Episode 19: Huckleberry Youth Programs

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A transcript, lightly edited for clarity and length, follows.

Show Guests: Douglas Styles Director of Huckleberry Youth Programs

Voices of the Community Introduction: Welcome to voices of the community which explores critical issues facing Northern California communities. We introduce you to the voices of community thought leaders and change makers who are working on solutions that face our fellow individual community members neighborhoods cities and our region. This is George Koster your host. 

Series Introduction: This episode is part of our series exploring COVID-19’s impact on nonprofits and small businesses in San Francisco. We started the series back in April 2020 during the height of the first phase of the Covid 19 pandemic and the Shelter In Place requirements. Over these past nine months, the Covid-19 pandemic and economic meltdown have wiped out millions of jobs in both the nonprofit and small business sectors as well as shuttered tens of thousands of small business operations.

The goal of the series is to shine a spotlight on the nonprofits, small businesses, and their staff who are struggling to deal with the impact of the COVID 19 pandemic on their operations, services and sustainability. The series of interviews we conducted features voices from a cross-section of organizations that make up the fabric of our community.  Each of them brings a unique perspective on how they and we are dealing with the issues facing our community during the global pandemic and economic depression.

Show Guest Douglas: We've also learned that. Human connection cannot be replaced by video connection. The human touch cannot be replaced by remote. And so, we are hoping soon to get back to that stage where we can see people in a room. We can, hold somebody's hand. We can look somebody in the eye, hear their story and support them.

Episode Intro - Show Host George: In this episode, our featured voice is Doug Styles, the Executive Director of the Huckleberry Youth Programs. During the Summer of Love in 1967 Haight Ashbury San Francisco, Huckleberry Youth Programs became the first shelter for runaways in the nation. The program began as a joint effort with Glide Memorial Church and the legacy Haight Ashbury group the Diggers.

Over the last 53 years, their mission of helping free spirits survive in San Francisco has continued including the addition of an array of wrap-around support services such as their Crisis Shelter, Counseling Programs, Health Care Education, and Juvenile Justice Diversion programs.

Show Host George: I'm joined remotely via zoom by Douglas Styles, the Executive Director of Huckleberry Youth Programs. Thanks for being here, Douglas.

Show Guest Douglas: Thanks for having me.

George: I think it would be really helpful for the audience. If you could, share how COVID-19 has impacted the operations of Huckleberry Youth Programs, because you have a whole plethora of really wonderful programs for youth and families in our community?

Douglas: Yeah, well, it's affected us in so many profound ways, and ways that we didn't even expect, from the beginning. So, Huckleberry's flagship program, our crisis shelter, remained open, throughout the pandemic, and, was receiving young people and working with them. We took all the precautions that we needed to, to make sure that the youth coming in were safe, that we were safe, and the families were safe. So, we had to learn about PPE. We had to learn more about, the specifics of the virus and how can we make sure that people are safe as well as the rest of the job that we are already doing.

Many of our programs immediately, went, remote. And so, our, our counseling services, our, health education, most of our programs set up, through various types of platforms, ways in which we could continue to engage the community. We've learned a lot in the process in terms of what we can do remotely and what is actually maybe, you know, more effective remotely and what we are just missing that without being able to meet with people individually.

George: You guys have been at it for a really long time? I think what? Since 1968?

Douglas:  1967. Yes,

George: I was looking at that really great old, black and white, KQED piece on you guys with hippies and, you know, in Haight-Ashbury. what do you think over the decades has been one of the biggest, impacts on both the youth and families here in San Francisco?

Douglas: Well, Huckleberry really looks at it those youth who are slipping through the cracks in so many different services, where other organizations, or government programs have failed people, whether it's the education system, whether it's foster care system, whether it's, just people who, don't have severe enough challenges that they're raising to the eye of others.

Huckleberry stepped in over and over and over again in many different ways. We run a juvenile justice program where we work with youth who are at the point of arrest and we divert them from the juvenile justice system and provide them all kinds of supports, and find out that with supports with some case management, counseling, family work, engaging the back in the school process.

They tend to not get rearrested as opposed to going up to the hall and sitting there and going through that system. The chances are more likely they're going to continue to have challenges moving forward unless the underlying issues are addressed. So, a few years ago, we were asked by the City of San Francisco because we've been on the mayor's task force, that worked with, trafficking to focus on youth who are, potentially at risk of being trafficked or at risk of sexual exploitation.

And so, we picked up the program and sadly, it's grown over the years because the need is just continued to grow. So, we provide intensive services for youth who are at risk of being trafficked or sexually exploited, in San Francisco. And it's quite amazing to see that these are many of the youth who are left behind, but in, in some ways, there's similar youth that 50 years ago would have been coming to Huckleberry House.

So the kids that may be on the street or don't have a permanent place to live, and we really want to build on their resilience. We want to make sure that they feel empowered to take their lives back and engage in the community in a more positive way. 

And I would say through all of our programs, that's been, the focus is how do we get at some of the core problems and not just put a band aid on the issues that are surfacing, you know, why people are coming to us.

George: Thank you that was good. And, you want to talk a little bit about the health education component?

Douglas: Sure.  We've been running health education in San Francisco and Marin for several decades now, focusing on reproductive health and relationship issues and, during COVID, we had to shift to doing, all of this online and we've created a series of video formatted, education, to make sure that young people continue to be informed about reproductive health continue to be safe.  we're not just talking about COVID, we're talking about other, sexually transmitted infections and, issues and focusing on relationships, which is the key thing with all of this. It's key in terms of COVID as well.

It's about relationships and how can we make sure that people have healthy relationships? So that you can ask for what you need and make sure that you're safe. Um, not just physically, but also emotionally and in your relationship.

George: I thought what was really interesting was your project ready program. And then also, you know, now create a wellness Academy, which appears to be a great opportunity for first-generation youth to go to college, could you share a little bit about, how those have an impact on, and it's also, in San Francisco and Marin.

Douglas: So, we're in San Francisco and Marin. The Project Ready program is specific to San Francisco. And this came out of, many conversations with the school district and San Francisco and them coming to us and saying, we don't want to wait until someone's arrested before we provide support services to them.

And the biggest challenge that the school district in San Francisco is finding is those youth who are not engaged in eighth grade and getting them connected to ninth grade to high school. And so, we, started a pilot program a couple of years ago, and then we're able to seek out and receive some funding for, the next couple of years to work in a couple of the middle schools with, eighth graders who are transitioning to high school.

And these are the youth who are really struggling, who have challenges attending school, for various reasons, have, behavioral issues that have come up at school and just are not doing well. And we provide the intensive services, counseling case management. We have a tutor now on, site to really get them successful and launched into high school.

This has been very different, during COVID and shelter at home, the school districts as many people know or are going remote. And the youth that we work with are those youth who are really suffering and really having a challenging time being at school remotely. So, we've stepped up our services to support them.

And the other program you, talked about. Our college access program is in Marine County and works with first-generation students in high school to not just help them be successful in high school and not just help them apply to college, but we actually follow them through college and university to make sure that they're successful.

We know the research shows that. first-generation people who go to college, tend to drop out fairly rapidly, without extra supports. And so, we want to be there to make sure that they don't just get in, but they're actually successful in graduating.

George: Doug would you, share with the audience one of your favorite stories of working with the youth or a combination of youth and family or youth, family, and your staff all coming together?

Douglas: I would say the most profound thing that's happened to me since being at Huckleberry Youth Programs. And I've been there now a little over six years, is that, a couple times a year, sometimes even a couple of times in a month when I'm wearing the Huckleberry t-shirt or hat and I'm out in the community, I invariably get stopped by someone says, hey, Huckleberry saved my life. I was a young kid and struggling, or I was a kid and.

I had some questions about who I was going to be. I had some questions about, reflective, health. I had questions about my family relationships and Huckleberry was there for me when nobody else was over and over and over again. I hear stories of people who, some of them. In their forties and fifties, who are there a long time ago and really talk about huckleberry being a pivotal moment. And it mostly comes down to, there was an adult who actually listened to me. There was an adult who cared about what was happening to me and sometimes the first adult that I actually told some of these things to, and that being a pivotal moment for many, many people, it's really heartwarming to hear these stories again and again and again.

We're not a large organization, we serve six to seven thousand, young people annually. But over and over again, I can't tell you the number of times that, I keep bumping into people who had a positive experience and were truly impacted by, the agency.

George: And so how can people help, does Huckleberry have a special COVID-19, fund raising campaign going, or are there specific, programs or areas that you could use more help? And then of course, these days it's hard to remotely volunteer, but how can folks help virtually if they want to do that as well?

Douglas: I'll answer your last, the question first is that volunteering thing is, really challenging during COVID. And, we have set up a couple of projects, where a few volunteers have been able to help us, but this time it's, really been challenging, remotely. So, we're always struggling and trying to figure out a good way to do that. We do have a young professionals board that does have a couple of remote fundraiser events, they've done a yoga class and a couple other fun things, and people can participate in those. And if they like, they can donate and become a, what we call a friend of, of huckleberry over time.

And we do have our first virtual fundraiser, coming up on, November 12th at 6:00 PM. It's called Rise Up for Youth and Family Rights This is our first venture, fully into the virtual fundraising, which I know many other nonprofits are, trying to do now. We did have an annual fundraiser in May, which we had to cancel. And so, this is our attempt to get back on track with our fundraising, which is critical, especially during this time, to make sure that we can continue to do the work that we're doing.

And the last thing I'll say is people can go to our website, www huckleberry youth dot org. they can donate, they can tell their stories. If they have stories. We're always looking for great stories of people who came through our system at some time and learn more about the organization.

George: Doug, my final question, which I ask everybody in this series is, what are some of the good things that you think could come out of the situation, not only to support various mission, but social services, at large here in San Francisco?

Douglas: I would say that there's two things that come to mind that have really, been highlighted, I guess, during this time that if that have come to light and one is, there's a greater awareness of the cracks in our systems and where we've failed to set up really strong, supports for everybody in our community. And we've been able to see there's certain people that because of the color of their skin, because of the neighborhood they live in, just don't have the same resources as other people. And, highlighting that and shining a spotlight on that I think has been extremely helpful as long as we can continue to move forward and address those issues.

The second thing just for us as an organization is that we've been able to experiment with what are some things that we can do remotely and maybe efficiently, remotely. And so, I think when this is all over, our services are just going to be enhanced by a lot of the things that we've learned. And I think I said this a little earlier.

We've also learned that. Human connection cannot be replaced by video connection. The human touch cannot be replaced by remote. And so, we are hoping soon to get back to that stage where we can see people in a room. We can, hold somebody's hand. We can look somebody in the eye, hear their story and support them.

George: Thank you. It seems like it's a hard one, given that you operate a house as well and you know, you're hosting youth, so that's, the whole social distancing component of it also, has to be hard. So, thank you so much Doug for sharing Huckleberry, youth programs, work and services. We'll make sure that people who are watching and listening, we'll have all of your social media and websites, so people can follow your work and, please stay safe out there. And, appreciate everything that you guys do.

Douglas: Thank you. I really appreciate being here and sharing this time with you. Take care.

Episode Outro - Show Host George: That’s it for this episode of voices of the community. You have been listening to the voice of Doug Styles, the Executive Director of the Huckleberry Youth Programs.  In San Francisco's 2019 homeless residents count there were an estimated 8,000 people experiencing homelessness. Of the 8,000, 1,200 are Transitional Age Youth ages 18 to 24. One in ten people aged 12 to 25 will experience homelessness in a given year.

The City of San Francisco has set a goal to reduce homeless youth by as much as 50% by 2023. Half of the homeless people in San Francisco first experienced homelessness before the age of 25. Organizations like Huckleberry Youth Programs can help prevent chronic homelessness by helping youth to stabilize and thrive. To find out more about the Huckleberry Youth Programs and to participate in their first Virtual Fundraiser on November 12th at 6:00 pm go to huckle berry youth dot org.

Series Outro: We hope that you enjoy the insights, points of view, and personal stories from the voices of change-makers and their nonprofits and small businesses featured in this series. To find out more and get engaged with the nonprofits, small businesses and staff members, featured in this series please go to my web site george koster dot com and click on Voices of the Community to find links to the extended versions of these interviews and to listen to the entire series. After listening to these stories we hope that you will consider making a donation and volunteering to provide a hand up to your fellow community members.

Series Credits: I want to thank my associate producer Eric Estrada, along with Mel, Michael, and Lila at the San Francisco Public Press and KSFP. To listen to our next episode in this series and to our archived past shows which feature community voices working on solutions to critical issues facing Northern California communities, please go to george koster dot com. While you are on our website please consider making a donation to help us provide future shows just like this one. Please subscribe to Voices of the Community on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or where ever you get your podcasts. Follow us on twitter @georgekoster and please email us with feedback and show ideas at george@georgekoster.com. I'm George Koster in San Francisco and thank you for listening.

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