By William, Advocates for Youth intern and peer educator

What happens when Advocates for Youth gets together 120+ young people from the US, Nigeria, Jamaica and Ethiopia? You get a INTERNATIONAL STUDENT MOVEMENT! But not just any ISM, but one that centers on comprehensive sexual education and sexual health rights. September 10-14th students embarked upon L’Enfant Plaza Hotel to learn tactics that they could take back to their respective campuses and communities. Our purpose was to learn how to become an effective educator on young people’s sexual health rights, as well as lobby to pass the Real Act. As an intern and member of Youth Resource (AFY online peer education resource team) I was blessed, humbled and honored to not only attend Urban Retreat 2009 but also a inside/outside perspective to this conference.

I would have to say that hard core prep for UR09 started about 3 months ago. Since then I had the chance to see all the magic and hard work the staff here put into making this conference a HUGE success. From travel to hotel arrangements, from food to late night activities the whole thing began to come together. We had early meetings and late afternoon meetings; we had travel to Costco and travel to Staples to make sure that ALL of our young people were well taken care of. Over all I feel that the staff executed all aspects of UR09 to completion and made sure that all the concerns and needs of the participants were met.

Here is a quick break down of what we did as young people at the conference. We had an amazing opening session that outlined our guidelines as well as an introduction to ALL 125 young people and their respective groups. The best part of the opening session was the session with our President James Wagoner named “Rights. Respects. Responsibility.: Building a Global Movement”. It was emotional as well as inspirational at the same time. Through out the rest of the conference we were split into our respective groups to learn the specific tactics that would strengthen us as true advocates for youth. In my specific track we were exposed to the world of online peer education. Our site (www.youthresource.com) is a site that young LGBTIQ persons can get information about issues that affect us as young people as well as help from us (the online peer educators). We learned the tactics and skill set that would make us effective peer educators for our community as well as the ability to answer questions and deal with situations that were presented to us.

As a participant in the conference I tried to take off my “intern” hat and experience the conference from that stand point. In the position I could clearly see the work that was put into place. I could see the non stop effort that the staff was doing prior to the conference. I and the other participants had an amazing time in our sessions and out of our sessions.

For me the best part of the conference was the Lobby Day!! I not only had the opportunity to lobby with my fellow North Carolinians but had the privilege of training the state of Ohio and North Carolina on lobbying as well as implementing our tactics to make sure the Real Act was passed. As a NC delegation we had 11 Senate/House meetings and 10 of the 11 were very successful. We may not have gotten a 100% commitment from some of them; however the great state of NC shows great promise in becoming a pioneer in making sure the Real Act passes.

In the end I was completely exhausted but completely excited about the year to come and the role I would play in making sure greatness occurs.

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