Wondering how to get your COVID Vaccine? Del Norte County Public Health is offering free vaccinations to all comers Tuesdays & Wednesdays from 10am to Noon, at the fairgrounds in Crescent City. No appointment necessary.
It’s as simple as following the giant color coded signs.
Step 1. Fill out a form. Step 2. Show the friendly and helpful volunteers your form. Step 3. Get vaccinated. Step 4. Hang out for 15 minutes. It’s as simple as that.
Now that you know how to get vaccinated, why should you get vaccinated?
We asked Head Volunteer-Volunteer (one who volunteers to be the Head Volunteer) Debra Wakefield.
From Debra Wakefield:
If you’ve already got your vaccine, you’re already part of the solution here in Del Norte County. So the only way we’re going to stop this virus is by getting as many people vaccinated as we can. So the reason you should come down is for yourself, to be safe. It’s for your family, to keep all your family members safe—grandma, grandpa, kids, everybody. And in my book it’s for your community, we want to open up our businesses, we want to have as normal a life as you possibly can here in Crescent City. Only way we’re going to do that is to get a ton of people vaccinated. So do it for yourself, do it for your family, and please, please do it for our community.
Debra Wakefield, Head Volunteer at the Fairgrounds Vaccine Clinic
Can’t make the weekly event at the fairgrounds? Call your local pharmacy for an appointment—at the time of this report, Walmart, Walgreens, and Rite Aid have vaccines and are taking appointments or walk-ins, depending, with most other pharmacies soon to have them.
Tribal members can call United Indian Health Services at (707) 465-2975 to make an appointment.
Let’s get back to normal—get vaccinated. For Redwood Voice,
Sources of Strength in Del Norte are closer than they might seem!
This program is nationwide, but we’re talking about the team of youths right here at home. They’re here to spread messages and engage with the community, kicking it off with their “We Belong” Campaign!
And of course, a special thanks to the team of youths who spoke in this video—Valeria, Abigal, Andy, Alivia, and Annalee!—who not only provided their voices, but are part of the actual initiative of this program.
This project was a collaborative effort from the Redwood Voice team. This project was led by Eleni Corcovelos. Video above created by Persephone Corvid Rose. The article and interview transcript below were proofread and edited by Avi Critz.
RPG Research is a non-profit charitable research and human services global volunteer-run organization studying the effects of cooperative music and all role-playing game formats and their potential to improve lives around the world. All of our staff and executives are 100% unpaid volunteers who believe in our Mission and Vision to make a real Impact. This includes research into role-playing game therapy (RPG Therapy), role-playing games for education (RPG education), applied role-role-playing gaming (applied RPG), and many other uses.
Video Interview Transcript
PERSEPHONE Hi, this is Persephone Corvid Rose with Redwood Voice.
ELENI Hi, I’m Eleni with Redwood Voice.
PERSEPHONE We are joined by one John Degler.
JD That’s my dad and grandfather, I’m JD.
PERSEPHONE We’re joined with JD today because Paul Critz, station manager of KFUG, told me something interesting about recreational therapy Dungeons and Dragons. And we’re joined with JD to talk about what that means.
JD Well I’ve been doing training with a company called RPG Research where they use tabletop role-playing games as recreational therapy for people who have a variety of issues that they deal with. It’s been a huge learning experience for me. I’ve been doing D&D for the better part of three decades or longer, but I haven’t approached it from this particular side so it’s been an adventure.
PERSEPHONE Awesome! You said it helps with various issues. What kinds? Like, if there’s just a laundry list.
JD There really isn’t. There’s all kinds of benefits of playing role-playing games from learning critical thinking skills to socializing skills. And mainly what it brings to the table is helping people who have troubles with those types of skills actually access them in an environment that is inclusive and non-threatening.
PERSEPHONE So, you’re currently in the training yourself. How’s that going? Tell me about that.
JD Oh, it’s absolutely lovely. It’s kind of fun, the original 12-week program for the level one training system was turned into 16 weeks. As I finished the last half of the 16 week program, Hawk, the gentleman who runs the company, discovered that his workbook wasn’t actually working and extended it to an 18-week program. It makes sense because some of the information is pretty intense. This isn’t just learning how to play a game, it’s learning the terminology that you need to become a recreational therapist over a number of trainings and how to apply it in an RPG setting and be effective without just playing the game and going “oh look we did it”.
PERSEPHONE I was going to ask, what are you doing for those 18 weeks?
JD Well, I have my workbook here. It’s a 302 page workbook.
PERSEPHONE Not only is it 302 pages, it’s like textbook margins so it’s a lot of stuff!
JD It’s stuffed with all of my notes, and my notes are copious because I don’t have experience in this particular aspect of RPGs, so I have to work harder at doing this. It’s been a really interesting stretch of my comfort zone.
PERSEPHONE What got you into doing this?
JD Well, I was actually online doing some research for one of my games and on Facebook I came across a post about RPG Research. And then I went to their website and I went “oh my god, I want to do this”. Our area is underserved. We don’t have a lot of programs for kids and the last after school program we had, the person who was running it got arrested. So yes…
PERSEPHONE Interesting.
JD So, I would like to return something like this to the area to give kids who are interested something to do. You have to learn multiple game sources and there are multiple different types of games. You have to learn the terminology involved with the games. Because, for example, you cannot call all of the “Choose Your Own Adventure Books” that are out there “Choose Your Own Adventure Books” because CYOB INC., the company that owns that trademark, just settled a lawsuit with Netflix over a program Netflix was doing that was a “Choose Your Own Adventure” program. You have to know the correct terminology so that people understand you and you don’t get sued.
PERSEPHONE It’s funny you gotta balance both those out. And is there anything you found since you’re learning different game systems and how that kind of translates to different kinds of recreational therapy?
JD Well, one of the one of the game systems I just recently played since week six was No Thank You, Evil! It’s a really simple almost LARP kind of game. It is tabletop based, you have a character sheet that’s very minimal and you have a guide. You bring the kids along through the quest. The one we did was something about “Dragon Snot Fountain” or “Dragon Snot Falls”. It was great! And it involves a lot of “get up and move” activities. In one part of the adventure you have to pretend you’re climbing a ladder. In another part, you have to do the bee dance to get the directions to where you need to go. And there’s a lot of activity involved to help stop what they call the wiggle butt syndrome little kids have and people who have really bad ADHD have.
PERSEPHONE Yeah, as one of those people that sounds great! I’m like yeah!
JD When you get up and move, you get involved more and that really helps with that aspect of keeping people involved and helping them focus. There’s other games out there like Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space. It’s a really simple system. It’s a lot of fun to do, and it really involves a fan base that people can get involved with. It helps them focus on that because, you know, they like Doctor Who let’s see what we’re gonna do!
PERSEPHONE Nice! Maybe sometime we gotta get, like, the full Redwood Voice team and you should bring us through one of these.
JD Oh yes! Oh, you guys would have so much fun with No Thank You, Evil! Another fun thing about that is if something seems too much for a kid, they have a little token that they can put down that says “no thank you evil” and they can skip it entirely. It’s a really interesting and fun system that I have never even seen before and it’s one of the things I’ve been exposed to because of this training.
PERSEPHONE I haven’t either because that’s much more of a like kinesthetic thing with people moving around. I don’t really see that in a lot of tabletop games.
JD It’s kind of a hybrid between tabletop and LARPing and it’s a lot of fun.
ELENI So, I personally really love that because I’ve had friends who tried to get me into D&D and the reason I can’t is because choices and like saying “oh can I do this?” makes me really anxious and panic a lot, so I like having the option to be like “no, no thanks”.
JD And then that’s something that tabletop RPGs in a recreational therapy setting could help people confront along with like decision making abilities. And it’s really beneficial, according to the research that Hawk has put together.
PERSEPHONE Kind of along the same lines of people who panic with decisions, I’ve run many a game where there’ll be someone on their phone the whole time and not paying attention or taking in the details and then conflict from there.
JD That’s actually really common at my table as well. And it’s worse because I use digital devices to help get content out to the players and it’s getting even worse now in COVID because everything is digital. So, I don’t have any personal strategies for getting around that other than “pay attention”.
PERSEPHONE So, that is actually a good segue question. Is this available during COVID times?
JD Yes! RPG Research is headquartered in Spokane, Washington, so all of the training I go through remotely and it’s really fun. We start each training module each week with our administrative stuff making sure we’ve done our homework and that kind of thing. We do a pre-test to show what our baseline competency is. We do applied gaming where we actually play a certain game system, and then we do our lecture which focuses on the questions of the initial quiz. Then, we do the applied gaming section again to finish it out and then we do our post test to see if we retain that information. It’s a really good system Hawk has worked up. I’m really really into this system. Of the 18 weeks, I think I have done 16 now. I started the first nights at week 10 and we kind of went and repeated several weeks because people weren’t able to show up. That happens during the winter. I’ve gone back through and started with week one and it’s been very informative and very very interesting.
PERSEPHONE Nice! Sounds very thorough.
JD Very thorough kind of application process! And it’s a lot of fun too. I’m on the radio, so people don’t think of me as being an introvert, but I am. And this has been education for me and how to interact with other people that I don’t know and that I’ve never met before and how to be open with them right from the get-go. Because that’s not usually who I am.
PERSEPHONE So, even the people like administering and kind of leading get to learn something from it too.
JD Oh yeah, absolutely.
PERSEPHONE And because it is remote, obviously it does have the thorough application process, but could anyone sign up to see if they’re eligible?
JD There is an application process. You basically go to the website rpgresearch.com, you click on recruitment, and it’ll take you to what jobs are available. If you’re interested in any of the numerous positions they have from research assistant to volunteer player level 1 training, you click on the link, you fill out the application and send a resume. And then they get back to you. It could be me because i’m the volunteer coordinator now! And not only do they have these volunteer positions open and paid positions on the LLC side, Hawk has invested in a bus and a trailer that he takes up and down the coast and all around the country. He takes role-playing games and tabletop role-playing games to different communities that are underserved. He’s actually passed through Crescent City before on his way down to Santa Rosa, where he’s originally from. I’m wanting him to bring that bus here so that we can get the interest going and get some kind of recreational therapy system based on tabletop roleplaying games going here.
PERSEPHONE I would love to see that. If you need any media help- [laughs]
JD It’s constantly growing. There’s more than 150 volunteers on six different continents. One of the other volunteer coordinators I’m training with is in Germany and he’s from Nigeria. It’s a very diverse crowd of people who are interested in making this happen and that growth has happened in the last 18 months which is amazing.
PERSEPHONE Like, so it started like 18 months ago?
JD No, he’s been involved in the therapy side since 1977, I believe. Hawk, John, and Danielle got together and put together RPG Research and they filed as a nonprofit in 2016, I think. So, RPG Research has been an official non-profit since 2016, but Hawk has been doing this since the mid-80s. I’m really hoping that we get more attendance at the trainings because right now it’s been three to four people including the coordinators in all the trainings that I’ve done. And it’s really difficult. For one of the trainings, you play Neverwinter night’s expanded edition and there’s all kinds of different things you can do with it. One of them is running the DM Client which is, basically, you’re an invisible player that provides rewards or consequences to the other players as they go through the module you’ve created or that’s already been created. And this is all of it is based on teaching you how to make decisions and how to help players move forward in their game. It’s a way of playing D&D electronically because Neverwinter Nights is actually based on second edition rules. So, it’s all actual Dungeons and Dragons, just on a computer and a whole bunch of people can play it. And the idea with the training is to get a whole bunch of people together on the server and they pass the responsibility around and lead through different parts of the adventure. We’ve barely been able to get two people together during the winter and I’m hoping this summer, that’s gonna change and we can get more robust training.
PERSEPHONE Sounds like you might need even more people to join in.
JD Absolutely!
PERSEPHONE And again for people at home, if they are interested in joining, how would they go about doing that?
JD Go to rpgresearch.com and at the top of the website you’ll see a row of links you can click. One is volunteering and you can click on that link and it’ll give you a list of all the jobs that are there, and there’s paid jobs there as well if you want to move to Spokane.
ELENI Something I was curious about: do you think it’s like an advertising issue as to like why there’s only just a handful of people involved? Or just, you know, we are in the middle of an almost two year long pandemic. Why do you personally think it’s only just a handful of people that are currently involved with this? Because like you said, there were only, like, two to four people at a time. I was just curious if you had any personal theories as to why that was?
JD I agree with Hawk’s comment on it. He’s been doing this for years and what he has seen is, during spring summer fall they have a swell of volunteers who get involved and do things, and then over the holiday break you know Thanksgiving and Christmas they fall off because they’re all doing things with family. So, you know, that makes a lot of sense. It kind of goes dormant and there’s a few dedicated people who stick to it, and a few new people, but not usually a lot. I was kind of an apparently unusual person getting on board during the winter session and it was really more focused because there were fewer of us and we were able to be more involved with the questions and the training. It goes through a cycle like a lot of other volunteering. Locally, I volunteer for DNACA and Community Concert and we don’t plan events during that three-month time period for the most part. The latest we’ll really go is November and then we’ll skip through to February because there’s so many other things going on. I also do Community Concert and you know there’s so many things going on during the winter that people are really too compressed to do something else.
PERSEPHONE Understandable! Yeah, is there anything else that we’ve not asked that you would like to make sure gets said?
JD They’re developing a brain computer interface for allowing people who are complete shut-ins, you know, paralyzed from the neck down to be able to do yes no questions to do a computer game and participate in a tabletop role-playing type games like Neverwinter Nights. And this is something that Hawk has already done. He’s used a cheaper interface to get characters to move in Neverwinter Nights just by thinking about it. Yeah, so he and a group of researchers are putting together a computer game based entirely on the brain computer interface to help these people who are literally laying in a bed staring at the ceiling and doing nothing but have full cognition. They’re conscious and they’re aware, but they can’t do anything so they’re trying to develop this so that they can do something. They have research going on about this subject constantly. On how tabletop RPGs, LARPing, electronic role-playing games, and hybrid role-playing games help people. So this is a constant body of knowledge that’s expanded and is constantly expanding and he knows more about all of that than I do. They have community outreach programs, they’ve got the bus, they’ve got just so many different things happening!
PERSEPHONE Awesome! Thank you so much for talking to us. For Redwood Voice, I’m Persephone Rose.
ELENI And I’m Eleni.
If you’re interested in this work, you can find everything you need about them on their website, or even go straight to their volunteering section.
News Now is a co-production of KFUG Community Radio, Wild Rivers Outpost, & Redwood Voice. You can listen live to News Now live every other Wednesday at 5pm on 101.1 FM or kfugradio.org. On tonight’s stories:
On Tonight’s Stories: The COVID-19 Pandemic is surging all across our nation, including right here in Del Norte County. A positive new agreement has come around on the Klamath River Dam Removal. CalTrans looks into refining new routes that would move around Last Chance Grade. You can listen to these and many, many more on this production of News Now, linked below.
News Now is a co-production of KFUG Community Radio, Wild Rivers Outpost, & Redwood Voice. You can listen live to News Now live every other Wednesday at 5pm on 101.1 FM or kfugradio.org. On tonight’s stories:
On Tonight’s Stories: Oops, it’s all election! And it’s LIVE! (Or, well, the recording of the live show.) Discussion and updates on the election as they happened with commentary from the Redwood Voice Crew—Persephone Corvid Rose, Gwendolyn Rose Lucas, and Avi Critz—alongside KFUG Station Manager Paul Critz. But in other news things to give you a break in-between, Pelican Bay experienced its first cases of COVID-19, and there will be prescribed burnings near Orick. You can listen to all of this on this episode of News Now, linked below!
5th grade teacher of Mary Peacock Elementary School Paige Thompson (center) is one of two teachers in the Del Norte County Unified School District taking on the “Breakfast After the Bell” initiative in its pilot phase.
“Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.” Even though there are people who would look at that statement and dispute without hesitation, tearing down breakfast’s ranking on the nutritional hierarchy and claiming any other time of the day is “the most important,” few can argue with the simple truth that it is of great importance nonetheless. Also, it’s breakfast – there shouldn’t really be a debate on breakfast.
More importantly, breakfast is important for children. Going to school every day with progressively developing and impressionable minds while constantly taking in new information can be very demanding, and students – from elementary grades to graduating off to college – need to keep up their energy. It’s one of the things that never change about the school system. The brain is a muscle constantly at work, constantly exposed to new concepts, new ideas, new developments, and in order for it to function properly, it absolutely requires nutrition. Nutrition at the beginning of the day gives students the start they need to endure the rest of the day. But breakfast isn’t just about having it in order to merely function. Any source can give you any number of reasons why breakfast is so important and the additional benefits it grants: increased concentration, reduction of fatigue, amplified awareness of proportion control and nutritional moderation, and a decrease in the risk of illnesses.
Skipping breakfast, on the other hand, has demonstrated numerous negative effects, especially against young school children: diminishing mental performance in class, increasing the likelihood of poor food choices throughout the day (which has been shown to extend into long term circumstances), and cuts the body off from attaining important nutrition.
Everything points to the importance of students eating breakfast. Unfortunately, despite the attempts of establishment in which many schools serve breakfast to students in the early morning, breakfast accessibility is still an issue across the nation. One in five children live in households facing food insecurity, leaving roughly 13 million children across the country who go to school hungry with little to resolve it. It is a much more widespread issue than most people tend to believe. Lucy Melcher, director of advocacy and government relations for the nonprofit Share Our Strength, running the No Kid Hungry campaign, has said, “There are food insecure and hungry kids in every congressional district and every demographic[.] Food insecurity is a family that has enough money to buy groceries three out of four weeks; it’s a mom skipping dinner; it’s having to choose between buying groceries and paying rent.”
There is such an unfortunate discrepancy. As said before, schools do indeed attempt to serve breakfast. But usually, breakfast is served early in the morning before classes. Not only does this create issues for students with transportation issues who do are unable to attend early, but it means that students will have to wake up even earlier than the already dreaded early hours shown to produce negative effects.
But across the country, teachers have been taking up a simple but effective movement to combat this problem. Already it has been reaping positive changes, and two teachers have introduced it to the Del Norte County Unified School District.
Students participating in the Breakfast After the Bell program eating breakfast in class. They are provided food and are allowed to save the food for later in the day.
For now, these are known as “pilot” sessions, determining whether the program, known as Breakfast After The Bell, is effective. Breakfast After the Bell is an initiative pushing for a simple method to assist food insecurity issues. Simply, teachers are able to provide breakfast foods in the beginning of class. Some may have their class open a few minutes earlier so that students who arrive early are able to eat, though teachers are often able to simply start class slowly as the students are eating. By giving them the free time to simply eat and socialize, however, they are able to begin the day on a note of low tension and social development.
“The idea for piloting Breakfast After the Bell in Del Norte came from a collaborative group of community partners coming together to discuss how we can increase students’ access to food in schools. Breakfast after the Bell is a nationally recognized program that has been shown as one of the most effective ways to boost breakfast participation in schools. With the help and support of Deborah Kravitz, the Nutrition Services Director for Del Norte Unified School District, we were able to pilot the program in two classrooms at Mary Peacock this year,” said Ryan Kober of Building Healthy Communities, who has been a big part of helping Breakfast After The Bell in its piloting stages, and who gave Redwood Voice the opportunity to create a video for it, as seen above.
We interviewed Paige Thompson, a 5th grade teacher at Mary Peacock Elementary in charge of one of the two piloting classes testing the Breakfast After The Bell system.
First and foremost, the Breakfast After The Bell program easily accomplishes its goal of making sure that every student has food. “I like knowing that my kids ate that day,” said Thompson, which in itself reflects the effectiveness of the program. Being able to provide food and knowing for sure that students are eating helps to eliminate food insecurity during school, and she goes on to explain that of her classroom, only 2 students do not eat every day – one of which is due to medical reasons, the other simply out of preference who will eat some days but not others, but who still has complete access to the food – allowing ease of flexibility for students with different preferences or necessities. However, Thompson goes on to explain that the food itself is far from the only positive effective reaped from this experience. “I was excited about having breakfast in my classroom because it creates a really interesting social dynamic, and it makes my students feel comfortable asking for food later in the day when they’re hungry. It creates a really great sharing environment where, if somebody doesn’t want their orange they know they can offer it to somebody else.”
Although, the teacher isn’t the only one to notice the benefits of breakfast in class. We were able to interview a few of the students as well, who each gave very interesting ideas on what they liked about Breakfast After The Bell. Along with students knowing they had access to food if they weren’t able to bring food themselves that day, students enjoyed being able to be in a smaller, quieter place where they were able to talk to their friends. They claimed that it was a better experience than that of the Multi-Purpose Room, which was typically full of students and made for a much noisier environment. The attention of this from students shows that it would be greatly beneficial to overstimulated or overwhelmed students, as well as shy or quieter students who may develop social skills more positively by being around their friends and classmates, rather than a more disorganized room with many sounds and senses firing off, and instead have a more stabilized, calm environment before starting their day.
With Breakfast After The Bell, students have the opportunity to eat and either socialize with friends or relax before the beginning of the school day.
Overall, the Breakfast After The Bell program speaks for itself as to why it’s a nationally recognized program. It exceeds in its goal in making sure every student has access to food, promotes positive social dynamics involving sharing, closer social development, and to some degrees even self-care as students take time to themselves before undergoing school for the day – and all the while, it’s an easy system that all teachers could fluidly work into their schedule, elementary and beyond. Perhaps that is just one of the many reasons this program has already proved to be so successful across the nation. It is taking a simple, small action to step towards a more inclusive space, and in turn grows into something effective and powerful that benefits everyone. It’s a win-win situation that anyone can step up towards. References (2) BetterHealthChannel: BreakfastThe Denver Post: More than 13 million kids in this country go to school hungry
Redwood Voice’s Primary November Project, a video documenting the importance of Transgender Awareness Month in our local community of Del Norte.
We have reached the end of November. Families have come together to give thanks and nurture one another. They are unified – they are, quite simply, together.
And as they are together, they reconnect and recollect. They speak of the time that has passed since last seeing one another, they remember what came before this moment of celebration and connection.
There are many people who don’t have that luxury this time of the year. There are many people who must remember a much darker part of their lives – some, the loss of others, while the remaining remember how far they’ve come through adversity and hardship, remembering how hard they had to fight or hide to simply live to see these holidays.
Thanksgiving holds its fair share of connotations – for better, for worse, for all in between. It can be a spectacular time: a genuine, lovely gathering of family and friends. It can be, for perhaps a majority others, a grey time: those detached from their family, or even completely separated; those who spend the holidays alone; those who spend the holidays remembering those they once spent them with, but now live in times long since past. And of course, this isn’t even beginning to delve into the generational traumas of which the “American Thanksgiving” are rooted into and the atrocities that have taken place to build its cruel beginnings.
Regardless of how powerfully it encompasses this month, Thanksgiving is simply a mixed time. In a sense, perhaps the holiday it has evolved into is a time to ignore the traumas of the past – but ignorance does not lead to healing.
Ignoring a wound does not let that wound heal, but instead infect into something far worse. Even in writing this article, staying at a neutral, objective point, the mere act of talking about the negatives of this time of the year will surely outrage others or be deemed “controversial.” But it is simply true. Thanksgiving covers the attempts of many who wish to speak out. The Native American community wants the past to be visible without any strings attached, to spread awareness and knowledge of the wrongdoings of the settlers and the crimes committed against them. There is even a holiday the day after Thanksgiving known as “Native American Day” to amplify this awareness, and the entire month of November holds the monthly observance of “National Native American Month.”
Just as there are widely known observances, there are those buried under or unknown altogether. The one I present today is one that has been utterly erased to a point that few outside of those affected even consider its possibility of existence – an observance that, upon Googling, you won’t even find the name of:
Transgender Awareness Month.
Transgender Awareness Month – a month to memorialize the victims of transphobic violence and raise awareness of discrimination faced by transgender people worldwide.
November is a time when many members of the Transgender Community, as well as allies, reflect on pivotal historical moments that have fundamentally built the movement. But these moments come not from success without labor – they are times in which the community has overcome struggle, times in which we have climbed from the dirt placed on us to keep us down, buried, unseen, only to then blossom forth. One of the most notable instances of these happens to be Rita Hester’s murder on November 20th, 1998, due to her gender identity. This sparked outrage among the trans community, inspiring them to fight harder for a brighter future where we could live in a world that did not want to kill those who wanted to happily live as themselves. That’s why November 20th now marks Transgender Day of Remembrance. It is not a celebration, it is not an event of pride – it is a day marking loss. It is candlelit vigils as we read the names of those we have lost to violence, those we have lost to hatred against people being themselves.
Rita Hester, a transgender African American woman killed for expressing her gender identity on November 20th, 1998. A candlelit vigil was held for her attracting nearly 250 people.
We remember this pain. Many must live with it for the rest of their lives. Many suppress who they are to hide this pain – but ignoring the wound never heals it.
I’m sure many reading this may even be hearing about it for the first time. There are very few resources out there to for Transgender Awareness Month, and the closest our community has come has been the establishment of Transgender Awareness Week. It seems that our mourning and visibility must be cut short.
The purpose of Transgender Awareness Month is to educate those who know not of trans issues, of trans struggles, of where our movement originates – of where our movement is leading us. Its purpose is to step out and speak with those who want to learn, and we are more than willing. We know that there are allies who hope to provide as much assistance as they wish, but oftentimes they simply fall back. This month is here to invigorate them and others, to fight hatred with knowledge, to present who we are, what we’ve been through, and where we’re going now.
In Del Norte County, I cannot possibly overemphasize the importance of this.
I have met with a few fellow trans members of Del Norte to discuss its climate and why it is so absolutely crucial to have these conversations – why we need to be seen, why we need to be heard, why we need to be simply affirmed and understood as living beings. We are your neighbors, your fellow community. We want nothing more than to be accepted as we are, and those kind enough to do so inspire us to only further march with our message.
“Those moments of affirmation from your neighbors and friends here are too rare.” – Jacob Patterson (she/her), local queer activist.
“The world is a better, brighter place for you daring to show who you really are.” – Sam Bradshaw (he/they/she), True North Youth Organizer.
“We exist. We need to be accepted.” – Wyatt (he/him), Local Youth.
So I present all of this before you – this video, my words, our collective work – on the final day of November, near the month’s end. Why? Because I’m sure this is the first you’re hearing of it. But personally, I don’t believe there should be “designated times” to accept, love, and support others. So take this message as you will. Love your neighbors, learn about them, accept them, even if you don’t fully understand their lifestyles, and if that is the case, ask – talk to them. We are more than willing to explain who we are, more than willing to be seen, because for too long we have been in hiding. Let us all be unified and, quite simply, together.
esent all of this before you – this video, my words, our collective work – on the final day of November, near the month’s end. Why? Because I’m sure this is the first you’re hearing of it. But personally, I don’t believe there should be “designated times” to accept, love, and support others. So take this message as you will. Love your neighbors, learn about them, accept them, even if you don’t fully understand their lifestyles, and if that is the case, ask – talk to them. We are more than willing to explain who we are, more than willing to be seen, because for too long we have been in hiding. Let us all be unified and, quite simply, together.
Let us look forward to a time when the only Remembrance we need is to remember how long ago the trans community was forced to combat violence, and how it has now been reborn into a time of cherishment and acceptance.
Being one of the many participants in the E3 Program in Del Norte County from the Del Norte Workforce Center, I dedicated my time to completing this program not just one time, but two times around, and both times I was able to turn them both into success stories for the E3 Program. I made a strong candidate for this opportunity to travel out to Aspen, Colorado for the Opportunity Youth Forum, due to the fact that I brought my own dedication to my workplace and proved that I do stand as an employee with the rest of my team members at Wild Rivers Community Foundation/Building Healthy Communities. I was able to get invited from my previous supervisor Imelda Ramirez who is the program manager for E3, and I was thrilled and honored to be invited to this Opportunity Youth Forum. I had one week to prepare for this travel, and I found myself with thoughts that it was very little time to prepare mentally and physically because I am a full-time student at College of the Redwoods. I managed to arrange my schooling/homework and all the other details with work to properly make myself available for the week of the forum.
Later that day in which I got invited, I found out who else I would be attending with. I thought to myself, there was no other group I would rather go with to this Opportunity Youth Forum, because we all hold a powerful movement within our community to be shown and tell our stories amongst many other leaders around the world. I found out that our group will be taking some leaders in our adjacent tribal lands, a youth organizer for True North Organizing, a Youth Coordinator, our Del Norte Workforce Center E3 Program Manager, and of course my boss Michelle Carrillo the Executive Director for Building Healthy Communities at Wild Rivers Community Foundation. Later on into the week of the forum, I found out that there were other community members attending the forum from our community as well, which brought me to think of what a powerful and changing opportunity our community has with making a voice for all of us back home. The whole invitation brought excitement and more passion to continue the work we do for our progressing community.
As Sunday approached and I was officially loading my bags into my car it began to hit me; I was about to travel on a plane over to some high elevated mountains in Colorado. It was a scary feeling and I was not able to sleep comfortably that Sunday night prior to catching my plane the following morning at 6:00am. Imelda Ramirez was traveling alongside with me and given the fact we are both related as cousins I can say it made the whole worrisomeness of the plane ride become easier to handle because we had each other for support and encouragement that we would make it through and touch ground in Aspen, Colorado safe and sound. We arrived at the airport two hours as recommended prior to boarding our plane, and we were able to meet up with one of our group participants from Weitchpec, CA, which is further south of Crescent City, in our adjacent tribal lands. We all greeted and wished each other a safe flight and walked through the security check, normal and with hopes of nothing turning into an unwanted disaster.
Enjoying the activities and winter weather.
Monday, around 1:00pm, we touched ground in Aspen, although we were very nervously flying above Aspen for over 30 minutes awaiting landing; there had been a slight complication with landing due to the visibility for the plane road track. We had seemed to arrive just when a small storm was beginning to make its way. I fainted in those 30 minutes that we were flying above Aspen. The elevation was incredibly high–over 8,000 ft.–and I got extremely dizzy, lightheaded, and nervous from the information the pilot was giving the entire group of people aboard the plane. With the thought of blessings that my mother had given me the following day, it was just enough to bring me back to my senses of “everything is going to be alright”. And it was.
Arriving on the grounds at the Aspen Institute in Colorado, it was all a great deal of luxurious treatment that I found myself being treated to. They impressed me with all the outstanding care they showed. From grabbing my luggage to offering me all the amenities that for one, I would think the millionaires there in Aspen would be the only ones to be treated this way. On the contrary, it was myself being honored with this hospitality. As we stepped into the main lobby building at the Aspen Institute we were guided to the lunch area where we were served buffet style with assorted freshly made meals by the institute chefs. We grabbed and ate some delicious lunch then headed to our hotel to unload and get ready for our dinner and new participant orientation.
The orientation involved all the participants to gather together and welcome this year’s 2018 Opportunity Youth Forum. We were all greeted as we entered and joined in again on the dinner buffet they had set up for everyone that night. It was all super exquisite food and fine dining that us folks do not get treated with back home in Crescent City. It was fancy, and I felt the high class treatment throughout the night. The first few 15 minutes were for mingling and networking with different partners and organizations. For myself, it all felt really intimidating because of the fact that I only represent myself as a youth involved in a program.
Participants of the forum enjoy evening performances.
As the night progressed we had the honor of hearing a speech from Yelena Nemoy, one of the Aspen Institute Community Solution partners, and welcomed some live featured performances by Cleo Parker Robinson Dance, featuring a selection from “Dry Each Other’s Tears in the Stillness of the Night,” and “On the Edge…Reaching to a Higher Ground.” The performances were incredible, accompanying our delicious dinner and fancy wine beverages being served. The idea I got from the performances was to gain a reflection of two people working together in order to show support for each other and create sympathy for the strength it takes to be involved within a larger spectrum of work that we all do as a community. It was heartwarming to see such a great art performance between two partners. The night progressed with chills from all corners in the building. The people gathered within the building were all there for the same purpose and dedication to continue the good work around the world for our Opportunity Youth, and for myself I felt a great deal of inspiration throughout my entire time in Aspen.
On Tuesday morning we had a busy start, trying to adjust to the time difference, and getting to the institute on time for the opening presentation. We came along with everyone else to the Doerr-Hosier Center where we all gathered for breakfast each morning. Poetry by Bianca Mikahn was our serenade to our lovely breakfast, followed by Melody Barnes, the Chair of the Aspen Institute Forum for Community Solutions, and the new president and CEO of the Aspen Institute, Dan Porterfield. They opened up the morning with their speeches about guidance on the transformative power of collaboration to drive change, thoughts, and the importance of self-care in leadership. We were told to enjoy the sessions and that each and every one of them looked forward to collaborating ideas and sharing networking information amongst us all. My first session was at 10:00am, called “Adapting Entrepreneurship Curricula to Support the Needs of Opportunity Youth”. This was one of my favorite sessions, due to the fact that there were more interactions happening within a group, and we all had a chance to give out ideas, make something, and reflect on our own efforts as a group. These practices are very important, in my opinion, when you are trying to work with a team of multiple people, because the interactions have to bring out great solutions. Practicing these types of workshops teaches skills to become a better entrepreneur.
My second session was “What Counts When Reengaging Youth”. This session included talking about the different areas and data consumptions that are gathered within communities and how we can use this data collection to figure out which areas need to be worked on the most to reengage youth.
My third session for the day was “Making Youth Reconnection Work through Movement, Dance, Meditation, and Love”. This session was a very powerful gathering, and quite intimidating because of the fact that all the main leaders were in this room, including the CEO and President of the Aspen Institute and the rest of the leaders for the forum. They were all warm and welcoming. We started off with an icebreaker activity on partnering up with someone for a quick interview that we would later present to the whole group. Everyone seemed to be very important and CEOs of businesses within their community, and corporations as well. Their little biographies that we got were inspiring, and we later moved on to explaining the success some corporations like BestBuy have accomplished, putting over hundreds of thousands of dollars towards educating youth in the computer tech pathway and giving out applause to a great opportunity for our youth.
A beautiful view from the window.
As our day ended that Tuesday, the weather got incredibly cold, but it also felt wonderful to be able to experience the Colorado wind and be surrounded by high mountains and Aspen trees in every direction in sight. It was a privileged experience that I will not forget. On Wednesday morning, we were brought to our same routine as Tuesday, although this day we were immersed into the first snow fall of the season in Colorado, which was breathtaking. The snowflakes were massive, perfectly frozen flakes falling from the sky. Our Del Norte group was able to get a table by the windows off to the left of the Doerr-Hosier Center, and we were able to take glances back and forth. Within 30 minutes, the surrounding areas outside were a perfect fluffy color white. It was a site to remember, especially with the ginormous property that the Aspen Institute has, everything was artistically designed to suit a millionaire’s taste in views.
Participants of the forum engaged in Shawn Ginwright’s presentation.
The morning opening session was given by Steve Patrick, of the Aspen Institute Forum for Community Solutions. He made a speech about the importance of sharing the healing-centered engagement framework with the Opportunity Youth Forum network and lifting up community-based strategies for addressing traumas. A speaker later went onto the stage to talk about the importance of being inclusive to all people, whether that be that those people are incarcerated. This Professor of Education from San Francisco gave his speech and displayed some PowerPoint slides about “Shifting to a Healing Centered Engagement,” and explained that in order to heal, we need to understand what we need to heal and know the difference of not just suppressing the symptoms we have, and also supporting youth development workers with transformative change over professional development. His speech was touching and made me reflect on my own experiences I’ve seen in my years, and the fact we need to give more support to strengthen our social, emotional growth and well-being as well. This professor’s name is Shawn Ginwright, a much-respected man among all the forum participants.
As we went on to the rest of our sessions that day, I went off to my next one which was “Designing Community Dialogue to Support Undocumented Youth”. This was a powerful session for me because I was able to tell a real story to the rest of the group who participated in this session. The leaders were Ruth Barajas-Cardona from Bay Area Community Resources, and Thomas Showalter from National Youth Employment Coalition and they both facilitated a problem-solving session that will help us design our own community dialogues for helping to serve the young people in our community. We all had a very different way of trying to create a dialogue that will capture the youth. For example, some of the ideas that were brought to importance were the fact that we need to build relationships with a couple of potential allies and demographic research as well. These two ideas were a part of a big discussion between the group, and we got into detail about each different community we come from. We later went into detail about facilitating the pathway for the Opportunity Youth amongst this undocumented group. It’s very important to educate people about the importance of knowing your rights and what you may qualify for when you come from an undocumented background of people and share the word to the rest of the people.
I joined into the debrief session with the youth leadership group and it was very interesting to find out the difference that was happening with both youth side and non-youth side sessions. I attended the non-youth sessions and was able to find an equilibrium between both and gather my thoughts to justify that us young leaders are on the right direction to facilitating a movement for all our communities. Understanding the fact that we all have stories that give us more and more strength each time we share those stories. We are gaining the highlight of making an inspirational movement story for our youth within our communities to learn about and continue to grow together to form a powerful change that will impact the youth below us. That equilibrium that I felt was the right hook to cast me into the direction of future change. Becoming involved with the right sources within your community will give you the willpower to further your journey into a right path, because you will be able to feel the good work people put into helping our communities. Feelings are a key important element with doing community work, as in, one must be healed from their own traumas in order to heal the next ones coming up after them into their community. One must feel healthy, safe, and know that healing-centered engagement is culturally grounded onto us and we must view healing as a restoration of our own identity.
One must feel healthy, safe, and know that healing-centered engagement is culturally grounded onto us and we must view healing as a restoration of our own identity.
Article written and photos taken by Jessica Ortiz.
Telling the untold stories of Del Norte and Tribal Lands through amplified youth voices.
