Podcast: Building a Culture of Prevention with Nichole Dawsey [#35]
In this episode, prevention specialist and podcast host Nichole Dawsey joins Dave to discuss the importance of building a culture of prevention. They cover topics such as the impact of trauma on substance use, the role of peer support in prevention, and the need for a comprehensive approach to addressing substance use disorder. They also discuss the power of small moments in shaping positive team culture and the magic of the Teen Institute, a transformative leadership opportunity for high school students.
A few key points to remember:
Prevention is a community effort that requires the involvement of various stakeholders such as parents, educators, healthcare professionals, law enforcement, and community leaders. By working together, they can address substance use disorders comprehensively and create a culture that fosters prevention and wellness.
Prevention leaders must recognize that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to substance use disorder prevention. They need to use multiple tools and strategies to address substance use disorder from different angles, including universal prevention, respite, peers, harm reduction, and recovery support.
It is possible to create transformative experiences that empower youth to be prevention leaders. Programs such as Teen Institute provide youth with the knowledge, skills, and peer support they need to create change in their communities. These experiences can help build a culture of prevention and make a lasting impact on individuals and communities.
Episode Links:
https://www.montanainstitute.com/msi
DJC Solution Links:
TRANSCRIPT
Dave: Are you a health promotion leader, prevention professional, teacher or administrator looking to increase health and safety and positivity in your community school or workplace? Join us at Big Sky Montana or via livestream this June 20th through 23rd for the 2023 Montana Summer Institute.
Discover the science of the positive and learn how promoting healthy, positive, and protective norms can prevent harm and promote health. The dynamic keynote presentations and interactive workshops will equip you with the tools you need to build lasting change and transformation. So don't miss out on this opportunity to either strengthen your community, school or workplace.
Sign up now at Montanainstitute.com/msi.
Dave: Hey everybody. This is Dave Closson from DJC Solutions, and you are listening to the Prevention Leaders Podcast, the show that brings you conversations with like-minded and driven prevention leaders from across the globe. Before we start the show, I wanna tell you about the Pathways to Prevention podcast.
The podcast that brings together experts from government, academia, treatment, prevention, and recovery to discuss the latest trends and evidence-based practices in drug demand reduction. Our thought-provoking discussions cover a range of topics from the impact of covid 19 on substance use to emerging drug trends in innovations in treatment, and prevent.
Whether you're a professional in the field or simply interested in staying informed about this critical issue, pathways to prevention has something for you. Join us as we navigate the ever-shifting landscape of substance use and work together towards a drug-free future.
Subscribe to Pathways to Prevention Today on your favorite podcast.
Today we're talking with Nichole Dawsey, who is the executive Director at Prevent Ed, where they work to reduce or prevent harms of alcohol and other drug use through education, intervention, and advocacy. Their preeminent agency working toward a community free of alcohol and other drug addiction, misuse and related problems.
On this episode, we'll discuss everything there is from Prevention Podcast. To a magical youth leadership event and the, oh, so important universal prevention. Thanks for joining us, Nichole.
Nichole: Thank you so much for having.
Dave: Oh, all right, so we'll save it for a minute. But listeners, the whole reason I got connected with Nicole is their amazing podcast and their solid social media content. Saw them tuned in, checked out their show, and was like, okay, need to bring them on the Prevention Leaders podcast. So that's why we are here. But Nichole, can you tell us a little bit about yourself.
Nichole: Sure. So, I am the executive director of prevented. I've been here, for 15 years. So I started when I was 12. and , that was a joke. and I, have been in this role since 2018. prevented used to be called N C A D, a National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse. So some people might know us as that.
we've been around since 1965. And we're charged with primarily serving the seven county eastern region of Missouri. however, we do have a statewide presence in, in the state of Missouri, and to some extent, a national presence as well on, on some initiatives we've done with the DEA and things like that.
I know one of the things that we talked about beforehand was, you know, what gets you into prevention? There really are no two paths that are the same. I started as a middle school teacher, sixth grade, love sixth graders, and I was recognizing as I was trying to teach them, you know, division and you know about the Roman Empire, that while those things are all super important, I guess, they had some basic.
What I call life skills that, that they just didn't possess. And it was everything from, you know, how to cope with their uncomfortable feelings, to, how to navigate healthy or unhealthy relationships. And I recognized that while a classroom-based education is so important, there's a whole lot of the other side of the report card things.
really also need to be taught, and that's what got me into public health. And, I got my degree in public health. And when I was pursuing my degree, at that point in time, methamphetamine was very, present here in the state of Missouri. There were lots of dollars being pumped in to try to address.
lots of local police departments were going out and, and trying to break up meth labs. Uh, and I took a job at this organization to help get a community coalition together in a, in a rural county, and. I left the organization after a little bit because I thought the grass was greener. And then I was out at a training and my former supervisor said, you want a job?
And I said, I have a job. And she said, no, you want a job? And I said, I have a job. And she goes, nah, I think you should consider coming back because there's a lot of us that are gonna be retiring soon. And we think that you have what it takes to be a leader in some form or fashion. And I hemmed and hawed and I didn't know whether I should come back because I knew once I came back I was gonna stay for a very long time.
And 14 years later, here I am. So . It's been a long time. It's been a long time.
Dave: I feel like we could do a whole podcast episode just on your time spent as a sixth grade teacher and the things you saw. Oh my goodness. Like you didn't share that when we were, uh, prepping. Oh my goodness. That's just that to me, that just speaks to your, your awareness and your heart, you're caring.
Nichole: Well, thank you. I mean, I, I had this really great plan that I was gonna go in and just change these kids' lives like Michelle Pfeiffer in Dangerous Minds, you know, and I was gonna make them care about all of these things that they should care about. And I, I should also mention, I was tasked with teaching sixth grade in rural Louisiana, and I was the only, I, I was brought in as a result of a state deseg order.
So I was a young, bright-eyed, bushy-tailed white woman in a classroom of kids of color. I wa had no idea any sort of their culture at Louisiana. Rural culture is very steeped in tradit. And many of my students in sixth grade were 16, which if you know anything about sixth grade, you know that they're, they shouldn't be 16, they should be like 12.
And most of my kids I had, I had, 18 of them. The vast majority of my kiddos couldn't read. They were the primary caregiver for their younger brothers and sisters. They were trying to be in school all day. and then leave school and then go home and get food on the table. Maybe hold a job, cuz at 16 you could hold a job.
Right. And no wonder they weren't caring about their division, you know? And so I was trying to follow, for the first several months I was trying to follow my curric. . And finally around November, I went into my principal's office and I was like, I can't do this. Like they're not, they want to learn, but this isn't what they need to learn.
because also I'll, I should mention in the state where I was living, they had something called, or, or the kiddos were allowed to drop outta school at 17. So, . I, I would too, if I was 17 and in the seventh grade, I would probably drop out and try to get a job. My, also, right. So I just realized that the focus needed to be, and my principal gave me carte blanche.
She said, just don't let them get in trouble, because she did not want black eye on the school, right. And so she said, just don't let them get in trouble. Teach them life. . So we started learning about healthy relationships. We started looking at positive outlets because a lot of my, my students did not have anything fun to do that brought them joy.
That kept them out of trouble. You know, they might have had older siblings who chose some unhealthy paths, but they didn't have, they didn't have the thing that lit a fire inside of them. So we did a lot of that. We did a lot. You know, learning how to present, like how to open up to people, whether it was in a job interview or a friendship, or to talk about what you need.
Cuz a lot of them were so closed down and they were just angry all the time. And again, I would be angry too. That's, that sucks. I wouldn't wanna do that. I wouldn't wanna be in that situation. So that's what led me to public health, realizing. , there was something else that could be taught that should be taught.
And when I moved back to St. Louis for grad school, I came across the N C A D A at that time as we were known. and I was in schools. I would pop in, teach them resiliency. I would leave and then I would go to grad school and then I would work on this meth coalition and I would do all these other things, and I knew that that other side of the report card stuff needs to be taught it.
It needs to be taught, and it would be so nice to think that parents do it or that families do it, but. . You know what, when, I mean last night is a perfect example. By the time everyone gets at home and sits down and like pretends to eat something, it's seven o'clock. You know how? How are you supposed to h where's the teaching supposed to come in
It's hard. So that's where we come in. That's where Prevent Ed comes in and we can help teachers and school districts because teachers are strapped and, and that's really where we can, we can help, is teach those other other skills, whether you wanna call 'em life skills or resiliency skills, coping strategies, whatever you wanna call them.
That's what, that's the bulk of what we do.
Dave: So very, very interesting. And actually, from a past episode with Trent Coffey out of Tennessee, he talks about when you're working with schools, when you're working with parents as a prevention professional, go in and see what burdens can you relieve.
asking them what can they do for you, but what burdens and y'all are doing that, Kind of gimme a little, little bit of goosebumps there.
Just thinking about the impacts y'all are making, helping the teachers bring their A game when they're in the classroom, which then in turn helps the youth. Then also the direct impact you're having with the youth and their families. Ah, I, I'm getting lost in thought because I just, I love it. This, this is the stuff that makes my heart happy, which is why I do what I do.
Nichole: And you know, we, we hire teachers on purpose because we want teachers. We want staff who understand the restraints that teachers have. We want
educators and staff who understand that a teacher is, yes, they might have left the school building at three 30, but they've gone home, they've done lesson planning, they've probably done some check-ins with caregivers.
and and we need educators who know how to work a classroom. Who have that presence, but who also can do some classroom management because
sometimes, yes, most of the teachers, when we go into the classrooms and we go in four times, and so it is possible for kiddos to have us every year from kindergarten through 12th grade, so by like, let's say third grade, I mean, they have a relationship with us, so it's possible.
Nichole: I mean, we always like to say that the teachers stay in the classroom when we're there and. The bulk of the time. However, sometimes the teachers just need to go to the bathroom. Sometimes the
teachers need to get a, a drink of water for Pete's sakes. And so when we hire educators, we say that yes, you are here to serve kids and that's awesome, but if you can't work with the adults that are the gatekeepers, whether that's the school secretary, the school custodian, the classroom teacher. If you can't work with them and you can't take something off their plate, they're never gonna let you into their classroom and you're not gonna get to work with their kids.
Dave: Ah, that, that servant mindset, that servant approach relieve those burdens. I dig it. And. In prepping for, for our conversation, I did a lot of digging around. I'd already follow you on your social media, especially Instagram. I hang out there a lot. but your website, y'all have a lot going on there.
You do? Oh my goodness. I, I don't even know where to start. . Where, where should we send our listeners if they want to check out and learn more about Prevent Ed?
Nichole: Yeah. So the website, you know, it, it, it has a lot of information. I think when I'm talking about what we do, I, I break it down into a couple of buckets. The first I've already talked about, which is about half of what we do, and it's about half of our budget, so we're going into schools. Um, it's, it's not. a once a one shot. so we're not going in a single session. We don't do assemblies. We're going in through the counselor time or in through the, the health teacher's time, kindergarten through 12th grade. but we also know then that kids leave school after eight hours and go into community. And if the communities and the households don't support what we just taught in.
Then we're sort of wasting our time. So we have a community strategy department, and right now what that means is we serve about 30 community coalitions, throughout our region. And some of those are very small. They might do a health fair once or twice a year, and others are huge, you know, and get drug-free communities, grants, funding and our, and, you know, our, our, our longtime community coalitions.
we've been doing the community coalition work since the early nineties, but the actual purpose of our founding was assessments and referrals for adults. So we were part of the early e a P movement, so we are not a treatment center. we will never be. That's actually not, anything that, We could do because it would actually go against everything that we stand for.
because what we do is we provide unbiased referrals to treatment, to fellowship groups, to positive outlets, for adults and for teens because not every person that comes through our doors who's violated parole or who you know, has had a DUI or got in trouble at school. Not every person needs treatment, and definitely not every person needs, the the justice system.
but there's a lot of room in between there. Right. And so we're not wedded to any, treatment modality or fellowship group or anything like that. We really try to meet the individual where they are. And again, that's adults and teens. Teens, it's no cost. and adults, we ask for $25. If they can't pay the 25 bucks, then it's.
in that work we have counselors, but we also have peers. So one of our newer programs, since 2020 is we actually have five, certified peer specialists, people in long-term recovery with lived experience who. Boots on the ground trying to provide people support. And when I describe what that means, there is no typical day, right?
It could be looking for somebody that, you know, you saw at a meeting and you knew that they were kind of struggling and now you think you've heard that they're, you know, standing, asking for money outside of mobile, but you don't really know. So you're gonna get in the car and you're gonna find them, and then you're gonna take 'em to a.
it could be holding somebody's hand while they're trying to get their kid back in court. It could be the fact that somebody's had a recurrence and driving them to a treatment center. So it really could be and is every, everything and, and all of that all at once. the other newer work that we've been doing since, 2020 is we have a big community engagement department.
And what that means is really taking a hard look at areas where we have been and maybe need to take a step back and areas where we've not been present either because it's been too. Because we haven't had the right messengers or because we haven't had the right approach and the right sensitivity. And so we've really doubled down on our work to make sure that we're elevating community voice, and listening to what the community needs.
And maybe sometimes that's just for us to take a step back and be quiet. All of that, whether it's the youth work we do, the community work, the peers. another piece is that we offer a lot of professional trainings. So maybe that would be around developmental assets or whether that's a youth mental health first aid or ethics.
So it's, it's a lot. and it's all entirely within mission, right? Which is to reduce or actually prevent the harms of alcohol and other drugs through education primary, that early intervention piece, but also advocacy. So we're advocating at a state, local, uh, sometimes national level about common sense public health, substance use policies, and getting people fired up.
Dave: Fired up indeed and. It just sounds like a comprehensive approach. I mean, we hear that term every once in a while in prevention.
Nichole: Yeah, I, I would like to think that, yes, I'd like to think.
Dave: yeah, yeah. Oh, we could, we could probably just talk about each and every one of those for a long time. one thing that popped in my head was a quote that I had heard, and I'm gonna do a disservice to the originator cause I don't remember who said it. stopping adult addiction must begin with youth prevention because prevention is the only thing that can protect our future generations. It's just, yeah, it just stuck with me. And that that's what you're talking about.
We gotta talk about your podcast.
It's on all the platforms spot. I listen on Spotify. I also get a kick outta the reels on Instagram. Uh, y'all go follow their Instagram solid, solid content. But tell us about it.
Nichole: Yeah, so in 2020 we, you know, 2020 was just. Such an interesting year, right? And so everyone's at home and I think that that's when podcasts really sort of started like exploding, right? Because people needed to find a way to connect and to find a way to like get their voice out. So we had been asked, I had been asked to be on a lot of podcasts during, during covid.
Fine. Great. I love the opportunity to, to spread the message, but then at the same time, we were rebranding and we were shifting our name and our brand from N c A D A to prevent Ed. And so, but to do that during covid was challenging, right? Because news stations didn't really wanna pay attention to that.
There were. More newsworthy things that they should pay attention to. So I asked one of our committee members at the time, she's now since a board member, she worked, works for Hubbard Radio, which is a, great radio mega company that has a solid presence here in St. Louis. And I said, Hey, if we wanted to do our own podcast, like could I borrow a mic?
Like, literally, literally that was the ask, like, can I borrow a mic? Because I don't want it to sound like janky, you know? And so she said, huh, interesting. So she asked me a couple more questions about what I was looking to do, and I said, I just want a, a megaphone for what we do, because it's hard to understand.
Prevention, SUD and it's tentacles when you're dealing in 30 second sound bites. And it's infuriating to me, but I should get over it by now. But it's infuriating to me when a media person will stick a mic in your face and you give this great interview and then you see it on the news and it's you standing there going, we're very concerned.
And then they get your name wrong, or they say the name of your agency wrong. So I wanted a platform to be able to actually talk through the nuance. And so she calls me back a week later and she said, well, what can you meet with my boss? So we get there and it's not just her boss, it's like her boss's boss, you know?
And so essentially they said, we love it. This is unlike anything we we have ever done and we'll donate the studio space. We'll donate the platform for you, we'll teach your staff how to use it. how does recording twice a month sound? and I said, sold. So there we go. Sold. So it's, it's the, it's the called the preventable.
And the idea, because our name is prevented, we want people to sit down and just have a conversation. So there are ums and ahs in our podcast. It's about 18 to 20 minutes, each episode and it's very conversational. And the idea is just to pull up a seat at the preventable cause. We're just gonna have a conversation about.
Substance use and prevention sort of intersect with all aspects of daily life. And I have to tell you, Dave, and this is full transparency here, 2020 was hard. 2021 was harder. 2022 has been even harder to be a leader of a nonprofit and to try to figure out how to keep serving and doing the work that is needed and how to keep our doors.
and I was feeling real burned out. And the podcast has been, honestly the thing that has sort of kept me going. It's different, it's fresh. You can have cool conversations with people. I learn something like, not just like, oh, fun fact, but like, I'm like learning. I feel like I'm growing as a person. It's been.
Dave: Conversations. They're just, they are Oh, so powerful. If you take time to just have them and through those conversations comes connection. What are some of the, the fun highlights from, dare I say 2022? I know it's been hard. What, what's a fun, memorable podcast memory?
Nichole: I think what, what I appreciate, I mentioned our community engagement work and I mentioned the work that we're doing, specifically in communities of color, and I think that one nice opera opportunity that the podcast brings is a chance to amplify. Local community coalitions that have been doing the work longer than I've been alive and who maybe now are becoming a registered coalition and have some more capacity, or they finally have a spotlight.
And so I've been able to, have some great conversations with like a, a woman who started, a coalition, a, a group while she was incarcerated. it's called Four Walls and Beyond, and she had a really great support system helping her with her kid while she was in. Well, she realized that not everyone has that.
And so she would have these reunification days and her kid would come and she would see all of these other women who weren't able to reunite with their kids. And if they were, their kids were really upset because things weren't happening right. And they weren't necessarily getting all the things that they needed, while the mom was incarcerated.
So she decided to do something about it. created an organization. 18 years later, they just became a registered coalition, and she has a, CFO F who was also a formerly incarcerated person. This is my favorite line of the year. He kept saying, yep. He's like, I, he's like, since I've joined this organization, here's what I say.
I used to sling dope for cheap, and now I'm selling hope for free. I was like, oh my God, you need to put that on a t-shirt. You know?
Dave: right.
Nichole: But it's those, it's those kinds of things, and I would never have the opportunity to ever sit down and have a 20 minute conversation to hear about someone's origin story and how they got into what, how they, how they've evolved as a human being.
I would, I I don't take the time to do that, I don't think. Most of us do. and so what's nice is that this podcast is an opportunity to do just that, and to hear the motivations, the things that drive people, but also the things that like keep them up at night, right?
One of the, one of my guests, her name's Learn, and she's a local radio broadcaster.
She told me that something she's been thinking about with her own mental health, because all these people call, right? And they tell her all of these things and she was just, had them as a burden, which as a leader of an organization, I can empathize. I, people tell me their problems.
And I just, she was telling me she went on a meditation retreat and the, leader of the retreat looked at her and said, repeat after me.
This is not mine. This is not mine.
I feel like I need a tattoo of that because when she told me that, my head was like, like, this is not mine. So it's those, it's those kinds of things that just sort of keep me going. this is not mine.
I do think that's gonna be my next tattoo.
By the way, this is not mine,
Dave: well, my mind didn't go to tattoos. My mind went to, uh, viral Instagram reel. Just that clip like, oh, so powerful there. The mindfulness, the, that I am told, like I, I was so present listening, like my mind is now gone thinking about how I need to. This is not mine.
Nichole: I know.
Dave: wow. yeah. I'm gonna go ahead and just end the episode and go sit down and do some meditating and think on that because, oh my goodness, I think as prevention leaders, we all like, that's like a duh for everybody.
Listeners, y'all think about those burdens that you're carrying that are not yours. I don't know where we're going next.
Nichole: I don't know. let's drop the mic. Let's, let's end it. Yeah. Let's talk about prevention.
I'm gonna get on my soapbox here. Dave. Can I do it? I'm gonna, I'm gonna, get on my soapbox.
Dave: Do it.
Nichole: I think that there is room for the entire continuum of substance use disorder to be addressed.
It worries me. when some things are paid attention to at the exclusion of others. I am of the belief, and Dave, in the short time I've met you, I think you are too. I am of the belief that we can do hard things and we can do several things at once, right?
We can fund recovery, housing, and school-based prevention for kindergartners at the same time.
right now. Maybe. Maybe the same people shouldn't be doing those two things because we can't be good at everything. We can fund Narcan and Naloxone distribution and community engagement, strategic prevention framework. Those two things are not mutually exclusive. And if we're going to actually make a dent, in substance use disorder, whether it's meth, whether it's opioids, whether it's cannabis, whether it's the next thing that we have no idea what it is, we have to take a systemic approach. And you asked me what's the one thing that I want people to.
you know, come away with, and I keep thinking that it is possible to do several things at once. It, it does not have to be exclusionary. And why is this important? Why is this top of mind? Because we are, our states have more money than they've ever had, specifically for s u d, right? Between arpa, between opioid settlement money, between the opioid settlement dollars that haven't even.
Like thought of yet, because there's still so much litigation flying around. We have a lot of resources and I think unfortunately, I think we're lacking a comprehensive strategy that is from birth to death and everywhere in between. Right. So that seat belts as a car safety, right? We're talking about seat belt.
We're talking car seats. We're talking, protecting people against drunk driving. We're talking airbags. We're talking the car manufacturers making cars, you know, tougher. There's all sorts of strategies to go towards people being safe when they're riding in cars. Road improvements, like all of these things can happen at the same.
And that I think is what's missing right now. And, and I am struggling because I don't know who, if anyone is leading the conversation about all of the necessary components and that, that honestly makes me a little concerned. And I've been part of conversations lately where it's like, well, Universal prevention is the most important thing.
Respite is the most important thing. Peers are the most important thing. Harm reduction is the most important thing. There's no one most important thing. You don't have one favorite kid. You don't have one favorite dog. I mean, maybe you have a favorite dog, but you know what I mean.
Dave: I have a favorite dog.
Nichole: do too. Okay.
Oh, okay. I have a favorite dog because this is the dog that listens to me.
When it comes to strategies, you can have many, so I can get off my soapbox now, but that's just, it's the thing that every conversation I'm having lately is just beating that drum, that one of the tactics is not more important than the other because this issue's far too big. Dave. It is far too
Dave: So one of, one of my little rants or soap boxes runs kinda parallel, very similar. It's that culture is the strategy culture, and I feel often in prevention we get so focused on tactics, but we call them strategies. This is an evidence-based strategy, but in the grand scheme of things, it's, it's a tactic.
Yes, but we're, the strategy should be culture. and, and this applies like your team, your organization, like if you wanna have a more efficient, effective, closer-knit team, you wanna be intentional about creating a culture that fosters that, that encourages that. If you want a community that, that.
Safety minded is prevention focused, is focused on wellness, health, mental health. Like it's the culture that is gonna do that, that's reach that result. But we get so laser focused, tactic, tactic, tactic that we, we don't see how those tactics can influence, can lead into, or not that overarching culture.
Nichole: Yep. And I think part of the culture is recognizing that you don't have to be good at everything.
And that there's part of the culture is that you can have many tools in the toolbox and they're not all gonna work the same. You know, if I go to approach a problem in my house, I bring a toolbox full of lots of different things. That's of different tools or tactics, and I don't always know, but part of the culture is my mindset when I go to tackle the problem, right? Because if I try to approach it with a screwdriver and that's not gonna fix it, and I'm like, well, then I guess then I guess just don't use a screwdriver anymore, then then that's a whole mindset. . So I, yeah, I, I could not agree with you more. I really, I really.
Dave: I'm speculating that it just feels so big to try to tackle, to try to change that it, it is easier just to focus on the tactics or we just think, Hey, I've got funding for this opioid program, so I'm gonna focus on that. but with the MidAmerica Pttc, when I stepped into that director's role, I, I was a little overwhelmed.
I walked into an a preexisting work plan, and SAMSA had their guidance as well. And I knew there was more that we could do than just, here's our deliverables, it's what we've gotta do in our work plan. You know, we need this many participants, you know, blah, blah, blah. That, those metrics, that, that was boring.
But I saw the potential that we might be able to create a ripple in the culture across the region. And so my two playbooks that I use for those three, yeah, three years was Simon Sinek. Start with why. And then the Culture Code by Daniel Coyle. Not prevention books at all. Nothing to do with prevention, but those were my playbooks.
And the goal was to create a culture of community across the four state region so that we can come together and support each other in our work. And that was the goal. And so, All that we did, the community of practice, all of the virtual training, everything was really meant to spark connection and collaboration to bring folks from Kansas together with folks in Missouri or Iowa or Nebraska.
So y'all can help each other cuz that's where the power is. gonna hit pause on my soapbox. But okay
Nichole: Funny, Dave and No, it's funny because when I stepped into this role, my two sort of guiding books were. crucial conversations because i, I think we need to have more of those, and I'm, and it's hard for me. I'm not great at having them. But then also the advantage, which is all about building a team and surrounding yourself with strong team members.
But I think you mentioned funding and I think that's one reason, a huge reason why we get so tactical and why we. sort of get laser focused. it it has everything to do with how long funding lasts. You know, I, if you have funding for one, two, or three years, you've gotta do it and hope to goodness that you get some metrics because if you don't get the metrics, you're not gonna be able, you know, to get it again if it's even a possibility. And within one year you don't get to try new things. You barely ramp. .And then, you know, and, and I also think, you know, I, I appreciate a, several funders, at least in our area, are really starting to think through innovative strategies. I was part of a think tank the other night where they were rethinking what the word diversion meant. because they were really trying to broaden what that term actually means. Right? but that's the exception, not the norm. And so for us to change the culture around how we do things, how we act, how we are, that's a bigger macro level discussion that's challenging, which is why I don't think people are having it. So I'm glad we're having.
Dave: Yeah, absolutely. So, I won't give away the whole book, but in the, the Culture Code, he talks about research called the, the Good Apple, bad Apple Research. And it, it basically, the summary of it is that, One good apple. You don't need to be in a leadership position. No title, just one like you as an individual can through small moments, small behaviors, shape and influence positive team culture.
And that's a little nugget like I want the prevention folks to hold onto is that, yeah, it feels overwhelming, but hey, how you have a conversation with a community stakeholder. The way you talk, the way you engage with them can create those ripples that can actually start to shape, start to change.
Nichole: Absolutely. How you show up. Absolutely.
Dave: side note, we've been talking for a while. I gotta hear about this magical youth leadership event. Before I let you go, I know you've got a big to-do list, but I'm not letting you go till I hear about this youth leader.
Nichole: Awesome. so it's called Teen Institute. for the last 41 years we have been holding this three night, four day leadership opportunity for current ninth, 10th, and 11th graders. And, they come and I say magical. Consistently the results, the surveys say there's some sort of magic that happens here.
I mean, the, the kids come because they want to be a prevention leader or. Think through who they're surrounding themselves with. Not all of the teenagers that come are like Pollyanna Perfects. as a matter of fact, some come as a result of our early intervention programs, and this is a way for them to sort of think about their peer groups.
But when they leave after these transformative four days, they are equipped with the knowledge, the skills, and the. Peer supports to enact change in their communities. So we hold it,sorry, in June, this year's Teen Institute is gonna be June 12th through the 15th. We accept kiddos from anywhere, so they don't have to live in Missouri, and it's only $50.
we have support from foundations and funders. so if a kid can get to us here in St. Louis, we would love to have them and then we will equip them again with all that they need to go back to their various communities and, spread the good word that is prevention.
Dave: I know I've got some listeners in Illinois, my home state. Uh, so not too from St. Louis. Y'all check it out. Uh, you've got a link I'm guessing on the webpage I can send them to, to check
Nichole: That's correct. There'll be a, a link on our webpage. Absolutely.
Dave: And I think I need to edit my, uh, introduction. That this is not a magical youth event. It's a magical youth experience.
Nichole: It is. It's an experience. That's right. It's honestly, I mean, I've been doing this for 15 years. It is my most favorite thing that we do, and I still staff it. . That's how much I love
Dave: I hear passion. dig it.
Nichole: Yes, exactly.
Dave: Oh my goodness. clearly we can talk for hours on end and we're gonna chat again because prevention is absolutely better together. I think folks already know how to get connected with you. That's look at all the links that are gonna be in the show notes. You're on all the socials, website.
Dave: They're gonna subscribe to your podcast and I'm actually gonna go look for those two episodes that you mentioned too. You got me hooked, you got me interested there. Here comes that final question for our listeners. If you were to tell them, if you're gonna remember one thing from this episode, remember this, would it be?
Nichole: We can do hard things.
We can do hard things. We can, we can end this, but it's gonna take all of us in conversation and in community with lots of different tactics, lots of different ideas. We're gonna have to put our egos aside cuz we can, we can, we can do hard things and I'd really like to retire early.
Come on people. We can do this.
Dave: Retirement.
Nichole: I know we can do this. We can do this.
Dave: Oh. All right. Y'all step it up. We can do hard things. Nichole needs to retire. So let's get busy. Oh, this has been an absolute delight. Y'all are awesome doing awesome work. I'm so glad our paths crossed and we can collaborate again in the future. Thank you very much for coming.
Nichole: thank you so much for having me. Appreciate you.
