Video 1-Linking the Roads, Working with Youth Who Experience Homelessness and Sexual Violence

{Intro}

You are listening to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center Just Rural! Podcast series that highlights innovative programs and success stories from rural communities across the United States.

Michelle Hall is the Director of Transitional Living at the Oasis Center in Nashville, Tennessee, an organization that provides at risk youth a connection to caring adults, safe and secure environment, and empowerment to make better choices.During this interview,Michelle discusses the importance of understandingthe lived experiences of youth and youth who identify as LGBTQ and their traumas from homelessness and sexual violence.

[Music: Cattails]

{Title Screen} Linking the Roads, Working with Youth Who Experience Homelessness and Sexual Violence

{Image of Oasis Center’s Sign: Youth Opportunity Center}

{Introductory Screen} Meeting Youth Where They Are At

Michelle Hall, Director of Transitional Living, Oasis Center, Nashville, TN

{Michelle Hall sits in front of an exposed brick wall with a lamp shining behind her and artwork from youth displayed on the wall behind her. Artwork is 2 abstract paintings}

A lot of our young people have experienced sexual abuse or sexual assault even before they have become homeless or hit the streets. Then, once you're homeless or you hit the streets, you experience that a lot more often. And all kinds of trauma you experience more often when you're actually living on the streets. So, what we wanna do is... and you also… sometimes people get involved in relationships, in sexual relationships for safety reasons. So you might need a place to stay or you might need food to eat, so you might do... Participate in what we call "survival sex" which is you're going to be friendlier with people than maybe you would if you were in a safe living situation. So you know you have the security of that relationship. Relationships are really important to everybody, but especially to youth who are living on the streets or who are in vulnerable situations. You need the relationships to keep you safe.
A lot of young people who do, what we might call "survival sex" might not say that's survival sex. It might just sort of be a norm for them. So we don't wanna go in saying, "This is a bad relationship for you," or, "This isn't safe." But we do wanna start talking to them about what options are. But more than that it is kind of an empowerment thing, so we wanna start working with them maybe in other areas where they start to feel mastery over their life, starting to feel like they have choices. So you don't even have to work in the area of talking about safer sex for a young person to start feeling like they have the power to make better choices or choose differently. You might just…They might get a job and often start feeling like, "I can do this." And they might feel like they can choose a different kind of relationship, if they feel like they have some control and they have some choices and opportunities, other opportunities than what they've had before, chances are really good they'll start making healthier choices for themselves.
A lot of times though, I think what happens when people experience trauma or also issues of attachment that happened earlier in childhood, if you didn't have the food and the relationships and the consistency that you need for optimal brain development to happen when you're a baby, the way you think about options or think about choices or make decisions is impacted. So sometimes it's not just about, "I'm gonna show you an opportunity you might not have seen before." It's really helping them be in their body and maybe access their brain in a different way so that they can go, "Oh!" Their brain starts working cognitively in a different way where they might be able to access an opportunity that they weren't able to access before. Help their bodies calm down and help their brain start to think differently and also give them experiences of trusting people.
When you trust people and you can calm down a little bit, your brain can go into more of a big picture point of view. If you're always in survival, you can't do big picture. You have to do, "What's the next thing I need to do to survive?" So I would like to say, yes, our agency shows young people choices they never knew they had before, but I don't know that it's that grand. I think if we can help them experience a little bit of safety, if they can calm down in their survival, their fight, their flight, their freeze, if they can change that up a little bit their brain naturally is gonna be able to go to a point where they go, "Oh! And here's another option. I could explore this. I'm safe enough to play around with this idea." I think realistically, I think that's what happens. So it's just a little bit of a smaller fight. Then they come into our program, they have a life skill class, they go on a field trip and then all of a sudden they think they could do their life differently.

{Text displayed across a black, blank screen: What the Work Looks Like}

So my program specifically, we work with the same young people, young people who are experiencing home- homelessness, living on the streets or who are runaway. And we do that in three different ways. We do that in street outreach,

{Image of skateboard fades onto screen}

where we go out looking for them in places that they might be or we try to connect with people who might come into contact with young people who are living on the street like adults who are experiencing homelessness or other homeless service providers that are good, people that we wanna stay networked with so we can know where young people are. So we do that. We also have a day program

{Image of Oasis Center’s day program facility. This image includes a shelving unit with bins labeled for free supplies like socks, wet wipes, lotions, tissues, tampons and pads, hair brushes, etc.}

that offers services to youth who are currently living on the street, and they can come in during the day, they can get a hot lunch, they can get a shower, they can take a nap if they've been up all night.

{Image of Oasis Center’s day program facility. This image includes their community space with leather chairs, couches, tables and computers setup. Abstract artwork created by youth hang on the light green and white walls with white paper lanterns hanging from the ceiling}

They can do case management.

{Image of African American and Caucasian youth working on the computer together}

They can have a computer to do some job searching.

{Video returns to Michelle Hall speaking}

Still our biggest goal in that is just to give them a few hours a day that they can relax a little bit

{Zoomed-in image of Oasis Center’s computer area in the community space. 2 computers with 3 chairs sit on a built-in desk and shelving unit with abstract artwork and dry erase board on the wall}

{Video returns to Michelle Hall speaking}

and possibly again start forming relationships. So it's really basic survival stuff.
And then we have a longer term, residential program where young people can live with us for up to 20 months.

{Image of a residential room with an unmade bed with light green sheets and blanket. A desk and chair with scattered papers, books, laptop, and a school bag are next to the bed}

Since we started operating those programs under one roof, 70% of our young people who go through our student outreach program move in with us. And before, it was really hard for us to get a young person on the street to buy into living in our program, which was discouraging on our point, because we would see these young people living on the streets and we knew we had a bed for them. They couldn't give up or weren't willing at that point to go by our rules, or it wasn't safe enough for them to move in with us. And now that we work with them in the outreach center, they see the staff,

{Video returns to Michelle Hall speaking}

they see the same staff, they see other young people who have moved into our residential program. So their trust has greatly increased, and they're more willing to like move in and try it out.

{Image of Oasis Center’s kitchen area with stainless steel refrigerator, sink, oven, dishwater, blue cabinets and white counter tops}

So now, 70% of the youth who live on the streets will come into our Loft program, which we consider that a huge success.

{Video returns to Michelle Hall speaking}

They might leave, they might not stay for very long, they might come back after they leave, we really encourage that. Anytime a young person leaves, if we think they're ready, or not, we just know that developmentally, it's normal for a young person to say, "I'm ready to try this on my own." In fact, trying it, is a way that they learn and probably some of the best learning that they have. So they might go to try to live on their own when we're like, "Oh! Stay. Finish school. Don't go yet, you're not making enough money." But we will support them emotionally when they do that, and they might make it and that's great. And then, or they might say, "I do need to come back. Can I come back for a little bit?" And we absolutely like that. It's sort of like a family when a kid goes off to college maybe and needs to come back when school's out, or needs to come back before they get a job. We look at that the same way.
So, when I talk about working with runaway homeless street youth, or LGBTQ, to me they're not separate. Like anytime you work with this group, or you work with anybody or you just have any interactions in the world. You're working or interacting with LGBTQ people. So, what we have to be careful about, is to know that in our culture, these young people are systemically [chuckle] oppressed. They do not have the same opportunities. They're very often less safe, than even our youth who are living on the streets. So we need to make sure we are doing things that let those youth in particular know that we don't just want them to come and participate in services with us, but that they are really, really welcome here. And that we are gonna take who they are into account. So, it's different as far as you know to make sure that, that group of people knows that you care about them, and that you are not gonna hurt them for being the way that they are. But it's the same as far as you should be working with every young people, young person in a way that says "who you are is amazing. You get to decide who you are, or choose... like, live life the way you want to live and we are not just gonna tolerate you. But we want to celebrate you, and we're all better when we're good. So when everyone's well, we're all better."

{Image of male African American youth’s face painted onto canvas and hanging inside the Oasis Center’s facility}

{Outro}

{NSVRC Just Rural Logo}

This project was supported by Grant No. 2009-TA-AX-K042 awarded by the Office on Violence Against Women, U.S. Department of Justice. The opinions, findings, conclusions, and recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Department of Justice, Office on Violence Against Women.

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[music: Cattails]