On a Saturday morning in February, three teenagers made lunch in a Martindale Brightwood community center. Burgers and fries — from scratch. One teen sliced potatoes, another shaped the patties and the third read the recipe off her phone.
“You got to feed the body,” Dalles Patton said. “If I can’t cook, who is going to cook for me? My momma isn’t going to be here forever.”
Patton, 18, Dazlyn De La Rosa, 17, and Tahir Hemphill, 17, meet Saturday mornings at Felege Hiywot Center to make lunch. They create the menu, find the recipe and figure out their solutions when a dish doesn’t go as planned.
The teens are learning more than how to cook. They’re fulfilling a goal outlined in the Martindale Brightwood Quality of Life Plan: “We will educate our youth on the science of producing food and the impact of food shortages on health. By engaging them in food production, we aim to alleviate hunger and reduce the anger and violence often associated with food insecurity.”
Youth engagement is one of the 10 pillars identified by Martindale Brightwood residents as part of the neighborhood’s quality of life plan, a set of goals and strategies to improve a neighborhood over the next few years.
The Department of Metropolitan Development certified the plan last year, which gives it some heft as a trusted source of goals.
Aster Bekele, founder and CEO of the Felege Hiywot Center, is the youth engagement pillar’s captain. But she makes it clear that youths are the ones who should lead the efforts.
“They need to be, from the ground up, part of the process,” Bekele said. “Invite them, let them plan. What would they like? How can they actively be engaged? That’s all they’re looking for.”
Bekele said the youth pillar was added to the quality of life plan after students in the neighborhood didn’t see their concerns and desires reflected during the planning process.
She said students were also concerned about mental health, the justice system and how to be fully integrated into the community.
De La Rosa said the kids and teens of Martindale Brightwood just want a seat at the table.
“Youth engagement is just like civic engagement,” De La Rosa said. “We might not be able to vote on certain things, but our opinions still carry weight.”
Young people want to share their ideas
Another goal in the quality of life plan is for adolescents to tell their own stories. Students created a film, “The Sound of Love,” about mental health and hope. And they’ve also launched a youth-led podcast, “Young Revolution.” In the podcast, students discuss topics such as leadership and communication, and encourage community building.
“Our podcast is quite literally the youth telling their own stories,” De La Rosa said. “What they believe is going on in the community, and what we should do about it.”
Kids and teens in Martindale Brightwood have led community clean ups, created an outdoor classroom, run an urban farm and hosted a National Night Out last summer.
Patton said it’s important for them to lead so they won’t be influenced by what adults think is best.
“Sometimes it won’t actually be the youth’s ideas,” Patton said. “It’ll just be the adults speaking about what they think is best. If the youth is leading by themselves, they get the chance to come up with more ideas and sometimes they will be more imaginative than what adults come up with.”
Hemphill said being actively involved in the Martindale Brightwood Quality of Life plan helps him become a good leader and community member. And he hopes more people become involved as the plan is implemented over the next few years.
“Martindale Brightwood is a community full of youth, elders, and people of different colors and races,” Hemphill said. “Everybody has a voice and some sort of plan or idea.”
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Mirror Indy reporter Darian Benson covers east Indianapolis. Contact her at 317-397-7262 or darian.benson@mirrorindy.org. Follow her on X @HelloImDarian or on Bluesky @darianbenson.bsky.social.
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