Stress Less! A Y.O.U. staff perspective
Published December 1, 2023 Olivia Brown is a Resource and Support Specialist for the summer jobs program. Read below what it’s like to work with youth from Olivia herself!
I began my journey here at Y.O.U. as a job coach right after the Pandemic. During my time as a job coach, my greatest joy was going to the worksites to visit my participants. Every week upon my arrival I would take attendance and ask a fun “question of the week” prompt. We would play team bonding games to keep everyone engaged. The questions ranged from “describe week one of the summer job experience as if it were a cereal brand,” to anything like, “what is your life’s theme song for this season?” At the end of the summer, I gave my participants a certificate of completion and a little trophy that was actually a small wax figure character from the movie, “Incredibles”. Attached was a note that, in my very cheesy sense of humor said, “great job this summer, you’re incredible!”
After that summer, I continued my journey at Y.O.U. as a full time staff member, joining the case management team. Last year, Y.O.U. launched a pilot program in Akron, to expand to service students in the Akron Public School System (APS), as well as in the Cleveland Metropolitan School District. I was appointed the resident Akron case manager helping bring the program to the new city. During that time, I not only served in the role of the job coach, but I was the only Y.O.U. Case Manager as well. I saw my participants weekly during the summer and continued to mentor them throughout the school year as a Resource Support Specialist. My rapport with a lot of my students only blossomed from there. I would host monthly engagement events from “College Readiness” to “Emotional Wellness”. I also developed a great rapport with one of my participants, Janai. I helped Janai as she was navigating transportation barriers her senior year. One time we even got to go to Chipotle together. Janai is now in college and she and I are still in touch.
After the Akron program completed, I continued my journey in the summer jobs program in Cleveland. Being a relational person, it is my joy to find ways to reach them that is relevant and also fulfilling to both myself and the young person. I recently hosted an engagement event titled, “Stress Less”, a safe space to discuss stress, anxiety, and mindfulness practices. Overall, I consider myself to be a connector. I connect my participants to resources, I connect them to other people and ultimately connect them to their goals and dreams. There has been a lot of nuances to the journey, both highs and lows, successes, and failures, but I am grateful for the time I have had to bring a little light into their already bright lives.
The purpose of the workshop was to create a safe space for youth to discuss, stress, anxiety, emotional wellness, recent events happening in the community affecting our participants as well as sharing amongst their peer’s mindfulness practices. Our intent was not to tell our young people what they should do, but more so cultivate an environment for them to share their what they have done/ haven’t done while inviting them into practices that has helped us balance and manage life’s many responsibilities and changes.
Together we practice grounding techniques, healthy coping mechanisms for stress (ie. Breathing, meditation, journaling, venting)and more. We were surprised at the amount of individuals who were willing to not only share but also ask their peers questions. The youth lead the discussion, we were there to present them with prompts and practices to guide the conversation as they shared. All in all, I was grateful to be in the space with such bright individuals and to become a student, learning with them as well. I learned from them and have more practices to apply in my life to help me “Stress Less,” and I believe they walked away with a few new tips and tricks as well!