Innovated Opportunity comes to Wooster YMCA
An Innovated Opportunity workshop recently took place at the Wooster YMCA.
It was early on a recent Friday night in the downstairs classroom at the Wooster YMCA, and the organizers from Innovated Opportunity were doing what some might find impossible in this day and age.
They had the full attention of nine kids age 10-14 on a weekend night and were getting them to fully participate in a group discussion. The kids raised their hands to answer questions and ask them.
“They’re here because they want to be here,” said Mark Badilo, who along with fellow Wooster native Juneo Benjamin conducted the Dream Big, Achieve More Workshop during six sessions at the Wooster Y between Feb. 21 and March 7. “This is something they’re choosing to do.
“If we’re going to school, some individuals might be saying, ‘Hey, you have to do this for eight hours a day.’ These kids are volunteering to come here, and they’re getting to work together and have fun.”
The purpose of the Dream Big, Achieve More Workshop is to develop life skills that will teach youngsters to value and believe in themselves while also going on to become better community members. Interactive activities, mentorship and hands-on learning help develop goal-setting, decision-making and personal growth, Benjamin said.
Spots in the workshop were advertised at the Wooster Y and filled up quickly.
“We’re trying to teach the kids self-empowerment and self-worth,” said Badilo, who’s the Innovated Opportunity vice president. “We’ve developed a lot of little exercises. At the end of each session, there’s a little quiz we have them take on tablets to see what they’ve learned.”
The workshop, which is free for kids to attend, is sponsored by the Wayne County Community Foundation.
It certainly helped motivate the kids knowing meals would be served from the Upscale Variety Food Truck. And based on their level of participation, they could win cool prizes such as T-shirts, smart watches, tablets, headphones, backpacks and the top prize of a laptop.
Prizes or no prizes, though, these kids were plenty interested. Hands were raised by at least half the group following most questions.
Innovated Opportunity President Benjamin, Badilo and other guest facilitators who worked with the kids were left with big smiles at the responses they heard.
“We are really excited to bring this program to Wooster,” Benjamin said. “By investing in our youth today, we are laying the foundation for a generation of leaders, thinkers and innovators. We are incredibly grateful to the Wayne County Community Foundation for making this opportunity possible.”
Benjamin and Badilo have both worked in correctional facilities and helped people re-enter their communities after being incarcerated. The longtime friends brainstormed about ways they could help youth and came up with the idea of the Dream Big, Achieve More Workshop.
“I went into prisons in places like Mansfield, Toledo and Youngstown and was teaching guys,” Benjamin said. “I was going all over the place, and I thought, ‘Let me help here, in my community.’
“We see kids being bullied or doing the bullying, and we didn’t have programs like this when we were young with people reaching out. It’s a wonderful feeling for Mark and me to lead this program.”
After holding workshops in New York and Mansfield, they were excited to bring Innovated Opportunity to Wooster and hope to keep growing the program.
“We want to analyze the kids’ skills to see what they’re good at and start doing some of those things,” Badilo said. “We’re also teaching them leadership skills, trying to develop some of that out. We’re also teaching sharing and empathy.”
Badilo has a psychology degree and teaches GED classes. He and Benjamin are both skilled in computer programming.
In one of the lessons, the students were asked to put a price on their own self-worth. Then they learned how to write a check to themselves for that amount and apply their signatures.
“Kids aren’t really taught to write their name in cursive, and they had fun with that,” Badilo said. “They wrote out checks, and they got to list reasons that they have value. That’s an example of what we’re talking about with empowerment. We also introduced some STEM skills to them and taught them how to design some basic video games using logic. We also demonstrated the basics of 3D printing.”
At the end of one of the sessions, a student came up a little short of the 15 participation coins required to win a tablet.
Another student offered to hand over some of his loot.
“There was the empathy we’re trying to teach,” Badilo said.
For more information about Innovated Opportunity and its programs, visit innovatedopportunity.org or email juneobenjamin@innovatedopportunity.org.