Survey: Youth Invested in Lynn’s Future Feel Undervalued; Highlight Issues Facing Students

READ THE RESULTS OF THE LYNN YOUTH SURVEY

LYNN - Following a recent survey, more than half of nearly 2,000 student respondents in Lynn schools stated that they feel undervalued and voiceless within the same community that they invest their futures. Students shared a range of education and community concerns facing them including four key issues to address: community safety (drugs/gangs), improving Lynn's appearance, creating out-of-school opportunities and improving local schools. Results of the survey, developed collaboratively with more than two dozen youth and United Way of Massachusetts Bay and Merrimack Valley, will be presented by United Way at a community meeting tonight, 6:30pm-8pm at the United Way Financial Stability Center at 270 Union Street in Lynn.

Lynn youth perceive themselves as having many strengths for future success. Among the survey results, 73 percent of youth reported being "committed to school and learning" with 74 percent having a "positive identity and hope for the future." However, 60 percent of Lynn's youth reported not feeling valued or having a voice in their community. While students generally requested that schools hire understanding teachers who set high expectations, comments highlighted disruptive classmates who usurp lessons and the need for additional resources to help teachers, including new books.

The Lynn Youth Survey is part of United Way's Community By Community initiative to engage and mobilize residents to pin point and address shared concerns. The pilot initiative aims to improve community-level indicators, such as third-grade reading proficiency scores, graduation and poverty rates, by bringing together businesses, political leaders, parents, schools and youth to spark ideas, gather input and create a vision for the community's future. In addition to the organization's current work and $1.3 million in funding of partner agencies in the city, United Way has released $500,000 in a first wave effort to address the community's needs. A portion of the additional funding was allocated earlier this year to efforts to improve summer literacy and provide employment to Lynn's youth.

"United Way and Lynn have a shared history of producing substantial change for families," said Michael Durkin, president and CEO of United Way. "Through the work of United Way and our partner agencies, we have a direct effect on nearly half of Lynn's residents who consistently share their deep sense of civic pride and vision for a better future. The Youth Survey was created by Lynn's youth to initiate a discussion of their city's future by better understanding current concerns."

Additional findings from the survey include:

• More than 50 percent of students ranked dropping out of school as their top educational concern, followed by repeating a grade and bullying
• More than 50 percent of students ranked gang involvement as their top community/safety concern, followed by youth crime and decreasing opportunities for youth employment
• More than 60 percent of students ranked drug use as their top health concern, followed by teen pregnancy
• Coaches ranked highest among strong/supportive relationships (77 percent) outside of family/friends
• 42 percent of youth report that they would like to be spending their out-of-school time working

Additional Comments from Lynn's Youth:
"[I want to change] the negative connotation that comes with the name [Lynn]. I went down to Winthrop...was looked down upon...and that upset me. I plan to change that for future generations."

"I want to...help kids with their classes so they can get a good job."

"I need someone to talk to besides family. Someone who will actually listen to me."

"[We need] more jobs and...a job help section in high schools..."

"[I want] to help make Lynn a cleaner place to live."

"I want to go to medical school."

"Too many kids are being bullied and it [affects] their schoolwork."

"I want to be a business woman who gives back to the community."

About the Lynn Youth Survey
The Lynn Youth Survey was developed during the summer of 2011 in collaboration with 30 Lynn youth. The survey development process began by first engaging youth in a focus group discussion to identify issues relevant to the youth of Lynn, which served as a guide for designing the questions to be asked in the survey. Youth then met four times over the summer to review the survey, test it and distribute the survey to their peers.

In September of 2011, United Way engaged the Lynn Public School administration and relevant principals in helping to further disseminate the survey to youth enrolled in Lynn Public Schools. Finally, in November of 2011, a diverse group of 25 youth, including many of the youth who had initially helped to design the survey, gathered for a meeting to hear survey results. The youth who participated in reviewing the results included both males and females, and youth representing all grades from 6-12, as well as two Lynn youth attending community college. Youth were able to see detailed survey results, provide feedback and offer a more in-depth perspective to some of the findings. This helped ensure that the results were indeed on-target for Lynn youth and enabled the evaluators to get information "beyond the numbers."

The National Institute on Out-of-School Time at Wellesley College analyzed the results of the Lynn Middle & High School survey. A total of 1,881 youth completed the Lynn Middle and High School Youth Survey representing 27.6 percent of all middle and high school youth enrolled in the Lynn Public Schools.  Youth responses were collected from youth attending 12 Lynn schools, including all public middle and high schools, 4 parochial schools, and 1 charter school.  The sample was large and diverse-including nearly equal numbers of boys and girls, both middle (31 percent) and high school aged (68 percent) youth, and East and West Lynn neighborhoods. Youth who responded to the survey represented all major race/ethnicity categories, reflecting the diversity of Lynn youth enrolled in the public schools.