We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Marc Woods. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Marc below.

Marc, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Risk taking is something we’re really interested in and we’d love to hear the story of a risk you’ve taken.

I entered the lane of youth work on a risk. Majority of jobs I’ve had throughout my life have been offered by people feeling I’d be good at certain positions. This left me on several occasions not knowing what I’m doing or even comprehending my target goals. I just show up and learn as I go. The pros of this are that everything I’ve done has come organically. After contracting and working with youth for over a decade the pandemic hit. I wanted to create more opportunities for the youth I serviced. I came across a grant/RFP that was in my lane. I reached out to some students to get their opinion as well as request their help if things went well. They encouraged me to just apply trusting that I would do fine. The grant was for 12K to 15K which in my world at the time was an overwhelming amount of money to not only be responsible for. I ran through what I wanted to submit in my head av thousand times wanting to articulate the goals and specifics without giving away the process at the same time. I almost talked myself out of it completely doubting anything I came up with. I waited until the day my proposal was due to start writing. I found myself having thirty minutes to put everything on paper and submit. To my own surprise the plan started to develop easily and quickly once I typed my first word. Within twenty minutes I had written multiple pages with all parts of my idea with a budget, creation of a youth position, schedule, and reflection sheet to measure progress during the timetable of the pilot. I submitted it receiving a call about a week later. The call was confusing as they loved my ideas but didn’t offer me the grant. Instead they asked if I’d like an hourly position. I had to continue to read my situation and roll the dice. I told them I was uninterested in pushing someone else vision at the time. I shared the emails and process with students along the way. We all decided it wasn’t a failure and that they were proud of me for trying. Another week passed and I received another call informing me that the contract was mine. This contract taught me a lot as well as have me experience I hadn’t yet had. The final city report confirmed my success followed by a paid panel spot, and article interview. My take away is that you can’t win if you don’t play. Sometimes trying is hard due to thoughts of previous failure and imposter syndrome. This one risk opened up the door for bigger projects as well as changed my perspective on risk. I now love risks and enjoy proving myself wrong in any doubt. To be an example to youth and take the journey with them has been invaluable. Being able to put money their pockets in a positive way has also been empowering!

Marc, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I got into the lane of youth work, youth advocacy, consulting, and facilitation by trusting the process of self discovery. When in grade school I always had a problem with feeling limited in the question ” what do you want to do when you grow up? “. Youth are allowed to explore and learn with no limits but I wasn’t exactly fond of youth. My mother having her psychology degree shared with me that youth are what they are taught to be, so I decided to be apart of the solution. I was told that I had influence and doubted that information. I found myself creating a social experiment by acting out at a youth camp I was at. By the end of the day I had several other campers mimicking and imitating my actions. I went back to my mentor apologized and asked what I was supposed to do with such power. I chose to teach and push integrity. I later was allowed to work at an after-school program and that influence had me create a class called Tutor and Sports helping middle school boys with homework followed by basketball or football. That opened doors for me to lead and create more classes, as well as a tutor position in a program called AVID. Avid gave me classroom experience, and allowed me to create a critical thinking curriculum. The social emotional aspect of what youth were going through became highlighted. If you’re able to overcome depression, or bad relationships at home a math problem is easy became my narrative. After 15 years, multiple schools, cultures, and other opportunities I found myself working intergovernmental, Teaching, and making big impacts on my community all under other people’s names. It was time to create my own lane. I still work in programming, but expanded into taking on grants as well as submitting RFP’s. As a numerology fan, being born on the 24th, my favorite athletes having the number 24 as well as the amount of hours in a day I decided that Youth24 would be my label.
My new found love for youth, and continued proof of concept in teaching youth how to navigate paradigms has me wanting to cultivate safe spaces. My main products are facilitation workshops, focus conversations, concensus workshops, personal development, exploring identity , and team building. Some problems I’ve been able to solve are school fights and building issues, creating safe spaces downtown Minneapolis with my team in the most crime riddled areas, as well as working with CFCI ( child friendly cities international) partnering with Unicef. I have been given the chiefs merit award during superbowl for our impact on child trafficking. Having the ability to create understanding and changing environments has been a large part of student success in graduation, as well as extra curricular activities. I also offer trainings for other youth workers to branch off from. Every person I come in contact with has their own measurements for success as well as productivity. Projected outcomes are accomplished through a process of clear, precise communication and action. Sadly some of the confirmation of creating safe spaces has been in my absence. My belief is that we must be intentional in what we expose our youth to, and give framework of what their gifts and talents are. Mastering these things and then sharing them with community is a push in the right direction of becoming a productive member of society.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

Being in the public eye, as well as being transparent has truly helped me build my reputation. I just finished year nineteen of working with youth within community, and the relationships, and stories are what uphold my name and integrity. No matter what title I’ve held or power I’ve gained I always treat everyone with the same compassion. Whether it be breaking up a brawl at a sporting event, being present for graduations, celebrating accomplishments, participating in a parade, all stories being connection . It’s truly widened the net of my network. Having students who have become adults and now have family members working with me shows my longevity as well as gives an example of what’s possible. We must show youth by modeling and telling our own stories. Podcasting is something new that I’ve added to give context.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

My biggest lesson has been to not wait on others to go for what you want. I’ve always worked with teams, and groups of people who’s values aligned with mine, but might not have looked the same. I take pleasure helping, uplifting, supporting others growth, but found myself sitting alone when it was time for me to work on my own projects and plans. This was a gut punch, but didn’t take away from me wanting to see others succeed or from supporting. Pandemic also put me in isolation where work was my only social life. It forced me to take all the energy I was giving others and investing it into myself. Building myself up changed my narrative from chasing to attraction. It’s a balance of giving with no expectations but at the same time having a standard for self! Not giving all of myself away and putting myself first felt selfish, but I learned it was the key. How you treat yourself teaches others how to treat you. So treat yourself right , walk in gratitude, and balance giving with reciprocity.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://Ycb.org
• Instagram: mwoodsjr24
• Linkedin: Marc Woods
• Other:

  Social media in the works

Image Credits

First pic – students Vivian, salim,, Muniratu at mn justice research event

Minneapolis youth congress cohort