A Welcome from Jake White, our host!
Hello everyone, welcome to Party Talk, where we empower leaders in youth drug prevention. Now I’m going to give you a little bit of a teaser, before we jump right into who this podcast is for. I started in drug prevention accidentally. I was in college, and I just wanted a place to make friends, have fun and feel good without using drugs or alcohol. So I started throwing these giant parties. I called them sober parties, and I wouldn’t serve any alcohol or drugs. Within a couple months, had hundreds of students coming to each of my parties. I was getting sponsored by big name brands like Chick fila, Pizza Hut, Red Bull, and people from across the nation were messaging me asking, “How do you do this? I want to have fun and make friends. But I don’t want to use drugs to do it. How did you actually pull this off?” And so my prevention journey began by helping students get involved in prevention, and helping them create peer led programs that make an impact on their friends, protecting their future and their friends at the same time.
So that’s why I’m passionate about this. And I’ll tell you a little bit more lately. And what I’m doing today, and why I wanted to start this podcast. But if you’re here, I want to tell you who this podcast is for, also who it’s not for, and what you can expect from each episode. Again, I’m going to talk about who I am and why I decided to do this. Then finally, if you decided to stick around up to that point, I’ll share how you can get the most from this podcast, so that you can make a better impact on young people in your community. So let’s dive right in.
Who is this The Party Talk Podcast for?
If you’re a school administrator, principal, vice principal superintendent, or maybe you’re a school counselor, if you’re a professional who works in AODA substance abuse prevention, coalitions.
Maybe you do social emotional learning, or SEL, in schools. Maybe you’re focused on building a positive school culture, or you work with the PBIS model, Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports, if you are a health teacher, school psychologist, social worker, if you’re in law enforcement, or maybe a school resource officer, an SRO. If you’re on the school board, if you’re a concerned parent, if you’re part of the PTA, or PTO in your community. If you work in Human Services Department in your county, or state, or maybe you’re in higher education, you’re with First Year Experience, orientation, student life, conduct, dean’s office, Greek life or athletics, or finally, just somebody who cares about young people. And you’re really passionate about keeping them safe from addiction. If I said, one of those things, and that fits your role professionally, or maybe a volunteer role, then you’re going to love this podcast.
Who this is NOT for…
Now, before I get too far into, what we’re doing on the podcast, there’s some people that are not going to like this podcast, and you’re not going to benefit from it, because we’re not a good fit. This podcast is not for everyone. So if you’re one of those people who says, you know what? Kids will be kids, they’re going to use drugs, and there’s nothing we can do about it. If people say, hey, that’s just a part of growing up. That’s what our culture does, we’re not going to change it. This podcast is not for you. If you think that prevention is just a box you check, so that you can get paid and move up the rank in your job and to say you did something this year. This podcast is not for you.
Party Talk IS for…
But if you have gone above and beyond, if you believe that students, they want to feel acceptance and belonging, they want structure and safety to thrive, and that we can find creative and innovative ways to help them get what they want out of life, but also keep them happy, healthy and safe. Then you might have actually been searching for things online, like how to talk to your kids about drugs, how to prevent drug use in your school? How to build a positive, safe school culture? You might have searched for things like drug prevention programs that work or ideas for Red Ribbon Week. If that’s been you, you are exactly where you need to be.
What is the Party Talk Podcast all about?
I’m not just going to interview experts who’ve written books and they speak all over. I will interview some of them. But I also want to interview people like you and me who are working with youth every single day – who are in the field. You’re talking with students, you’re finding out what they’re struggling with, what their challenges are? What’s working, what’s not working? What are people doing in schools, in homeless shelters, in group homes, in juvenile justice programs? What are you seeing? What’s good. What needs improvement? What can you pass along to your colleagues? What can you share that’s helpful?
What is Our Mission?
So the purpose of this is to really build community and help everybody in this field do better. Because the reality is, our competition. These companies that want to sell drugs, to our young people, they’re looking for lifetime customers. And they’re spending millions of dollars to try and make that happen. And it’s going to take either millions of dollars or millions of hours to combat that work. Newton taught us that an object in motion will stay in motion, unless its acted upon by equal and opposite force. So if these companies are pouring all these resources into getting our students to use drugs, and they’re employing some of the smartest minds, psychologists, advertisers, researchers, to convince our young people to use, it’s going to take an equal and opposite force to combat that. And that’s where you and I come in. What we are doing is saving lives.
History and Our Host
How Jake White accidentally stumble into prevention work?
Now, again, I got into this work by accident, but I have fell in love with prevention. It started in college, I lost my uncle to addiction, and had seen him growing up going into hospitals, in and out of jail, and eventually lose his life, to his relationship with alcohol and drugs. And I just thought, that’s not something I want to copy. I’m going to try and I’m going to live a life drug free. And it was just a decision for me, not for anybody else. But as I went through college, I found out how socially isolating that could be, it’s hard to make friends, it was hard to feel like I fit in. I often thought it would be easier if I just went with the culture. I just did what people expected me to do. But again, I had seen where that led. And so a couple years went by, and as outgoing as I am. I didn’t meet anybody who was like me, who said, “Jake, I don’t drink. I don’t smoke. You’re not alone.” I didn’t meet anybody like that. But I had read a statistic that actually said about one out of every three college students was just like me. They’re sober, they don’t drink, and they don’t smoke. They’re living drug free lives. And I thought, “That’s crazy. How could I have gone two years and not meet one of these people? I’ve met hundreds of people.” And then it hit me. Well, we don’t normalize and glamorize healthy behavior.
We normalize and glamorize drug use, because that’s where the money is made. So if I learned to be silent about my decision, and if those other people are out there, they’re probably looking for a place to go, a place to hang out, make friends, have fun, and build community to feel valued and included. They want the same things. And I want it too, so I can’t wait on someone else to create this environment for us that I’m desperately desiring, I’ve got to go ahead and do it. So long story short, I started throwing those parties I was telling you about earlier. And success quickly followed not because I’m talented, but because no one else was filling this need. And it was crazy to learn how everybody desires the same things. But they seemed like they only had one option, see if I want to be accepted and belong and to have fun. I go to these parties where people smoke and drink. It seemed like that was the only option. As soon as I started inviting people to “Option B”, where you could be yourself, not have to take anything, or risk your friends or your future.
But you can just come here and hang out, make friends, feel good, theres’s a lot of people who wanted that as well, like they would try that. And a lot of them liked it. And today I do speaking across the country, to middle schools, high schools, colleges, but I love doing the work of giving each audience a new perspective, or at least help them consider their choices, so that they’re fully informed choices. And so that’s why I do speaking engagements and presentations and assemblies. That’s why we have a drug prevention curriculum. That’s why we have a peer led programming, where we teach students to throw their own drug free events and basically show their peers you can have a good time and fit in. And so I thought would be a great way to get people together to learn from one another, to share strategies techniques, share what’s working and what’s not working, so that we can better do our jobs without repeating the same mistakes.
Make the most from the Party Talk Podcast!
I would say number one, subscribe to the podcast. Number two, pick a time on your calendar, your weekly calendar. And maybe just put a reminder, listen to the new episode each week. Because what I found is listening to that podcast in our field keeps us energized, it keeps us trying new things, it keeps us focused on doing our best and not just getting complacent on the way things were. And then say hello to each other. Get involved, we’re going to be starting different communities and ways that we can hang out with each other, and learn from one another, not just on the podcast, but we can connect online and in person. And then if there’s an episode where you’re like, “I really want to know more about this. Can you look into it? Can you interview this person?” Please tell me about that. Because we are the ones who are in the field doing the work. But I’m only experiencing my portion of it, you’re experiencing something new. So if you know somebody who would be a great guest on the podcast, or you think you’d be a great guest on the podcast, and have something, you’d want to share. Please let me know. We can absolutely do that.
You are incredible!
Finally, I just want to say thank you, I want to say thank you because I believe that you’re going to save lives. The work that you are doing today is saving lives. And in case no one told you thank you yet. Thank you! Our students want a great future. But because they have adults in their life, who are investing in them, who say I’m going to have a difficult conversation with you, but I care about you so much that I’m willing to put on programming for you. I’m willing to show up every day in your life. I’m willing to spend time, money, resources, energy and learning to help you make great decisions. You’re the one who’s on their side fighting for them. I just need to say it. Thank you, keep up the great work. And I’ll see you next week for our second episode of Party Talk, where we empower leaders in youth drug prevention.
