Miriam: Talk to me about the word youth. Tell me what it means to you in terms of this workshop.

Jos:

Well, like I’ve said before, Head & Hands defines youth as someone between the ages of twelve and twenty-five.To move away from that a bit, I think youth are obviously young people whatever age you attach to that, but I think what sets youth apart from other people is that they are very unique individuals and have unique needs. It’s quite a pivotal time in someone’s life. It’s when I think people form really lasting impressions and lasting friendships. Often, people’s strongest memories are from those times or maybe even some of their happiest memories.

So I think it’s a really exciting group to work with because of all those factors and probably some many more than I'm just not thinking of right now, but it’s catching people at a really interesting time in their life, and a really formative time too. So if we can get in there and work with people, and give them skills and information and opportunities, I think that’s so exciting. And it’s way more exciting than working with forty-year-olds because they don’t get it. They might not get the same thing out of it.

So we get to, over two month’s period, we get to watch someone really grow as a person because that’s what happens at that age. You can watch something like that happen basically before your eyes, and that’s really exciting. So that’s what youth is for me, and that’s why I like working with youth, I guess.