Category: Stories

Professional development made easy—an interview with Janell Jordan

By Adriana Zazula

A new year often means change and that holds true for SOWA’s training opportunities. Janell Jordan, King County Program Manager, shares their excitement for the new King County Training System and provides insight as its project manager. While virtual, trainings are open to any youth development professional and there is no fee to attend. What is the King County Training System? Why King County?The King County Training System is an option for organizations and their staff to access training and professional development opportunities. Training opportunities range from topics such as Exploring Structure Racism, Mapping Multiracial & Cross-Cultural Identities, Leap Into Science, our suite of … [ ]

Reflections on Bridge

By Janell Jordan

We did it! 394 individuals virtually gathered over four days to grow, strategize, nourish, and ultimately work to create sustainable impact for our field.   Planning this year was tough, not knowing what folks would need or want in the middle of a pandemic, while also navigating the fight for Black lives and the buildup of fear around the upcoming election. There were so many unknowns we were juggling, and our team worked really hard to ground ourselves and the spaces we curated in our Bridge values: equity, belonging, leadership, nourishing, change, innovation, and community. Some aspects of the conference manifested so beautifully and perfectly timed, and other aspects we dropped the ball a bit and have room to grow.   Holistically, though … [ ]

“Your impact, especially in a time like this, is magnified”

Staff at the Birch Creek youth center knew that summer programming during a pandemic would be different, but they didn’t know how different. On the first day of program, out of the 30 youth signed up, only one attended.  As they tried to address the barriers, they kept finding new ones. Kids felt awkward on video calls with their peers. Some families didn’t have the tech they needed, or didn’t know how to navigate the online platforms. It was straightforward when kids could drop in to programming at the youth center in their neighborhood, but now their homes have had to become … [ ]

Planting seeds in the shadow of hope

By Sheely Mauck

“This is the shadow of hope. Knowing that we may never see the realization of our dreams, and yet still showing up.” – Austin Channing Brown We often talk about change as moving from one state to another. You are one way. You do something or something happens, and then you’re in a new state. In our quality improvement work, I have referenced different frameworks for change including the “Stages of Change,” which has concrete steps to signify the change process or the matrix for “Managing Complex Change,” which includes flow chart boxes with specific elements of the change process. When looking at the stages, there are gaps between one step to the next step. On the flow chart, there are gaps between … [ ]

Belonging

By Janell Jordan

What is belonging and why do we often feel so far from it? Why are we telling ourselves that we don’t belong or that we are not wanted in a space when there is no evidence that that is remotely the case? Feeling alone in a room full of people is one of the loneliest feelings I have experienced. What I have also learned about these moments is that they are self-inflicted. Not always, but more often than not.   We are powerful storytellers. Something that unifies us is our constant weaving pieces of information, judgement, internal conflict, and emotions together to create stories about our existence, about people, … [ ]

It takes a village—community, family, and furry friends promote reading in Auburn

Trying new things can be nerve-wracking, so calm and non-judgmental support makes all the difference. For kids working on their reading skills in the Firwood Circle housing community in Auburn, the best support comes from dogs. Every week, through the Reading with Rover (RWR) program, they are able to have time in a zoom meeting where they read to a trained therapy dog. “It’s really comforting to the kids, and creates a safe space. Their anxiety doesn’t get in the way when they’re reading,” says Andy Pham, Youth Engagement Coordinator with Neighborhood House (NH) at Firwood Circle. “And the dogs are good listeners and … [ ]