Look To The Students For Empowerment Ideas

Jennifer Susko, jennifersusko@hotmail.com

School counselors hope to empower students every day. Through our advocacy to support students in achieving academic and life success, our passion for seeing them succeed shines brightly. We work to dismantle oppressive systems and remove any other barriers in the way of them reaching their full potential. While we spend significant time delivering our comprehensive school counseling program to students and hoping they benefit from our services, we might not always think about what we can learn from them about robust empowerment strategies. A look at a local Georgia student group reveals the necessity of student voice in creating systemic change and provides a unique model for school counselors in how we can work together as teams with our students to empower and promote the civic engagement that is a vital life and college and career readiness skill. Georgia Youth Justice Coalition is a group of students who organize in our state for a better future for ALL. Just like school counselors are supposed to ensure we meet the needs of all our students, GYJC envisions schools where no one is excluded and everyone feels a sense of belonging. The group offers incredible trainings and action-centered events aimed at students but with considerable value for school counselors while creating an opportunity for engagement with students on a different level. GYJC’s events, though not geared toward adults, often provide practical ways for school counselors to develop valuable skills like building communities of care and centering equity and antiracism in our work.

The youth in GYJC go to the State Capitol to advocate for legislative changes impacting school counselors directly such as adjusting the budget to add more school counselors and decrease the school counselor to student ratio to ensure equitable provision of our services. We should show up and do this important work with them! Even if we cannot take the day off to attend the Capitol in person or live too far from Atlanta, GYJC offers alternative options for participating and forming coalition like letter writing, phone calls, teach-ins and rallies that school counselors could engage in to boost the reach of the hardworking student group.

“counseling shortages and whitewashed history are a threat to children & communities. Our future is worthy of investment - not just for the wealthiest and whitest. Every child benefits when we build schools that treat workers well, support marginalized & impoverished youth, and reject political fear mongering… Despair and doom come knocking at our door, but we’re still here to organize out of love for one another. From the classroom to the capitol, the Georgia Youth Justice Coalition is honored to carry on the work of those who came before us. A better world is possible if we can build it together.”

Building a better world together is a beautiful notion for school counselors to consider. As we talk so often about the ways in which we aspire to improve the lives and worlds of our students, how much more might we accomplish consulting them throughout the construction process? Since GYJC is student-led and focused, not everything they offer is appropriate for school counselors to join. However, when they hold events and promote actions where adults are encouraged to attend, I gain immense knowledge of student needs and aspirations and identify new ways to advocate and fight injustice. Getting involved with GYJC’s efforts reinvigorates my passion for honoring and amplifying student voice and exposes me to a skillset I would not gain elsewhere. For school counselors looking for ways to strengthen their practice in the areas of advocacy, antiracism, equity and systemic change, check out what our kids have to say about it all!

(GYJC does work all across Georgia. Their LinkTree is https://linktr.ee/younggajustice and their website is https://www.georgiayouthjustice.org/ )