Podcast Episode 3: Young Adult Voices and Leadership in Prevention

Communities Talk about Prevention podcast. Communities talk to prevent alcohol and other drug misuse. Episode 3, Young Adult Voices in Leadership and Prevention. Guest, Dr. Ruth Chee, My Neighbor's Keeper Alliance. Hello, everyone. I'm your host, Rear Admiral Christopher Jones, Director of SAMHSA's Center for Substance Abuse Prevention. Thanks for joining us. Today, I'm pleased to be joined by Dr. Ruth Chee from My Neighbor's Keeper Alliance. She's participated in SAMHSA's Communities Talk Initiative and has first-hand experience designing and leading prevention efforts in the Washington metropolitan area. Dr. Chi, thank you so much for being here with us today. It's great to have you. Thank you so much for having me. Excellent. Well, let's get started. So in this episode, we're centering young adult voices and leadership and how young adults are shaping substance use prevention efforts and leading change in their communities so my first question is and you know we're talking about communities talk and that work at from SAMHSA providing stipends to communities to really bring people together so in your communities talk activity how were you engaging and sort of capturing young adult involvement to shape and lead that activity so again thank you so much for having me So from the very beginning of our community's talk, we knew we wanted to have youth have a key voice in all our activities. So that's why our main activity for this year was our mental health awareness activity. May happens to be Mental Health Awareness Month. So we had our Voices of Now Youth Wellness Takeover event and we had our young people run this event. So one of our key centerpiece of our event was our wellness tree. So we had our young people design the wellness tree, they conceptualized it, and they ran it. So we had all our invitees come in and they had to place a wellness pledge on the tree. So involving our youth in all that, we made sure the youth were not just sitting on the sidelines, but we got them involved in the planning process. so for example they were the ones who ran the whole event we had young people at our welcome table the young people run our resource table the young people were at um where we had our food they did the music and they were the ones who did the emceeing of the event so getting them involved even with our question and answer session they were the ones running all that so we wanted to give them a voice we had a panel as well and our panel went because it was a youth wellness event we did not just put just clinicians on the panel we put young people there as well so we had young people on our panel we had questions for them and um they were able to help us craft some of these questions identify you know what they are talking about in their own communities as well as recruit peers for the event and this was this experience showed us that um it was because this was our second event it was a much better experience than we had the year before so yeah i i'm curious i want to pick up on that last point so you sort of knew from the front end that you wanted to engage youth voices and and maybe you just you put a great teaser there that was because something you had done in the past maybe you didn't do that so we we see this in our prevention work and we've seen you know uh prevention programs that have been designed for youth or young adults that have really fallen flat because you didn't incorporate that youth perspective so why what was that experience or why was it important to make sure that you on the front end and throughout the programming were elevating those young adult adult voices so in the past we weren't always like this when we started we're going on five years with my neighbors keeper alliance in the past where we used to have um we'll have clinicians come in we would have um um mental health advocates we'll have other specialists coming but then for some reason there was this gap we felt like there was a distance between whoever was talking and the audience with the young people so it was almost like uh there was there was a credibility gap it's like the young people felt like they were talking down down at them they were managing them so we eventually decided to reach out and hear their voices it's like because they are the ones out there they are the ones who know they are the ones out in their social media spaces they are the ones um in their social groups they know what is happening so we decided to start listening to them i'm getting them involved what topics um you know are you having in your circles bringing them to be part of the experience and once we did that we closed that distance and once they start feeling like you want to hear their voices they show up more they want to be more interactive you know they They feel like you do care about them, not just sitting there and talking to them. So that was one of the reasons. And that was the feedback we got from them because at My Neighbors Keeper Alliance, we are always open to feedback. We want to know what is working and what isn't. And that was the feedback we got and we jumped on it and we ran with it. Excellent. Yeah. No, I've shared this example before in some talks that I've given. um we did a a call for young people to submit proposals around raising awareness for counterfeit pills like you know fentanyl in press pills that look like commonly misused prescription drugs because we were seeing that young people were overdosing and you know how what would be messaging that young people would recommend for other young people and like a key overriding theme was we don't like adults talking at us yep you know and just so like so important as we think about prevention efforts even well-intentioned if we're not capturing those voices we really may be missing the mark so it's it's great to hear both from lessons learned and just your your sort of organizational approach to working with young people is that those voices are at the center of the work you're doing so as you were as you were planning your most recent event uh was there anything that stood out in particular about a particular young adult leader or one aspect of that event that really captures that connection between sort of youth voices and perspectives or young adult voices and perspectives advancing prevention? Right. So it's great you asked that question because at the event, which was actually May 2nd of this year, we made an intentional decision to have one of our young girls, she's a college student to come tell her story so she was able to come pick up the mic and stood in front of 50 plus people and spoke about her mental healing journey she she did not you know she didn't use any clinical language she didn't use um um it was nothing you know she spoke very plainly and very simply and um to those and she felt free to those who wanted to hear and um when she was done with her story the room you know paused it's like there was this pause in the room and then everyone erupted in you know with applause and you know some parents actually teared up young people rushed to give her a hug and embrace her for you know being so courageous and telling her story and you could tell that there were young people sitting in the room being like oh if she can do it so can i you know i can be able to tell my story freely and we did at the end you know we had a feedback i collected we collected feedback and most parents felt like that that particular moment was so impactful for them to hear a young person be able to come out you know, and break the stigma, break the silence, be able to talk about some of the heavy things that young people are carrying and stop performing. And also one other thing that happened at our event was we had a young man sitting on a panel. So this young student, he spoke to what young men carry, the heavy, the pressures that young men carry in today's society, the performance, you know, of strength, young men going around performing, you know, some of the heavy things that young men are carrying and dealing with and the silence especially with um with some cultural with some cultures so he spoke to that so these are just two instances where you know we gave the platform for these young people to come out and share their story and after sharing their story the room was left you know there was you could tell that there was a huge impact and and and for us now impact is not about people just showing up and you know counting the number of people in the room it's actually what touched you what are you going to do different what are you going to spread out You know, how are you going to talk different to your kids? You know, how are you going to make these connections with a clinician, with a friend? That is what impact now, you know, means for us as an organization. Yeah, no, that's, I mean, I think those voices and sharing like, you know, just very openly and honestly are such powerful ways that we can break down walls, break down stigma, build trust and make it safe for other people to say, yeah, I'm struggling or I've struggled with those same challenges but it also can show that people can get to the other side of those challenges right that it's not we're stuck in this forever but that there are solutions and there are networks and people that we can lean in um when we're struggling but creating that safe space is is really important that's great to hear absolutely um so you guys are still a relatively young organization um how has your sort of commitment to young adult involvement or that voice of young people changed the way you approach your prevention work your organizations work so again um like like i said earlier in the beginning it was more about when we started actually with our core um programs it's called empower youth through awareness mentorship and education we would bring out these mentors you know we're talking to them but eventually we got this feedback and then we had things had to shift and had to change because there was this um we almost felt like it was discredit there was not it was it was not sounding credible because the young people felt like we were talking again down and down at them so we had to make these changes um being able to listen to them you know we opened up platforms where students could submit um questions and answers anonymously when they felt like you know when they were free to submit those so being able to reach out to them and connect with them in ways that we saw that were different and then once we started doing that um that distance closed so we're able to reach out and then listen to them more and then bring them to be part of it so it was we were not bringing them after the events were over no we were bringing them when we were planning in the planning session so you want to make them part of the planning you want to listen to the voices and when you listen when a young person opens up when the list open up and talk and spoke to us we did not manage their voices. We did not acknowledge them in private and then, you know, go out there and then not acknowledge them publicly. We made sure that whatever they said, we're going to put you out there and make sure your voice is heard and tell your story. And once we started doing that, it was a very effective approach. And as you've been doing that and sort of, you know, infusing that throughout your work, what have you found are the supports or resources that young leaders need to develop and sustain their work in a strategic way i mean i think you know some people come to this very naturally and it's very organic and then there are other people of like you know what was that mentorship or types of support or resources that really helped that blossom and and for that to sort of become viral catch fire um so that young people can keep doing that well it's good that you asked that because also that's that was one of the what you just asked the question is Those were one of the key things that we started looking at once we started getting this kind of young people involvement. So some of the resources we started looking into was, we want these young people not just, you know, to let them praise them, but then to be trusted. So they want to be trusted. So they want to have a place where you actually, it's like a genuine, they want authentic voice. So bringing them to the table, like I said. Secondly, that was the first thing. Secondly, being able to provide them with the right mentorship, right? So not some kind of anything that needs, that goes by a professional norm, you know, meet them in their natural space. So, for example, you know, those that had a natural ability, public speaking, being even grand literacy, some of them had that, or were able to produce, you know, great TikTok. They are on all kinds of platforms now. So those who have that natural ability, being able to tap into that. Thirdly, you know, financial resources. so as you know most of them you know um um they have their own economic hardships so if you're gonna you know get these young people providing them with some kind of incentive you know stipend um scholarships paid leaderships in whatever form um it's it's a statement of value it's like we hear you you know we we love what you're offering to to the organization and we want to we want it to grow we want to amplify it so and then there was also being able to connect with other peer networks in the area being able to connect them such that you know they're not in isolation they bring their ideas together being able to merge those ideas together and grow as a community and also um um being able to foster that growth and unity and inclusion and i think that once you start putting all these resources together for young people um it creates a powerful inclusion and the one one other last point i was going to make is having organizations that stay so not just organizations you know or you come you attend you host one event and then you're gone no but having an organization that is like My Neighbor's Keeper Alliance that is there throughout and helping them you know throughout each season with their leadership and their development yeah no i i think that's really important and as we think about you know youth and young adult serving organizations um and you you think about sort of substance use risk mental health challenges people who uh as you mentioned sort of have socioeconomic challenges they've probably experienced some forms of trauma or adversity having that sort of predictable place to go right um you know the place where you can sort of lean in on your experiences or your interest and someone is consistently there and saying i care for you like i'm gonna be here for you And represents sort of that stable relationship that they may not get at home or they may not get in their regular environment is really so important in just the resilience and, you know, helping young people develop connections and relationships and learn how to build trust. I think it's, you know, it may seem like we're here, you know, consistently, but, like, the payoff of that is really deep, even if it doesn't always, maybe people don't always make that connection, right? But, like, consistently showing up for young people is really, really important. Very important. Yeah. And, I mean, I love the idea of just sort of trying to figure out what is the thing that clicks for somebody, right? Like, it may be technology. It may be that they want to do videography. They don't want to be in front of the camera, but they have some really cool ideas about making TikTok videos. And then somebody else wants to be in front of the camera. And then somebody else might want to add, you know, mix in music on top of it. And so I love that, like, you are trying to find that place to where you can tap in. And it's not a one size fits all, right? However you show up, we're going to try to capitalize on your, you know, God-given skills to advance our work. So I think that's a, that's an important message for people to hear that you don't have to show up in exactly this way in order to be a part of something, but we're going to, however you show up, we're going to meet you where you are, uh, to help, to help you, um, you know, find your place and find your contribution. So I appreciate you sharing that. So for young adults who are listening and from your experience in working with youth and young adults, what are some of the core messages that they you know that you want them to hear? what what has resonated uh obviously you know you're you're sort of coming out of mental health awareness month and you've been seeing this front and center and for young people who are just going through a lot right a change of development and concerns about the future and jobs and education and stability in their life what are some of those core messages that you think are important for them to hear so that's a that's another great question so for young people and and we we kind of see and hear them all the time um i always just say your story is your greatest asset so um you whatever story you don't need a uh to be you don't need a degree your professional degree um you don't need any skill your story is your asset and honestly most young people are already doing that you know prevention work so every time you check on a neighbor every time you check on your friend you pick up the phone you send a text message how you doing that is prevention already every time you normalize a conversation that is being stigmatized by society that is prevention right there every time you bring out a topic or you speak about speak up on something on an issue that society you know tries to label as taboo that is prevention and that is leadership right there so and you don't need a platform so my message is if you're in an environment where you have some of these organizations find them you know if you are in the Prince George's County area where we are connect with us. Our doors and our planning tables are open. And make sure that when you're part of this organization, make sure your voice is heard. Make sure, you know, you're there to provide solutions in whatever form, like we talked about, whatever natural abilities you have. And to any young person who is carrying anything heavy as well, my message is reach out, you know, and seek help. That is not a sign of weakness. It is a sign of strength. That is the first start of leadership right there and you um don't want to go out there and give you don't want to share from an empty vessel right you don't want to share from an empty cup you want to make yourself whole because if you're going to be part of a prevention community the community needs you to be a whole person yeah no that's that's great and i i'm interested in hearing from your perspective uh what was your trajectory into getting into this work i i'm a pharmacist by training i have public health training and often people ask like how did you end up where you are and i'm like i have no idea it was none of it was planned uh but i feel like i'm in the right place right i i sort of found my way into the space and i think that is true for a lot of people who work in the prevention space there's a calling for service and giving back um but for for others who you know are thinking like hey i want to do what this organization is doing you know what what was that journey for you what's sort of that calling um and what would be your advice for other adults um for you know how to approach getting involved in this space and interacting with young people it's interesting admiral jones you say you're a pharmacist because i'm a pharmacist to my profession and um as i always tell my young people i this um my neighbor's keeper alliance it's it's a passion for me i don't get paid paid for this i just love to see young people thrive and how i got into this was because my job as a pharmacist i'm you know as we we give out medicine to the public we're trying to solve a problem that is already existing so at some point during my career i had to step back and being like hmm i you know how can i become more proactive instead of reactive because i feel like being a pharmacist you are just reacting reacting you know giving medicine to people to solve i mean even though we counsel and we educate and all that but then i wanted to go back into being more proactive and then i stepped back and this was all through during covid and in i work in the dc area down in the dc area i saw how young people especially with the opioid overdose crisis how it became really devastating especially with young people and um um that struck something within my core and i'm like how can i reach out and i found out that there's just a lot of misinformation disinformation and and just young people feeding up of the wrong things on you know on the internet and all that so i was like you know what i'll stop complaining about it i want to do something about it that's how we started this organization and and and one of our our vision is to create a drug-free home one parent one child one neighbor at a time so it's touching one person at a time and that one person touches one person and that's how the message flows we are not we cannot um heal or reach out to i mean cure everybody or the message but then we hope that each person can carry the message forward and my message to any young adult any adult that wants to take on this work is before you start you want to listen right so before you design any program you want to listen to the young people that are already in the room you know honestly you will find out that you know whatever topic or issue you want to bring up these young people have really been talking about what they want but the problem issue is have you have you been listening have you been taking time to pay attention so bring them to the table you know what is it you're talking in your chat groups in your in your social media circles make them part of the program um being actually being the core and the center and also amplify your voices again like i said so if someone approaches you in a meeting someone approaches you after a session and you know confiding you do not manage your voice bring it out give them a platform and you see that that's how you're going to go and that's how the impact is going to be created in organization as well as in your community yeah and so as you approached it from an organizational perspective so you had you know you knew you wanted to contribute in a different way um than maybe how you've been professionally trained as a pharmacist um for people who you know might be listening to this and are inspired of like i want to engage young people in my community you know but we don't have we don't have a you know an organization that's that's already doing that like where what's the advice for somebody who wants to start something what were those lessons learned for you like oh if i look back on you know five years ago uh what would i do differently you know who might be the partners or the places for resources or funding like what are those sort of secret ingredients if somebody else said you know what our community needs this um you know How would you, how would you, what advice would you provide for starting that? Oh, that's, that's a great question. As we come up on celebrating five years, there are so many lessons learned. So when I decided to start this, I had started, I started going out to events. So the thing is, you've got to go out to other organizations because there's a lot of them in the community. You'll be surprised. There's a lot of them that are probably doing either the similar work or kind of what you're looking for. You go out to events, you talk to people. You've got to talk to people. You've got to reach out, you know, and, and I had to come out of my comfort zone. I was a very introverted person and the, um, so I had to come out of my comfort zone. So I had to be able to go out and talk to these people. And eventually I started creating these partnerships. You have to attend meetings. You, um, and at the beginning it's, it wasn't, and I had to provide, show that in terms of writing grants, before you put out a grant, you've got to show some work. So I had to invest. It's like every investor, you have to invest in what you want to do. right so i had to put in my own finances put in my own put in my own effort in it so then before you come to any grantor it's like what what have you done what are some results what is the impact so then i started finding out in the communities that the other work for example the Prince George's health department where i would partner with they were doing some work but they had trouble reaching out to students in the community like the middle and the high school students so we had to find a way to be able to reach out so i had personally i've got to the school to the superintendent So I make those calls. You know, sometimes you sit like, you feel like, oh, I can't make those things. Those people are just seated up high up there. I had to go there. We go there. We go to the schools. Like, you go talk to them. You'll be surprised. Like, these people even want to listen to you. And they were like, oh, yes, we would love it. You know, partner with schools. Go to community centers. Go where the young people already are. Talk to them about these programs. And that's how we started recruiting. In my own circle, my own groups, in my own community, my neighbors, my friends, you know, families, reach out to them tell them you know this is what is happening in our community with drugs you know with everything going on with mental health we want to start this program and we just found so much support and that's how we started recruiting these young people i love it i mean as a fellow introvert uh i i find it funny that we we put ourselves in these situations where we have to shed that right like for the sake of of our jobs and the things that we want to accomplish we have to become uncomfortable uh comfortable being uncomfortable i guess um so yeah it is it is remarkable i mean oftentimes they're they're i have found with partnerships and collaborations that uh you know sometimes it's just opening the door to that conversation with people and they're like oh yes we've been thinking about this too or we didn't know how to get started and so i i think it's really a great advice and you're obviously a living example of, um, what you can do with without lots of formal resources and, uh, you know, even like, you know, from a standpoint of the ground up, right. You're sort of building it, um, you know, because there, there was a clear need and a demonstrated passion for it. Um, and that is, that's probably more important than having like the upfront $50 million investment, which would be nice. We would all love that. I'm sure. But that's not the reality in the prevention space, right? There's never going to be enough money, but there is a need for action. And there is a need to bring people together who have a shared vision, who want to help support the next generation. And I think you're just such a remarkable and passionate example of that. So again, I just want to thank you for being here today with us and sharing some of your journey, sharing how you use SAMHSA's communities talk, resources to continue to facilitate and amplify the work that you're doing in your community. It is such a good example of how this program is intended to work, right? It's not going to fully fund everything that everybody ever wants to do, but it can be that critical piece of support that can bring people together to start those critical conversations in a community that can lead to collaborations that are durable and sustainable over time. But it takes people like you who are passionate and committed and see the need and the gap that exists to bring those people together in the community. So, again, thanks for joining us for this episode of Communities Talk About Prevention. I want to, again, thank you for sharing your time, your insights and experiences. It's always great to speak to other pharmacists, especially other pharmacists who aren't necessarily doing traditional pharmacy things. It's good for other pharmacists to see there's lots of opportunity in our profession. To learn more about SAMHSA's Communities Talk initiative and find resources to support substance use prevention efforts in your own community, visit SAMHSA.gov slash communities dash talk. And we hope you'll join us for future episodes as we continue to highlight prevention stories from communities across the country. So again, thank you so much for joining today. Thank you so much for having me. For more information, visit SAMHSA.gov forward slash prevention hyphen campaigns.