NEIGHBORHOOD YOUTH FIRST IMPRESSIONS EXCHANGE

To learn more about the Neighborhood Youth First Impressions Exchange Program check out our video! https://youtu.be/KgtEqYyISZ0

To sign up to be a part of the Sheboygan Neighborhood Youth First Impressions Exchange Program register here: https://forms.gle/TzDKJQAcjtxRTBadA

What is the Neighborhood Youth First Impressions Exchange?

First Impressions offers an effective and fun way to determine how visitors perceive communities. Likewise, the Youth First Impressions Program offers insight into the first impressions that your community offers from a youth perspective. Many communities struggle to identify how to retain or attract young talent and engage youth in their community. This program offers the opportunity to glean insight from youth and help to prepare communities to achieve their goals of a successful and friendly multi-generational community. Reports and recommendations produced by First Impressions exchanges may be used as part of a larger planning process, such as a comprehensive, downtown or master plan, or to guide activities and actions of a community organization, such as a Main Street program. There is no requirement, however, that neighborhoods engaged in this program implement any or all of the suggestions offered. They are for your stakeholders to consider as a perspective in their decisions.

What will be done?

Two teams of young people will exchange communities. A team of youth will make an incognito visit to your neighborhood and record their first impressions. In addition, a team of youth from your neighborhood will make a visit to another similar neighborhood within Sheboygan County.

1. Youth team members are not expected to be experts—they will simply to give an outsider’s candid viewpoint on various aspects of the community.
2. Each youth team will engage with and in their assigned community for a day and assess the following:
3. Online presence and Social Media assessment –prior to arrival
   • 10-minute impression
   • Community entrances
   • Downtown
   • Retail
   • Tourism
   • Housing
   • Business and Economy
   • Government; Public Services; Education; Health and Public Transportation
   • Outdoor Spaces
   • Recreation and Culture
   • Firsthand comments from Residents
   • Additional Observations
4. After the visit, youth will work with the project coordinator to write a survey report and prepare and deliver a presentation about your community’s first impressions and the results of the survey to the exchange community.

What will be expected of each neighborhood?

1. Simply agree to partner with the Division of Extension and the youth volunteers; show respect for their time, opinions, and input.
2. Secondly, we ask that you host a public meeting within the agreed-upon time frame, when the exchange neighborhood team will present their report.