Podcast | Hub City Outreach Center
On this episode, we’ve got a team that has a strong desire in their hearts to reach out to at-risk youth with support, encouragement, prevention services, community resources and most of all, showing them the unconditional love they deserve.
Hub City Outreach Center is an organization that grew from the compassion that a few Prevention Educators possessed for youth in the community. This organization has the desire to provide programs that will help shape the youth into the world changers that we know they can be. Hub City Outreach Center’s holistic approach allows their Teams and volunteers to work towards meeting the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of our youth.
They truly believe in empowerment through prevention.
Website: https://hubcityoutreachcenter.org/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCU0UCfbZwGajIJVxQXMHEGw
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/hub-city-outreach-center/
Episode Transcript
Dave: In prevention. We are all leaders, whether you're leading a nationwide prevention initiative, facilitating statewide prevention, community, or coalition coordinator, or a one person shop, you are a prevention leader. How we show up and how we engage with others to create positive change, takes all types of leadership.
So sit back and enjoy these conversations with your fellow prevention leaders from across the globe. We're sharing their lessons learned. That's what. And strategies for success. Welcome to the prevention leader’s podcast. I'm your host, Dave Closson. So honored to have you with us today. Today, we've got a team that, that has strong desire in their hearts to reach out to at-risk youth, reaching out with support, encouragement, prevention, services, community resources, and most of all, showing them the unconditional love, they deserve.
Hub city outreach center is an organization that grew from the compassion that a few prevention educators possessed for youth in the community. The organization has, has the desire to provide programs that will help shape the youth into the world changers that we know they can be hub city outreach centers, holistic approach allows their teams and volunteers to work towards meeting the physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of ours.
They truly believe in empowerment through prevention. Y'all I just got chills reading that intro and I'll tell you what, we've got a crew here. Some amazing, amazing human being, doing amazing work. And I am pumped. So, without further ado, Hey Adam, Jonathan JAqueline. Welcome to the show.
Adam: Thanks for having us.
Dave: Can you feel that energy folks? Yeah. This is gonna be a great conversation, but Hey, let's start things off. I would love to just hear a little bit about, about each of y'all a little bit of background. How'd you make it into prevention? What'd you say Jacqueline, you want to get things done?
Jackie: Yeah, I would love that.
Thank you for that. So my name is Jacqueline Delgado. Um, I'm the co-founder and vice-president at hub city outreach center. And I'm honestly, always surprised that I've I have that, um, to be able to say, because prevention was something that was a really. Interesting. And it was something new whenever I first got into it.
Um, I actually got into it because in my last semester of college at Texas tech university rec, um, um, I was supposed to actually test out of my foreign language and I wasn't able to, so I had to take an extra semester. And that really bummed me out. And so I took this internship with a professor that I had been a teaching assistant for, and I took a couple of his classes and he was just so passionate and I really enjoyed talking to them, him and everything.
You know, he said, and he was starting this internship. And I was like, all right, well, I got a whole lot of time on my hands. So, um, I took this internship at a entity that actually is not in existence anymore. And I had the pleasure of meeting Adam and Jonathan there. And I'd like to say, that's the main reason I stuck around.
Cause there's just so, I mean, they're just outrageously got so much energy and just so knowledgeable and it's just great being around them. But I got into this internship, right. And I started in the prevention resource center. So it was all the data stuff. So I got a little background knowledge. Data knowledge before actually getting into the nitty gritty, which I think was helpful, not my favorite, but helpful and more interesting now that I know more about it.
Um, and then I started doing the youth prevention services, so I was able to shadow Jonathan and it was just so fun to be able to go into these schools in different community settings and like take over their usual schedule and implement, you know, these life skills. You know, that's an interactive conversation and then we play a game and they're having a blast and they have no idea that they're learning about themselves.
And then it's so it's different. And I, one of my favorite things about prevention too, was that it was different every session, like each class and then different every day and different every week. And, you know, young people got a lot of energy and it was just perfect for, you know, who I am and what I like to do.
That's really how I got involved and then really why I stuck with prevention.
Dave: Awesome. Uh, would love to dig in more, but we've got two other wonderful folks with us in the room. Jonathan, what's your background? How'd you end up where you are? Well,
Jonathan: um, uh, depending on who's asking, I can't answer that question.
But I don't sorry, but my lawyer says, I can say this. So I, so I'm from San Diego, California. Um, and I had just moved, I'd moved back to, uh, I'd finished graduating from LSU and I moved back to San Diego. And so I was trying to get into a mash, uh, master's degree program. I'd applied for marriage and family therapy.
I applied for a counselor. And then lo and behold, the one I got into was back here in Lubbock. So I had to move all the way back to the place I had just moved from. And I had worked, I worked for a federal halfway house, so I worked with inmates. Came out of the federal system. Um, and then I worked and then I was a mental health tech for a little bit at Lubbock County.
So I was dealing with crisis care, um, that kind of stuff. And then I had an op you know, it, it just happened. I applied for a job, and I got it. And you know, I, I have a background I've, I've done ministry. So I'm used to working with kids. Uh, I've worked with kids in San Diego, Texas. And a few places overseas, so it's not so going in and talking and acting like an idiot is my thing.
I can do that. So I, you know, we got in, um, and then, you know, later on met Jacqueline and Megan, who's one of our co-founders. She started a couple of days after I did. And so it, you know, for me, I like some of the people I grew up with didn't make the best decisions and. You know, Southern California has a history of street gangs and, and drugs.
So I've seen a lot of, a lot of that. And sometime a lot of the laws in California are especially then very tough on those things. So you grew up with a mentality of, if you're going to do these things, you need to be very sneaky or not do it at all. And working here in Lubbock guy, you know, some of the kids we'd work with.
The decisions they were making. I'm like, it was so they, they, they, they couldn't even conceptualize that what they were doing was illegal or wrong. You know what I mean? So not even just whether it's bad for your health, but they couldn't even conceptualize it. But also there were growing up in a time where, you know, they were starting to do the legalization of marijuana.
More the medical marijuana, you know, whereas, you know, I was born in the eighties, so that was, that came out. It was tough to get a medical marijuana card went out, you know, like you get what I'm saying. And so for me, when we started our own organization, it was, I, I wanted to approach my involvement too, is I want to talk to those kids and bring something to the, this community that I wish I would have.
Because I do also see, you know, having also worked with inmates and residents here in Lubbock, it's not that big of a leap from a one poor decision to incarceration. Only difference though, in San Diego, it's a big city. You can move up to LA. So if you have a history of criminal behavior, there's other opportunities out there for you.
But if you're a little. You don't have that many opportunities to fall back on if you make a performance state. And so that's kind of, that's where my passion is. I don't want kids to go down a path that they don't have to, or I don't want them to go down the path and be ignorant of what's down there.
Dave: Passion, caring, uh, dig it yells, just energy. Just can't help, but say we, we gotta talk. We gotta do stuff together. We gotta work together. Y'all are awesome. But. But not least Adam, man. I I'm dying to hear your story. I'm dying to hear.
Adam: Yeah. So it's uh, all right. Uh, you know, I started off, I got my degree in, uh, electronic media communications and I worked in, I worked a little bit in television, worked in radio for a bit.
And uh, when I got into. Social services. I was actually, I started in LA, made my way to Seattle, uh, pit and the Eugene, and then went over to North Dakota to stay with a buddy. And we, uh, I got a job doing. Doing camera. Uh, it was hero cam and game cam for BEC sports broadcast for the, uh, the college and high school games there for, you know, basketball and, uh, doing, uh, I was helping a.
Uh, what was, uh, it was a public radio station. They just got there. They're licensed. So it's helping them do their thing. And I was running a podcast up there. It was called, uh, uh, retro rewind. Uh, it no longer, you can find the old clips from SoundCloud, but we stopped doing it just because, uh, I was also working at a kitchen.
This, you know, just trying to make money, man, you know, and, um, I got sick and tired of North Dakota. It came back down to Texas and I'm originally from San Antonio, Texas, which is more of a hill country Southern part from where I'm at now. Um, got a job at the same place that Jacqueline and Jonathan were working at, or Jacqueline became an intern and.
I'm going to be honest with you. I, I had always worked with child protective services, um, with kids in care, uh, just kind of like a summer camp feeling, not so much like, Hey, I'm really passionate about, you know, kids, you know, coming in care and working with them was more of like, dude, I just wanna play basketball with you and Dodge ball and, you know, just do goofy stuff.
Uh, but you know, after working with the kids, I think that probably. The, the passion of working with youth on a different level, because we'd see kids coming into care, um, that parents were addicted. Parents had a dependency to a chemical kids were coming into care and just destroying homes. Um, and so when I applied and got this job, My title was the director of the prevention resource center for region one.
I would collect and disseminate data through 41 counties. So I'd travel kind of the traveling salesman. Right. I got the briefcase and the, I think of old Gil from the Simpsons, right? All boil, boil. Gil's going to make a good sale today. How can I sell prevention to, uh, a very conservative town and west Texas?
You know, when the culture is kind of like, you know, head in the sand, uh, that we don't have a. And so you look at the data and it's like, well, the county above you, county, south of you to the left and right. Or issuing MIP. Uh, but you don't have any, and they respond sometimes just like leaning back. He could hear the chair hands over the get well, depends on the kid.
Right. And that kinda, you know, it sparked the interest more and. Just getting into it and learning stories. I'm a, I'm a people guy, right from officer I'm a people person. You know, I deal with the people I enjoy working with people. I'm a community guy. And so I look at the numbers and I'm like, okay, we can look at numbers and say, this is the report, 27%, whatever.
But actually the faces of the people. 'cause these people have kids. These people are, you know, sons, daughters, parents who maybe have lost that relationship or lost somebody to an overdose. Um, and so just gather more of that qualitative approach, man, that really started fueling the fire more. Right. Um, and when, when the organization, we all left that organization, We, I remember they came to, it was, they came to the house that my house and, uh, they were talking about like, Hey man, we need to be doing something right.
We need to be doing something. And. It was funny because we, I broke away. I actually packed up my Jeep and I drove out to California and became a handyman up in the mountains of Sequoia and, uh, well Sonia, which is a hundred year old log cabin village says Sequoia national park. I mean, I was just like, you know what?
Um, I'm going to try something, you know, reinvent yourself. So I was like chopping 300 foot sugar Pines down. I was working out hunter year old septics, you know, systems. I was just the handyman where bears are walking around. And I remember I got a, a, I just got some signal on my phone and it was Jonathan that called me and he was just like, Hey bro, man, I was the mountains or whatever.
And, uh, it was just. Just kind of just, Hey, how's it going? How's life. And I asked about, Hey, did you guys ever get that organization going? You guys were talking about. It was like, yeah, we're actually doing stuff right now. And I was like, Could you guys use some help? And, um, I mean, it was just, it was like perfect timing because at that point, you know, I'm a, I'm a city guy by heart, so like I can play the part and look cool and all, but, um, I'm like, I'm like a, you know, super clumsy, you know, Like Tim Allen, right.
I just want us on a raggedy scaffold. And I'm like the, the look like Chris Farley trying to paint a window shutter and the scaffold breaks and there's honey on me and the bear comes, you know, like, and so I ended up packing my, my Jeep up at the time. And I drove back from California, came back to Lubbock and got a job in a residential construction, uh, because I didn't want to work in radio anymore.
And, uh, From there. I got a job working for the state MHMR or the MHMR here, um, in, uh, Lubbock. Are you familiar with MHMR? It's the, it's the, so they changed the name because in the S so it's the mental health mental retardation for this region, but they don't, that's their state name? MHMR. The other, they go by another entity because you know, they're trying to stay away from the R word.
Um, and so I was running a coalition for reducing substance use among adolescents. And I got plugged in with these guys down there and the, the Brady budge boxes, uh, for this nonprofit man. And it, you should hear the story. Uh, I mean, Jacqueline and Jonathan, I mean, it was just, I kind of showed up and I was like, I'm here.
Use me. What can I do? And, uh, but I'll, I'll let you, I let them tell you, man. It's a pretty awesome story.
Dave: I mean, I'm just hearing, just motivated people that care about youth and care about community and want to get out there and make a difference. And y'all, aren't afraid of some hard work. Yeah. We've, we've been hinting at the organization.
Who wants to tell me about how hub city outreach center came to be? I want to hear this story. I've been dying to hear it.
Jackie: Uh, I'll jump right in for that. Um, so yeah, Jonathan, Adam, myself and Megan, we were working at this entity and, you know, there's a couple of us that had some health problems. So we really relied on the insurance there and we, um, wanted to do.
I was getting ahead of myself. We really wanted to do a great job. I really liked what we were doing. And the Institute was doing some things that they really shouldn't have been doing. And we came to find these things through various, um, avenues, like, you know, um, not being able to access our insurance, that they're taking money out of our checks for, or, you know, asking us to do things that we wouldn't.
Do because they're not ethical. I'm always wondering why there wasn't enough funds for us to do the things that are allocated in our budget type thing. And it was just. You know, we loved what we were doing. We loved who we were doing it with, but we hated who we were doing it for. And we just knew that, you know, there's no way that this entity was going to be able to stick around and do what they have continued to do for far too long.
And, you know, Uh, applied my other three co-founders for being just amazing and being willing to leave an entity that was doing unethical things, because it's hard to leave something that you love doing, right? Like, oh, you're going to miss the kids. You're going to miss the site representatives that you're talking to all the fun events that you're putting on.
And just the unique opportunity that you have. You know, interact with the community. And so it was hard for us to leave, but when we did, we started doing pilot programming, another local nonprofit. We also were driving out to some other counties to do some pilot testing for some of the site reps who wanted us.
You know, like they didn't care that we left. They were like, well, will you still come do these things? And we were, you know, trained and we had the resources and we had the motivation and the passion to do it. And so we were doing those things, um, collecting the data. And really just preparing for the opportunity to come, where we were able to, you know, solidify and start the organization, get the 5 0 1 C status, um, and have enough support behind us for when the time comes that the grants were available, the state grants.
We wrote them, the four of us, you know, um, only having worked grants, never actually wrote any, we were awarded two multi-million dollar grants and we had just started the organization, but we know them like the back of our hand. Right. It's it was pretty remarkable. And, you know, just blessed that these are the people that we all happen to meet and be at the same place at the same time for a very important reason.
Adam: Yeah. I'd, I'd say the, I think she left out a various, she's very humble about it, but I say OJT, we all had full-time gigs. Right? Cause bills gotta get paid. And um, so we all, we all were working for different organizations, just doing our thing. In the evenings we were going over to, uh, it was called Lubbock impact in Lubbock where it was, it's kind of a soup kitchen, but there's so many different resources that are for the community that folks would come out on Wednesday night.
Well, they have youth there. And so we were going. To there where the youth threatened running programs, going to sites on our own. I mean, using our own gas and it we'd never even thought twice of like, dude make man I'm super tired. You know, like the work week really got me. It was like you looking at the clock, right?
It's like being in school all of a sudden five o'clock hits who get in your car and I'm driving down because I want to work with some youth. I want to do this. I mean, just really, really getting it going. And, uh, that was the part, right? Like some of us had two or three jobs. Uh, Jonathan, I think was where you starting your PhD program, or while you were doing that.
Jonathan: I was working at the jail and I was working at, um, the boys ranch.
Adam: The Texas boys is the Texas girls and boys ranch, which is a foster placement agency. Uh, and so like, yeah, we were all working man. And, but doing HEOC in the background and never thinking twice, like, man I'm burnt out or man, this is too much.
It was just. Can I get more? Can we get more? Cause we're also running events. I mean, they were having huge events where two to 300 families, like people were coming out for a Halloween event at a boys and girls club. We, the only funding we had was like, Hey, we all got paid on Friday, you know, and maybe we got a community partner to donate, you know, a couple of hundred dollar bills or maybe some food or something.
And, uh, I mean, it just, we just did it and then, uh, yeah, just wanted that, that part,
Dave: that, that just comes right back to so many things that I've, I've learned over my life and that when you're working in your passion, you have that energy, you have that, that drive to keep working after that, that long work week to jump in your Jeep and head on down there because your passion is what fuels.
And the more we all can work within our passion, the more energy, the more impact we will have on this world. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, those early days, I feel like that that startup phase could be its own episode altogether. The stories that the lessons learned, because that OJT, like y'all learned a lot. I can only imagine, but, uh, let's, let's fast forward.
Uh, a few years to, to hub city outreach center today, what y'all got going on?
Jonathan: Well, so right now, um, so tomorrow, um, the organization is so one of the things that, so there were things we weren't able to do with the organization we were at before. And when we started someone, when you start working at Lubbock impact, uh, Megan and Jack kind of worked together and they built a.
Uh, clothing, cloth, Lubbock impact hat had a clothing closet, but we built one for our own cause we were working with kids. And so they built one over there. Shoe, closet books, all of that. Well, once we got grant funds, Um, uh, Megan and Jack got together and they put it, we have a room here that has clothing for, you know, uh, families that have been, you know, for whatever reason may be in need of stuff, you know, and, and it's closed the kids aware.
And so even just tomorrow, they're doing one, that's going to be hosted here, uh, at the, at the building for community members. Uh, cause part of, one of the things we wanted to do when we got the grants was to take a holistic approach. To a prevention education. And that starts with helping your community, you know, the Maslow's hierarchy of needs.
It helps to meet those base needs. And for, uh, some of the, the schools we're in having closed, it can make a big deal. Um, you know, for me and Adam, we both work with kids in foster care. We've had kids pull from a house just because of. They were wearing the same clothes day after day, but some of us don't have those opportunities.
So this event they're doing tomorrow, we've done it every year. I believe since we've been grant grant funded, um, for families. And so that's one part of what we're doing. That's how we're impacting the community, reducing risk factors, uh, where we are also. So we have reached and presented to this includes some of our curriculum.
Uh, youth that we work with that we do evidence-based practices with just presentations activities can be. So since we were grant funded, which was about two and a half years ago, we have reached over 20,000 people,
Dave: cue the round of applause there, and judge jaw drop moment. That is, I
Jonathan: know. And that, and love it gives a county of, you know, 300 or so thousand people.
So that 20,000. That's something. And then if you, you know, if you take an a, and that's with COVID, you know, that's with COVID. So imagine without the limitations that COVID brought, how many more kids, uh, we could reach out to. So. We're where we are right now.
So this last year we added a new counties called Terry county, which is a county to the west of here. And so we're actually starting to do some programming with kids in a whole different county. And so it took a few years, but we're now expanding outside our influence outside of Lubbock. Um, me and Adam have actually,
Adam: well, that was one of our pilot programs.
Right. That was one of Terry. So brow brownfield is city. That was one of our pilot programs that we ran before we got funded. And we told them like, Hey, we ever find funding. We're coming back for you guys. And it took us with two, two years. We finally got an amendment with the, with the, you know, HHS. And we got to prove Metairie county as of September of last year.
So we called up the J the chief JPO is, Hey, I got some news for you. We're coming to a theater near you, you know? Uh, and so being able to work with their youth because it's such a need in their community was awesome. And so it's like, we didn't forget about you. There's just, do you want to share that little deal with Terry county.
Jonathan: Yeah, it's a, it's a blessing, you know, and it, and some of those same folks we help with before with the probation office, they're wanting to work with us some more now. I mean, we, me and Adam had lunch with them what a week ago. Um, and so we're looking to, to be able to go back and impact, you know, a place we did our pilot program.
And so we're, we're working in the community here. We're, we're doing stuff in the schools. Um, and, uh, what was it? So during COVID we got some funding, um, to provide essentials and hygiene. So we, you know, when, uh, we, when we had to go, everybody had to go home. You know, me and Adam, Adam had had an idea and we just kind of went after it, got some funding.
And then early last year, I think
Adam: it was the second day. Yeah, I think it was like the second day we were home and uh, some of us don't like being home the second day. I was like, I was like, dude, we gotta do something, man. You know? Cause a lot of our work is done in the school. Things shut down. We get measures to me.
We also want to impact community. And, um, yeah, that was just man. That was an opportunity. Yeah. Just being able to do is what did we do? It was, uh, yeah, so we received, how much was the funding for? It was a, so
Jonathan: we got, so the first, so we applied twice in this, that summer. And the first grant was for four to 500 and the next was 4,500.
And then we got about a thousand dollars worth of
Adam: donations and it was good. It was called. Cause I presented on this for a conference we had in Texas, it was called going back to the base. It was actually Jonathan. Now we presented it. My thing was, I called it X's and O's uh, cause I'm a big football guy, likes sports.
And uh, the, the idea was this. Up until COVID agencies, organizations were running like the triple option, right? Like, I mean, very fancy plays because they've been moving for so long. They had all the key players with COVID hit. You couldn't run that stuff because people weren't showing up because the uncertainty and so.
The thing we had to look at was, okay, well, how can we impact families with prevention? But we, we can't do what we're normally what we normally can do run these fancy plays, do these fancy events. It was going back to the basics. So that $4,500, we were able to provide house cleaning, house supplies. Um, toothbrushes toothpaste.
I mean just a hygiene products, diapers, formula, um, financial assistance for utilities because you know, people have been out of a job. You've got to keep that electricity on. If you got kids, you got to have hot water, you know, that's the decent thing that us humans could that we need is running water electricity though.
Like the essentials. And so. We were able to go back to the basics and somebody asked us, asked me, he said, how does providing a kid choose, prevent them from using drugs? Great question. Well, our holistic approach has always been this. When we work with the youth. If the kid is not listening, the kid who it came down to it, there was city several situations to where we would find kids.
And it would pull him to the side and say, Hey, everything. Okay. I have a question. Are your feet hurting? Because your shoes look small, the kid's shoes were small, you know, toes crunched up in there. How can the kid pay attention if his shoes don't fit or if the kid's hungry or if the kid hadn't showered or the kid doesn't have heritage.
And so we're able to apply that to 2020 of, Hey, if I can provide a mom, a pair of shoes to give to her kid and still feel like a mom, because at a time to where the pandemic is outside of our control, what can we control? What do we have power over your household though? If you still want to still feel like you're contributing as a parent?
Yes, we will get you some heritage ties. So your, your, your kid can still put her hair up in a house, you know, in a, in a ponytail. We'll give you some shoes. So it, when your kid says, mom, I need new shoes. Mom's been laid off because. We want to still give you that power to be a parent because that kid is going to see that, right?
Not necessarily like ominous, I'm not going to use drugs. No, it's the, it's the ability of bringing families together. We want to provide the basic essentials for you because at a time where you do not have control of the world, you have control of what's in front of you, your household. And so we were able to do that.
And man, Jonathan and I, we got in the car. We did the deliveries ourselves. I mean our whole shop, it was kinda like, you know, when you see from, in history where, you know, the cheese factory started making, you know, shoes for the military, you know, our, you know, we didn't, we don't make cheese. We didn't, you know, but our facility was made for having prevention specialists go into the schools.
Well, now you came into our facility and we had. Bars or so we had shampoo can D I mean, everywhere, our prevention specialists who come in to CVS are prevention specialists who are trained and certified to go into the schools, work with the kids with prevention education. They were at, they were on the phone getting information.
Hey, what do you need? Well, you requested services. I mean, just, they were able to adapt. To the problem. And then Jonathan and I, we both loaded up our cars and we did deliveries. That was probably the scary part because it was, you know, may of 2020, it was the uncertainty of like, what is COVID like, you hear all these things, but we know that people are hurting.
We know that people need this stuff. And so we were going off. All over the zip codes of Lubbock, delivering items to people in need. I mean, you know, the stories we heard it was, it was me being a community guy. It was just like, man, how can I help you? And, uh, That I think that was the awesome part during COVID was being able to adapt an audible was thrown.
We adapted, we went with it. We just rode with, you know, rolled with it. Um, but that comes, I think, with the passion that everybody has to keep things going, you know, just don't stop. So
Dave: passion and mindset too. I mean, you brought up cheese. I know you said you don't make cheese, but that book who moved my cheese, you got to just get after it, keep after it, things are always going to be changing.
Yeah. Yeah. And all right, so y'all love working with youth and the older I get, the more I need to listen to other folks. Any, any tips, words of wisdom or advice for the listeners prevention professionals, when it comes to engaging youth, working with youth hanging out and just having fun with youth.
Jonathan: So I'll, I'll, I mean, one, you know, you can only give what you got, you know what I mean?
Um, I think sometimes, and this can happen some from some very well-educated folks well-meaning. But well-educated folks or folks who, you know, you know, those are young people. I have no way to connect to them. Well, it's got, you know, my, you know, my mom's daddy, he was from Indiana. My dad's dad was from Massachusetts, Massachusetts.
I mean, How did you connect with your grandparents? How did your grandparents connect with you? And so sometimes folks need to realize it's not that complicated. The person across from you is a human being. Are they going to think what you're doing is corny is, but that's okay. Me and Adam, they come in our classroom.
They're going to get quotes from 1980s, 1970s. Movies and music stuff from the nineties and two thousands. And some people may be like, those kids have no idea what you're talking about. That's okay. I'm going to tell them I'm going to pull them in and have them interested in learning something they don't know because you'll find anybody who works with kids.
If you can get a kid in and interested in something they don't know, and you'd be surprised once you can get them past that nervousness, man, I don't want to do this. Don't get after it. And so sometimes I think people overthink it and I think it's how do people connect with you and just try, you're going to make mistakes.
It took me a while. I'm from California. So it took me a while. The first time I'd been in a high school again was when I started in prevention in my high school was completely different. You know, these are way different kids in the ones I grew up. You know, so it, it takes a little bit, you know, but once you get the ebb and flow, when you realize, you know what, I'm just gonna be me and I'm gonna just go with it.
And some kids ain't gonna like it. And that's, it's just like people, some people ain't gonna like it. I saw one go after it too. Don't you know, don't be, you know, it's okay to be that fun, goofy counselor, you know? Yeah. Like cam counsel that we can all fake. You know, it's okay. You know, it's, you know, for some of our more mature older folks, be that person, you know what I mean?
Because everybody, you know, I know where I grew up. There was always an older neighbor in the street that, on the neighborhood that you looked up to, even though you guys had no, nothing really connecting you other than growing up in that neighborhood. And I think kids crave that, you know, sometimes. I mean, you you'll be shocked how much, how much they really do want to connect with older folks, especially some of the kids we work with.
They don't have another male in the house, or they may not have another older, you know, they may not know their grandparents, you know what I mean? And that kind of, that takes a lot from a kid and people don't realize, I mean, there's a reasonable, you know, some of the kids we work with, like we had a kid one time, he was.
The kid was, the cops were looking for Mon canvas cause he was suspended and supposed to be at home. We, it came on campus to hang out with people and our kids will get in trouble and still come to school because there's something about that environment that actually feels safe. So you create that, you work towards that with those kids, be that safe personnel.
Dave: So to share, uh, a war story from my Iraq deployment. One of the things that we, we learned to be very effective was a got method, meaning get out of the truck. The more we got out of the truck and talk to the local Iraqi civilians, we built rapport with them. We built relationships. And then all of a sudden they realize, Hey, these guys aren't so bad, they're actually here to help us.
So then they start. To help us help them. It was a beautiful thing. And so then I applied that got method when I was a campus police officer, get out of the car, get out, walk around and talk to the students and I'll tell you what it made my job pretty dead on. Enjoy. To just get out and have just conversations.
Uh, but it did lead to me, uh, wearing a three-piece suit and a blue school spirit wig, uh, act in a fool all across campus in the name of the EIU may have prevention team
Jonathan: there. Somebody's got to do it.
Dave: Right, right. But you're talking about being that goofball. I mean, I'm a cop. They're not going to take me serious if I'm rappelling off of a building, we're in a blue wig.
Oh, it made for some wonderful conversations. And then in that conversation came connection and we were able to actually talk about prevention. That's when I started to use motivational interviewing out on patrol. So yeah. Uh, get out of the office y'all and. That's my summary of what you said, Jonathan, just go talk to them.
Adam: I think of the Indiana Jones
Jonathan: food, if you can.
Adam: They do, I think at the Indiana Jones quote, right where he's always like, you want to be a good, you know, scientist get out of the library, kind of it goes along with, with what you're saying. And I, you know, I would say, I would say if there was advice, be yourself.
Just be yourself. That's all you can be, you know, because we've had, you know, examples of people that, you know, might have not grown up in the same neighborhood as some of these kids. And they try to be something that they're not, and you can spot that and say, you know what, take ownership if you know where you grew up, because they're going to respect that.
Even if you can't, you didn't grow up in the same culture or neighborhood. You're still yourself. You're still being 100 and, uh, that's always been my motto, you know, like, well, if it's going to be cheesy, I'm king cheese and I want to be a goofy cause that's confidence. Right. And they will respect that. So.
Dave: Yeah. Now Jacqueline, I saw you, you know, oh, I'll second. That a couple of different times. One of them might've been on love and food. I don't know if that was you love food or, you know, youth do, but all right. All right. What, what, uh, what tips and tricks do you have when it comes to work with.
Jackie: No mine kind of falls into some of the things that were already said, which, you know, great minds think alike, but it really is, you know, being your authentic self.
And sometimes depending on the entity that you're at, it can be hard because one of the biggest things that we stress is, you know, the culture of being who you are and. You know, just embracing that, like you want to make sure that you're going into a school site, not dressed up in slacks and like, you know, super nice professional clothes because that's not what you're really there to do, you know?
And they're not going to connect with that. So, you know, just being true to yourself, you know, living out your truth, being honest and respecting that everyone else. As going to live the life that they want to live. And you're just there to provide education, support knowledge, and let them live their lives.
You know, I think that's the advice I'm going to
Dave: go with. I like it. I like it. The fellows are nodding as well. It would get a little round of applause there. Beautiful,
Jonathan: beautiful. It would be a CA I don't even like that. Kinda like something when Jacqueline made it with dress code and this is something.
Well last year w with some of our kids that we work with, you know, that have been like CPS or foster care that outfit your badge can be absolutely triggering. Tell me more because like, so sometime, cause I was not worth this class, but Adam, there was a. I actually know, actually some of our eyes,
Adam: I screwed up, even
Jonathan: for me working at the jail.
If I, I, as a counselor, I dressed differently than the normal staff there. But you come in with a button up shirt and nice shoes. And some of these schools will, you look like a probation officer, they connect you to people, you know, Bo you know, CPS, um, uh, foster care people that may have removed them from their home.
So it, it, it's also, you know, a big thing in connecting with these kids is that outfit. You need to keep mind, especially if you're working with kids that are likely to have had those experiences, that outfit that bad. Is actually trending.
Adam: That totally happened to me at that school. I walked in with the, add a nice button nose from slacks, and I walked in there and I said, hello, my name is Adam.
I work for up city outreach center. I also worked part time at a foster placement. Next thing you know, And all the kids are like, oh, heck no, my mom told me not to talk to you and this, this and that. And the teacher looked at me, she's like, get out. I was like, see you next week. Like I did not see that one coming.
Right. So next week, man, I show up in my Chuck Taylor's jeans and a flannel shirt. Right. Just like. Yeah. So I can agree with John. I just had to share that story because it's true.
Dave: Comes right back to that OJT training y'all were talking about earlier. Those lessons learned. Yeah. Well, y'all got a lot going on.
You're you're growing, you're doing even more stepping up scaling that impact that y'all are. How can folks keep up to date? How can they get involved? How can they help you help others?
Jackie: Yeah. So we are, you know, on all of the, all the socials. Um, our Instagram is at hub city outreach center. Uh, Facebook it's hub city outreach center.
Don't do a whole lot on YouTube. We did a couples series, um, for national drug and alcohol fact week, um, a while ago, but we're also on YouTube. We don't have enough followers to have like the nice, uh, the URL, but we're hope city outreach center in Lubbock, Texas, you can definitely find us. And then of course our website gets maintained pretty frequently and it's pretty easy to navigate.
And that's hub city outreach center.
Dave: Now got podcast listeners all over the globe. And I know there's a nice little network there in even Texas are y'all open to partnerships or how can folks donate or get involved in that manner as well.
Jackie: Yeah. So we have a donation portal that is on our website, and then you can also text to give the number to H COC to 4 4, 3, 2, 1, and you can donate that way.
Really super simple.
Dave: Beautiful and not listeners, all their social links and the donate links will be in the show notes. And I hope you all go out and follow them on the social media platforms because they are awesome people doing awesome things. I want to just close this, this episode out with a little go around.
We'd love to hear from each of you and. What would be just one call to action or one, if you're going to remember one thing from this episode, remember this, what would it be? And we'll do a we'll start with Adam, then go Jonathan and finish up with Jacquelyn.
Adam: The part of the solution, whatever that looks like, uh, be part of the solution.
Just do something, even if you feel like you can't, because maybe you have, you know, this much of an education or this much of funding, man, just be part of the solution. However, you can find a way, just do it.
Dave: Roger that. All right. What do you got for
Jonathan: us, Jonathan? Um, I have two things to thing. Number one, remember the person across from you is a human being just like.
Not a subject, not a participant, a human being. And then I would say, number two, make the most of any moment you have with those humans. And I say that because, you know, we've worked with kids who have ended up on the news, didn't make it home to their families. And sometimes we can forget that there's a world outside of that classroom that, that kid's going into, or those adults you're working with are going into.
If you got 30 minutes with them, take the most you can out of those 30 minutes.
Dave: All right. I dig it. I dig it. Ms. Jacqueline, what are your parting words for us?
Jackie: My parting words for all of you, awesome listeners would be to get educated and stay educated. You know, everyone has their life to live, but you got to know your why.
And you got to know your limits and you gotta know your support system.
Dave: Amazing words of wisdom from all three of y'all. I am not going to add to it because you guys are amazing and you got all the knowledge. Not me. I just asked the questions, but. Keep up the amazing work. Thank you all so much for taking time to chat with me.
Truly appreciate each and every one of you and the work you're doing. And I look forward to our paths crossing again. Thank you very much.
That concludes this episode. Thanks for tuning in. Be sure to hit the subscribe button and share this episode with a friend before you leave. And we look forward to seeing you on social media because prevention is better together. Together. We are stronger.
