Sandie and Stacy Deeble-Reynolds discuss FOCUS, a program designed to intervene when youth experience a traumatic event and provide guardrails, support, care, and a safe environment at an early stage when need is most critical. They reflect on similar programs in other states and how someone can bring FOCUS to their community.

Stacy Deeble-Reynolds serves as the Director of the Student Achievement and Wellness unit at the Orange County Department of Education. Stacy has over 20 years of experience working with students, parents, educators and community stakeholders in Sacramento, Orange County, and throughout the state of California. She currently serves in various leadership capacities among Orange County work groups focused on student mental health and wellness, family engagement, prevention, and positive youth development. Stacy holds a bachelors degree from UC Irvine, and a Masters degree from CSU Long Beach.

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Transcript

Dave [00:00:00] You’re listening to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast. This is episode number 285, Focus on Children Under Stress, with Stacy Deeble-Reynolds.

Production Credits [00:00:11] Produced by Innovate Learning, maximizing human potential.

Dave [00:00:30] Welcome to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast. My name is Dave Stachowiak.

Sandie [00:00:36] And my name is Sandie Morgan.

Dave [00:00:38] And this is the show where we empower you to study the issues, be a voice, and make a difference in ending human trafficking. Sandie, you were just telling me before we started our conversation today that you have known today’s guests for a long time. I’m so glad to meet her and to welcome her to the show. Stacy Debble-Reynolds is our guest today. Stacy serves as the Director of the Student Achievement and Wellness Unit at the Orange County Department of Education. She has over 20 years experience working with students, parents, educators and community stakeholders in Sacramento, Orange County and throughout the state of California. She currently serves in various leadership capacities among Orange County workgroups, focused on student mental health and wellness, family engagement, prevention and positive youth development. She holds a bachelor’s degree from UC Irvine and a master’s degree from Cal State University of Long Beach. Stacy, what a pleasure to have you with us.

Stacy [00:01:34] Thanks so much, Dave.

Sandie [00:01:36] I’m very excited. We just finished Priceless a few weeks ago and your new program, FOCUS, received one of our Diamond Awards. And the thing to know about our Diamond Awards is they’re not just glitzy. Those awards are models of replicatable programs that people anywhere can learn how to do and make available in their own communities that contribute to healthy communities that are resilient and reduce exploitation and even human trafficking. So we were really honored to present this award to focus at Orange County Department of Education. And I’m not going to tell people what FOCUS is because I want you to do that, Stacy.

Stacy [00:02:32] Oh, thank you, Sandy. And you’re correct, this is definitely something that others can easily replicate. And it’s what we did. Here at the Orange County Department of Education we partner often with Vanguard University’s Ensure Justice conference. Thank you, Sandie, for inviting us to be a partner every year. And at one of the conferences we learned about Handle with Care. It’s a program in West Virginia that we decided to model FOCUS after. And this program I’ll tell you about it in just a second. But what I want to share is that we learned all about it at Ensure Justice. So we’re so grateful to you and to the conference that you provide every year because it’s a really wonderful opportunity for connections to be made and for people to do even more macro work in prevention.

Sandie [00:03:27] And I love the connections and the way ideas are spread. We have listeners in 148 countries. And I want to say to people, when you finish listening to this podcast...