This past Wednesday afternoon, a group of Row New York staff members had the opportunity to undertake a training provided by the amazing organization, Ramapo for Children. Ramapo administers both direct service programs for students as well as training for educators and caregivers in the hopes of creating environments in which all children can experience success. Our particular training, entitled “Engaging and Retaining Older Youth”, focused on identifying the developmental tasks of adolescents and exposing strategies in which to help staff incorporate youth’s needs, interests, and strengths into program design.
Our training, facilitated by the charming Ramapo representative, Yaniyah Pearson, was structured around the idea of seeing challenging behavior through the lens of the education they have received thus far. Yaniyah taught us that all young people have goals of being thought of in a positive manner and of wanting to be successful, but sometimes their behaviors aren’t aligned with these goals. It is our job as educators and caregivers to understand that the reasons behind these behaviors are due to overcrowded and under resourced schools. And through this understanding, we may be able to better address students’ core behaviors and guide them to greater success – both in the classroom and on the water.
One of the biggest takeaways from this training, and something that our staff members are eager to implement, is the need for us to model the behaviors we want to see in our student-athletes. For example, if we see that any student-athletes are continually being unresponsive and not communicating to the extent they could, it is our job (and pleasure!) to model expressing and conveying our thoughts, feelings, and values with clarity. By being the leaders we want our student-athletes to be, we will foster the inclusive and challenging environment required for each of them to succeed.
Other strategies to engage our student-athletes that our staff is looking forward to adopting into the program include breaking down expectations into specific core behaviors, checking for understanding, developing rituals that reinforce positive behaviors through shared experiences, and using visuals and non-verbal cues to communicate instructions and information. Thanks to Ramapo, our staff is equipped with an entire “toolbox” filled with these strategies and more to refer back to as we continually strive to improve our program and serve our student-athletes in the best way possible.
Thank you Yaniyah and Ramapo for this great training!
