“Exploring “One Eighty”: A Comprehensive Approach to Recovery and Prevention Services in Ohio”
[00:00:04] Jake White: Hello, and welcome back to another episode of Party Talk where we empower leaders in youth job prevention. Today, I’m speaking with Robert and Kristina from “One Eighty”. And they’re this amazing organization that does recovery services and even prevention out in Ohio. So I was so excited to speak with them. And today, they’ve agreed to come and chat about everything in their field. So, Robert, Kristina, thank you so much for being on the show.
[00:00:30] Kristina: Hi, Jake. Thank you for having us.
[00:00:32] Robert: Happy to be here.
[00:00:34] Jake White: Awesome. Well, before we dive into some prevention stuff, some things that you do for recovery, can you tell us just a little bit about you personally, maybe a couple things to get to know you?
[00:00:45] Kristina: I’m Kristina. I am the Community Coalition’s manager at “One Eighty”. I have been in the prevention field for about five years. I’ve worked at this agency for about eight. Other than that, I like to hang out with my family and plays games.
[00:01:06] Jake White: Awesome.
[00:01:07] Robert: I’m Robert Bean. I’m the Coalition Prevention Specialist at “One Eighty”. I’ve only been in this field for a year, so I’m brand new to it. My free time, I explored video games, and I had a baby.
[00:01:21] Jake White: That’s exciting. And then Kristina, how many kids do you have?
[00:01:27] Kristina: Just one.
[00:01:28] Jake White: Just one, so each with one kid. Well, let’s dive in. Can you tell us a little bit about your organization, and the scope of what you do?
[00:01:39] Kristina: We offer several different services. We offer addiction and substance use treatment, including residential treatment, domestic violence and sexual assault advocacy and emergency shelter, counseling, recovery, coaching, housing and supportive services. And then our department is community relations and prevention. So we work with community coalitions on youth substance use prevention. And we also have a mentoring program, and we have some staff who will go into schools and do healthy relationships.
[00:02:12] Jake White: Wow. And that sounds like a lot. You’re a big organization. Are you funded through grant programs, I’m sure there’s probably multiple hats, but for other people in prevention to kind of relate to what do you do? Is there certain grants you work with it?
[00:02:30] Kristina: So our department specifically, we work with mostly grants. And our team, we have the drug free communities, the DFC grant, and stop grant and then some smaller local and state grants. And elsewhere in agency, they have Medicaid funding and grants, but we mostly do.
“Career Transitions: From Social Work and Law Enforcement to Youth Prevention and Recovery”
[00:02:55] Jake White: Very cool. Well, how did y’all get into this line of work?
[00:03:03] Kristina: So I have my bachelor’s in social work. So I always kind of wanted to work with the community. And I started in our domestic violence shelter, and moved to our residential treatment facility. And then an opportunity to work in the prevention department came up. And so I applied and I just fell in love with it. I like the positivity and working with the community in the youth and it’s been awesome, since I’ve.
[00:03:32] Jake White: Very cool. What about you, Robert?
[00:03:34] Robert: My bachelor’s in Criminal Justice. I majored in forensic psychology and homeland security, always wanted to go into like federal law enforcement, investigations, that kind of thing happened to kind of stumble into the prevention field, a friend of mine services from “One Eighty” told me about them. And then when I was doing some job I’m seeing last year, a sparks came into my mind. And I was like, “Alright, cool. Let’s apply, let’s try to get into One Eighty, see what we can do there” and didn’t even know prevention was a thing until I started.
[00:04:04] Jake White: Wow. So two different fields, Kristina, like domestic violence prevention and stuff like that. And then Robert, for you with law enforcement. I’m wondering how is your experience or education from each of those transferred over to your new job.
[00:04:21] Kristina: I think for me, definitely, because with social work, you learn how to communicate with people and kind of help them connect with the resources they need. And that’s essentially what we’re doing in prevention as well.
[00:04:36] Robert: For my end, it’s kind of similar. There is that aspect of working with the community button, like a different aspect of it. But more so working with data from federal agencies, local governments, just looking at looking at it from that angle.
“Impactful Initiatives: Youth Engagement and Data-Driven Progress in Prevention Work”
[00:04:53] Jake White: So this next question, I’m really intrigued because I know that y’all do so much and you have a good imprint in the community, lots of partners and stuff like that. So is there a project or something that you’ve worked on that you would say that went really well, that was a project that we would do again, or that could inspire others that maybe you could brag about? Is there something that comes to mind that you could share about your experience?
[00:05:23] Kristina: You’ve had one, you’re gonna go first.
[00:05:24] Robert: So one of the coalition’s we’ve worked with as a “Youth coalition” that they support. And they’re called Rappa Teen Institute, it’s writers or peer advocates. High School mascot is a Red Rider. So the one after that, but I was able to work with one of my co-workers and a community volunteer, we went to the Cadca National Leadership Forum in February with six students. So doing all the behind scenes work on that gave me a new appreciation for all my teachers did when I was a kid, a lot of fun getting to see them, learn about the prevention field and learn why what they’re doing matters. Honestly, it’s probably gonna be a success since I’ve been here.
[00:06:09] Jake White: Did you feel there was a noticeable difference from the kids weren’t getting the bus and on the plane, they’re heading over to DC. And then when they come home, what was that tangible difference or what did you see from the students?
[00:06:25] Robert: They’ve seen more engaged with prevention. So the teamsters dude is sometimes feels like it’s for Fun Club, which is great way to draw kids in. It’s kind of hard sometimes to explain the importance of the prevention aspect of things are like, “Why are we doing what we’re doing?” I’m so seeing them go to the conference and sit down, sit in on the Youth Track and learn from other youth about what they’re doing in other states. They came back early. This was really cool. What I saw there, I learned a lot more of our kids came back and designed a new billboard that we just recently put off with a drug free message. So just seeing them gravitate towards it more after going to the conference was really cool.
[00:07:09] Jake White: Nice. And the fact that they’re seeing their work around town, I bet you even increases the buy-in even more, that’s so cool. Kristina, does anything come to mind is something that was really cool. I’m glad we did this.
[00:07:23] Kristina: Well, I couldn’t think of a specific project other than we do a youth asset and substance use survey every two years. And it’s just a lot of work getting it, organized and communicating with the schools and community partners. And I’m kind of a data nerd. So it’s just nice to see that every other year how our efforts are progressing. And from year to year, there are huge jumps. But from the beginning of our DFC to now we’ve made a lot of progress in providing supports for students, their use rates are down. They feel more supported by the adults in that life. So it’s just nice to see that.
“Challenges and Triumphs in Community Engagement and Prevention Work in Rural Ohio”
[00:08:07] Jake White: Wow, that’s cool. I love that you said that too, that they can feel the support from the community. Because one of the things I found out about different programs that we’re running is just the fact that we’re there offering support can feel like a security blanket for a student who might need help one day or doesn’t feel like they can go somewhere if something were to happen to them or a friend. So that’s prevention in a nutshell. It’s like, they don’t need us now. But we’re preventing something from happening. And if they were ever to make a mistake, or make a decision that they could regret, they’ve got people to go to. So I would say that’s great work. Do you I actually want to ask you about the survey, too. Because that sounds like a daunting task to get a survey across, , maybe multiple cities or even just one city in multiple schools. So who gets the survey, and how do you go about getting that to happen?
[00:09:09] Kristina: Well, it is a lot of steps, we started planning. So we will do that this fall. And we started planning in February of this year, just getting contacts in place and then starting the initial reaching out to schools. And so they’ll do it on Survey Monkey, and we’ll send out as a unique link to each school district. And I think it’s six or eight school districts that we do. And it’s 6th, 8th, 10th and 12th graders from each school district, and they’ll take the survey and then we’ll just analyze the results after that. And I really simplifying it, but it’s a lot of little steps along the way.
[00:09:53] Jake White: I’m sure that just from working with schools like I realized that they have this agenda they’re protecting and their goals that they’re going after. So sometimes with coalition work, we have to let them know we’re aligned with your goals, we’re doing the same thing. We’re creating a safe environment, which helps them for learning, keeping them engaged up to graduation rates, like that kind of stuff. So is there any time were like looking back, so you said February, and you’re gonna be launching it in the fall? So that’s six to eight months of preparation. And you’re probably building relationships, you’re connecting to see how logistically it’s going to fit into their schedule. What are the reasons why a school would say like, “No, we’re not going to participate? What are those reasons? And then what are the reasons why the schools who are saying, of course, we’ll do it”.
[00:10:47] Kristina: I think that we’ve had a lot of success with our schools that they know, us as an agency, and they know, our coalition. The schools are one of our most important part of community partners. For the few that have had some hesitation, it mostly comes from parents who are just kind of wary of what we might be asking the children and they’re just protecting their children privacy, and that’s totally understandable. For them, we’ve typically been able to have the schools agree to do it with an opt-in letter, instead of us just having the survey link sent out we have to have the parent actually agree to it. So we’re at least able to get into those schools and the parents can say “Yes” or “No”, getting it out there.
[00:11:33] Jake White: So does that look like a letter they bring home to their parents? Or is it a link that you email their parents? How do you do that?
[00:11:40] Kristina: Letter that they’ll send home to the parents, and then if they don’t get that back, then that student.
[00:11:47] Jake White: Absolutely. You’re giving everyone the choice to do it. And then can you tell us a little bit about your community, what it looks like? Maybe the demographics, rural, anything like that? And then what you’re finding on the survey, what are students facing today?
[00:12:08] Kristina: We’re very rural, a lot of farmland and Wayne County. It’s a mostly white Christian community. Robert is not from here originally. So I’d be interested to hear what he thinks of it.
[00:12:24] Robert: Yeah, about the same. I grew up in a really small town that actually makes that place the big. It’s small rural community but with lots of community engagement. That’s something I didn’t grow up with. So it’s really cool aspect of being here is the community leaders that we work with in our coalition’s all of their focus is on what can we do to help the youth? It’s been very helpful as far as us getting our results and the efforts that we make.
[00:13:00] Jake White: Very cool. And I know, we got introduced because, Robert, you’re emailing me saying, “Some of our schools are looking for Red Ribbon Week, speakers and stuff like that.” So it sounds like you have a number of coalition’s that you look out for a number of schools and school districts that you look out for and you support all of them, is from your experience being on this level? Where you see a lot of them is what do you think are some challenges that the coalitions are facing, some things that are kind of tough in our line of work? Have you seen anything like that?
[00:13:37] Kristina: Couple of things that come to mind is engagement, especially with parents, they’re busy, it’s hard to get them at the table. And I would say people just recognizing prevention as a field. In Ohio, we work to toward prevention certification. So it’s a real legitimate field. And just getting that out there has been somewhat think challenging.
[00:14:05] Robert: You think about the same thing is nobody knows what we’re doing. Like I said, I didn’t even know prevention was a field until even a couple months into after I started the job. I didn’t really have an understanding of what prevention was, really just educating the community is try to do as much as possible, but then we’re working to prevent youth substance use. Well, what does that look like? We’ll go our events to tell you but that’s definitely one of the challenges is, it’s definitely about that.
[00:14:38] Jake White: I might embarrass myself by saying this, but we’re like Batman’s Butler. Like, no one sees them but he makes all the cool stuff behind the scenes, the cars, their life saving weapons and armor. And then people are like, “Batman gets all the glory like we’re doing impactful stuff in the schools and communities but we’re not showing off about it.” That’s not the point where gathering data, we’re analyzing it and seeing what we can do better and then we’re supporting everyone else. So it’s important stuff, but you’re right. Sometimes when you kind of need to get into new partnerships, or into new communities or parent groups, there’s a question of mean, but who are you?
[00:15:30] Kristina: We just keep trying to make those community connections and bringing in more people from different sectors who might happen to be parents, and hopefully that will get more parents to the table.
“Shifting the Prevention Paradigm: Emphasizing Positive Messaging and the Majority of Youth Making Healthy Choices”
[00:15:42] Jake White: It sounds like there’s probably some communities that you’ve done, that they do know you, and you’ve gotten that relationship started. And with, with every generation, or every reiteration of students and parents, you kind of have to start over or at least keep the wheel going. So that you maintain that through the next wheelhouse of people that are that are coming in. My next question for you is, what is your prevention pet peeve? What do you see happening in in our field that you think we should stop doing that? Is there anything that comes to mind?
[00:16:20] Kristina: I guess, scare tactics, we have been trying to focus more on positive information with our marketing and advertising and scare tactics are still really popular, not just with preventionist, but with the community. We see the mock crashes, things like that. And we’re just trying to shift away from that as a field. So if I did get rid of anything, it would be that.
[00:16:55] Jake White: That’s well said, I think that’s something that I’m observing too. And it is kind of statewide, though, like you had said that some of the people around you, they are the communities around you, they do the mock crashes, I have seen that out east a lot more. And then in different areas of the country. It’s starting to go away from that. I think in Washington, they’ve gone through the whole that part of it. And now they’re kind of catching up with what you’re saying is that we’re not going to do that, instead of showing students what not to do. We have to help them realize what they can do. Because you can’t you can’t give a call to action to do nothing, that’s not helpful. So doing mental health awareness, keep teaching coping skills whether it’s perseverance, or how to resist peer pressure, all that kind of stuff is going to be more helpful. Robert, do you have anything that you’ve observed in? You’re a year in so you’re pretty Fred, is there anything that you’ve seen so far that you’re like, “Oh, is that really are we doing that?”
[00:18:02] Robert: Branching off of that is a focus on negative statistics. One thing that I was introduced to pretty quickly was the importance of focusing on. We’re the majority of youth are not using substances. That’s data across the country shows that our data shows that and it’s not just a minor majority, it is a huge gap. And who is using who’s not using? So when you get like, the newsletters from the million different newsletter outlets that give you prevention information, and 20% of 10th graders are drinking underage. That’s we definitely that’s what our field is. It’s preventing that. But let’s focus on the 80% that are not, why aren’t they, and can we start getting them messaging out to their peers?
[00:18:52] Jake White: That’s so important when we’re talking to different audiences to because, Robert, like you were saying is, what were we talking about the students who are making good decisions. And when we’re talking to students, that’s so important that we emphasize that. You’re in good company, if you’re making smart choices for your future, you are not alone. You’re in good company, keep it up. But what’s funny, and this is the part of the role that we have to learn when we’re working with different partners is the adults can think if they feel like they’re out of touch, or they don’t know what’s going on, or my kid would never use. You’ve got to give them the reality statistic. You’re like, “Here’s the reality of middle schoolers and high schoolers that are using and so what’s funny is there is that delicate balance, but you’re spot on when we’re talking with youth, and doing that health promotion”, that’s so crucial.
[00:19:50] Robert: That’s one of the things like I do a parent alert every month and just focused on different prevention topics or substances. It’s very simple. It goes to the parents subscribers. Anytime I’m talking about a substance and going through the dangers of it. So vaping, for example, why is it dangerous for you? I always put in there ‘X’ amount of kids in Ohio are vaping. But I always put in the end as the closing thing. Just remember, the majority are not using and here’s what you can do to help those that who are just trying to make tie both of them together to try to make people look at both sides.
“Youth Empowerment, Community Engagement, and Flexibility”
[00:20:29] Jake White: That’s good. I’m gonna pull that out for anybody listening, if you’re not driving, write that down, that if you’ve got that newsletter, you got that that resource that you’re putting out there is don’t leave out the positive, the hopeful, the call to action that that they’re in good company, and that way to help because that’s what I heard you say you’re giving them the information of the reality, but you’re also showing them the positives of who’s not using and making healthy choices, and then you’re giving them a resource or an action if they do need help. So, Robert, that’s good. The vital question is if you are talking to someone who is brand new in the field, and judging from your experience so far, what advice would you give someone out is brand new in drug prevention or in this field?
[00:21:23] Kristina: I would say just keep trying to make those community connections, look at all the different sectors of the community and just try to have at least one person from that sector at the table. Additionally, giving youth the power to plan events, plan initiatives and implement them. I think it’s been really helpful for our coalitions.
[00:21:53] Robert: I agree with her. Engage with all those sectors, more people at the table, the better. Youth are extremely important. I think that they make the biggest difference in the work that we do. Our coalition’s focus on youth substance use prevention. So what better people to prevent that than the youth themselves? And then also be flexible. I’m a year in and there’s already been looking at planning sheets from past events or that works better that worked last year. But this is going to work this year while then work this year. So what can we do different next year and constantly revisiting positives and negatives for everything that you do, because you’re gonna be able to learn something from each time that you go out there and do and you can make it more effective.
[00:22:37] Jake White: That is so good. Thank you both so much, Kristina and Robert, from “One Eighty”. Being on the show. This was awesome.
[00:22:44] Kristina: Thank you, Jake.
[00:22:45] Robert: Thanks.
[00:22:46] Jake White: For everyone watching, thank you for tuning in to another episode of Party Talk. I hope that you are empowered that you got maybe a few new ideas and little tweaks you can make within your coalition work or your job prevention work at the school. If you have any questions or ideas for future episodes, make sure to go to vive18.com, and write us there. And of course if you love this podcast, the way to say thank you is to subscribe and to send this up until to a friend. Talk to you next week.
