HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE FIELD
Feature articles:
- Developing Healthy Youth in the Cuyahoga County Tapestry Project
- A Nice Idea Pays Huge Rewards for the Mule Town Network
- Culturally and Linguistically Competent Activities for Youth in Monterey County, California
Developing Healthy Youth in the Cuyahoga County Tapestry Project
The Cuyahoga County Tapestry project in Cleveland, Ohio features an impressive presence of strong, broad and consequential family and youth voice in all aspects of its mature system of care—in governance, service delivery and evaluation. Cuyahoga youth coordinator Leonard Davis orchestrates meaningful activities for youth among a ten-neighborhood collaborative based on traditional settlement houses in Cleveland neighborhoods. Already this year more than a dozen learning opportunities for local youth have taught safety (e.g. CPR), gang and drug resistance, vocational exploration and resume writing, legal rights, responsible sexual behavior and an array of positive life skills.
Special programs were arranged to address bullying and gun violence in the wake of the tragic local high school shooting incident in September. Mr. Davis has enlisted local disc jockeys, rappers, filmmakers as well as armed forces personnel and law enforcement personnel to impart their skills, experiences and wisdom with enthusiastic youth. Special relationships developed with local taxi companies help youth from the ten neighborhoods travel to participate in learning and recreational activities, service projects and an active advisory council for the community. The Cuyahoga Tapestry System of Care web site helps to engage youth from elementary school to young adulthood, as part of the substantial resources Cuyahoga Tapestry dedicates to its expansive efforts to invite, involve, inform, encourage, nurture, and listen to and act on the ideas of the many hundred young people its system of care serves.
A Nice Idea Pays Huge Rewards for the Mule Town Network
One of the 2005-funded communities, Mule Town Network, situated in Columbia, Tennessee, where they have a big heart for families, youth and children and where the community has responded in force, recently had a nice idea pay huge rewards. Project Director Karen Gamble-Dunn, the Social Marketing Work Group and the Technical Assistance Partnership came up with a plan to read mental health awareness books to students in the schools for Mental Health Awareness Day in May. They identified a set of 5 books, assembled over a dozen staff and partners including a Commissioner to read multiple times at 10 different schools to 700 students. They then donated the set of 5 books to each school. Several librarians featured the books and in schools where students could not read, librarians created displays for the books.
In the final analysis, what was a creative idea achieved more than the community had hoped for—increased awareness of the SOC, reduced stigma, informed teachers (many who said they learned a great deal), students who feel better about some of the feelings they did not previously understand, demonstrated support for one of their partners, donated books to ongoing education and stigma reduction, and increased relationships in the school and community, which in the process became a resource to teachers. Truly huge rewards for what started out as a nice idea and it could be done at any time of the year! For more information or a list of the books, contact Karen Gamble-Dunn at 931-560-3076 or Karen.Gamble-Dunn@centerstone.org.
Culturally and Linguistically Competent Activities for Youth in Monterey County, California
Monterey County’s La Familia Sana–The Healthy Family System of Care Initiative, located in Northern California, was funded in 2003. Monterey County is a partially-rural agricultural region with a growing Hispanic/Latino community. Disparity in services to Latino youth and families is of great concern to La Familia Sana–The Healthy Family. For this reason, they have implemented a range of culturally and linguistically competent strategies and specialized services to address the needs of children and youth from 0-25 years of age, and their families.
One such program addressing previously unmet needs and supporting youth development is the AVANZA Transition-Aged Youth Program. Their commitment to a youth-driven approach is exemplified through various strategies to engage youth in active, visible leadership roles. For example, youth mentors, as young as 17 yrs old, were hired by the County Behavioral Health Department. With support of the AVANZA team, they co-lead youth activities, mentor youth, and represent youth voice on the governance council while gaining work experience for their resumes.
Another strategy is the role of youth in social marketing efforts and the development of digital stories. They create, produce, and direct their own story with the help of the social marketer. This culturally competent approach has effectively engaged Latino youth in expressing their ideas and sharing their talents as well as helped them build new leadership and life skills. They are also paid for their time and work!
» Access the digital stories and the Fall 2007 edition of AVANZA Adventures (PDF).