Saving Lives: The Importance of Community in Mental Health

Dr Corso: 00:00:05

Hi, my name is Kent Corso and I'm your host for this episode of One Minute Can Save a Life. While I am a licensed clinical psychologist, none of these guests are my patients, nor does anything I say constitute medical advice.

The views conveyed during our conversations do not reflect the views, positions or policies of any private or public organization. This is simply a series of conversations with people who have some connection to hardship, suicide, mental health or loss.

There's so much we can learn from one another. So let's get started. Today our guest is Ashley Bright, the CEO of the Boys and Girls Club of Central Wyoming. Ashley, please introduce yourself.

Ashely Bright: 00:00:46

Yes, thank you, Dr. Corso. And it is, it's a pleasure and I feel very honored to be with you. I have been in the Boys and Girls Club movement for my 35th year.

Started in Tacoma, Washington and was there six years. Planted an organization in Great Falls, Montana and then have been out in Central Wyoming since 99.

And when I was in Tacoma, prior to starting with the Boys and Girls Club, I worked at neighborhood centers for the Tacoma Metro Parks District and I worked in one of the largest project housing areas west of the Mississippi called Salishan. And it was about nine blocks away from our Boys and Girls Club.

The Boys and Girls Club I started in east side and there's 5,800 individuals there and hundreds and hundreds of units as as it could hold that many people. And when I started 89 and 90, the gang hype was was very prevalent in in our country with media and we had the Bloods on our side of town.

The Crips were on the hilltop side of town. It gave me an exposure to culture that many people may not have and the fact that I was able to see violence daily.

If you look on Wikipedia and the Salisham project housing area, they note that as one of the most violent areas in the civic area.

So I was able to learn a lot and grow a lot through that experience and then started my Boys and Girls Club career as a program director and been working with youth and children and families communities ever since.

The gift that believe by the grace of God is mobilizing the communities to help find resources, prevention, intervention for the children families that we serve. And so yes, so that's a little bit about my background. I was honored to serve on the panel with you at the Teton Mental Health Summit.

That was a fantastic experience and grew from being around those professionals and those experts as well.

Dr Corso: 00:03:07

That was an amazing event. Back in May in Teton, the Teton Youth and Family Services put On one heck of a summit.

I do hope they do it either annually or every two years, because I think that both the audience benefited and it was awesome to network with some amazing professionals like you as well. So thank you for doing that.

Ashely Bright: 00:03:28

Yes, thank you.

Dr Corso: 00:03:29

Let's talk about Tacoma for a minute.

It sounds like an amazing opportunity to be able to stand up a Boys and Girls Club in an area with very, very high need and also very, very high risk. When I think about the gang behavior you described, it must have been pretty.

Ashely Bright: 00:03:45

Scary at first, truly. And.

And we with our programs, it's always low cost or no cost, so that every child has an opportunity to come, every family can afford, and we have scholarships and funds available. And so at that time, it was just $7 a year to join the club, 12 months in the summer, everything that we do. And so we were able to meet those needs.

Quick cross demographics and the programming was targeted for those kids who need us most. That's what we do at the Boys and Girls Club, the gang kids is so interesting. Dr. Corso.

ids. And then Fast forward to: 2020

But I was part of a gang prevention targeted outreach committee, and we talked about kids coming in violence, and we said, hey, if we all operate out of a code of respect, then, well, every child, every young person could come to the Boys and Girls Club.

So what that meant was when you walked into the Boys and Girls Club, you're going to respect yourself, you're going to respect others, you're going to respect the facilities and the staff and volunteers working there. So it did not matter if you were a Crip or a Blood, you can come to any Boys or Girls Club. And with that respect, we had them not wear colors.

And that was how we laid the groundwork for positive youth development.

Dr Corso: 00:05:21

It sounds like it was a neutral space, but also a safe space, very much. That's fantastic.

And so you're taking people from a diversity of backgrounds, but all of whom have some significant risk factors and probably some pretty difficult life and family situations.

And you're uniting them under a common set of, let's just say, ethical principles or mottos, and that is respect yourself, respect the facilities, and respect each other. That's fantastic.

Ashely Bright: 00:05:50

The mission is to serve all young people, especially those kids who need us most, to help them realize their full potential as responsible, caring citizens. And we're point them to these areas of healthy lifestyles, good character and leadership development. And academic success.

So, Dr. Corso, we are pointing kids to graduate high school with a plan.

Now, that plan might be attend a university or trade school or community college or the military or in the professional world, but graduate high school with a plan. So that kind of charge to the young people really helps build purposes and vision for their life.

Dr Corso: 00:06:31

So it sounds like what you're saying is the Boys and Girls Club is all about advancing our youth, is to move them forward in a meaningful, constructive, successful way. Is that right?

Ashely Bright: 00:06:42

That is the essence of what we do. Yes, very much.

And we are able to provide them opportunities, build resiliency skills, and help them create that path and walk alongside them as they struggle or as they fall down, or if they need help with whatever life throws at them. And what's super cool is we're also training them not to be victims either.

As life comes at you, we're going to come back at it and roll and go straight through. We have examples after examples of young people, a little bit of scope of the organization. We have 11 clubs in four counties, five communities.

Currently within those communities, the 11 sites, we have over 3,000 members. And we have another reach that we document, and that's all of our partnerships.

We have a financial literacy center, we house a boxing club, and then we do outreach on a monthly basis. So there are thousands of more kids and young people outside of our membership that are reached through the Boys and Girls Clubs of Central Wyoming.

As we are growing and doing our reach, we look for those opportunities to build the relationships with young people, to connect them with partners, connect them with positive role models, and be those mentors in their lives. We talk about in Proverbs, life and death comes from the power of the tongue.

So the more encouragement and the more speaking life over these kids, we know that they can reach their destination and be on a journey that is positive for them.

Dr Corso: 00:08:26

So not only are you building and advancing youths, but you really are connecting communities. You're helping resources and organizations within communities be part of this greater effort to help our youth.

And it sounds like the byproduct is successful youths, but then also some tighter communities.

Ashely Bright: 00:08:49

Absolutely. And for an example of what you're talking about, Dr. Corso is central Wyoming Counseling center has counselors actually in the Boys and Girls Clubs.

And so we integrate them with our curriculum, with the mentoring programs we have, with relationship building, with the outreach efforts that go on within our scope of programming, which really is the holistic development of a child. When you. When you look at the different core areas. So, yes, so we, we're taking community and then bringing them into the development of youth.

Dr Corso: 00:09:28

And now is it common for a mental health resource to be integrated into the Boys and Girls Club or is that just something that you all have done in your sites?

Ashely Bright: 00:09:37

It's becoming and more common.

There are some organizations that around the country where they actually have psychologists and counselors train staff on a regular basis and then they have social workers actually on the floor full time in their clubs. What we have similar model. We have behavioral specialists trained by counselors and we have a point person that gives us training in the club.

So is it common for Boys and Girls Clubs to have licensed counselors on site? It's not common, but we have models around the country and we have elements of those models in the Boys and Girls Clubs in central Wyoming.

Dr Corso: 00:10:22

It sounds like you're really leaning forward to bring those models to central Wyoming. And at the same time, what I love about the models is they provide your. What do you call them? Users, Kids, what do you call them?

Ashely Bright: 00:10:36

Members and those that attend the Boys and Girls Club.

Dr Corso: 00:10:38

You're providing your members direct access to a mental health provider and at the same time you're fortifying the skills and knowledge of your staff because that has a trickle down effect.

If they understand how to, let's say, spot the signs of depression or suicide or anxiety or maybe even abuse, then they can make sure to let the counselor know that they are concerned about a particular child. At the same time, they might learn some skills of how to talk to youth in a way that builds that trusting, solid relationship.

Because if youths don't have trusted others, typically adults around them, they'll suffer in silence. And of course we don't want that. So I love your model. I love how you're doing that.

Can I ask a little bit more about the mental health aspects of what you're seeing?

Ashely Bright: 00:11:27

Yes.

Dr Corso: 00:11:28

So I imagine that in some ways what you saw in Tacoma, Washington was unique. And I bet you're seeing some similarities here in central Wyoming. Can you talk about how mental health outside of the counselors for a minute?

How is mental health relevant to the Boys and Girls Club?

Ashely Bright: 00:11:49

Yes. So our youth development strategy is to build a culture where the kids belong, that they feel useful, that there's influence and there's competency.

So what we were finding, Dr. Corso, in the games is that that's exactly the strategy that a youth would join a game. They want a sense of belonging. I'm part of a gang usefulness. Well, if you ride your bike down here and you hold up somebody for cash.

You're useful to me. Influence. I have influence in making a decision with a gang to do some violence and then competency. I've carried out the violence.

So we're building the youth development strategy of belonging, usefulness, influence and competency daily in our Boys and Girls Club programs. And so you'll see that in homework help and tutoring. You'll see that in our Torch Club program, which is our leadership program with young people.

That's a sense of leadership and influence.

You'll see the membership as being a part of belonging, being on a basketball team, part of being useful, working in the clubs, doing things out in the community, community service, being useful, having the influence, having an A on your paper because you. You put the work in, or having school success. So we see that in the games, we see that in violence.

So we got a couple of violent issues here in Casper, and I got a meeting with some law enforcement during that time, and we gathered some other local organizations. And I was talking about this. We've got to take this seriously. Because I was in, I shared with them some of the project stories.

And I know what wannabe gang members are like, and I know what those gang members are like when they carry it out. And these kids carried out. I mean, this was plotted, calculated, and violence was carried out.

So we need to approach that from a culture, from a society. And I loved how you, Dr. Corso, talked about behavior versus society and just the differentiating both of them and looking at that.

And what can we do to eliminate violence in our community? Well, it is mobilization. It is, again, what you shared too, that young people aren't going to do things if they're. If they're supervised.

The unsupervised youth are more likely to be involved in violence. And then we touch on suicide with anybody. So how can we provide the wraparound services?

The time from 3pm to 7pm which is the most dangerous time in a youth's life, because where is the supervision? We got to go out and meet those kids where they're at.

We need to create dynamic programs that will draw them in so that we can build the relationships and point them to what we talked about. Graduating high school with a plan and in doing that, instilling values that will help them with their path in life.

Dr Corso: 00:15:12

So you've taken a common human need of belonging, being useful, having influence and being competent in something. And you are preventing things like violence.

You're preventing school dropout, you're preventing all sorts of potential mental health problems by Giving them alternatives to belong, be useful, have influence and be competent. And those are then structured around any number of goals like academics or joining a team.

In addition, you've got this sort of cycle where if they get involved maybe in the leadership program, then they start to be proponents for more of those programs or more of those efforts.

It's sort of like you're starting this little fire and it's a good fire and then you're stoking the fire so that it just spreads and sort of organically on its own.

Ashely Bright: 00:16:06

Right? Yep. You could be a national spokesperson for the Boys and Girls Club in this area. Yes, exactly. And it's, it's very proactive.

It's a very proactive mindset when a member comes in at 6, 7, 8 years old and we have club members that literally will be Boys and Girls club members from 6 to 18 years old.

Dr Corso: 00:16:25

So by the time they're 18, they are then mentoring or otherwise leading those 6, 7, 8 year olds, right?

Ashely Bright: 00:16:33

Yes. So we have about 17 of our 40 full time staff. We have 75 to 80 staff on average, with all of the reach that we have on our professional team.

So 17 of the 40 grew up in the Boys and Girls Club. So it's almost a bit of a discipling type concept where the values of the boys, girls have always maintained.

They go to school, come and join us as professionals and then their draws, they know the culture and the climate and the values.

We have some of the best professionals in the country that walked into our Boys and girls club at 7, 8 years old and were club members all the way through there, all the way through growing up. And so I was at Common Sense the other day. Common Sense is a gas station.

Dr Corso: 00:17:25

Yes.

Ashely Bright: 00:17:25

And I've talked to the cashier a couple of times and this time she said, Ashley, she goes, I cannot wait until the fall because my daughter's gonna start coming to the Boys and Girls Club. And I said, that is really exciting. I talked about, we had a long conversation.

I talked about the staff that have been here with us for 15, 20, 25 years. And she goes, yes. She goes, you all raised me and now you're going to raise my child.

Which we'll circle back and then give the, give the family, the parents encouragement in that area. But, but there is a, there is a powerful hand down to that, but it happens everywhere.

I mean, we, we, I've been here 26 years and, and by, you know, it's all by the grace of God, but we have kids that are doctors and Managers and teachers and principals all through the community. And they are lights in what they do.

Dr Corso: 00:18:23

Absolutely. Absolutely.

And it's not only sort of this pay it forward model, but then the youths who mature and let's say they're the 16, 17, 8 year olds, they are then the role models so that you don't have to have parents around. It's okay that there's no supervision because the norm.

I'm going to use your words, the culture, the societal expectations, the values are all sort of the same and they're centered around respect and achievement or growth or advancement.

Again, I'm obviously not an employee of the Boys and Girls Club, but I'm sort of picking up what you're putting down and I think why this is so important is coming back to that word culture. You've used the word culture a lot.

When we do our suicide prevention model in communities, we talk a lot about culture because culture drives behavior, culture eats strategy. For breakfast. You can have the best plan for your school or for your community and culture will just dominate. And so how do we shape that culture?

How do we really. From within and make sure that it is propagating role models and lessons and experiences that are positive for our youths instead of negative.

I know that in the last decade we've seen higher rates of anxiety, depression, mental health problems in our youth. Oftentimes it's related to social media, but it also exists without social media. Are you seeing lots of anxiety, depression, trauma?

What are you seeing? Just in a few words?

Ashely Bright: 00:19:55

Yes, we're seeing all of it and we're seeing it on a rise. We're seeing more and more these acronyms behind these kids are being diagnosed left and right. And that there's new.

There's new diagnosis that have come out.

Dr Corso: 00:20:11

Sure.

Ashely Bright: 00:20:12

Underneath like adhd, ADHD and others. Other diagnosis. So yes, we are seeing a lot of anxiety. Kids under stress like we've never seen before.

And we need to be equipped like we've never been before. So that we are.

We're pointing the kids the right direction or getting the resources in and acting in a way that is going to be best for that young person as they're going through life.

Dr Corso: 00:20:45

So let's frame this out for our listeners.

All of the programmatic things we just talked about, including the idea of belongingness, usefulness, influence, competency, the idea of setting goals with them, putting them on some sort of a pathway. That's all the proactive prevention stuff.

You've also got what I'd say is a responsive or reactive resource and that is having mental health providers inside the boys and girls club. Then you're also saying that you are referring people out to specialists as needed.

Ashely Bright: 00:21:20

Very much.

Dr Corso: 00:21:21

What else is happening in the way of intervention? Am I missing anything?

Ashely Bright: 00:21:25

One thing that I found in my career is inclusiveness in a way that we're not labeling.

Dr Corso: 00:21:33

Got it.

Ashely Bright: 00:21:33

So in, in a way that it's all, it's for boys and girls and we're not going to make a bunch of groups because I, I, I believe and in my experience that when we, when we try that or we do that, then it does create some stress and pressure on the young person to live up into that group. I think it cultivates bullying and other negative behaviors. So when we talk about inclusiveness, we're talking about all boys and girls. Right.

Dr Corso: 00:22:07

And so on one hand, labels help people form their identity. But it sounds like what you're saying is there is a diminishing return or there is a point at which it's less helpful.

And so how you have very cleverly tackled that is by giving them other values and other activities and other mindsets to adhere to to try to develop their identity. And that way there's really no need for those other labels or distinguishers. Is that right?

Ashely Bright: 00:22:38

I believe that that is right, yes. So boys and girls and avoiding the, avoiding stereotypes and such.

Sure is something that, in my experience it has been helpful in this youth development concept, this framing that we have in youth development.

Dr Corso: 00:22:59

It also seems like you are applying these concepts outside of, let's say, the four walls of your facilities. This is a moment where I just want to give a plug to the event coming up in Casper on August 8th and 9th. And it's called Lacrosse out violence.

Lacrosse is not a sport that has swept Wyoming from border to border, but it is growing in Wyoming. This is an opportunity for youths of several ages to learn about lacrosse.

But within the program there are also these touch points where your staff and others are sort of mentoring the youths and teaching them a stress management skill or teach them a little bit about how to tackle the curveballs that life might throw at them.

Ashely Bright: 00:23:50

Yes, again, Dr. Corso, very well said. And I have a list of these essence of mental agilities that sport can bring. And as you're talking about handling the curveballs and such.

But along with that quick decision making, sure emotional control, adaptability and focus and concentration, resiliency and bounce back ability, confidence under pressure, we talked about that positive self talk and visualization too. All to be cultivated through the area of sports and what is kind of becoming a norm? This. This idea of mental agility in sports.

Dr Corso: 00:24:39

Excellent. That's a great point. We, when I was an active duty Air Force psychologist, we used to work with our special operators and our law enforcement.

And we drew comparisons between how they learned to do their job and how some of those very same skills were applicable to managing life stress.

For example, in firearms training, they are trained to take a deep breath before they pull the trigger because it stabilizes muscle control, it increases attention and focus, and enables them to shoot better. And when we teach them that, that same deep breath can also help them. If they're angry or frustrated or anxious, they're.

They're a little bit surprised, but when they apply it, it works.

And so I love that that's the model you're using is to take some skills they already know from, let's say, sports, and then you're bridging it to something that seems more daunting or amorphous, like mental health.

Ashely Bright: 00:25:41

Yes. Yes.

Dr Corso: 00:25:43

Awesome. Do you have a website or any kind of a email address you can point us toward? If our listeners want more information about Lacrosse out violence.

Ashely Bright: 00:25:52

This is a partnership with the Boys and Girls Clubs of Central Wyoming, USA Lacrosse Prosper, Central Wyoming Counseling center, and the Natrona County Health Department.

And what we're going to be doing is bringing in agencies that work with young people in recreation and in sports and fitness to come together and then have a youth mental health launch and education and presentations. And so, yeah, so it's open for everyone.

We're gathering entities and professionals and those that are interested in finding out more about lacrosse, but also bringing the community together, mobilizing professionals around Wyoming to come to the Lacrosse out Violence day.

Dr Corso: 00:26:49

And it's free for kids, is that correct?

Ashely Bright: 00:26:52

It's absolutely free for kids, yes.

Dr Corso: 00:26:54

And they don't need to have a lacrosse stick or any equipment that'll all be provided, correct?

Ashely Bright: 00:26:58

Correct. Correct. Yes.

Dr Corso: 00:27:00

Excellent. Is there a place where our listeners could find more information about that?

Ashely Bright: 00:27:05

Yes. You could call: 307251

Dr Corso: 00:27:26

Okay, so the letter K. Hickman.

Ashely Bright: 00:27:28

Yep.

Dr Corso: 00:27:28

Excellent.

Ashely Bright: 00:27:29

Yep.

Dr Corso: 00:27:30

Well, we're just about out of time, but I did want to ask you, Ashley, before we go, if there is a message to our listeners about mental health and the importance of taking care of yourself. I know that mental health stigma is still something that pops up in our communities.

Is there any message that you have for our listeners, maybe words of encouragement about tackling mental health.

Ashely Bright: 00:27:51

So Kevin Hines has come to Wyoming a few times. We've had him speak at our Boys and Girls Club. And Kevin was a survivor of a suicide attempt off the Golden Gate Bridge. And he tells a story.

When he woke up that morning and he got on the bus, he started looking around, and he could describe everybody's face in the bus. And he thought to himself, if there's one person that would. That would say, hi, how are you doing? Then that would be my sign that I would not jump.

Exactly. So he comes off, gets off the bus.

He's walking towards the bridge, and this lady motioned to him, and he was thinking to myself, okay, here's the sign. This woman's going to ask me how I'm doing and what are my plans for the day.

And so she motions to him, and she walks over to him, and she hands him her camera and says, hey, will you take a picture? And so he took a picture of her, and he handed back, and he walked over and he said, no one. I did not get that sign.

No one has asked me how my day was.

And Dr. Corso, what you share in your trainings, where people are making these choices because they want to escape pain and really, truly has a powerful message of this whole story and this. This walk that he had.

Dr Corso: 00:29:23

And I think where you're trying to direct our attention is the fact that people who are struggling want someone to reach out and say, are you okay? We have this stigma or this assumption that it's their private business and they don't want us to pry. But that's not actually true.

That's not what they're thinking. What they're thinking is, I am in a horrible place, and all I need is for someone to take a moment to care.

Ashely Bright: 00:29:51

That's right. That's right. That is right.

Dr Corso: 00:29:53

Awesome.

Ashely Bright: 00:29:53

Yes. Yes, awesome.

Dr Corso: 00:29:56

Well, Ashley, thanks so much for being with us. Really excited about the event on August 8th and 9th.

Really excited to learn more about what you do in the Boys and Girls Club and really appreciate you showing up today.

Ashely Bright: 00:30:07

Oh, Dr. Corso, it was an honor to be on here on the podcast. And wow. We can make a difference. We can make a difference in that one minute. We can save a life in that one minute. We know we can.

Dr Corso: 00:30:22

Excellent. Thank you.

Ashely Bright: 00:30:24

Thank you.

Timothy Brien: 00:30:26

Thank you for listening to this episode of One Minute Can Save a Life. Take care of yourself. Take care of your neighbor. Be bold. Ask the hard questions. Because if you don't, who will?

Production support for One Minute Can Save a Life was provided by TKB Podcast Studio. To find out more about our services, go to tkbpodcaststudio.com.