Our Students traveled to the Big Apple to participate in the 2019 Youth Bike Summit

BikePGH Education Program Coordinator DeVaughn Rodgers brought along two student leaders from Pittsburgh Obama Academy to present at the 2019 Youth Bike Summit on February 15-17 in New York City.

Jason Thomas and Ta’Shown Taylor presented BikePGH’s finalized Positive Spin Toolkit to an international audience of educators, advocates, and other young leaders alike from all over the U.S..

The Toolkit was received with open arms and a lot of positivity as the youth leaders guided the attendees through the toolkit and the resources that come with it. Along with the positive feedback, all 20 attendees took a copy of the toolkit with hopes of using the flexible curriculum and guidelines to either start their own youth biking program or enhance their offerings.

Hear directly from our youth leaders

“My experience at the Youth Bike Summit was amazing. After the bus ride up to NY, we went to the welcoming meeting and everyone there was different and fun. The next day, when the summit actually started, I had a great time talking to different bike programs around the US. I thought that it was really interesting and a very informative experience… If I had an opportunity to do it again, I would because it was a great experience that exposed me to a variety of new things. I really enjoyed my time in NY at the YBS. I hope that I may be able to do it again sometime in the near future”

– Jason Thomas, Youth Leader Positive Spin at Obama Academy

“I hope to go to YBS again later in life and help bring about a realization to the issues and pros to biking nationwide. They also connected the youth at the summit through activities. People have also brought to my attention the income you can gather from working with and on bikes. There was a woman who is teaching people who are disabled to bike as well. Giving a speech, I was nervous, but confident in my abilities. I killed it!”

– Ta’Shown Taylor, Youth Leader Positive Spin at Obama Academy

What does this means for BikePGH?

This presentation marks our third time sharing the complete Positive Spin toolkit to a national audience. We hope to use this exposure to get more local partners involved with our programming.

What made this last presentation special was being able to bring in our Youth leaders to present the Toolkit itself further proving it’s simplistic design and proof of it’s local impact it has on the students we serve. Our program is growing and we want to see more people utilizing the curriculum to their advantage and molding it to fit their needs.

Want more info on the Positive Spin Toolkit?

Positive Spin will be hosting local ‘Train the Trainer with the Positive Spin Toolkit’ throughout the year. Contact PositiveSpin@bikepgh.org to schedule a presentation. We’ll also be at the Inclusive Innovation Summit at the end of March with details forthcoming!