August is here and its time for a new blog topic. This month we (Slavica Blagojevic – SB and Andrew Rivers – AR) interviewed with Tamara Johnson (TJ), co-director of Youth’N Action and leader of the Western Washington Branch.
Youth’N Action is an organization which seeks to empower youth and promote youth voice in mental health policy and practice. Tamara is heavily involved in the youth movement at the national level and frequently attends conferences and gives presentations about youth issues. She was also recently interviewed for the Seattle Times in an article which looked at her life story and what Youth’N Action is all about.
To link to the Seattle Times article, go to: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/jerrylarge/2009244616_jdl21.html
AR/SB: What was it like to attend your first Youth’N Action (YNA) meeting? Did you immediately know that you wanted to be involved with the group or was there initial resistance?
TJ: The article mentions that my boyfriend, Curtis Dickerson, was involved in Youth’N Action for at least five years before me. He also grew up in a really bad project in Seattle and was involved in gangs, but Stephanie Lane, the founder of YNA, engaged him and gave him different opportunities such as traveling to speak at a national conference in Oklahoma. In general, she was just there for people.
Meanwhile, I was still out in the streets doing my thing but I just needed a break. He said that there was an upcoming retreat in Leavenworth and that YNA would provide for transportation out there, a place to sleep, and meals just for giving our youth voice. So I went just to give it a try. We did a small group activity and I found that I just had a lot to say because I could relate to a lot of what they were talking about. They were understanding youth and their needs instead of just looking at their bad behaviors. I gave my opinion and found that everyone respected it. To have my voice valued and respected felt better than being in the streets so I decided to come back and that is what kept me involved in it.
AR/SB: You spoke a bit about some things that helped you feel connected to the group, what techniques do you see as effective in engaging and encouraging youth who are experiencing challenges like yours?
TJ: Initially, just meeting our up front needs is important. The fact that they provide stipends for our work, because it is work to give your voice and experience. Free food is always a winner too (laughs). This stuff is a great start but it still isn’t enough to hook you to take 8 hours a day out of your life just to get a small stipend. What I found most encouraging was that I could really help people and that because of this; someone might not have to go through what I went through.
The adults involved were youth friendly and it wasn’t like you couldn’t be yourself. When I went to private school, they had a youth group that was connected with a church. Some of the things they did seemed just crazy to me. They would tell you how to live your life and would persecute people when they made mistakes or didn’t go along with it. Youth’N Action on the other hand is an open environment and has other people who have been through what you’ve been through. They are always there to give you advice but they are not going to tell you how to live your life or that the things you have done are unacceptable.
AR/SB: It seems like a group would have to be at least a little bit structured for people to respect it. How did Youth’N Action accomplish this – did they have any certain rules that had to be followed?
TJ: Yes, there was definitely a structure. Some obvious things like no drugs or alcohol but the real thing is that the structure itself is youth-guided. The concept is that if you make the rules, how can you break them? When the youth made the rules, they didn’t break them.
The biggest rule we have and that we always have is simply respect. Respect the group, respect your peers and you won’t have any issues. We are accountable to each other. It doesn’t work when someone above is just dropping down rules, that type of authority is not supportive.
AR/SB: Are there any strategies you’ve seen that just plain don’t work for youth in terms of engaging them?
TJ: Yes, but there are differences. There are some groups which provide a structure for the youth similar to what they would receive at home. These groups try to keep kids busy. This works, but only for youth with parents who are very disciplined with them, those that manage their kids day down to when they wake up and go to bed. Youth’N Action is a structure that works for youth who are more independent. It also works for those that may be more disadvantaged in their life; not necessarily financially but could also be in terms of emotional issues. Dealing with real things like emotional issues and things that have happened in their past is good for these youth. YNA is good for youth who want to develop leadership and feel empowered.
Groups don’t work when there are too many limitations and when the focus is placed on the program instead of the youth. YNA is focused on the youth; they make the program what it is. Over time, the focus of YNA changes because the youth who are involved change and their needs are different.
A lot of programs have a cutoff; as youth get older they don’t want to go there any more. For example, my brother was in Boys and Girls Club since he was 5 years old. Even when he was a preteen, he was there everyday but now he is 15 and finds that the kids there just annoy him. Because of the situation he was growing up in, he needs to be involved in something outside of the home. Now that he is 15, where is he going to go? He’s not done drugs or any of those risky things but when he lost Boys and Girls Club, he didn’t have a positive place to hang out with peers. YNA made a goal to support youth who are in transition so we don’t work with little kids or provide babysitting. That is what makes us different and I think that is what we need more of. Even beyond Youth’N Action, we need more programs to support transition-age youth because when youth reach this grey-area, they get into drugs and violence if there is nothing positive for them to do.
AR/SB: If there was one additional point or correction you would have liked to make to the article published about you, what would that correction or addition be?
TJ: I think we both had different things that we wanted to portray. He asked me at the end of the interview “What would I tell someone who was in my situation?” I said that my past doesn’t excuse what I’ve done and I was very glad that he put this in there. I told him a lot about my childhood and how I used trauma that I experienced as leverage, my father who wasn’t in the picture as leverage, to do things that I shouldn’t be doing. In every person’s life, there comes a time when, no matter what has happened to you, you have to chose the direction of your life.
Do you want it to be positive or not?
Do you want to continue the cycle? or,
Do you want to become the person you needed when you were growing up?
You have to take responsibility for your actions. That is where it starts. It doesn’t start with something lucky happening, you have to make the choice.
I went to that Youth’N Action meeting in Leavenworth when I could have been making money. But just going to the retreat wasn’t the answer. I made the choice for my life and that is all it took to change it.
One other thing that he said in the article was that I was a binge drinker and all I said was that I was partying with these people. I did drink sometimes but it was very different from the way I think of people who ‘binge’.
AR/SB: Is there anything on the horizon for the youth movement or Youth’N Action that you are particularly excited about?
TJ: What is exciting for me is that the youth movement was just a concept but now it is, well I don’t have a good word for it, but it is real. Now, youth voice is necessary.
Our state is great with youth involvement. Youth’N Action started as Health in Action under a Systems of Care grant and at that time, we were the first group to involve youth voice in public policy. All these other programs in the country look to us and model their groups after us.
Our youth are getting stronger and our systems are more and more supportive. I see the next steps as really getting into communities so that youth always have support available and not just whenever we happen to be in the area on a particular day. We’re starting a grassroots group in Thurston/Mason but right now we can’t pay them or give them free food like we got; but the youth are still showing up. We appreciate the groups that are helping us like Family Alliance for Mental Health who is giving us space and equipment for our activities. It has been a long time in coming and we are still in the development stage, but it is great to see that there are youth all over the state who are ready to make things happen.
AR/SB: Is there anything else you’d like to add that we haven’t discussed yet?
TJ: One thing that I hope you can include is how important the work that our partners do is to us. Community partnerships are so important and making connections which can cross the silos. The work that you all do (speaking about a team of advisors convened to represent youth and family perspectives on mental health issues) brings light to my work and I hope that I bring light to your work as well.
Another thing that Youth N Action has done that has helped elevate the respect it commands is evaluate its own activities.
Tamara and her team have worked with researchers at the UW School of Social Work to identify how YNA can be most supportive of young people it works with. Their evaluation has also taken stock of how effective they have been. They even got a grant from the federally funded Washington State Mental Health transformation project to do this work.
In addition to all the hard work they do on behalf of youth, Tamara and her colleagues at YNA deserve kudos for collecting and using data to be even more effective!
- Eric Bruns, Univ of Washington.
I like Tamara’s point that youth voice is not just “nice,” but is necessary as communities,researchers and families move towards improving the juvenile justice system. Her own story also reinforces the importance of providing creative and constructive outlets for youth that are strengths-based. Great interview!