Service to others is one of the 40 Developmental Assets, in the category of Empowerment. Empowerment assets give young people space to try new things, identify their skills, and impact the world around them. The benefits of service to others are significant, but locally, this asset has been declining for the past decade. In this episode, we will be exploring service and how it helps youth become their best selves.

GUESTS | Paul and Kim White

BIOS

Kim received a bachelor’s degree from Davenport University in Grand Rapids, and worked for both the Lansing Regional Chamber of Commerce and the Michigan Chamber of Commerce before moving to Midland in 1995. While helping with the family business, Lifestyle Garment Care, her primary responsibilities have been managing a very active household. She is in her 18th year of being a Leader for Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts of America. She is also in her 18th year of being a teacher in the Faith Formation of youth for Blessed Sacrament Parish where she is also a Eucharistic Minister and Minister to the Homebound. She is a former Midland Area Community Foundation board and committee member. Her passion is youth and their success in this community. Kim has played an active volunteer role with The Open Door Shelter, The Arc of Midland, Plymouth Elementary, Northeast Middle School, and Midland High School. Kim is a graduate of Leadership Midland.

Inspirational speaker and author Paul White is the former Coach and President of Roth Cleaners, Inc. DBA Lifestyle Garment Care. Headquartered in Midland, MI, Roth Cleaners was established in 1929 and grew to include pickup and delivery service routes, along with valet service for the Great Lakes Bay Region of Michigan.

Paul developed a passion for public speaking and pursues that passion with his significant enthusiasm and love for life. He is a graduate of the Dale Carnegie Sales Course, where he was Sales Talk Champion and Goal Setting Champion. He is a graduate of Leadership Midland and the Great Lakes Bay Region Leadership Institute. Over the past twenty-five-plus years, he has dedicated himself to serving his community as Past President and board member of the Arc of Midland, past board member of the Mid-Michigan Children’s Museum, Past President and board member of the Arc Michigan, past board member of the Midland Area Chamber of Commerce, past member of the Dow Chemical Community Advisory Panel, a past committee member of Project 111 Safe Driving movement, and former chair of the Friends of Scouting Family Division for the Lake Huron Area Council of Boy Scouts. He is also an active Rotary Member, and an active member of his church.

Social media is a construct that has changed the way we interact with one another. It has allowed us to connect and stay connected across miles and throughout years, yet many argue that it has caused us to become more disconnected than ever before. There is increasing evidence that it may be contributing to mental health problems in adults and youth. Further, social media influencers seem to be driving some concerning behaviors and adolescent brains lack the development to understand the consequences of participating in social media challenges.

GUESTS

Ashley Hubbard, Counselor at Northeast Middle School

Lindsay Timmerman, Counselor at Jefferson Middle School

BIOS

Ashley Hubbard has a bachelor's degree in Psychology and a Master's degree in Counseling from Central Michigan University. She works for Midland Public Schools as a Middle school counselor and has been working with 11-14 year old adolescents for 8 years. In her free time, Ashley likes to travel.

Lindsay Timmerman has a B.A. in Creative Writing and Communication from Hope College and a M.S. in School Counseling from Butler University. She is in her second year as School Counselor and Cross Country Coach at Jefferson Middle School. When Lindsay has free time, she likes to bake, read, and run.

Parents and grandparents today have seen an incredible transformation in the role that screens play in our lives. Growing up, we may remember watching live television with our families around the one television in our homes. Or, perhaps we remember when we got our first computer and you could only play Pong and Oregon Trail (in monochrome). The evolution of digital devices has been dramatic and rapid. Today, nearly every adult in the United States works on a computer daily, carries a small computer in their pockets, and has access to televisions and video games on-demand. The landscape has changed completely. With screens being such an integral part of our lives, screen addiction is becoming an increasingly significant problem.

Guests

Jackie Warner, Youth Intervention Specialist

Ashley Huston, Youth Intervention Specialist

Jackie Warner: Jackie Warner is a Youth Intervention Specialist with Community Mental Health for Central Michigan. She is a masters level counselor. She has done therapy with children, families, and adults for 28 years and has been in her current role of Youth Intervention Specialist for 11 years.

Ashley Huston: Ashley Huston is a Youth Intervention Specialist with Community Mental Health for Central Michigan. She is a masters level social worker. She has done therapy with children, families, and adults for the last 10 years; and has been in her current role of Youth Intervention Specialist for the last year.

Cultural Competency is one of the 40 Developmental Assets. During this episode, we will explore the value of cultural awareness, as it relates to individuals, youth, and communities. We will be joined by two individuals who have spent extensive time with persons from other countries, as they adapt to life in the United States. This discussion is an exploration of the value of cultural awareness.

Guests:

Jennifer Majorana, Director of Adult Literacy

Kathy Kinkema, ESL Tutor at The Legacy Center and retired teacher

Young people need to be surrounded by people who love, care for, appreciate, and accept them – their time at school is no exception. On the flip side, young people need to feel supported and encouraged in their educational journey – even at home. Parents who are actively involved in helping their students succeed are less likely to engage in negative behaviors. Tune in as we talk with local school representatives about what they are doing to create caring and supportive educational environments and what kind of support they need from parents.

BIOS

Jennifer McCormack has been the Superintendent for Coleman Community Schools starting her sixth year where she leads, develops, collaborates with and coaches professional and support staff team members to ensure high-quality educational experiences and expectations for students in grade K-12. As part of that work, Jennifer is involved in over eight different Midland County community committees and serves on two Boards for the Greater Midland Coleman Family Center and The Legacy Center.

Prior to becoming the Superintendent of Coleman Community Schools, Jennifer served in several educational roles. After growing up in Beaverton, Michigan, she attended Central Michigan University for both her Bachelors and Masters work in Special Education Teaching for Students with Emotional Impairments, Reading Specialist and Administration- School Principalship, respectively. She taught at Shepherd Elementary K-5 Cross Categorical classroom and served as the Title I Coordinator for the summer programs for two years. Starting in 2004-2009, Jennifer served as a K-5 Elementary Principal in a ninety-eight percent at-risk building in the Wayne-Westland School District, moving to the District’s Elementary Director of Special Education in 2009 serving seventeen buildings, while obtaining Special Education Supervisor approval. In 2012, Jennifer took on a newly created role as the K-12 Executive Director of School Improvement and Innovation, serving twenty buildings in school improvement best practices and eleven buildings as the supervisor of elementary administrators until 2016.

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Jeff Jaster is a Midland native, and he is currently working as an administrator for the Midland Public Schools. He has twenty-four years of experience in the field of education, and he has earned degrees from Central Michigan University, and Saginaw Valley State University. He was first hired in 1997 to teach middle school science for the Bullock Creek School District. In 1998 he transferred to Bullock Creek High School, and worked four additional years as a science, and health teacher. While an employee of the Bullock Creek School District he also coached football, and baseball. In 2002 he was hired by Midland Public Schools to teach science, and health, at Midland High School. He coached the Midland High School JV Baseball team as well. Mr. Jaster became an administrator for MPS in August of 2003, and he has held various administrative positions for the district including; MHS Science Department Chair, MHS Music Department Chair, MHS Assistant Principal, Northeast Middle School Assistant Principal, Northeast Middle School Principal, Midland High School Principal, and currently Associate Superintendent of Administration and Student Services.

Jeff also serves on the Board of Directors for Project 111 and The Legacy Center for Community Success. Jeff is community-minded, and he has a passion for youth development. As an educator, he recognizes that his most important job is to prepare students for the world that they will live in. Students, and our country’s future workforce, will need to be literate, creative thinkers, strong communicators, globally-minded, and technologically literate. Jeff lives in Midland with his wife Amy, and their two daughters.

The stigma of addiction (substance use disorder) leads to miss information and understanding. Science has proven that substance use disorder is a chronic brain disease that can be managed with medical treatment. It is NOT a moral failing or a character flaw. But still, only 1 in 10 Americans with a substance use disorder receive treatment. Listen in as people from the substance use disorder community talk about their experiences, how stigma impacted their decisions, and how the community can better support people in their journey.

Part one of this podcast can be found on The Visibility Project Podcast. - https://soundcloud.com/thevisibilityprj/epi-011

GUESTS:

Lori Ziolkowski – Advisor, Families Against Narcotics

Juli Strauer – Midland County Coordinator, Peer360 Recovery Network

Jeremiah Lee - Director of International Student Engagement & Host of The Visibility Project

According to research conducted by Harvard Health, the average age a young person starts experimenting with alcohol is between 11 and 13 years old. With the pressures of peers and social media, when is the right time to talk to children about substance use? Join us as we talk about how to get the conversation started with the youth in your life.

GUESTS:

Leanne Reid - Prevention Youth Services Manager, ESD 112

Max Langer

BIOS:

Leanne has a long career in countering the harms of substance misuse. She began her career in the 1990’s working with homeless people as a substance use counselor. Over the years she has worked her way upstream by working with youth in treatment settings and then in school settings as a prevention interventionist specialist. She has worked with and managed community substance use prevention coalitions at a county, regional and state level as a coordinator and project manager throughout Washington State. Leanne is a Certified Prevention Professional Specialist and serves as Vice President on the Prevention Specialist Certification Board of Washington. Leanne was a part of a multi-disciplined team of authors that wrote the youth marijuana prevention campaign Weed Can Wait that included Cannabis Conversations and won the National School Public Relations Association’s Golden Achievement Award.

Max has been a prevention advocate in the Southwest Washington region for 5 years. She started this work with a group called STASHA (Strong Teens Against Substance Hazards and Abuse) where she presented state wide to youth, adults and educators. After her work there, she went on to work with ESD112 as a prevention assistant. In this position she continued to educate on a larger scale. This led to her work with Tobacco Free Kids, the leading national advocacy organization working to reduce tobacco use and its deadly consequences in the United States and around the world. This allowed her to speak on a nation-wide scale and win the 2019 Youth Advocate of the Year award.

Young people need to develop strong guiding values or principles to help them make healthy life choices. When they place a high value on promoting equality they have more empathy and acceptance for others. Join us as we discuss ways we can help promote acceptance of others, valuing opinions that differ than ours, and how to teach youth these same skills.

GUESTS:

Sarah Weisbarth – Director of Discover You, The Rock Center for Youth Development

Jill Wright - Chapman Foundation of Caring Communities

BIOS:

Sarah is professional facilitator, trainer, and coach. Sarah serves in education with The Rock Center for Youth Development. With a certificate in coaching from the Co-Active Training Institute, Sarah uses her education in Health and Fitness and Certificate in Wellbeing to coach clients to achieve their goals. Incorporates Social and Emotional Learning and program planning to bring the best possible experience and plan for others to help themselves, their employees, students, and organization. Her hope that individuals understand themselves and others to be effective personally and professionally is reflected in her extensive volunteer work. She self describes as a messy, introspective, hopeful, simplistic, lover of life.

One of Jill’s primary needs is serving others, a common thread woven throughout her career. For more than 15 years, Jill raised money for various non-profit organizations. She was driven by the belief that the funds she procured would provide research, experiences, and education for the people those organizations served.

Over the last four years, Jill has had the privilege of guiding adults on a journey of self-discovery as a foundation for more intentional, empathetic listening. As a senior facilitator for the Chapman Foundation for Caring Communities (formerly Our Community Listens), Jill delights in helping participants do the hard work of recognizing where they have fallen short in their relationships and providing them with tools and insights to make meaningful change.

Jill, her husband, and two sons, ages 10 and 11, live in Charleston, South Carolina. Her most important and challenging role is as parent. Daily, she and her husband strive to instill a solid moral compass in their boys, while honoring them as individuals who have their own ideas, opinions, and interests. Jill believes that one of the most impactful ways she can serve the greater good is by raising her sons to be confident, empathetic, and resilient adults.

Alcohol continues to be the most used substance among youth. According to the Monitoring the Future Study in 2019, 42% of 10th graders and 58% of 12th graders reported using alcohol in their lifetime. What about our culture promotes alcohol use? Is it a problem or just a rite of passage?

Tune in to learn more.

GUESTS:

Marty Malcolm, CMU Faculty

Mike Tobias, MCRUD Coordinator, Michigan Prevention Network

BIOS:

Marty is a seventeen-year instructor for Central Michigan University’s School of Health Science, specializing in Substance Use Disorders. Before teaching at CMU he worked for eleven years in different residential and outpatient treatment centers. Marty’s diverse experiences, spanning almost three decades, have given him a vast knowledge of multiple areas in the field of SUD.

Mike is the Coordinator for the Michigan Coalition to Reduce Underage Drinking (MCRUD) and has been employed with Prevention Network since June 2010. Prior to his employment with Prevention Network, Mike was involved with MCRUD for about 10 years and served as chair for some of this time. He is a person who has been in long-term recovery for over 20 years, has a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Michigan, and is a certified prevention consultant.

Resource Link: https://www.tlc4cs.org/alcohol/

It sounds easy, right? Love yourself. Be confident in who you are. Feel EMPOWERED – but these attributes don’t just happen overnight. They are developed with work and acceptance. Join us as we talk about this developmental asset, how we can get to our own place of self-empowerment, and how we can bring youth along with us.

Lisa Thompson is the Executive Director and Founder of the non-profit Self Love Beauty, co-founder of BluWave Wellbeing, host of 'The Confident Podcast' and author of 'The Strong Women of Haiti'. She is an established confidence and self-love workshop leader and keynote speaker. Lisa has a Bachelors in Arts in Communications and Public Relations from Michigan State University, degree in Social Impact Strategy from the University of Pennsylvania, is certified in Positive Psychology and Creating Wellbeing and is trained in mindfulness from the Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute. Currently, Lisa sits on the MiHIA Adverse Childhood Experience (ACEs) steering team to build resilience in adults and children in Michigan. Her mission is to use her gifts, strengths and talents in speaking and writing to connect with people and empower them to love themselves, get unstuck and take personal action for self-improvements.

Sarah Zastrow is the founder of Cultivate Balance. She is a coach, speaker, and podcaster who focuses on stress relief, mindfulness and finding joy in the journey, even in the crazy seasons of life. She was inspired to create resources, education and coaching after she experienced a particularly stressful season of life when she felt out of alignment, was drowning in stress, and out of ways to cope, both with the outside world and the thoughts that kept her up at night. She has helped hundreds of clients with her classes, workshops, and online resources.

RESOURCES:

https://www.tlc4cs.org/

https://www.selflovebeauty.com/

https://www.micultivatebalance.com/