A couple weeks ago, our class was visited by several speakers from the Broadway Youth Center in Chicago. As they began they began they're session in a unique fashion of introductions that included astrological signs and gender preference in the form of pronoun preferences, I knew it was not going to be what I had originally expected. The speakers spent over an hour setting up abstract rules for discussion, often laughing and yelling over each other. They're supervisor who sat among the students did little to maintain a focus on the topic at hand. Though the presentation was largely disorganized, the last 15 minutes or so provided us with some basic information about what the actual youth center is and does. The final few minutes of the presentation also provided valuable insight to the personal experiences of each speaker and gave us an accurate representation of the hardships homeless youths have to face.
Though it is understandable that the presenters were doing this as a project to help them get jobs, it may be beneficial to both them and us as the audience if their supervisor had done more to prepare them to speak or at least intervened during their tangents to keep the focus on an appropriate topic. Also, if the speakers had some sort of outline or structure to their presentation, it would have ultimately been more beneficial to us. I believe the goal of these events should be to raise awareness about the seriousness of these issues regarding homeless, not to laugh and joke for over an hour in front of an academic audience. However, again, the end of the presentation did provide valuable insight on the social issues as well as what the Broadway Youth Center strives to accomplish.
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