Crossposted from Zero Youth Detention

“Our job is to listen.”

That is how Upower coaches describe their role in offering fitness classes at the King County Juvenile Detention Center.

Upower offers trauma-informed fitness and wellness classes at no cost to underserved teens in King County. Their classes are fun, safe and open to all fitness levels. Upower’s sensitive approach to trauma-informed fitness means that they advocate for physical fitness and social-emotional well-being for every teen served.

Upower coaches get teens moving through activities such as cardiovascular conditioning, strength training, flexibility and fun fitness games. Equally important are the regular check-ins that help teens build trust with peers and coaches, develop social skills and pro-social connections, increase self-awareness and regulation of emotions as well as encourage leadership skills. Together these activities are a therapeutic outlet that helps teens practice coping skills, focus on the future and become positive members of society.

Stafford Mays, Kate Holman, Leighla Webb, and Zo Jackson–some of the many Upower coaches and staff who provide fitness classes at the King County Juvenile Detention Center.

Upower brought their trauma-informed programming to the King County Juvenile Detention Center through their relationship with Interagency Schools–the alternative school for Seattle Public Schools, which is present within the Juvenile Detention Center. The average number of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) for kids in interagency schools is seven out of a list of 10 recognized ACEs. It is likely higher for kids in the interagency school in Juvenile Detention. These are very high numbers that speak to a lot of past trauma and place these kids at high risk for negative long-term effects. Therefore a trauma-informed approach is necessary across all Juvenile Detention programming and partnerships.

What does an Upower class look like in Juvenile Detention?

Upower classes are structured but with a lot of flexibility to be responsive to the youth. The coaches describe it as “meeting kids where they are at and determining a workout based on energy levels.” This can look like a yoga and stretching class, or an intense game of basketball. Whatever the format, the youth walk away feeling good after class.

This was a high energy class so the coaches led a full hour of flag football!

The value of Upower fitness classes for youth in Juvenile Detention

Upower’s fitness programming supports youth in building a number of skills including coping skills when faced with triggers and stress. Physiological responses are similar to working out and it’s not always a bad thing–youth learn you can experience a physiological response and it can be okay.

Youth learn to regulate emotions

Emotion regulation is a social skill. When youth feel the same adrenaline and stress responses in a fitness class that they may feel in other stressful situations, they can learn coping skills that will benefit them when they leave Juvenile Detention. Coaches are trained in de-escalation and model the skills they want the youth to build. In tense situations, coaches ask consistent and calming questions, while being authentic and 100% genuine. As one coach said, “Kids are a good judge of character–they see through you!”

With consistency and care, comes trust as the youth learn that the Upower classes are a safe place. Another coach shared, “They [the youth] don’t perceive us as a threat. The kids feel loved by us.” Because the coaches are good listeners, youth often open up to the coaches and sometimes share things they don’t share with others. The physical and the emotional are connected.

A youth hangs out on the sidelines, talking with a Upower coach and King County program staff.

Not only do youth make personal connections with the coaches as mentors, but they make personal connections with their peers. While running and bonding during a team sport, kids can be physically affectionate with one another, which may not happen often otherwise. In doing so, they are building accountability to each other and learning to regulate emotions in a healthy way.

A moment of encouragement during a flag football game.

Youth learn to problem solve

Upower fitness classes create a safe environment for kids to learn and sometimes fail. Coaches describe an environment in which kids don’t get to pick their “teams” the same way they would on the “outside.” In order to make things work, the youth have to figure it out and the coaches are there to help facilitate problem solving.

These problem solving skills follow them when the youth leave the Detention Center and they model these skills (and others) with their community outside Detention. In fact, many of the youth that participate in Upower classes inside Detention continue to be involved with Upower on the “outside” and even recruit many of their friends to participate as well!

Connections to relationships and resources

The Upower coaches build relationships with the youth who attend their classes and are a positive adult mentor in the kids’ lives. These relationships matter when the youth transition out of the Detention Center back into community. The coaches offer connections to resources and other positive relationships on the “outside,” and will ask the youth, “Who can we connect you with to help you?”

Trauma-Informed Approach

Trauma and toxic stress negatively impact the health of communities. Public Health-Seattle & King County promotes resilience and protective factors to reduce the negative impacts of trauma on our community’s health. Public Health’s goal is to promote integration of core concepts of trauma informed practice by creating a shared culture and common language, beginning with staff and programming. With Public Health now overseeing Juvenile Detention programming, programs that are trauma-informed like Upower’s fitness classes are excellent examples of existing partnerships that the County hopes to expand upon.

Stay tuned to the blog for future stories on other trauma-informed programs taking place in the Juvenile Detention Center.

Crossposted from the Best Starts for Kids Blog

We’re thrilled to announce ten awardees for the prenatal-to-5 Community-Designed Home-Based Programs & Practices funding opportunity. With a total investment of $5,825,000 million over 2.5 years, these awards to community-based organizations will expand the availability of home-based services that draw upon local community knowledge and practice to develop approaches that are designed for and valued by specific communities, and/or addressing populations not well-served by other programs.

Congratulation to our new partners:

• United Indians of All Tribes
• East African Community Services
• Atlantic Street Center
• Centro Rendu @St. Vincent DePaul
• Iraqi Community Center
• Open Arms Perinatal Services
• El Centro de la Raza
• Somali Health Board
• Coalition for Refugees from Burma
• Open Doors for Multicultural Families

Best Starts has made significant investments in evidence-based and evidence informed home-based programs and we are now so excited to invest in community-based expertise—such as experience, knowledge, and local client data—that embraces the concept that “practitioners in the field, families, communities, and diverse cultures serve a vital role” in identifying optimum programs and practices. This is the first significant public investment in community-designed programming for home visiting in King County.

For a full list of awardees and their projects, go to the Best Starts for Kids awards database and filter by the Home-Based Services: Community-Designed strategy.  (information will be available soon if not available already)

During the program development phase, Best Starts is supporting awarded partners by providing capacity building through the Capacity Building RFP that was also recently awarded. Stay tuned to the blog to soon meet those awarded community partners!

“This funding will address barriers faced by our focus community; immigrants and refugees from Burma, Iraq, Somalia, Latinx countries, and other new arrival communities living in South King County, by connecting parents to a trusted leader from their own communities in the form of a home visitor. All discussions and early learning/kindergarten readiness information are delivered in the native language of the parent, in a culturally relevant way. Learning toy delivery and interaction modeling will encourage parents to increase the quality and quantity of interactions with their child, which will in turn influence that child’s future success in school,” said Mona T. Han, Executive Director of Coalition for Refugees from Burma. Their Leadership, Education, and Access Program (LEAP) serves low-income, limited English-speaking people of color and based on the theory that refugees and immigrants rely on a community-based system of knowledge acquisition.

LEAP families and their community leaders (home visitors) served by the Coalition of Refugees from Burma in the past year.

As one of the Coalition for Refugees from Burma home visitors shared, “Our presence in the homes of the families is really special, especially the demonstration of playing with the children and providing examples to parents. The parents are so thankful to us for sharing creative ideas on how to play with their children. Having the same home language and cultural reference points are unique features of CRB’s LEAP program, and parents seem really interested to build their children’s skills while building their cultural identities.”

Equity Embedded in Program and Practice

The foundational principle behind the community-designed home-based services investment is that equity must be embedded in all programs and practices. Best Starts awarded organizations that are reflective of and embedded in the communities they serve, and recognize and address the disparities and disproportionality that exist in our communities.

For example, the Somali Health Board will use their awarded funding to develop and implement their home-based services program, Somali Centering Motherhood Program. Their project incorporates elements of the evidence-based models called CenteringPregnancy® and CenteringParenting® that the Centering Healthcare Institute developed in the 1990s. The Somali Health Board will adapt the model to include culturally relevant practices for the Somali community and relationship-based home visits. All services will be provided in Somali by Somalis.

“The Somali Health Board is excited to receive this award to implement Somali Centering Motherhood project which facilitates prenatal and postnatal care groups for expectant mothers- A new approach to care and an attempt to innovatively address significant maternal and child health disparities in our Somali-American population in King County. The Somali Health Board will leverage its strengths as a Somali-led organization to develop a culturally- and linguistically-responsive program that meets the needs of our community and our ultimate goal is to develop a robust set of best practices for this type of work to be duplicated in other immigrant communities,” said Ahmed Ali, Executive Director of the Somali Health Board.

East African Community Services (EACS) and Culturally Appropriate and Responsive Education Center (CARE Center) will partner to establish a pilot Somali Home Visit & Literacy Program called Sheeko, Sheeko, Sheeko Xariira (meaning “story story, what’s the story” in Somali). Serving 30 Somali families who are experiencing poverty, the pilot program is named after the oral storytelling activity of Sheeko Sheeko, which is a cultural activity that connects very well to dialogic reading. In Sheeko Sheeko, the mother starts the exchange with her child by saying, “sheeko sheeko” (story story). The child responds, “sheeko xariir” (what’s the story?). The mother and child go back and forth and build a story made up of Somali rhymes. The pilot program will build upon this existing cultural tradition to encourage mothers and family members to increase their child’s language exposure through singing lullabies and sharing stories. The pilot program includes weekly home visits from practitioners and establishes network of families. By hiring staff that are culturally and linguistically matched to families, the pilot program fills a critical need in the Somali community for culturally competent home-visits and support for parents and families of young children.

Amir “Noir” Soulkin from East African Community Services said, “Youth exposed to reading and literacy at the earliest moments of life, have a significant advantage over less-prepared youth. This funding allows EACS to intervene far earlier in the brain development of our youth.  Thus, Sheeko, Sheeko is a culturally sound tool in our ongoing evolutionary journey towards stronger individuals and stronger families.”

Other projects include:

• Centro Rendu of St. Vincent de Paul and Catholic Community Services Pregnancy and Parenting Support (PrePS) will engage with low-income Latinx families to design and implement a home visitation program that meets their unique needs. Centro Rendu is fully embedded in the South King County Hispanic/Latinx community, with an all-Latinx staff and an ongoing process for incorporating community feedback into program design. Centro Rendu is trusted as a “go-to” resource for the community. Jackie Lloyd-Evans, from The Society of St. Vincent de Paul shared, “Best Starts funding will enable The Society of St. Vincent de Paul and Catholic Community Services to unite the strengths of each agency on the ground, face to face in a more effective response to the growing needs of Latinx families across South King County.”
• The Iraqi Community Center of Washington (IRCCW) is a community-based organization primarily serving the Iraqi and Arabic speaking refugee communities within South King County. IRCCW will provide culturally and linguistically competent, one-on-one home visiting services to low-income, Iraqi refugee families. Home visits will provide support and education to new and expecting mothers and families. Services will include case management, direct needs assessment, parent early-learning education, resource connection, community development and creating a larger support network of other parents. There will be an additional focus for parents with young children with disabilities. 
• The United Indians of All Tribes will support the development and provision of culturally-based birth doula services for the AI/AN/NH/PI community in King County, called Daybreak Star Doulas. These free-of-cost birth doula services will be available to individuals who identify (themselves or their child) as AI/AN/NH/PI. Services will include provision of pre-birth information and birth coaching; birth, breastfeeding, and infant attachment observation and coaching; and therapeutic supports to reduce the risk of postpartum depression. 

The Community-Designed Programs and Practices for Home-Based Services investment is part of the larger Best Starts Home-Based Services funding strategy. Best Starts for Kids understands that families need a range of different home visiting services to best meet their needs and leverage community resources and expertise, with many different types of evidence to show what works—from randomized control trials to community-defined and practice-based evidence. We are proud to support building a system that meets the needs of all families in King County.