Introducing Teen HYPE: Voices of Detroit’s Youth series

As a single man with no kids, one would think that all of my cares and worries about K-12 education were left on the stage when I graduated from high school and grabbed my diploma. And as a 40-something millennial who is starting to get carded less and less frequently at establishments that serve or sell liquor, concerns of the youth are just as nonexistent as my hairline.

But like it or not, anything involving kids – their schools, their home life, their activities, their well-being, their future prospects – affects us all, no matter how distant we think we may be from them.

I don’t have kids, but my siblings do. And when, for instance, I hear my brother and sister-in-law talk about switching schools at the last minute for their high-school-age daughter because a teacher at the old school still relies on virtual class gatherings years after the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, I hear issues that affect not just me as their uncle, but all of us as a community.

Think of how the well-being and outcomes of youth are intertwined in your life that aren’t always top of mind. School performance in Michigan is not only tied directly to property taxes on a tangible level, but also determines what makes a “good” neighborhood or place to live on a more ideological level.

Families in cyclical poverty who can’t afford to give their kids a leg up often create impoverished adults who contribute to a city’s unemployment rate. And where systems fail – an overcrowded classroom here, an overworked, underpaid parent there – is where some vulnerable kids can fall through the cracks. And if not the cracks, the rabbit holes of the wildly unchecked internet. And how many times have we heard lately about a tragedy being linked to a young person’s online activity?

This summer, I spent some time with the kids at Teen HYPE, talking with them about the issues they face most. These sessions marked an ongoing conversation between Model D and Issue Media Group that began last year, and an extension of IMG’s overall commitment to amplifying youth narratives alongside the long-running Voices of Youth program.

I listened to kids tell harrowing stories about their classmates’ families being affected by ongoing ICE raids. I listened to kids talk about how they can spot a potential school shooter from their phone. I listened to kids complain about being bored, but not, like, bored because the house is clean and there are no chores, but bored because they feel like they have nowhere to go in Detroit.

I listened to their jokes and kept my dad jokes to myself, and I listened to their fears about what they’ll be doing after graduation if more changes keep coming to longstanding government agencies like the Department of Education.

During this series, I’ll be sharing some snippets from those conversations in an effort to illuminate what our youth in Southeastern Michigan are dealing with.

Spoiler alert: The kids are all right. No, really. They’re asking the right questions, but sometimes, they also have the right answers. It’s up to us to pay attention either way.