Nottingham & Fayetteville-Manlius High Schools Exchange Project

Community Wide Dialogue partner two area high schools to develop an exchange project between the schools to:

1. Break down stereotypes between teens from a city and a suburban school;
2. Introduce the dialogue process to high school students;
3. Train students from each school to serve as facilitators of circles;
4. Build relationships between schools, administrators, teens and parents.

Spring, 2003 - Winter, 2003

From May through December 2003, eleven teens from Nottingham and Fayetteville Manlius High Schools assumed leadership for a Community Wide Dialogue (CWD) to End Racism Exchange Project between their two high schools. Made up of teens from many different racial backgrounds, they have worked tirelessly to bring awareness and understanding where once there were stereotypes and fear.

The eleven teens participated in a 6-week dialogue in the spring of 2003, then were trained by CWD in a 12-hour facilitator training in the fall of 2003, and finally led a total of five dialogue circles between their two schools for forty teens.

During the first two all-day sessions, all 51 teens were paired up, school-to-school, and spent the day going to math, chemistry, gym, lunch, and English classes, first at Nottingham and then at F-M. Then, under the leadership of the teen facilitators, they convened at the end of the day, and talked about their impressions and stereotypes, and how they had grown in their understanding of kids who were

different from them across racial and economic barriers. Over the next two months, the teens met bi-weekly after school to discuss the effects of racism on them and on our community. They looked at the concept of white privilege, and at inequitable resources across the color lines. They participated in simulations that had them looking at segregation and exclusion, and came up with personal and school-wide plans to address racism. The teen leaders met regularly between sessions to debrief and process the issues that were coming up in the dialogue circles, and worked on improvements to the curriculum.

In addition, they spoke with reporters and participated in several Media Unit television productions, to get the word out about ending racism. Many of them will continue next semester as leaders of the next round of dialogues, and will mentor other teens who also want to become dialogue leaders.

This past June the eleven teens leaders from the exchange project won the UNSUNG HEROES award for the Martin Luther King Celebration at Syracuse University .