WowTalk Café to give youth a place to be themselves
LAFAYETTE, Ind. − WowTalk Café, a Be Strong Families program, will soon be implemented at both the Lyn Treece adn Beck Lane Boys & Girls Clubs in Lafayette.
Be Strong Families, an organization that aims to make "transformative change by developing and sustaining conversations that nurture the spirit of family," according to its website, holds various Cafés with the goal of inciting small group conversations along with "healing within families... community (building), (and) peer-to-peer relationships (development)," also according to the website.
A Be Strong Families' Café, the "WowTalk Café," will soon be coming to the two Lafayette-based Boys & Girls Club locations.
According to Violet Worth and Taylor Bumgarner, a program intern and media specialist and programming representative, respectively, the WowTalk Cafés held at the centers will primarily focus on destigmatizing mental health and discussions around it, especially by focusing on the five "protective and promotive factors," as follows:
Youth resilience
Cognitive and social-emotional competence in youth
Concrete support in times of need
Social connections
Knowledge of adolescent development
"Each (café) session, we'll pick one or two (factors) to focus on," Worth said.
Bumgarner explained that each WowTalk Café session will follow an overall theme.
"So for example, (for) our first one, we're tying in Crumbl Cookies," Bumgarner said. "So it'll all be based on whatever we theme we pick. It could be Taylor Swift lyrics. And then we take time to talk as a whole group and then break off into like four per table, like a café table. And that's where the conversations really come in."
The conversations happening at these tables, Bumgarner explained, are meant to get the participants, teens ages 10-18, talking and opening up to each other while also learning how to be good listeners.
These sessions, which will happen once a month for the next two years at each Boys & Girls Club location, are free to participate in and are open to both members and non-members.
The first sessions will occur from 4-5:30 p.m. on Feb. 2 at the Lyn Treece location while Beck Lane's event will occur at the same time on Feb. 9. Currently these are the only known dates for the WowTalk Café meetings.
As part of talking about mental health, which may be uncomfortable to some participants, some of the goals for these café sessions include growing the teens' overall confidence.
"(One of the goals is) for them to know that they can open up and talk through any challenges that they're having," Bumgarner said, "and have a safe place for them to come and do that."
Worth also commented on the goals of this program.
"Alongside that too," Worth said, "(the sessions work towards) crushing the stigma of mental health too, because some people think you're not supposed to talk about it, you're supposed to keep it in, or you're only supposed to talk about it with a professional. But creating that safe community is allowing them to understand that there are other people that are experiencing similar things than (you may be) as well.
"And especially for younger people, it's much harder because you don't have all those developmental milestones under your belt yet. So learning that early can help them in the future."
Training
Leaders in this program, such as Worth and Bumgarner, went through the training for these cafés, provided by Be Safe Families, recently. Both discussed just how beneficial they found this training to be.
"The first day was a lot of specifics in the fundamentals," Worth said. "The second day, we were actually able to create our own café. It wasn't really even a mock-café. We actually all sat through it.
"...So we had to do full decorations, things like the protective and promotive factors, go through what a real, full session would look like. And I feel like if wouldn't have done that, it would've been a lot more confusing just reading it. Because you really have to be there...I don't think I would have been able to know it as well if we didn't (train)."
Bumgarner further said that the training overall was "very informative."
What to look forward to
Worth and Bumgarner each expressed what they're most looking forward to throughout the next two years of these monthly sessions.
"I think just giving the youth a place to come and be themselves (and) relax," Bumgarner said, "and enjoy themselves and, hopefully, seeing them opening up and talk would be my hope for it."
Worth's response followed.
"I think for me as a teenager which, was only a few years ago, I didn't have something like this," Worth said. "There were resources for sure but to have a place where my peers were also there for the same reason and you're there as equals (is important)…(It's) that safe space... I'm excited for them to be excited about it."
This program made possible
Barry Richard, executive director of the Lyn Treece Boys and Girls Club of Tippecanoe County, made note that this event was made possible due to the two-year grant provided by North Central Health Services and IU Health.
"We're just very thankful to North Central Health Services and IU Health for making this extra programming that we have not had previously available for the children in our community," Richard said.
Boys & Girls Club License plates
Richard closed out the meeting with The Journal & Courier by mentioning that specialty Boys & Girls Club license plates are now available to be purchased at the BMV.
"I was a D.A.R.E officer for Lafayette for 18 years," Richard said. "...and we had D.A.R.E license plates. So last year, our organization came up with the idea. Because Indiana's never had Boys & Girls Club license plates. So for the awareness and everything, we submitted...a proposal to the state to have Boys & Girls Club license plates. And they approved them and they actually can be purchased now through the BMV."
Richard stated that funding from the license plates go towards the Youth of the Year statewide program.
"The funding opportunity is going to be beneficial to all the Boys & Girls clubs throughout the state of Indiana."
Margaret Christopherson is a reporter for the Journal & Courier. Email her at mchristopherson@jconline.com and follow her on Twitter @MargaretJC2.
This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: New Boys & Girls Clubs program give teens a place to open up
