Building Equity through Youth Advocacy

In this episode, guest host Deltavier Robertson speaks with staff and youth from the Michigan Organization on Sexual Health (MOASH) to learn more about their youth advocacy efforts and how they used grant funding from Safe States to support their work in building equity into their programming. We learn that youth are not just the future, they are very much the present and their voices matter!

Transcript

Mighty Fine: 0:05

Welcome to the Injury and Violence Prevention INdepth podcast. My name is Mighty Fine, and I'm the host of this Safe Space Alliance production. In this space, we'll engage in dialogue with IVP professionals on a variety of issues. To help inform our listeners on the latest trends and hot topics in injury and violence prevention. On this episode, special episode, I think, we will be spotlighting the fantastic work of the Michigan Organization on Adolescent Sexual Health, or MOASH and Deltavier Robertson, Manager of Programs and Health Equity at Safe States will be serving as our special guest host. Today's episode is sponsored by the Suicide Prevention Resource Center, be sure to log on to sprc.org to learn more about the resources that they offer. Deltavier, I'm turning it over to you to get us started.

Deltavier Robertson: 0:56

Thank you, Mighty. I'm happy to guest host today to chat with MOASH staff and youth about their work in building and leveraging youth advisory councils to advance equity in sexual health. We are featuring them today as their work relates to building a stable and equitable injury and violence prevention infrastructure. One of the core components of a model injury and violence prevention program. The Building Equity Into Safer States publication was released last month to provide guidance for applying an equity lens to injury and violence prevention efforts. This resource is designed to help injury and violence prevention practitioners improve outcomes for all, especially those at increased risk of injuries and violence due to age, race or ethnicity, abilities, sexual orientation, or any other marginalized identity. The publication is available on our website. I'll begin today's conversation with Natasha Thomas, Program Coordinator at MOASH. Natasha if you can share a little bit about more of the history of the youth advisory councils like how did it get started? Can you share a little bit about that story?

Natasha Thomas: 2:07

Yeah, so yep, so MOASH as an organization, and as you stated MOASH stands for the Michigan Organization on Adolescent Sexual Health. It was the organization that started between like 2008 and 2009. And our first Youth Advisory Council was started between 2012 in 2013. And that was My Voice and My Voice is our well, I would say it's like our General Counsel in the sense that it's just like any youth can join that council. And then from that work with My Voice, MOASH developed several other youth advisory councils that were a little bit more specific in terms of the issues or identities that they really focused on. So for example, we have MYREC, which is the Michigan Youth Racial Equity Council. And that's youth who focus on issues that are, like I said, at the intersection of racial justice, but also sexual health, reproductive justice, sexual violence prevention, we have like MYTRANS voice, which is for you who are trans who focus on that intersection with sexual health. We've had youth advisory councils that have worked with youth who want to focus on issues of disability justice, we have a new one, which is MYFAITH, which is youth who are focusing on issues of faith and religion and reproductive justice, MYCAP, which is consent, so it's we have a lot of youth advisory role, as you state it was to make sure that youth voice is really kind of leading this work and making sure that we are addressing the issues that are impacting youth communities.

Deltavier Robertson: 3:42

That's fantastic to hear that you are being intentional about engaging young people. And it sounds like it's working for you at MOASH. Are there other benefits to having youth advisory councils that you want to share that maybe you guys have learned over the years?

Natasha Thomas: 3:58

Yeah, there's a lot of them, I think, you know, when I think about us as an organization, it helps us as an organization to, to really make sure that we're doing the work that's, you know, being led by youth and being informed by youth. So we, in addition to having our youth advisory councils, we also have youth that sit on our organizational board. And that, you know, we really, I think our organization has benefited a lot by relying on the leadership of youth right and having youth lead the work. I think for youth, it provides a space for, for them to be leaders and to focus on the issues that they want to I know that in all of the youth advisory councils, there's a strong focus on really like talking to our young people and saying what is it that we should be focusing on what do you want to focus on? And I think for communities, it helps the communities to recognize that our young people a lot of times we say like young people are the future young people are very much the present like we have a whole wealth of leadership In expertise in our communities with young people. And so I think one of the things that MOASH is really intentional about modeling for organizations and communities is that this is a community of leaders and experts that we need to be listening to. And it really the benefits are benefits. I think every level work.

Deltavier Robertson: 5:25

I love that young people are the present. Yes, not just the future, not just the future. That's, that's, that's important. And, and also, I recognize that we're saying youth, but can you define youth to you and to your organization, like what are what is the age range,

Natasha Thomas: 5:43

So we define youth pretty broadly. And like, so we, for my rec, for example, in a different youth advisory councils have different age ranges that they work with, but my rec works specifically with 13, to 24. So we recognize that youth is like, what we traditionally think of youth. But even beyond that, when youth are, you know, college age or beyond that there's still a certain expertise about like the youth experience and certain support that youth in those communities can get. So we define that, you know, pretty broadly.

Deltavier Robertson: 6:18

Great. So one thing that MOASH has done really well, and why we're featuring you today is how you're able to or were able to leverage your Youth Advisory Council, MYREC to get some additional funding. And that is really important, because that's one of the core components of a model injury and violence prevention program. And we just really wanted to spotlight the way that you are able to take the seed grant money and the resources and the support that you get from Safe States and build on that momentum. So can you share a little bit about how you were able to do that?

Natasha Thomas: 6:56

Sure. So Safe States was our kind of our launch grant, which we were really grateful for, because that helped us to get like, started and to really kind of formed the council. And then after that, we saw some federal funding. And we also saw, like some local funding, and we were able to get both of those. So some of our support. Now come is very County specific to where we are in our region. But then we also got, like this federal funding that's a little bit more expanded. And so and in our work, which Safe States helped us to do that, when we applied for that funding for that additional funding, we were able to talk about the work that we were able to do with Safe States. So we're really happy that that happened. And I think you know that that was that was a really the Safe States partnership was really critical in us being able to show our other funders what we wanted to do and and they were supportive of that. So

Deltavier Robertson: 7:57

Yeah, that's fantastic to hear from of course, from Safe States, to see that you were able to kind of grow that work. But also, I think any injury and violence prevention programs out there should consider how they can leverage some existing funds and some existing activities in order to continue to expand the work that they're doing. So that's fantastic to hear. But let's go ahead and introduce some of these phenomenal young people we are joined by today.

Natasha Thomas: 8:25

Would you like me to do that? Sure. Okay, so we have, we have three members of my record, like I said, these are members who were part of that initial Safe States launch. And so they, like I said had been critical. They're what I would consider kind of like the leadership of the organization has been critical in helping to shape the advisory council. So I will actually I will turn it over to each one of them. You can just kind of introduce yourselves and maybe your pronouns and and then yeah, I think we can just go right into questions, but I'll turn it over to the poor.

Nupur: 8:59

Hi, my name is Nupur. I go by she/ her/hers pronouns. And I'm a current student at Michigan State University.

Deltavier Robertson: 9:08

And also, can I add the Nupur was a member of MYREC and now is a youth co-facilitator. So all of our youth advisory councils have a youth co-facilitator who's like a co-leader that works with the staff member. And so Nupur, started as a member and is now a co-facilitator, so works closely with me to help facilitate it as well. That's fantastic in terms of building leadership skills. So hi, Nupur, very excited to have you here today. Do you want to talk a little bit about what your experience was as part of MYREC? What motivated you to join?

Nupur: 9:47

Yeah, for sure. So before joining MOASH, I was already pretty involved with health equity advocacy around my campus and in my community. And when I came across MOASH I really resonated with a lot of their initiatives or efforts and seeing MYREC and being a person of color, I thought it was a really interesting opportunity to connect with others also in the same kind of sexual health equity advocacy space. So that was kind of my initial motivation for joining in. Now, as you can see, I loved it so much. Now, I'm co-facilitator. I'm planning on staying there for a pretty long time. So yeah.

Deltavier Robertson: 10:26

That's fantastic. That actually leads me to my next question, which was, what impact has participating in MYREC had on you? Has it influenced your studies? Has it influenced you in other aspects of your life?

Nupur: 10:40

Yeah, definitely. So first and foremost, the initiatives that we put forth through MYREC, they were certainly a lot of fun to put on, I was able to connect with a lot of people in the space like I was looking for. But a little more broadly, I think it's definitely really challenged and changed the way I look at several social justice issues. Like not only was it a supportive community, but I think it was also something that pushed me to explore intersectionality and identities further, and overall, just become a better advocate for myself, along with others in my community, again, I've been able to connect with so many bright people, and I'm so excited to see what we're able to accomplish going forward.

Deltavier Robertson: 11:25

Wow, that sounds like an amazing opportunity. Sounds like you're a great fit for MYREC. And for MOASH is very exciting to have you now as a co-facilitator, sounds like you're ready to go, it seems like Anamika has joined us. So if you will, can you tell us a little bit about your experience with the Youth Advisory Council with MYREC and how you got started, and what motivated you to join.

Anamika: 11:50

Um, for me, I like didn't have much experience with helping and advocating and I like really wanted to get into it, like sexual violence has always been something that I've been like a big advocate for myself, and I wanted to be able to, like, boost that into my community. But like I hadn't had any opportunity. So when I came across MYREC, I was super excited because it was like perfect, where it took like two good aspects of my identity and like interests, I had an advocacy looked at the intersectionality between them, which was perfect. That was what really made me want to join because it just seemed like it was very much what I wanted to put dedicate time to and is just like perfectly aligned with what I was thinking,

Deltavier Robertson: 12:32

Wow, that sounds great. And what impact has participating in MYREC had on you.

Anamika: 12:38

For me, I think I just become so much more knowledgeable about like all of these topics. Because for our events, we need to research and gather the information first. And it's just amazing how much I've learned in my own research and then seeing my fellow members research and present it to us. I feel like I've just become so much smarter, such a better advocate, I have so much more understanding about all of these topics.

Deltavier Robertson: 13:02

That's fantastic. I'm so excited to hear this because advocacy is such an important role in Indian violence prevention. So it's great to have some young advocates coming up, I understand that we have one more youth that we want to speak to in just a moment. But in the meantime, Nupur or Anamika, please share, you know, what advice would you give to other youth who want to get involved who maybe have similar interests around anti-racism around health equity, sexual violence prevention? What advice would you give them if they want to kind of find opportunities such as MYREC to get involved?

Nupur: 13:43

Yeah, for sure. So on my end, I think I'd say that you're never really too young to make a tangible impact on a lot of the time in these advocacy spaces. Personally, what I've seen is that genuinely I've been the youngest in the group, like that's, it's just what it is. And with that kind of having to work a little bit extra hard to make my voice heard and make sure that it's actually being put out there. And with MYREC, it was actually the complete opposite. I was, I think, almost one of the oldest in the room. I actually love because I was able to hear the perspective of so many people. So yeah, you're never too young to make a tangible impact. Like you have to start somewhere if you have an opinion, makes a positive impact on people's lives. And it deserves to be heard and put out there. So yeah,

Deltavier Robertson: 14:31

I love that. Anamika...

Unknown: 14:33

For me, I would definitely say like, don't let mental or like, you know, like, you would think of it in your way stop you like I know, I'm like a shy person. So it's always hard for me to like connect with a group. But I think you know, like find this like this space that aligns with your identity and what you want to do and just be open and honest to learn. Everyone is so amazing and so nice and you're just gonna like be so calm because all of these people are here for the same reason as you,

Deltavier Robertson: 15:03

Right? And let's hear from Krithvi now I see you with us. So let's talk a little bit about, you know, what your experience has been with MYREC?

Krithvi: 15:11

Um, well, I'll introduce myself I guess first, I'm sorry. I think it's due that I'm so I'm Krithvi. I'm gonna be a senior in high school. But yeah, my experience at MYREC has been like, so cool. Like, it's been so cool to, like, meet so many different people. And like, I just think like, the biggest thing for me, like with my work is that I've like made so many connections like that, like, so many friendships and like, that's something that like, is like, so meaningful to me. And I've and I've learned so many things, and it's given me like, like, I've just learned so much that I've had told me like different conversations with like, different people with like, like anyone, like even in my classes, like with my teachers of like things that I've learned from my work and like that, it's just been so amazing to me,

Deltavier Robertson: 15:54

I can hear the excitement in your voice, that's fantastic. I wish I had that opportunity as a young person, I think is really important to build your confidence. And like you, you said, I think Nupur, you have something to say you have something of value to contribute, you know, no matter how young you are. So I think it's wonderful that you all are getting involved at your age, and you're you're able to advocate and you know, speak up for what you think is important. So I think that's phenomenal. And I'm very excited to have you here with us today. And Natasha, I want to come back to you because I think youth advisory councils are so important. And I know that there are oftentimes underutilized by a lot of organizations. So what what about you all at MOASH has made it something that it seems like you specialize in working with young people, you specialize and building up youth leadership and advocacy, and really just growing these different avenues for them to really get that type of experience? So what is special? Or what are the strategies that you are implementing over there that makes it work so well?

Unknown: 17:02

Well, I think, you know, one of the things that we that we do is that we really value youth expertise and youth voice. And I mean, we've had youth advisory members who started off as youth advisory members and who became staff and who became like experts on our like, we have in, we incorporate our youth advisory members into our staff, we have them on our board. And what we really like I said try to model for other organizations is like not necessarily looking at youth as just oh, this is a community that we need to like provide services for. But this is a community that we're in partnership with, like these are also experts and leaders. And so our work with them is not necessarily like this hierarchy of like, we're the leaders and the experts, like we are partners, and we we value your leadership and expertise. And so our youth advisory councils, we have lots of organizations that, you know, approached us and wanted to partner because they they want to work with our youth advisory councils, or they may have like a new campaign that they're doing, and they want to get the input from the youth on, you know, is this campaign? Is it? Is it accessible to youth? Is it friendly to youth? Is it something that you know, that we need to change as a intersectional? Is it all these things and so I think one of the things that that we do well, and that I really would love to see and more organizations is really shifting that perspective of like, we're just here to service you and really kind of shifting it to know we want to we are in partnership with youth communities. And we and we recognize them as like leaders and experts in their own right. And so they are coming to the table, you know what I mean as that as like equitable partners, and yes, of addressing our community issues.

Deltavier Robertson: 18:42

That is equitable engagement, because you are sharing power, you're sharing decision making, you said there's no hierarchy. I think that's really important when you're working with young people or just anybody with lived experience. If you're trying to engage people in the community, and you feel like their voice is important, it's important to make sure that there is not that hierarchy and that they feel welcome in that space and that their voice matters, and that they can have a have an impact on the decision making. So I think you are doing a great job as far as modeling that, hopefully for other programs to consider. And finally, I just want to know, I think you mentioned something about ground rules. In the beginning of this, I'd love to hear some of those ground rules

Natasha Thomas: 19:27

So what we do, I think across all of youth advisory councils is when we first established the Council is to have like, kind of group agreements where the council decides like this is what we would need the space to be in order to feel like we can participate fully and safely and so a lot of times that is stuff around like how we're going to handle attendance but also things like when we're sharing ideas, how we're going to listen to other people's ideas, and even sometimes like how we handle like conflict or like when we don't agree, that is something that gets kind of fleshed out in those agreements too. And, that's just a way for us to as we navigate the work, like, have something to refer back to. So if we do have a problem or have an issue, we can always look back at the agreements that we established to be able to do that. And so yeah, that's kind of always our goal is to, and I mean, even as an organization, there have been times that we may have had ideas or things that we wanted to do that when we share them with our young people, they may have said, well, this is not a good time to do that right now. Or we don't think this aspect or this, this doesn't really work. And we have really had to like listen and say, Okay, maybe we need to change that or just that or not do that. Because what we're hearing from our young people is that this is not the direction that we need to go. So just I think, that collaborative spirit, both within our councils, but also within our organization of working with our youth is really important to us.

Deltavier Robertson: 20:53

I love hearing that it makes me think about how we navigate different priorities, because you may have priorities that are you know, further from the funder, your organizational priorities and your youth priorities. And you have to kind of find a way to balance all of those things. And it sounds like the ground rules are one of the ways that you are able to do that. And then making sure that you're inclusive, and including the voice of young people so that they don't feel left out in that process. Well, that's really all that we have today. Thank you so much for joining us. And I love hearing about the great work that you all are doing at MOASH and look forward to the great work that you will continue to do. So thank you to Nupur, Krithvi and Anamika. I appreciate you today.

Unknown: 21:43

Thanks for having

Deltavier Robertson: 21:46

MOASH is currently recruiting for their 2023-2024 Youth Advisory Council cohort applications can be found on their website@www.moash.org

Mighty Fine: 22:01

Thanks again for listening to IVP INdepth. Be sure to subscribe and listen to us on Apple podcast, Spotify, or Google podcasts. You can also follow safe states on Twitter at Safe States and LinkedIn and don't forget to check out our website www.safe states.org For more injury violence prevention tools and resources. I'd also like to thank our sponsor, Suicide Prevention Resource Center for supporting Safe States and helping us to create space for programs such as this. This is your host Mighty Fine signing off and until next time, stay safe and injury free