At 10 years old, Amir became the resident bee expert in his low-income neighborhood in Des Moines, Iowa. The fifth-grader could tell his friends and neighbors what bees do and how they pollinate and relate to sources of food. He worked alongside beekeepers and explained to people in the community why local hives should be left alone.
Amir was able to do all this because someone made a connection with him on his terms. Someone thought to ask him what his interests were and helped him develop them. Being an ambassador for bees contributed to his sense of self-worth, the feeling that he could make a difference. Creating connections like this is at the heart of what three Luther alumni are doing in the Des Moines area: helping wounded children get on their feet, learn to trust, and find a successful path in life.
Amy (Ostrander) Croll ’97 is cofounder and executive director of Community Youth Concepts, which brings service learning and career-based mentoring to kids in grades 4–12 across 19 schools. Gladys Noll Alvarez ’80 is the trauma informed care project coordinator at Child Guidance Center, the children’s mental health center branch of Orchard Place, which provides inpatient, outpatient, and community programs for more than 10,000 children. Alvarez specializes in trauma and works with children from newborn to age eight. Toby O’Berry ’97 is the director of Iowa Homeless Youth Centers, giving homeless youth ages 16 to 22 a safe and free place to live for up to two years while they pursue education and jobs. The centers work with about 500 youths a year.
Suzanne (Roverud) Mineck ’96, president and CEO of the Mid-Iowa Health Foundation, brought the group together for a Luther-sponsored Lunch Connection last February called “Giving Hope and Fostering Resilience.” Many of us are lucky to live in cities, like Des Moines, that rate highly as places to live and raise families, but Mineck says there are still thousands of children in Iowa alone who live in poverty and have no idea where they are going to get their next meal. Mid-Iowa Health helps support organizations like the ones at which Croll, Alvarez, and O’Berry work, and Mineck gets a firsthand look at how they build supportive connections to counter the adversity in children’s lives.
Lunch Connections happen several times a year in the Des Moines, Iowa, area and in Minneapolis. Join with other Luther alumni for a catered lunch and intriguing speakers. Visit the Alumni Office events calendar for upcoming events in the series.
Alvarez is a trauma informed care coordinator at Orchard Place. Knowing that a child has been through some kind of trauma, whether physical or mental, helps caregivers provide better care. And having a connection with someone who really cares about them is crucial for all children, Alvarez says: “We all need at least one person who cares whether we show up or not. Ideally that’s our family, but for some kids it’s not. It could be a neighbor, a Sunday school teacher, a coach, or just a kind person. If you are kind to someone, that releases the endorphins in their brain and helps them be more positive.”
Toby O’Berry, at Iowa Homeless Youth Centers, says he sees homeless teens and young adults whose experiences have caused them to lose trust in adults. They can’t make the connections they need to build stable lives. “It used to be that when those kids came in it was, Okay, we have to get you a job, how do we figure that out? But you can’t do that successfully until you treat the underlying issues,” O’Berry says. “You can’t even talk to them until they have the basics they need to survive. . . . When they have that food-and-shelter thing solved, then they really open up and start thinking about how to better themselves and start to trust.” The renewed ability to trust makes these teens more receptive to connections that can set them on paths to education, jobs, and continued stability.
Croll made a connection with bee expert Amir through Community Youth Concepts. She saw it as a way to help him develop confidence in himself. When he felt like he mattered, he developed responsibility. “We find when we engage youth and we come alongside them, we don’t experience the major behavioral issues,” she says. Rather than simply insisting a child do something or act a certain way, Croll and her staff seek out the child’s interests. “Let’s tap into what you’re interested in first, then it’s our job as facilitators and adults to build lessons around what the kids are interested in,” Croll says.
She attended a beekeeping class with Amir and brought beehives to the CYC offices—“not something I ever anticipated we would have,” she says. But because she paid attention to a little boy who had no one else to listen to him, he is now a valued expert in his neighborhood. He knows he matters, and that helps the whole community.