Happy Halloween! My personal favorite day of the year, but a holiday doesn’t mean a day off for us at AHO!
At our Youth Leadership meeting this week, some of our Team, who had missed meetings over the past few weeks, got caught up on the progress we’ve made on our Juvenile Hall (JH) project. We have been working hard on how we will introduce ourselves to the youth at JH. At today’s meeting, we got everyone’s valuable input on the final draft of our introduction. What we created can be shared quickly to keep the youth’s attention, and is worded in a way they can connect to. It was wonderful having everyone’s effort and experience in creating the entire introduction, and an excellent example of how AHO’s Youth Leadership Team works together as a community to embody AHO’s values.
On Thursday, October 31st Halloween Day, we met with Mikey La Monte, a recovery coach at Juvenile Hall (JH), over lunch at Blue Barn. James has known Mikey for 16 years, and he is our contact for getting the go-ahead for our presentations at JH. The meeting went very well as Zara, James, and I shared about AHO: who we are, what we do, and how we can help youth transition out of incarceration. Mikey is closely aligned with AHO’s values and approach to working with at-risk youth and was just as excited about our next steps together as we are.
For me, it was especially great hearing from Mickey, someone who has worked in the Juvenile Justice system for so long and knows the needs of the youth, while at the same time is very aware of the gaps in the system. It was a memorable meeting, and the start of a fantastic partnership.
I am so proud of all the hard work everyone has been putting into this JH project so we can help more youth in need. It feels amazing to have some of our hard work beginning to pay off. Although we are just getting started on our goal of supporting at-risk youth in Marin schools and JH, I am very excited about our progress so far.
Cheers to one step closer to at-risk youth getting the help they need,
Kayla