Learning Dreams and Youthlink

Written by Dr. Jerry Stein

Learning Dreams is excited to announce a new partnership with YouthLink.

YouthLink is a Minnesota-based organization that provides a safe space and resource center for youth experiencing homelessness. YouthLink focuses on drop-in basic needs, case management and also serves as a place for young people to be in a caring and understanding environment while having access to opportunities provide by YouthLink staff, volunteers, and the Youth Opportunity Center (Y.O.C.) partner organizations.

After initial discussions and visits to the drop-in center, YouthLink and Learning Dreams became convinced that the work of our organizations would complement each other. Together, our goal is to create a plan with youth to identify, seek out and connect with people, places, activities that are steps toward exploring and engaging their passions and interests.

Learning Dreams staff Jena Brune and Erin Donald, have been spending Thursday nights in the drop-in center talking with young people and offering connections to learning resources available at YouthLink as well as the broader community. In the past five weeks we have had conversations and started to generate some first steps on various learning dreams. Examples of learning idea include cooking, community organizing and volunteering, film projects, exploring spoken word and the recording industry, the visual arts and more.

In this process Jena and Erin are also working with young people to identify and navigate obstacles that are currently preventing them from acting on or achieving the goals and dreams they have described. As youth make steps toward achieving goals motivated by their own passions and interests, Learning Dreams believes they will also gain skills, confidence, pride, ownership and a capacity for growth which supports their ability to recognize opportunities, pursue additional ambitions, contribute to the community and navigate the obstacles they encounter.

This partnership with YouthLink continues our efforts to explore how Learning Dreams can complement, support and enhance the work of other community organizations.