LetUP Mission Statement
To represent the diversity of cultural, racial, and special interest groups on a school campus by bringing together natural student leaders within those groups in order to keep peace on campus through mutual respect and the empowerment and development of positive leadership qualities.
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A LetUP group starts most naturally out of an urgent need to mediate between two opposing student groups, though a school should never wait for such a conflict to arise in order to start a LetUP program. Even on relatively calm campuses, a natural segregation of students often occurs because human nature is to congregate with people who are most like us, whether by skin color, clothing styles, music styles, extracurricular involvement, or pastime hobbies. This natural segregation can create misunderstanding, discomfort, and even fear between groups. Starting LetUP can make a difference on any campus and each of the four elements needed are vitally important and can make or break a program. It is important to think of LetUP as starting and growing in stages because each stage is a foundation for the next and each stage must be maintained throughout the entire program. Since LetUP focuses on changing human behavior, the process must always be focused on the current readiness of students to change, not on adult agendas, pre-determined quotas, or flashy one-time rallies. Change cannot be forced from without, it must be believed from within, and it must be genuine. Genuine change starts small with a focus on breaking down stereotypical walls between key multicultural and multiethnic student leaders. New ideas and broader challenges should be implemented as students mature in the peace-keeping process. If mature change is genuine, students will be ready and will want to be included in the process. Readiness may occur over weeks, months, or even years. Students may mature and change quickly or may stall and need to refocus. The three stages and four elements of an effective LetUP program include a broad spectrum of activities that can occur over time, though it is not the length of time or the activities that should be the focus. It is the positive change in student behavior that occurs over time and through activities that is most important. Meeting Logistics and Components Leaders Empowering Teens United for Peace meets once a week during a regular class period, preferably on a rotating schedule so the students do not miss the same class every week. Prior to the initial meeting, administrative approval must be obtained for the schedule and meeting site, proper notice of student participation and description of the program must be provided to teachers, and students must sign a contract of commitment to the goals of LetUP and of commitment to keep up with school work that is missed during meetings. Numbers of members in the early stages of development should be kept to a maximum of 15 students, though it can grow up to 40 members as students mature in their commitment to the goals and philosophies of LetUP. Once meetings begin, accurate attendance must be maintained and students must be provided evidence of attendance for admittance into the class that was missed. The meeting site should be conducive for small group discussion and chairs should be arranged so that all students can comfortably see each other to encourage optimum dialogue. Components of LetUP meetings consist of variations of interpersonal communication skills, leadership development, and program business. Interpersonal communication skills include get-to-know-you activities, development of mutual respect, peace-keeping and mediation skills, multicultural appreciation with an emphasis on human similarities rather than differences, and confidential sharing of personal struggles and successes. Leadership development skills include brainstorming and discussions on positive versus negative leadership, decision making, goal setting, accountability of set goals, and peer mediation skills. Program business includes attendance taking, planning of group activities, checking of academic and behavioral improvement, and confidential discussions of nominations for future LetUP members. The degree to which each of these components is implemented depends on the stage of program implementation, the readiness of the student members, and immediate conflicts occurring on campus. For example, early stages of LetUP focus primarily on interpersonal student communication. If LetUP is started as a result of student conflicts, then the initial communication emphasis is placed on peace-keeping skills, development of mutual respect, and mediation of differences. Latter stages of LetUP include a maintenance of the communication skills, leadership development, and implementation of activities that utilize and challenge their leadership skills. Examples of these activities include speaking at student orientations and leading classroom discussions on challenging peers to make wise choices, speaking to adult audiences about the philosophies of LetUP, participating in teacher in-services and governing councils, campus beautification projects, lunch-time peace rallies, and multi-cultural appreciation assemblies. It is the balance of interpersonal communication and leadership activities that maintains LetUP's philosophy of multicultural unity and leadership development. Activity without personal communication breeds disunity, and communication without activity provides little outlet for leadership development. Both are important. Interpersonal communication can be as simple as regular "check-ins" and goal-setting discussion on how a student is doing at home and school. Activities should be provided as often as feasible, with speaking engagements shared by as many as would like the opportunity. It is also important to always be aware of crises or situations that affect a large population of students, such as group conflicts, deaths, and murders. When such incidents occur, use wisdom on if, how, and when the issue should be brought to the group. Too much focus on an issue could unduly heighten the conflict, and too little focus could prevent safe outlets for anger and needed communication. Finding the Right Coordinator A LetUP coordinator is preferably a full time employee of the school who understands LetUP's philosophy and is a person who is passionate, proactive, innovative, positive, collaborative, discerning, and maintains a balance of encourager and disciplinarian. Each of these role and character criterion are discussed in detail in the following paragraphs. A LetUP coordinator should be a full time employee of the school for three reasons. First, an understanding and respect for how a school operates is essential for garnering collaboration and buy-in from teachers and school departments. The details of school requirements, like acquiring teacher permission, taking accurate attendance, and providing proof that a student attended a LetUP meeting, must be adhered to. Any disregard for these expectations will quickly be frowned upon by colleagues and even the best of students will take advantage of overlooked requirements. Second, though weekly LetUP meetings are very important for uniting students and breaking down stereotypical walls, much of the personal student leadership development takes place daily and one-on-one with students through proactive awareness and involvement with ongoing student behavior, attendance habits, and academic efforts. Third, a coordinator must be accessible by students and other faculty. As the LetUP program successfully implements peace, the coordinator will often be called upon by both students and colleagues to help resolve and prevent conflicts as they arise. Because LetUP's philosophy of leadership development is so different from a school's traditional perspective of a student leader, the coordinator must first understand, then embrace this philosophy. First, natural student leaders, the ones who can truly initiate change on campus, are leaders primarily because of their peer influence. They are not leaders based solely on good grades, good behavior, or enrollment in difficult classes, though many students may have both qualities. Second, empowerment is key to change and includes a belief that all students want to succeed and be appreciated, regardless of poor behavior that appears contradictory to this belief. Many misbehaving students give up on themselves because they feel that no one believes in their ability to succeed. It is amazing what one encouraging and empowering adult can do who truly believes in a student's ability to succeed. Whether a student is influencing their peers in a positive or negative manner, they are recognized for their leadership abilities, challenged to be a positive leader, and given opportunity to develop their positive leadership qualities. This philosophy must then be patiently explained over and over to school colleagues who will interpret the philosophy as the "bad" kids in LetUP being undeservedly rewarded, or they will send notes such as "This kid's a leader!? Not in my class!" Consequently, if a coordinator does not understand and passionately believe in LetUP's philosophy and its empowering potential to change kids' lives and the atmosphere of the school, then they will have a difficult time convincing staff and students of its effectiveness. The positive attitude of a LetUP coordinator is critical to overcoming early pessimism from administrators or staff. In addition, as a coordinator challenges students to be a positive leader and do so by example, so must the coordinator. Negativity is quickly perceived by students and emulated to others, which can eventually deteriorate the philosophy and purpose of the group. The coordinator understands and embraces LetUP's philosophy will naturally be passionate about working with negative leaders and challenge them toward positive behavior. It is these student leaders that may be causing large scale conflicts on campus, and it is these students who, if believed in, can radically change a negative atmosphere to a positive one. This passion must be coupled with proactive willingness. Proactive combines "before" and "action", which means acting to diffuse conflict through mediation skills before it becomes a fight, even if a student doesn't seem to want help. Learning about conflicts in their early stages comes naturally as a coordinator proactively spends time understanding the atmosphere of a school through candid talks with students and observation of their behavior during school break times. This may mean assisting with supervision or voluntarily spending adult break time with students instead of colleagues. A proactive approach also includes innovative action. Think outside the box. Because something hasn't been tried before does not mean it will not succeed. Ask students and other proactive colleagues what they think. Observe why other conflict mediations or peace keeping efforts may not have succeeded before. Learn from other's mistakes as well as your own and persevere through failures. Focus on small successes. They are much more enduring and can compound into large successes, though even a first-time large scale attempt may offer more success than is immediately realized. Start with a small handful of key students, empower change in them, and the program will almost grow on its own. Students will want to be part of a natural leader's positive change. Innovative action must be coupled with discernment. Discernment includes the how, when, and if of speaking and acting on issues such as student peer conflicts, student to adult conflicts, administrative or staff pessimism, continued misconduct or poor academic performance of a LetUP member, promotion and growth of the program, and maintaining a balance of encouraging students while holding them accountable for poor choices. Encouragement without discipline can lead to enabling, student advantage-taking, and colleague lack of support. Discipline without encouragement maintains the traditional aggression of more rules, punishment for rule breakers, and authoritative force. A discerning balance of both approaches empowers a student to want to succeed, to take responsibility for their mistakes, and to realize that the only true failure is a mistake not corrected. Another character criterion to developing a fully functioning program is to be collaboratively minded with adult colleagues, with students in LetUP, and with community professionals, particularly the local police agency. Collaboration with colleagues and administrative staff means inviting feedback on student grades, attendance, and behavior. The collaborative goal is to challenge students with poor habits to change and accept responsibility for negative faculty perceptions. Collaboration with the existing Student Government Leadership coordinator is particularly important. It must be clear that LetUP Leadership is not to compete or replace Student Government Leadership. LetUP's focus is keeping peace and challenging students to make positive decisions. Student Government's focus is providing and overseeing school activities. Both are important and mutual respect from adult coordinators and student members of each group are critical. As LetUP develops, it is important to formally implement this collaborative effort through the establishment of monthly Community Leadership Connection meetings. Collaboration with LetUP student members means including them in decision making regarding the group's activities and weekly meetings. Once the group is established, officers should be self-nominated and empowered to run weekly meetings by spending additional time planning. Collaboration with community agencies should start as soon as possible with the local police department. Because police epitomize adult authority, they become a catalyst for peace keeping efforts on a broader scale, though discernment is needed to determine when students are ready for peer to adult dialogue. If a LetUP group starts out of campus conflict, inviting local authorities too soon may add to the conflict because negative attitudes from both groups may be too strong. It is important that a sense of peace and collaboration is felt between group members before the next step is taken to break down stereotypes between youth and adults. This waiting period may take weeks or even months, depending on the severity of a conflict. Initiating a meeting is a critical step in broadening the challenge to keep peace and developing positive leadership qualities. Once the LetUP group is ready, police officers should be invited to join one of the weekly meetings, with an emphasis on dialoguing and understanding both student and police perspectives on frustrations with negative stereotypes. The character qualities of the officer that meets with LetUP students are just as important as the LetUP coordinator. S/he must understand the philosophy of LetUP and be neither offensive nor defensive in their approach to students. Ideally, the initial meeting will prove successful and turn in to monthly meetings as both adults and youth see the value of collaborative understanding. Such collaborative efforts should not stop with police officers. As LetUP members fully embrace the philosophy, they become active, caring students who continually need new challenges to become better young citizens. The next large step is to invite other outside youth-focused agency adults to meet monthly with both LetUP members and Student Government members in what is called Community Leadership Connection. Acquiring and Maintaining School Administrative Support School administrative support cannot be underestimated and it is closely linked with the qualities of the LetUP facilitator. All final decisions rest with the principal, so it is important to fully inform the principal of LetUP's philosophies and of how the program will be implemented. Because the LetUP coordinator should stay aware and assist with student conflicts, it is also important to acquire support and work collaboratively with the assistant principal in charge of discipline. Acquiring support often means that the facilitator already has a trusting and respectful relationship with administrators. If such a relationship does not already exist, the coordinator should start small and prove that new LetUP ideas can work within the normal functioning of the school. Each acquired step of support provides evidence for the approval of bigger and larger ideas. Because the principal must maintain a well balanced school system, a facilitator should not get upset over requests for specific details or rejections to initial ideas. Good things do sometimes take time, but it is time that is well worth the student investment. Administrative support is the first, but not necessarily the biggest hurdle. Acquiring teacher support is often more difficult because the very students that are chosen and complimented as natural leaders are sometimes the ones who are inadvertently leading their peers down a negative path. Explaining LetUP's philosophy that a leader is a student with a peer following, regardless of grades or behavior, is a new and possibly offensive concept to teachers who work hard to emphasize academic excellence. They may view the LetUP philosophy as one of rewarding bad behavior rather than providing positive opportunity to empower change of bad behavior. Because of this possible resistance, it is important to work collaboratively with teachers and ask how the coordinator can support what the teacher is already doing. Such respect and effort is often a window for new ideas, though proof obviously lies in the student's positive change. Administrative and teacher approval constitutes one aspect of support. The other important aspect is inviting and encouraging participation or observation of the program. The more that other adults witness the positive dialogues and activities of LetUP students, the more support will be gained through word of mouth. Examples include inviting administrators and teachers to a meeting and asking teachers to allow LetUP students to lead classroom discussions on making wise teen choices. Adult visibility in meetings is also an encouragement for LetUP members to continue to work collaboratively with adults. Choosing the Right Students for the Group There are two processes to choosing the right student leaders for a LetUP group; an initial group process of personal invitation by the coordinator, and an established group process of nominations and interviews by current LetUP members. Because of the emphasis and exponential value of working with students who already have a peer following, students cannot join at free will. They must be recognized for their leadership potential by another adult or peer and be invited to commit to the goals and philosophies of LetUP. Students should also represent the cultural, gender, and grade level groupings of the school as much as possible. Once a LetUP group is established, new members should only be brought in near the beginning and toward the end of the school year. The beginning year focus is to bring in new enrollees, while the end of year focus is to bring in middle grade level students to compensate for graduating students and to transition smoothly into the next school year. Rarely should students be invited into LetUP at random times since the introductory meeting is a vital starting point for getting to know current members and understanding the purpose of LetUP. At all times, nominated students should be reminded that it is an honor to be recognized as a leader, that you believe in them for their potential to make a positive change in the school, and that they will regularly be challenged to meet such high and empowering expectations. Natural student leaders who are representative of the different school cultures are best found by observing the body language of their peer groups during school break times like nutrition or lunch. It is these groups that define the cultural atmosphere of the school, and it is often these groups that form two sides of a conflict. In observing the body language of a group, a natural leader will stand out because they will often be the focus of the group's attention. When s/he speaks, others listen. When s/he moves, others follow. When outside students approach, this student often speaks for the group. Natural leaders are the trend setters and sometimes the rebels. They are unafraid to try new things or wear different styles. They may be loud or quiet and come in all shapes and sizes, but they are listened to by their peers. Once a natural leader is spotted, ask another supervising adult their opinion of which student is the primary leader, or better yet, ask the adult to assist in the initial observations. This is a perfect opportunity to include staff and educate them of LetUP's definition of a leader. Discreetly find out the student's name, make a note of the hang out spot, then move on to observe another area of campus. Once the entire campus has been adequately observed for peer leaders, confer with other supervising adults, and especially with the school deans, to make final choices of students who will represent a balance of grade levels, males and females, and cultural groups. The initial group should consist of no more than 15 members to allow for confidential interpersonal communication When the list of leaders has been decided upon, call in each student, one at a time, to invite him/her to a first meeting, and hopefully to a full commitment. Start by explaining the philosophy and goal of LetUP, the philosophy of a natural student leader, the potential for natural leaders to make a positive change on campus, and the fact that you have been looking for such leaders during nutrition and lunch. Lightheartedly let him/her know that you've been observing their group and that it has been confirmed by other adults that s/he has leadership qualities. Then watch as their eyes light up as they question, "Me?" The compliment of having leadership qualities and the challenge to do something positive with these qualities is itself often enough to initiate change in a negative leader. There may be some resistance, but experience has proven that even the most negative student leaders are eager for an opportunity to break the downward cycle and prove that they are capable of such an opportunity. Natural student leaders who are already positive leaders may have the most difficult time initially comprehending the idea of LetUP because they are usually not involved in campus conflicts and they are used to fulfilling the traditional expectations of a leader. They may also be the most hesitant or fearful, but they are a vital catalyst that gets to know a negative student leader as a potential friend with similar hopes and needs rather than as an enemy to be avoided, feared, and stereotyped. One high achieving original LetUP member revealed the impact that such interaction and opportunity can have. After four years of commitment, she shared, "It's so nice to finally be recognized as a leader for more than just good grades." This statement speaks volumes to the need for educators and adults to recognize and empower inner potential, regardless of observable behavior, rather than only reward outer results. |
Windy W. Warren, Ph.D. | warren@letup.org
LetUP, CLC Founder/Coordinator
Office: (310) 547-2491 x230 | Cell: (310) 612-3414
San Pedro High School
1001 15th Street, San Pedro, CA 90731
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