TYAN Pod Leaders Talk About Youth Engagement at the TAASA 2022 Annual Conference

By Anna Weis ’23 and Kira Schwarz ’22

Last week, on August 11, 2022, our Pod Leaders Angela Rice and Alton “Tiger” Burton, along with Said Jalajal of Kinetic Vibez, gave a presentation on Positive Youth Development and Youth Adult Partnerships at the 2022 Texas Association Against Sexual Assault Annual Conference. The presentation included interactive activities that gave the audience new perspectives on how to best connect with youth, from guided breathing exercises to hands-on games. The audience’s emotional reaction to the group’s presentation made it clear just how passionate they were about working with young people, marking the beginning of the work that Pods will do within the communities in each of their respective regions.

Rice’s portion of the TAASA presentation, following right after Jalajal’s breathing meditation, sought to bridge the gap between the youth and adult perspectives with modified versions of beloved games like Jenga, ring toss, and Connect 4. Rice sees understanding the struggles and experiences of youth as quintessential to engaging with them, and intends on following suit when implementing her Pod’s activities.

In a recent interview with Rice, she delved into her Pod’s newest development, Healing in the Park. This bimonthly (and soon to be monthly) meeting is an initiative to cultivate a safe space for youth and adults to talk about prevalent issues that they may not feel comfortable discussing elsewhere.

“The topics range from dealing with grief [to] processing debt and financial loss,” Rice said. “A lot of people think that youth don’t need to talk about that, but they experience it too.”

Accompanied by guidance counselors and group activities, such as painting with Out of the Mouths of Babes, music with Kinetic Vibes, or making soothing sugar scrubs and lotions with Mannerable Manners, Rice hopes to gradually destigmatize the topic of mental health through the combination of safe space conversations and fulfilling projects for youth to work on.

Burton’s passion for helping youth was explicit as he spoke to the crowd at the TAASA conference about identifying power in youth. As Pod leader of the Brazos Valley region, one of the shortcomings he has noticed when working with youth is the inequity that comes with learning basic life skills. Burton’s approach to this prevalent disadvantage is to make sure that youth in his community have equal access to resources. Through weekend classes covering everything from how to change a tire to resume writing, Burton plans to teach youth how to do the things that most people take for granted.

“The reality of it is, unless you have someone to teach you that stuff, you don’t know,” Burton explained. “A lot of the communities in which we’re serving didn’t have anyone to do that, so we want to make sure that we’re able to fill that gap and provide some of those skills, because that’s what they are to some of these kiddos that don’t have the opportunity, or were never taught.”

These monthly group activities are just one of the goals that these Pod Leaders share. Rice and Burton both emphasized that collaboration and sustainability are key factors in the success of the Pods.

“I think a big part that was missing was that a lot of people are doing great things in the community, but they didn’t know each other were doing those things,” Burton recognized. “We want this to be something that is sustainable and continues to make an impact in our communities for years to come.”

As their presentation at the 2022 TAASA Annual Conference came to a close, Burton, Jalajal, and Rice encouraged their adult audience to consider the impact they could have on youth in their community. The conviction they had to educate others on Positive Youth Development and Youth Adult Partnerships spells success for the months to come as they continue to serve youth and youth oriented organizations in their communities.