“The Profound Impact of ‘See You Later’ and Saving Lives”

[0:00:03] Jake White: Welcome back. It’s part two of the episode with Marco Erikson from Idaho. And we are going to dive in more, we’re going to talk about some youth conferences, some strategic planning that keeps their leaders in the program. And honestly, just a bunch, we run the gamut on this episode. So I hope you enjoy this episode of Party Talk. So just to recap, so far we’ve talked, don’t do this alone, you need at least one other person with you. So it’s sustainable can live on. Another thing is, if you can find somebody who is a lobbyist or in that field to help you out that that’s a super great tool, let the students lead parent guided or adult guided student led. And then we’ve got some strategies around, I guess, I don’t know what I would put in that cap of what we just talked about, but that the numbers that you track could be as advanced as tracking the ROI. And that is going to be really important for the legislators who are funding you, because they want to see that their money’s being returned, in a way, or it’s saving the country money.

[0:01:14] Marco Erickson: You’re saying sustainability. And that’s really the key is we need data to prove it why we want to be sustainable, and I already get the funding, when you’re showing, and it’s creating a return on investment, you’re more likely to have a sustainable project, because you’re going to get funding sources that are gonna support your work in a bigger way. Donations from foundations, you pull the heartstrings, telling stories, we got stories, and I could tell you, this is something big. And we have on kids come to our program, and when they come in their families are like, feeling they have nothing else. And they’re suicidal, they’re actively been in hospitals, and we have not lost one kid yet. We’re very proud of that. We have a really good team of people who’ve spent a lot of time and we’ve got we were proud, I lost one child. In fact, we saved that a lot of them from having to go into the hospitals during their time with us. And that’s not what our goal and objective was. But because of what we create the environment, we’re having a side effect on kids not wanting to die by so in that whole concept we talked about to begin, see you later, I need you tomorrow. It works in and they don’t want to disappoint us, they want to be there tomorrow, they want to show up, they want to be a part. And that’s how I know I’m not going to lose the key. Because when I say, I’ll see you tomorrow. See you tomorrow, they’re not going to go home and die. So it’s pretty impressive with what could be done.

[0:02:49] Jake White: It’s so simple, yet so impactful, is just that little thing that you have embedded, and maybe it wasn’t you, but your organization, your team like is embedded into the image, the brand, whatever you want to call it, your mission. That simple, see you later and it’s profound effect. And I’m sure it’s accompanied by everything else that you’re doing as well to support these students. That is incredible, that they’re coming in with that high of crisis. And you’ve not lost one person. Praise God, that is such good work and we’re lucky to have you.

“Creating Inclusive and Connected Communities: The Role of a Connections Team in Youth Programs”

[0:03:26] Marco Erickson: I just want to tell you, you got to tell those stories, those narratives like that. And that’s just one we’ve got story after story as to sort of individual kids, and the impact that their parents will tell you the story. And I can tell those stories, whenever people ask about I love talking about this kid that has anxiety and they come in and this is very common. And they’re sitting in the corner, and they’re really shy, they don’t want to be and then when we you see that same kid six months later, they’re leading programs, and they’re on stage and they’re not afraid and they’re struggling at home with personal things that we don’t get to control, we can control the environment worry. We have to keep that up in our mind. Remember that always, I can’t control their home lives and I can’t take on their burden that I couldn’t control what I have that tight, and I can build that kid up and gamble most deals, it’s fun to watch. I love taking kids that were middle schoolers and caused a lot of trouble in middle school, back to their old schools and show their principles and their teachers, they look at them now and they’re amazing leaders. They’re changing the world. Isn’t that cool?

[0:04:03] Jake White: Wow. That’s so important to hear that you can’t change what happens at home. It’s out of your control, but you can you can contribute to what they experienced when they’re in your presence and how you pour into them. That’s such a good message because they sometimes they come into your care and it’s really messed up and it’s really scary and you can’t control it, but you can start there with them, be there with them, and help bring them along, build skills, speak into their life, tell them what they’re great at, help them practice different things that give them confidence and value and meaning and you’re seeing life change because of it.

[0:05:19] Marco Erickson: I share that message a lot, because I’ve had kids come in to my program for, you’ll sometimes ask, “What do your parents do for a job?” Like, that doesn’t work. But just paying bills, how’s that? Then shortly comes out through the discussion is the drug deal. And the title subtypes tell us, how do you know? And then we’re like, let’s have a conversation about how that’s affected you. And when you just had to build rapport relationships, that’s another big relationships in the community, and like the individual kids, is what the research always tells us, if they care about you, they know you care about them, they’re likely to perform in that way, in school academically, and in the way we want. And that’s really what we spend a lot of energy on is really, truly knowing who that person is, so that they don’t just look at you and go, “Oh, you don’t care about me. You got in on to solve problems with them, we focus first on knowing their value set who they are as a person when kids report that someone has bullied them, and they want me to intervene”. I’ll bring a kid in my office, and we’ll sit down and I’ll just get to know him. Can you tell me about this, and that’ll flip that bullying messaging to without having to say, I heard you do this. And then their internal plot thing starts ticking. And they go, “Oh, maybe I need to do that a little better at that.” And in overtime, we teach classes, and we pair it with other interventions, and they’re all kinder to each other too. So and that’s something we also emphasize our center is this inclusive atmosphere, we have a very diverse group of people, you can imagine we teens today, we have a girl locks in here and she’s wearing cat ears and stuff. And we treat them all it kindness, we put our personal beliefs aside and focus on the person and the individual. That’s how we get outcomes. Because human care and caring about human beings is universal, we can all do that. So there’s a lot of judgment out there. And they don’t need to have that when they’re in this space and that’s what we do. It’s to try to implement that philosophy. And then we have a whole team of teenagers who are dedicated to just that connection team. And their job is to make people feel included. We don’t ever let someone sit alone. And we make sure we find a way to engage them, or at least try to engage them. So if the first person didn’t work, third, second, fourth, fifth, everybody’s eventually talking to you. And you can’t help but engage with somebody.

[00:08:01] Jake White: Wow. So that’s really a cool idea. I love that. There’s a connections team. So their role is to make sure that people feel seen and heard when they come in maybe they’re new or sitting by themselves. Like maybe there’s six or seven students that are then decided I’m going to serve this role. So they’ll take turns going to sit with them or get to know them, probably introduce them to other people.

[00:08:27] Marco Erickson: They’ll invite them and engage them in activities to like, if they’re playing a game, they’ll say, “Come join us.” And if not, we might have one person sit with him. And they purposely do keen building exercises that are meant to get people, to move, to understand and build themselves to act together as a group. So when we did these leadership conferences, and after the Leadership Conference, we’ll have 80 new teenagers, all in our space all at once. And they’ve just done this crazy auditing week, and then some new kid come in, and feel like they’re all talking about it. And they’re kind of like on the outside and it feels weird at this experience. So they have to find ways to make sure they all feel included and connected even though there and then LSU, what’s next, and they’re looking forward to getting the opportunity to go to that conference the next year. So they don’t feel like they’re not a part of the group. But I’ve seen that happen many times because they’re so bonded, they’re a giant fat when you go at night and kids are all we just had this available being together again.

[00:09:37] Jake White: And that will stifle the growth of your group. If it feels like it’s just a click and it’s not open. So I love that idea. I hope people listening take that and use it in their community that you can build a connections team, because as you want to emphasize in your culture, the inclusivity and welcoming and new people, which has to happen to grow. So that’s just such a cool, practical way. Let’s put that as a leadership opportunity for a group of students. And I want to ask you about your leadership, you said camp or leadership conference, what does that look like?

[00:10:11] Marco Erickson: And we call it teens rising about peer pressure every day. And the teen center and all the things we do has been a great thing as a dad, my wife and I have five kids. And we’ve been able to, like my teens, my own kids have grown up in the preventive space and leadership. And they’ve gone to these events since they are two and three years old. In last summer, I got to have one, four of my kids are all involved. I couldn’t believe my 20 year old son, and my 14 year old, no, my 14 year old daughter, and the baby is turned, he turned nine, today’s his birthday surprise. He’s nine today. And we he’s the youngest. And he couldn’t go because he’s not teenager but having four of them. There was such a moment for me like, it’s second generation of people doing this work and they’re my kids. And they’ve been growing, and they’re so much more knowledgeable than I be. My 18 year old son has an experience of probably a bachelor’s degree right now, where I would have been when I was 23, 24 years old, with education because of all these types of vets. So what we do is we host them every year, and we’ll do a statewide one. Now it’s called Idaho drug for you in our local one fall trap, sober, teens rising, have a peer pressure every day. And we bring them together in a conference space. And now we just bombard them all week with lots of fun. We do ropes course themes. And we do a lot of prevention messages. So we make sure that there’s we bring in law enforcement we do. We’ve done probation simulations, we want them to experience the world of what it’s like, with choosing the choice, or healthy choice, or choosing this other option. And a lot of them, some of them have already made those decisions, and they have the opportunity to change their path, and they just get a lot of information that lets them see and see the flood enjoy living a healthy lifestyle. And so there’s not preaching, it’s really about educating, we try not to tell them, “Don’t do this, don’t do that.” We tell them, these are things that you can choose in life. Here’s the consequences natural and Adam induced by court said she did do illegal things. So we teach him all the laws. So that’s why law enforcement comes in we have really great marijuana paddles, talking about the national trends, and why we’re different in Idaho, Idaho, believe it or not, as one of the few states that still has no marijuana laws related to legalization. And there’s a lot of people that don’t like that. And argue with that and examine the legislature. I’ve dedicated to continue to block those efforts, because of the harm it does to the families and kids, that we’ve been very successful in Idaho, and our economy stronger because of that. And likely to talk for hours about those training camps mentality, they’re a great way to build your base. And every single year, the reason we do it annually, those kids graduate and move on or around 10th grade, they get jobs and their priority start to shift a little, some kids will stay with us through 6th grade or 12th grade. But most of them sixth grade through about reading, you’re constantly rebuilding your base on the back end and work to have a mixture of those teams of different ages, so that you’re letting them your new generation can come up. And those kids will say to me, I’m only in 6th grade, can I be a leader? Can I get on stage? Absolutely. We have this training, you got to do this. And then we asked you to do a few more trainings in our center, and then you’re ready for it. And they work towards that goal because they see those older kids. And that I want to be that fool.

[00:14:12] Jake White: Oh, that’s such an incredible model. And it serves its purpose of bringing new people in every single year. So you do that is the invite coming from like you’re inviting all the schools, as well as the teens who are coming into your center or your invites for that.

[00:14:28] Marco Erickson: We usually do it what a smart is strategically wait when was on a break for three or four days. So we’re not pulling kids out of school. That’s what we try to do, that we’ve been blessed to have the schools actually see the value in what we do. And so they’ll excuse kids from absences. Because it’s like having three days or four days. We end on Saturday. And we always bring in all the parents at the end. That’s another way you engage parents. You have their kids involved in a program. And at the end have a big show so that you could showcase what they did at the camp. The kids, the parents all show up. So I’ll have an audience of two other parents. , this is where I can spread my prevention message. And I can really take that to the wolves, I piggyback on to our events with my community things that I need to be and it’s really a great way but to school support. And if you do your vet when they’re out of school for those three or four days, and you plan ahead, schools make referrals, you could talk to them. So counselors will tell you which kids need it. We like to blend it with kids that need it. And also kids that are really super strong leaders. So then it just helps having a blend. And you can imagine why on we’ve had years where it was all just probation kids, and it works both ways. Either way, the program works. I like it’s a blind bit and have a mixture there. And they can see each other’s perspective. And, surprisingly, some of these kids who have never had trauma in their life, they’ll go to these events. And they’ll learn to appreciate their own families better, because they’ll see things they’ve never seen and that’s very useful for them. And they’ve told me that as well. So that’s always impressive side when you mix with kids who are really come from strong based families.

[00:16:19] Jake White: Wow. So we’ve got like five minutes do is just to kind of end things. Because you’ve such a wealth of knowledge. Let’s use those five minutes.

[00:16:29] Marco Erickson: What happens when you go to college plus years?

[00:16:33] Jake White: This is 30 years in the making this interview right here. Is there any other pieces of advice? Specifically, I want to ask about building that youth presence. And maybe it’s something on how to develop relationships with the schools, how to invite students to be a part of your group, effectively. Do you have any advice on that to finish off?

[00:16:59] Marco Erickson: Well, it goes back to what I said before, it’s you have relationships with people, you start with your base, the people that you have access to. And then you send the invites, and then they invite their friends, and they invite their friends, and the more people that are powered, you can do it all without any advertising, you just have to be willing to get out there. And if you can get connected with schools, that’s a really great space to be in. Our program, you know what we do our model work by just having a teacher and some advisors in a school, we just do the similar thing. The difference is that after school time, and that’s what we’re selling is that we have three hours or so with kids, we make sure we transport them to that’s taken some time to build, we had originally there were bus systems that would just bust get started. When we move buildings and buses didn’t go by us anymore, we made sure we got some vans and the ability to transport kids to school from school over to us if needed. And then also homes so that the parents didn’t have to worry about so that was a big deal in that space. Make sure, because transportation is a huge issue in our region. There’s not a lot of public transportation, so you have to get people to places.

[00:18:09] Jake White: That’s good. So it sounds like figuring out the logistics. That’s an issue that you have to overcome, because that could be a barrier for our student to attend and be a part of the program.

[00:18:20] Marco Erickson: We tried to remove all barriers. So they want to be here, we’re gonna make it happen by the ways.

[00:18:27] Jake White: That’s so good. And the other thing that you said was just, and I love what the way you said, it is, like you focus on the students or the contacts you have now let them spread the program. Because I think that’s so true. Oftentimes, you think I have to blast out this message to 1000s of people. But when you do that you like with that kind of quick, in personal message, it doesn’t really grab anybody.

[00:18:55] Marco Erickson: When all sent out to 1000 people and only 20 show up.

[00:19:02] Jake White: You’re like, “Why did I do this?” But if you can pour into some of your students or your relationships now. And they can get the idea that it creates this ripple effect where you’ve duplicated yourself. It’s not all on you anymore. And it helps with kind of going full circle to what you said at the beginning, is you want to have another partner, somebody in this together. So you’re creating partners by investing in them. They know you care, and then they can speak to the movement that you’re building, even when you’re not around. And so you’re going to spread faster.

[00:19:33] Marco Erickson: And you just say to the kids who else would like who else do you think and your circle of influence would be? It would like this. And what really is cool is what happens? I told you about how we train 80 or so kids at those that start and our big state 150 to 200 a year. Speak of how many each one of those kids go back home and impact and they have an influence circle. And they tell about these and then they work and they show Share the new information they have on substance abuse. So we can’t even imagine that. But we know this each one of those kids have been packed, two or three others are us made it grow bigger. And so that’s how a lot of our referrals come. Kids, their friends, and their teachers go out back to the student, and they’ll know some new students in the community just talks about.

[00:20:24] Jake White: Wow. Well, Marco, thank you so much for chatting with me about this. This was incredible. We covered the gamut of topics.

[00:20:32] Marco Erickson: You need anything else, feel free to reach out any time.

[00:20:35] Jake White: Thank you so much, Marco. I appreciate it.

[00:20:39] Marco Erickson: Have a great day.

[00:20:41] Jake White: All right. I’ll talk to you later. There you have it. That was just filled with value. I love talking with Marco. I hope you loved listening. So once again, if you appreciate this podcast, the way to say thank you is to leave us a review and to share with a friend. We will see you on the next episode of Party Talk coming up Monday.