Reflections on Kickoff Day
| By Kate Kusner, Community Outreach Manager |
Life is hard. Work is hard. Non-profit work with youth is especially hard. I have been working with Denver youth since 2001 when I started graduate school at the University of Denver to get my MSW. During my second year, I had an internship at Savio House, a program that serves adjudicated youth. It was my first real experience having “clients.”
Time went on and I have been lucky enough to work for several Denver non-profits that are interestingly connecting. This summer, I accepted my position as the Community Outreach Manager at Denver Urban Scholars. I have worked “around” DUS for over 10 years. Patrick Byrne and I worked together with one of our students (shout out, Zeenat Schultz!) who was both a Bridge Project participant and a Denver Urban Scholar. She is still one of my favorite young ladies and inspires me daily. So, when the opportunity arose for me to get more deeply involved with DUS, I jumped at it. I knew it would be hard. I knew there were some daunting tasks at hand; tasks including recruiting 50 new mentors between September and December of 2015. I jumped in with both feet.
I was instantly impressed with my co-workers. Their passion, commitment, drive, and genuine love of the students shone through in everything they were doing. It inspired me and made me want to go get those mentors! However, finding fantastic adults willing to commit to a year of spending 6-8 hours a month with their scholar proved challenging. We had a great fall “Kickoff” with 20 mentors and students. Needless to say, there was still a lot of work to be done to get all of our students matched.
I often felt frustrated and that I just simply could not do enough to find the mentors for our students. I spent hours at volunteer fairs, attending lunch and learns at companies, placing ads online, and talking to anyone who would listen. As we prepared for our February kickoff, I was given the numbers. We had 21 newly enrolled students who needed mentors. At that meeting, I had 9 ready to go. To say I felt like I failed the team would be an understatement. But then, things started happening! Applications started coming in, friends who interviewed would email me later that day with the information for another friend who wanted to get involved. By February 5th, 21 mentors had been interviewed, background checked, and trained! Some of those mentors had interviewed back in October and stayed in touch waiting for our match day.
These Kickoff days are always met with equal amounts of excitement and anxiety. We are all prepared for a long day, 8-5 (at least) for staff. There is a ton of logistical information that needs to be figured out amongst our small staff. This includes planning an agenda, assigning staff to roles/rooms, confirming students and inviting some students last minute, picking up students the morning of, confirming attendance, making sure the mentors have their paperwork in and have RSVP’d, buying/picking up food for the event (breakfast and lunch for 50 people), printing name tags and sign in sheets, setting up the room, greeting attendees, and more. And that all happens before 9am! Then, after the event is over, driving students home, cleaning, resetting the conference rooms, taking out trash/recycling, collecting name tags, and debriefs.
This past Saturday was my 2nd Kickoff event since coming on staff. I was excited, but I always fear that people won’t show. As usual, all of the new mentors were there. To start off the day, students and mentors head into separate rooms where they receive training. During this time, the “production staff” is cleaning up breakfast and preparing to serve lunch. Lunch, at around noon, marks the first time students and mentors will interact. We strategically spread the mentors amongst the tables to ensure the students don’t all clump together!
This is where the magic starts. It is amazing to watch the students and mentors begin to talk and share. They are ALL nervous. But soon enough, there are smiles and laughs. When it is time to wrap up, they don’t want to stop.
In the afternoon, the mentors and students remain together doing a variety of activities, games, and training. We push everyone to engage with a new person for each activity so they do not pick one person they like and spend the whole day with them. We want both the students and the mentors to engage with as many people as possible and at the end of the day, we hope that all involved feel they could be matched with anyone in the room and it would be great.
Once the day is done, staff is beat! While I love the event, I am so tired that I just want to go home and relax. Last Saturday’s event sparked some real introspection for me. I felt grateful. I was tired, I had to make dinner for my kids, and I had laundry to do. But I was grateful. Reflecting on the day, I was rewarded and fulfilled that all the work had paid off. Students and mentors had opened up, shared very personal information, and were truly vulnerable. I always learn about myself in these trainings as well.
I began thinking about the relationships that were about to begin between the scholars and the mentors. The promises, the commitments, the hopes. It was inspiring. These are the students in OUR community. These are the students that are Denver’s future. As I put my kids to bed that night and they asked why I had to work so much, I thought before I answered. I told them that I don’t “have” to do my work, I choose to do it because I love it. I told them about the students and the mentors (my kids are only 6 years old so it’s interesting to explain). I explained that not all kids have grown ups who can help them in school, tell them they’re doing a great job, give advice, and just care. We talked about all the people who care about them and how we all do different things to show this. I was proud to share how what I am doing is making a difference. If you ask them what I do for work they will tell you that “Mommy is a social worker, she helps people, and she raises money to help people.” I made sure they knew how much I love them and how lucky I am to be their mom. Balancing kids and work is a challenge, but is made slightly easier by truly feeling like the work I am doing, the times I am away from my kids, I am doing something to try to make this world a little better. I do not have to wrack my brain about why my job is important. My kids are proud to have a mommy who helps people, I am proud to be a social worker and work for an incredible non-profit that truly cares about the students we work with. I went to sleep smiling.
The story doesn’t end there. The very next day, I was on Facebook (I know, I know) and I got a private message. The message was from a student I worked with while I was getting my master’s degree 11 years ago. I recognized his name instantly as he timidly asked if this was Kate. I was thrilled to hear from him, he was my first true client. He was the first youth I worked with one-on-one and with his family. It was not easy, there were bumps, and I was definitely over-emotionally invested by social work standards. You know what? When he asked if he could call me with his mom, I did not care about the fact that I was “over attached” to this family. I spoke to them, there were tears. They remembered that I had cared, and really taken time to hear them. They told me how they think of me often and what an amazing influence I was. Things were not smooth sailing, there were mistakes, but what mattered most was that I was there, no matter what. WOW. In a way, I did mentor this student (who is now 27!). We are now connected and he still asks for advice about how to handle certain issues, like the last 11 years flew out the window.
My job is not always easy. It is often frustrating. However, it is ALWAYS worth it when I see that magic that happens when students connect with an adult who truly cares about them and see the glimmer of their potential future in their eyes.