Thunder Fellows: An Origin Story Enacting Black Youth Access to Technological, Entertainment, and Sports Ecosystems

• In Event: Sunday Roundtable 9:45 am
  In Roundtable Session: Facilitators of Positive Youth Development (Table 3)

Abstract

From a conversation among friends reflecting on the destruction of a thriving Black community in the early twentieth century, to a program for Black high school and college youth whose roots are deep within the same community, comes the Thunder Fellows. The Fellows center equity-oriented positive youth development by trying to understand and give Black youth what they need to enjoy full, healthy lives. The organization utilizes place, lived experiences and relationships. Using Data Engagement (DE) and deductive coding based on desired outcomes of the program to increase access to technology spaces in all facets, the authors describe the origins of the Thunder Fellows as well as implementation and growth.

Author

• Helen Douglass, University of Tulsa