The Chamisa Mesa High School CSO and the Taos Teen Team CCT shared a common goal. The two groups worked closely together and their efforts overlapped

The Chamisa Mesa High School CSO is actually a partnership between the high school, the Taos Teen Council, the Society of the Muse, and the Acacia Community School. These organizations wanted to give youth of their community a voice. They decided on an online voice because the town of Taos is "wired." Many people in the town have access to computers and the Internet, whether it is from home, school, or the community access centers which were started and continue through La Plaza Telecommunity.

Image from the Taos Teen Network

From this decision to create an online voice came the Taos Teen Network. The goal of this web site is to provide local information for teens about education, health, entertainment and the work of the students and youth of Taos. The Network has a listserv for the organizations and youth to collaborate and work together, chat rooms for youth, a local calendar, and information on countless other topics of interest to youth in the area.

In order to create this online Network, the team implemented a number of steps. They hired a staff member to work on the web site. Local students were selected and trained to work on the project. Several students worked on the technological aspects of the site, creating html pages, flash presentations and keeping the calendar updated. Other students worked as interviewers, gathering theinformation needed for the web site. For this part of the web site, the CSO worked very closely with one of the CCTs, the Taos Teen Team.

The members of the Teen Team also wanted to create a voice for youth in the community. They believed that creating a dialog between the youth and adults of Taos would build a stronger community. They would be able to address the problems that youth face today: teen pregnancy, violence, drugs, health and health care, frustration with "nothing to do here", employment, getting to college, self-esteem, and building a future. The student team members were trained in the skills necessary to make their voice heard and then worked on the Taos Teen Network with the CSO.

Work on the Taos Teen Network will continue into the summer. The Network will be an ongoing project. The team members have seen an enhancement of youth voice in the community and increase youth knowledge of technology skills thanks to the Network. There has been an increase in networking between youth and youth organizations. The 'taosteen@laplaza.org' listserv has close to 65 teens and adults as members and they represent close to 20 youth organizations.