Editor's note (3/07): To learn more about the center and its current happenings, visit theMosaic Youth Centerwebsite.

The Mosaic Youth Center in Minnesota -- with a computer lab, performing arts space, a youth-run food service business, career planning, medical and mental health services, a 10-bed shelter for homeless youth, and much more -- will be a reality in early 2002. This idea emerged from a student forum back in 1996 and youth have been involved during every step of the planning process.

This ambitious project with a five million dollar price tag and powerful partners that include the Robbinsdale Area Redesign, Northwest YMCA, Independent School District 281, Annex Teen Medical Clinic, Fairview Recovery Services have not minimized the youth role. Over the past five years, the primary stakeholders have been central to designing the blueprint. The Board of Directors consists of 60% youth (enrolled in high school or between ages 14 and 19) and 40% adults. Optional stipends are available to youth and adult board members ranging from $40 to $100 per month, based on their time commitment and responsibilities. The full-time coordinator was hired from a pool of 40 applicants by a committee of half a dozen youth and two adults. An intergenerational nomination committee interviews applicants to fill board vacancies. The youth board members have a visible presence throughout the community, for example, hosting a chili dinner that attracted elected officials and businesses to speaking before the Rotary and Kiwanis Clubs. Biweekly meetings, co-chaired by a youth member from each of two largest high schools, work through a packed agenda.

One significant organizational challenge has been transportation. A contract with a local cab company has made it easier for youth to attend meetings since many live in the seven city area that Mosaic aims to serve. Food, an absolute essential especially for 6 p.m. meetings, can eat a hole in the $500,000 planning grant budget, but this team has found ways to keep this expense down. Retreats that bring together all the board members and community partners have proven to be effective in work output and also promoting group cohesion. This is not to say there are not creative tensions but occasionally challenging group dynamics have less to do with the age range and more due to the broad-based coalition that draws people from many different community sectors.

The Coordinator's determined effort to maintain contact with youth board members who have graduated from high school or moved out of the area has helped maintain the memory bank. Half of the current youth members were recruited as 9th graders which boosts the continuity. This planning project demonstrates how young people from all backgrounds from immigrants to a homeless teen can and should be the lead architects. In the words of one former board member, "Mosaic works for one reason: everyone involved treats one another as equals."

* Excerpted from "Maximum Youth Involvement: The Complete Gameplan for Community Change" by Wendy Lesko, Youth Activism Project