By: Eric Wanner
Former
Teen Community Liaision Officer,
U.S. Consulate Frankfurt, Germany
Let me tell you about a new and successful teen program here in
Frankfurt-one that I hope will go worldwide. Like any program, this
one needs a leader-the Teen Community Liaison Officer. Why don't
you try it? Imagine how such a title would look on your resume when
you apply for college, scholarships, or a summer job. But are you
right for the Teen CLO position? Try this survey:
Survey:
- Are you a living person?
- Do you enjoy parties/ activities?
- Do you currently live overseas?
- Have you ever moved before, leaving old friends, furniture
etc. behind and had to make new friends, get settled in to a
new school etc.?
- Are you a positive person with an optimistic outlook?
- Would you like to be considered to be a leader, a good organizer,
or maybe even just a friendly person?
- Would you like to have something impressive on your resume
when you apply for college/ scholarships?
If you answered YES to 3 or more questions, you'd make a great
Teen Community Liaison Officer (Teen CLO). Here's the job description:
The Teen CLO keeps a contact list of teens at post. He/She thinks
up some fun events, asks CLO about funding, advertises the event
to the teens and motivates them to attend. The Teen CLO should be
willing to talk at least once to new teens or their parents and
answer questions about the new post. He/She is also the contact
for teens who either have questions about the post, or who have
ideas or suggestions about activities or who would submit articles
for the FSYF. Teen CLO also makes teens aware of possible community
service/volunteer opportunities and is the contact for adults who
invite teens to volunteer.
So far the pilot program here at the Frankfurt, Germany Consulate
has been a lot of fun. Some events, like going swimming, draw a
crowd of about 4 people (body image problems?), other events like
the Teen Halloween Disco or Scary Movie Night drew as many as over
30 teens. Some of our activities have been : movie nights with pizza/popcorn,
volleyball, going to the zoo, mystery event (which was making a
poster for Marine Appreciation and then building all-you-can-eat
Sundaes), bowling, going to a movie downtown, having a bbq/picnic.
Then there was going to a museum, which nobody came to-hey not everything
is a success! If nobody comes to an event it's not your FAULT or
something. Just try something else, or try the same thing again
on a different day.
If the community needs help, they call me to see if I can motivate
a few teens to help out for things like community kid's parties
or the 4th of July event, and babysitting for orientations. As Teen
CLO it's important that you don't feel you have to do everything
yourself. You can motivate, you can help find people to help out,
but if nobody volunteers (as was the case when we were asked to
provide some help cleaning up kids' graves here in Frankfurt), you
as the Teen CLO do NOT have to volunteer just because nobody else
did.
I have had so much positive feedback from both teens and parents
about this program. Parents of teens who just moved here were glad
there was someone to show their kid around or someone who could
point them in the right direction regarding sports etc, or answer
questions about the new school. Teens are happy to get together
with other Americans-people who have moved around and really understand
each other. And hey, when it's a CLO event-everyone knows everyone
is welcome -you don't have to be part of a certain crowd to come
to an event! Teens can bring their friends and everyone can have
a good time. Best of all, its great to see teens who would sit around
doing nothing get out and do something. In the flyers I sent out
for the volley ball game I said If you don't want to play, just
come and watch-lots of people did come to watch-got comfortable
and ended up in the game. It's also easy to get teens to volunteer-I
just casually ask people if they would assist for a community kids
party for example, and usually, they do.
I'd like to encourage other posts to establish a Teen CLO program.
Like the countries they are in, each post is unique, bringing with
it its own unique weirdness as well as opportunities for everyone,
ESPECIALLY TEENS! We are the future!
