showing up without a map
We've opened the door for youth to get involved in service on trails. The formal program isn’t built out yet. The grant dollars aren’t secured. But the land is ready, and young people are showing up.
We're offering what we have: light planning work, creative engagement, small invitations to observe and contribute. Not a formal job site. Not a traditional service placement. Just a beginning. We are aiming to make an invitation to placemaking.
It's been a bumpy start. Two thirds of the families we worked with wanted more hours, more structure, more control than we could provide.
What we’re noticing is this: the challenge hasn’t come from the youth. The challenge is coming from the expectations surrounding these kids.
Some adults bring urgency that doesn’t align with the slower, more relational pace we’re trying to hold. At times, we’ve been treated less like a partner and more like a provider, expected to deliver time, labor, and paperwork on demand.
Was it premature to start before the full plan was in place? I’ve sat with that question. And here’s what I’ve landed on: this kind of work probably has to begin before the systems are fully built. If we waited for everything to be ready, we’d lose the opportunity to start shaping this work with the youth, not just for them. And what does "ready" even mean in a process like this? Are we ever truly ready, or do we just have to start walking the trail while it's still being made?
Not everyone is looking for more than a completed task. And that’s okay. Some families are trying to help their kids meet a concrete requirement of community service hours on a timeline. That’s a real and valid need. But this work, the kind that grows slowly and takes root over time, asks for a different kind of timeline, and a different kind of purpose. It is my job to hold that vision in view while staying honest about what we can and can't offer.
Some people will want more structure than we can offer right now. Others will step into the uncertainty and help us figure it out together. Both responses tell us something useful.
