre-charge diversion program, YouthPower intervenes with teens before they get caught up in the legal system or who are recommended by school behavioral specialists. Asberry and her colleagues are looking for kids who see something in their community that’s not right and have an idea for a way to improve it.

“Our kids are usually used as an example of what is wrong,” Asberry said. “This is a demonstration that the kids that everyone said was causing all the problems — once they are given the right conditions — (they can be) changing systems.”

Asberry says YouthPower participants work like consultants, helping “youth-centric” organizations improve how they interact with teenagers, notably teens of color. YouthPower participants are paid for their time and input and hope to have a broad impact — from St. Paul schools and City Hall all the way to the zoo.

“They’re compensated for their intellectual capital, just like you and me,” Asberry said.

HEALING AND IDENTITY

In order to create systemic change, YouthPower teens also work to understand how past experiences, trauma and perceptions of black identity affect them, their peers and their communities.

“Healing and identity are a constant thread through everything we do,” Asberry said. “Part of that is recognizing that living well should be a right for everyone.”

With that in mind, this summer the institute is also focused on helping black teens live a more healthy lifestyle and connecting with their natural surroundings. That made for a perfect partnership with the Minnesota Zoo and Urban Boatbuilders.

Andre Francisco, an interpretive naturalist at the zoo, said his initial goal was to show the YouthPower participants how much more there was to do outside. “Barely any of them had ever had a chance to go to the zoo,” he said.

After two weeks, Francisco was happy to have passed along not just a better understanding of pond and lake ecology, but a desire to be better stewards of the environment.

“It was awesome with this group,” Francisco said. “They had so many questions, at the end, a lot of them were asking, ‘How do we make a lake healthy?’ or ‘How can we help to make one healthy?’ ”

LIFE SKILLS IN A POSITIVE EXPERIENCE

Marc Hosmer, executive director of Urban Boatbuilders, said he has long admired St. Paul Youth Services and was excited to work with YouthPower. The boatbuilders have been working with youths since 1995 and also have fee-based camps each summer at the zoo.

Building a skin-on-wood-frame canoe is a great team-building exercise, Hosmer says, because students have a clear goal and have to work together.

“It’s really less about the technical skills,” he said. “We are using boatbuilding to help them develop social-emotional skills like teamwork, collaboration, problem-solving, communication. All the things that are proven to help youth be successful in school and in life.”

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Sept. 30 is last day for public comment on Pigs Eye Lake makeover It was all a positive experience for Williams and her friends Trinity Collins and Tabu Henry. Collins was surprised how easy canoe building was once they got started.

“It’s something we did. It wasn’t some sort of kit. We built it piece by piece and its floating. It’s crazy.”

Henry says she learned new discipline and enjoyed what she learned on the water.

“We are having fun together and interacting with people from our community who want to make it better,” she said.