Introducing the Empowering Black Youth Program with Antwan

6:05PM Jul 14, 2023

Speakers:

Sue Watson

Marcel Harris

Robert Lee

Antwan Matthews

Keywords:

students

program

public health

community

black

youth

year

address

empowering

utilize

systems

skills

tenderloin

share

learning

voices

oftentimes

design

marcel

hbcu

Welcome to a special edition of People.Power.Perspectives. The podcast where we're talking to youth who are overcoming system inequities to achieve just outcomes.

Hi, and welcome to this episode of People.Power.Perspectives. I'm Sue Watson. And I'm Marcel Harris and where with CA4Health. We're collaborating with the Empowering Black Youth program on a special series of podcasts. So we're excited to have Antwan Matthews with us today. He's a Director of the Empowering Black Youth program at Code Tenderloin. And we're looking forward to talking with you today about the importance of the program overall and how it's designed to support the youth. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and a little bit more about the EBY program?

Yes, thank you for me on the call today. Initially, I am Antwan Matthews. Originally from Meridian, Mississippi, I graduated from Tougaloo College, a historically black college in biology. And then I moved out to the Bay Area. After doing the internship in population health, I decided to stay in the Bay Area to figure out how to use utilize my scientific approaches, seeming that I didn't necessarily want to be a doctor or working to laboratory, but trying to figure out how to use my scientific approach while working with the communities have a more of a psychological aspect of being able to work with the community directly. So building out social infrastructures that best serve our communities. With me being out here going on five years this summer, I have been trying to figure out where can my skills be used, working with Code Tenderloin and being a black lead organization, Code Tenderloin, and during the pandemic in 2020 I approached the CEO Donna Hillard trying to figure out ways to receive funding from San Francisco Department of Public Health. And it was an opportunity for ending the epidemic for people who do now and for people who don't know, End the Epidemic, is to end all STIs in San Francisco County and the Marin County by 2030. So we came up with a proposal, I designed it to initially build out their Empowering Black Youth program because there will be considered a social infrastructure. And when we're thinking about trying to address STIs, in the community going over and beyond thinking about just trying to get them tested or prevention education, but really thinking about programming that's going to allow direct engagement.

So throughout this process, I've been thinking about how can students gain qualitative and quantitative skill set that allows them to be marketable as they move forward with higher education. Also, we incentivize our students, so they do receive stipends after their workshops. So for example, this week is week that we're actually working with them and next week. So by next Friday, they'll get a paycheck. So we try to keep them on a regular schedule of getting paid and different opportunities. So addressing technological aspects, along with food insecurity, because we provide the students DoorDash cards to address financial barriers. So last year, we were working with 10 students and we incentivize them $8,000 for the 16 week STEM program, our intern I mean our fellows they recieve $10,000 apiece. We also provided them with iPads and keypads, and Apple Care. So when we're thinking about ways to address social determinants in the black community, I felt like building our infrastructure that allows internships and fellowships with direct engagement from black youth of all age ranges was the best fit. So the empowering black youth program allows this direct engagement to not only for the students to gain the skills and public health technology and multimedia content, but also address financial barriers. Also, address food insecurity also addressed technology assists ability was so when we're thinking about being intentional about programs, I wanted to create a system that allows direct engagement for black youth to utilize their skills and amplify their voices.

That's great, Antwan. I mean, it's a lot that you're building in. And I wonder, you know, when you think about some of the programming, what do you feel like the EBY program is providing that the current public health system is lacking, particularly when we talk about black youth?

Thank you. That's a great question. Initially when it comes to black youth in particular, I feel oftentimes they are left out the conversations they are written off to be not interested in dialogue, or they're not interested in trying to better themselves. And that's simply not true, as you know, is 107 HBCUs that constantly push out black liberation and all these different skill sets. So with me going to and graduating from Tougaloo College just being in a Mecca, like that of black students being becoming doctors, lawyers, engineers, entrepreneurs, consultants, all these different times that I was able to see all the time in a HBCU space is completely going against the narrative that you know, people say that we can't do, or what we shouldn't be able to do. So something that makes the empowering black youth program unique is a collective effort with all black voices.

So thinking about working with students, anywhere between 13 to 24, students can be in seventh grade or in college. So being able to have like their Big Brother, Big Sister mentor ship, being able to remind ourselves of our youthfulness. So having a 13 year old in the program, when one the students might be 21, or 22. Some of those students already been through some of those peer pressures, some of those doubts that that 13 year old might be going through, so being able to set that example. So when we're talking about community participatory research, that's kind of like the structure that I was aiming for, to be able to not only have a black led organization like Code Tenderloin lead the way but actually have intentional and substantial solutions for black youth to be able to define what they feel is best as we're doing this podcast, and the audience will hear from some of our members soon. That's in the empowering black youth program, being able to amplify the voices, either through podcasts through short films through design and public health toolkits that we previously have done and empowering black youth program and other cohort. But really showing them how skills that they can use on an everyday basis is something that's very marketable. And I think oftentimes in public health institutions, everyone's right, there is no room for error, everyone feels that they have the answer. And oftentimes, those answers are not facilitated by the community. And if it is usually just a workshop or some type of focus group, but how can we make those focus groups engaging? How can we make those focus groups or workshop trainings to be able to give the students something they can utilize to put on their resumes to be a little more competitive as they try to matriculate throughout these systems? I think oftentimes public health institutions, they receive the information and then you know, that's pretty much it so the institution get more money, but the community doesn't thinking about our funders.

We are funded by the San Francisco Department of Public Health. We're funded by the Dream Keeper Initiative. And for the audience members who don't know the dream keeper Initiative is a narrative that defuned the police in San Francisco. So last year, we received $125,000. This year, we received $215,000. With DPH, we received that $250,000 over a five year period, so $50,000 Every year, last year, we were funded by Gilead and the Miranda Lux Foundation, so diversifying your portfolio to get different funders, not only government and private, but public institutions and building our collaborations. So I think the entire black youth program touches on so much, not only from the students point of view, but from the internal logistics on how we make this program function.

Yeah, the lot that what you said in there, I was thinking I grew up in California. And so having some of that exposure and touch points to diversity, or black people in leadership positions wasn't always visible. But I also imagine, you know, when we say public health, not everybody knows what that means. I mean, honestly, those of us in public health, we know we don't have a great definition for what it is, I wonder, what are some of the key steps that you feel like you take in this program to connect the black youth to public health and remove some of those barriers in understanding what it is and how they might see themselves? Whether in that space or beyond?

Thank you for that question. I think it starts off with me being a black person, right? Me having the same experiences that they might go through regardless if we're from different places or different spaces. We still go through intergenerational trauma. We still are impacted by unjustified killings. We are still impacted by losing someone in our family if our sexual health status changed with HIV or herpes or more incurable diseases, you will have a certain type of impact. We know what it feels like. Even if we weren't the ones screaming, I can't breathe, we would know what that feels like if it was to happen to us. We know, even if this didn't happen to us with our ancestors related to enslaved people, we still know what that feels like, we still are affected by structural racism, we are still are marginalized, we still go through different times. So even though if you go to an Ivy League school at HBCU, one of the top universities in the world, you as a black person can still go through the same thing as somebody who had never been to Morehouse, somebody who had never been to the suburbs or stay in impoverished communities, we have some students that share some of the same perspectives going through racism microaggressions, when we think about like, all these different things in the community, starting off with, I'm also experiencing some of these things that our students are experiencing, allows them to kind of see. And this can be something that you know, on the next podcast when the students talking about it. But this allows the students to see we are in this together, it no matter what your class relation is, where you stay your zip code, we often go through similar experiences together.

Once we got that concrete core out the way, as I was stated earlier, I did graduate in biology. So I have a very in depth understanding of scientific mechanisms. I also studied at Brown University through the Tougaloo Brown Partnership, and that allowed me to study at Brown public health nonprofit management that allowed me to study Immunology that allowed at Tougaloo, I also was able to study microbiology, all these different like systems, then I came out here and I started studying population health. My first few years working, I was working there at the Glide Foundation in harm reduction. So when you have all these ideologies that one person can utilize, I tried to figure out how can I maximize what I learned what I spent time in school for these workplaces? How can I give this information to students for free? Because, you know, I had to pay to go to school, but the students, you know, per se, were able to kind of learn from this point of view, how can I get this information? How can we pay the student. So some of the connections were from experience, from also trying to utilize what I have learned in school to place that in the community while also addressing social determinants directly. I think those are some of the key ways that the Empowering Black Youth Program here at Code Tenderloin are trying to connect the dots for our students to understand public health at large.

Thanks for sharing that. I mean, I think it's so important when we we see different youth programs, we see different work out there. And as you said earlier, and Marcel and I both know that oftentimes we don't see an emphasis or a lot of black youth at the table, you recognizing that we have this connection of experiences, regardless of where we grew up, or what education we have, there are some foundational connections and being able to tap into that sounds like it is important for removing that barrier. I won't go on longer. I'm going to get Marcel in here. I think he has another question.

Awesome. Thank you Sue. Loving the conversation Antwan and as somebody who also has schooling in public health. I did my undergraduate degree at San Francisco State and I focused on community based public health. I'll be honest, I think us in the public health sector have a tendency at times to go into community and tell folks what they need without really working with the community to understand what are the needs, and how can we work together to address those. And so what are some strategies to really help promote voices from the black community and why is that important?

I think I'm gonna keep this to social development social infrastructures. So programs that are tailored to not only almost like workforce development programs. But what makes again the program unique. Not only are they learning this information they getting paid we actually paying them every two weeks. We are providing them with DoorDash cards, we are waiting on other grants to see if we going to buy them MacBooks. So as much as they give to us, I feel like we have to give them just as much because we can I think oftentimes try to design things for the data and then that's pretty much it. What I want our students to understand and Empowering Black Youth program, you are a part of the research you are the research you are developing these different systems. So year one and 2021, the students built out public health toolkits. They utilize like YouTube, Google Docs exhale, and they learned how to code and create their own things like word puzzles, brochures, word scrambles, these different things that they use on a daily basis, like what they found in that computer, how can you maximize some of your messaging, year two, we did short films development, so they were able to work as a collective and come up with community film research. So developing these short films this year, once again, we're doing a podcast that we have in the student voices. So with this multimedia content, even if they're learning about science, or if they're learning about public health, or if they are learning about hip hop in the revolution of black liberation, all these things can still be utilized in some type of art form. So I feel in and this is going to be something that the students will be able to discuss. Because you know, of course, me creating that I can be a little biased. But I think being able to design multimedia content, in multiple ways allows the students to be as creative also thinking about this is a black space, right? Even if the students are all black, or if they black and Latino, or Latinx, or if they're black and Vietnamese, or black and Korean or black and white, they still have a shared experience, because when society look at them, they see them as black, it doesn't matter if they are latinx, because if their skin color is more pigment, they will go into, that's what they identify. And so the students see themselves as black students, oftentimes as well, in black spaces, when black students are somewhere else, they have to defend their blackness, they have to tell the world like, this is the reason why I feel like that. But in the empowering black youth program, they don't have to defend themselves because they're in a space with a group of people who also go through similar experiences, who looked like them, who wear their hair, like them, who wear lotion, like they'll who might have some of the same like traditions that they family grew up on. So when we thinking about culture, and when we thinking about building out systems that best reflect you having a space where you don't have to defend or tell people the reason why you are offended, i think makes a world of difference.

Yeah, I really appreciate you sharing. And it sounds like you know, youth have a really great opportunity to learn a plethora of skills in, you know, that messaging piece alone is a critical point, a critical element within public health. And we don't always get it right, and how we share information, what needs to be shared, and really, you know, meeting community where they are. And so I would love if you could share a little bit more on how including community voices allows the work to really address the variety of social determinants of health. And you touched upon it a little bit, you know, we're providing funds, and I think that's addressing, you know, some of the economic inequality. And you also talked about food access. I'm wondering if there's other social determinants of health the work is addressing by including community voices.

Yes, some of our students when say if they need a career, Quincy, he went from an intern and he's now an employee at Code Tenderloin for technical support with the empowering black youth program. Then Chris, he is currently an employee at Code Tenderloin even though he started off as interns in different programs. Some of our previous students who are fellows that we'll hear from, some of them have been placed with career jobs, they reached out to me for recommendation letters for scholarships, etc. We help with some of their moving costs, right. So we addressing housing, we're addressing not only we try to get them out of those restaurant jobs, right, we try to get them placed to careers that they can make six figures, especially if they're growing up in the Bay Area, how can you maximize? So if you given a 13 year old $8,000? When that 13 year old finally get 23 they going be expecting that times ten. How do we give them the confidence to embody who they are? How do we add one of those aspects, you know, in the black community, we can say like we spoiling them, but I think black students deserve to be spoiled. They deserve to be fostered and have these different skills to maximize their point of views. So I think along with the social infrastructure that we're designing for them to get qualitative and quantitative training, we have those abilities to finance them. We have those abilities for food insecurity last year for the DoorDash we provided over $8,000 in DoorDash cards we provided over $15,000 wasn't technology accessibility, so the iPads, keypads, the Apple Care. So completely alleviating any stresses that they try to go through or probably going through that spmeting that we try to address. I know sometimes it feels like people can say that we don't, you know, systems like that can be doing too much. But for me, I think testing those boundaries, testing those limits is going to show us what we can do what we can't do. Within a two year frame, we almost at $600,000 as an operating program for the Empowering Black Youth. I'm not even talking about Code Tenderloin, this is just a Code Tenderloin program, if we're constantly maximizing, and over 50 to 60, sometimes 70% of the grant is going back into the community instead of like leadership pocket, what system what paradigms, what constructs can we change? So it's like trying to test that limit, the more that we give to the community, what more can they do? It's a you know, it's constantly growing and defining itself. But that's currently where my thoughts are with how we serve as a social infrastructure at Code Tenderloin for the Empowering Black Youth Program.

You know, that's amazing, that career development piece alone, you know, not every program even considers that. And so to offer that and to continue to bring more voices in, that's extremely powerful. And, you know, I know, I'm excited to hear from youth on these future episodes. But I'm wondering, you know, what are you excited about in the EBY program in this coming year?

Thank you. I'm excited about so many things. But initially, one of the things that I'm most excited about is this podcast development to see what it's going to look like how the audience is going to respond. And then secondly, we also have the empowering black youth fellowship, where it's five students that are engaged in the program over an 18 week period, they get together every Saturday from 10 to 2. So USF Echo community team is providing technical support for us to build out a research evaluation of the Empowering Black Youth program from last year. So our students, our youngest students, she's 16, but our oldest student is 20. So 16 to 20 years old are working on qualitative and quantitative research methods, they are evaluating their coding, they learned these different systems that people with PhDs receive. But not only are they learning it for free, we pay them to learn. So it's like they're developing and evaluating the program. And by the end of it, we're going to be submitted for publication. And by that time, we'll have five black students that's not even 21 yet to be scientific writers. So I'm very excited about that, because we are showing research, education and how evaluations and research can be developed within the black community with people who only high school students are first or second year into community college or their first year in college. So being able to show different systems what we can do as black people, we can develop our own narratives we have always develop our own narratives. But now we are utilizing a more of a research point of view, and I think that's something that's going to be very worthwhile, and I'm very excited to see what the publication is going to do for the Empowering Black Youth program as well.

Well, Antwan, it's been really great hearing more about the Empowering Black Youth Program and how important it is when setting up programs like this to really build in those participants supports that can positively impact their social infrastructure. We're excited to collaborate with EBY on this series of podcasts and really grateful that you took the time to share such valuable insights on your program. So thank you, and thank you all for listening to another episode from CA4Health People.Power.Perspectives Podcast.