Thank you for coming to our 130 session. I'm so excited for you to see who we have for you today. We
have a group from Thriving Connections. Some of us affectionately call it TC. Thriving Connections is
an intentional community that is formed around the idea of eliminating poverty.
big feet, and we're going to get to hear about that today. Many of us know that poverty as a financial
condition creates a lot of stress, a lot of risk factors. And we're going to use today to highlight
some of the things that TC does to provide protective factors for their youth, to provide conditions
that develop their assets. And they're going to get to share a lot with you today. But before we get
started, I'd like to recognize, are there any
TC, former TC, or SCAP people in the audience. Hi, friends. Hi there. Glad you guys are here. Thanks
for coming. I'll give you a rundown of how we're going to use our time, and then I'm going to turn it
over to our moderator. We're going to have a few parts to our time. River's going to moderate some questions
to our youth that are here. And they'll answer from their perspective and their authentic experience.
And I'm so excited for you get to hear from youth.
at the Childhood Conditions Summit. And then we're going to take a break.
The panel can come off the stage, get a drink of water, take a little bit of break, and those of us
in the audience can use that time for some reflection and to see if we have any questions that we want
to ask them. Because then we'll wrap up our session with a Q&A. We'll pass the microphone around, or
if you'd rather, write your question down and give it to me or to Asia, who is going to be helping pass
the microphone. She's in the back in the blue sweater. We'll be passing microphones around or sharing
questions that you might have
for the youth. So let's get started. I'll pass it over to River for some introductions. Hello. I go
by River Washington. I've been a part of Thriving Connections off and on since I was 11. So that is
about, it'll be 17 years coming up soon here. I have been, I forgot everything I was gonna say.
I love that. So I've been a part of this off and on for a long time. I was part of the youth community
initially.
And then I transitioned into being our first second generation team lead within our community.
And from there, I kind of dipped in and out and became a volunteer youth coordinator, which is where
I got to meet many of our young members of our community. And I'm very glad to get to meet some of them
today. So let's go ahead and start with introductions.
My name is Daisy Rogers. I'm 18 years old. I'm a freshman at IU currently. Yeah. My name is Bella Jester.
I'm an eighth grader at Chinorth Middle School. I'm 13 years old, and I participate in sports
like volleyball, cheer, and track. Hello. My name is Matthew Woods. I am 13 years old, and I go to Jackson
Creek Middle School. Hi.
And I want to give a shout out to my mom for introducing me to TC and Mary for helping me find my talent
in poetry. Hi. My name is Evan Allen. And I'm 11 years old. And I go to Fairview Elementary. And I want
to give a shout out to Asia and my mom for Asia letting me do this and my mom pushing me to be able
to do this. All right. Let's go ahead and get started with our first question.
I remember how to read, I have a brain. I'm not nervous at all. So my first question, as they have rehearsed
more than I have, what is Thriving Connections? What's it like and what do you guys do there? Thriving
Connections is a community full of wonderful people who helped us push out of our shell
from being maybe nervous to talk to other people, from being scared to talk to people, and really pushing
ourselves to be able to communicate with each other nice and well? I think Thriving Connections, it's
a great community. It fosters personal and I guess communal growth and empowers the members to strive
for just financial
For me, just look at the name driving connections. Basically, it's a space where people from different
social and economic levels meet to create a community that fosters community and provides resources
to help people out of poverty.
For me, Thriving Connections is a place where they help you with educational stuff. And it's a place
where people come together and you have dinner. And after dinner, parents will have a meeting about
stuff. I don't really know what they have a meeting about. And the kids will go back to the back and
do something educational, like Matthew said, poetry.
As a former member of the youth community, I will say that when we started, it was kind of a Wild West
daycare where we ran amok. And eventually we transitioned into having what we call service learners
and having a structured program, which if you've ever taken children from recess to learning, you know
is like fighting the system itself. And so I'd like to ask if there's anything that our youth has learned
from our service workers, because they do a lot of good work with them.
If there's any takeaways you guys have had, any ways that they've mentored you guys and helped foster
stuff. I'd say the service learners really helped us transition from being more of the playing around
to being able to go from transitioning, like you said, from somewhat recess to learning time. We'd have
this huge part where we'd all talk. We'd have fun. We'd eat.
And then going to the learning rooms was really hard at first, but then later on it was easier. And
I like how there's different sections. The youth would be anywhere from three to 10 years old, I believe.
And they learn about more creative stuff. And we do stuff like poetry.
that will bring our minds off of stuff that we had from school earlier on in the day. And being able
to talk to people while we're doing this really helped build ourselves. For me, I think TC having service
learners is a great way to mix having fun and learning. Because we always do an activity that's somewhat
fun, but also has learning elements to everything.
service learners are like people that want to like that take a class from IU to be like teachers or
social workers or like therapists and they come to TC and they get to interact with us and they are
like okay so they are
We get to meet a bunch of different service learners. We're not just meeting the same service learners.
We get to meet a bunch of different people and meeting a bunch of different races and different people
and getting to know other stuff. Like religions and different type of religions, knowing not to judge
people based on how they are, how they look, how they think. We all kind of get together. And it's like
having one open mind to everyone.
everyone doesn't just have different thoughts, or everyone does have different thoughts, but no matter
what they are, we all kind of connect. It's like connecting dots. I think for me, for the past two years,
I have been older. So I think I've saw the service learners more as peers and mentors as well, going
through college applications and just thinking about college.
helped mentor me a lot. And yeah, with all of what they said, teaching people just to accept people
from different backgrounds and all. Got you. Doing my job for me, answering some of the questions I
have next.
Evan answered kind of what the service learners are. And Daisy has kind of touched on our next topic,
which is what are some ways that the service learners have, their mentorship has affected you guys?
Besides the, as Matt kind of pointed out, they've helped us learn empathy and not just tolerance,
but empathy. So basically service learners teach us different stuff. So like with acting, I've taken
on acting and every,
Every year closer to Christmas time we'll go to a play and sometimes there was one time a service learner
was in the play and that's really sparked my spark sparked my talent for acting or like horseback riding.
And branching off of what he said some of the service learners really helped me find out that
some of the poetry that I made when Mary did the big poem program for TC, it showed that some of the
poems I made didn't only connect to me, but connected to other people in the vicinity of when I told
my poems. For me personally, service learners have helped me.
have opened me up to different opportunities and different lifestyles and how I could be something different
from a firefighter or a doctor. And they have just really opened me up to different career options.
When I was applying for college and all, Indiana is not where I wanted to go at all.
But seeing all the service workers and just hearing about all the different opportunities at IU, it
definitely helped. And now I'm at IU, so I think I'm really grateful for them for that. I know we touched
on it a little bit. For some of you, is there any way that Thriving Connections has in itself cultivated
and nurtured and fostered a talent that
you either didn't know you had or an interest that you didn't know that you were interested in or helped
you further in something you liked. Basically what I'm doing right now, public speaking. When we did
the Black History Month presentation with the poster boards and sparked my talent for public speaking,
I'd say Thriving Connections really helped with also my public speaking, because I was a talkative person,
but it was more towards people that I knew, in which now I'm able to speak in front of crowds of people
that some I do know, some I don't. And it also helped because of the talent show in TC when I sang.
in front of everybody in TC, which also kind of helped open singing for me. Because I wouldn't really
sing outside of the people in my family. And another thing was poetry. And yeah. I think with all of
TC's different opportunities and just things, I guess, I
It definitely, I ran track all through middle school and high school. And it definitely helped foster
that. I don't know if there's like, I mean, yeah, it just, oh yeah. Well, for me, my mom has always
been an active member of TC. So seeing her leadership and how she kind of
ran the program, it really inspired me to be more of a leader towards the little kids and work into
my responsibility in leadership. Yeah, and also I want to mention that somebody else in this group,
Katie, really helped us learn to be a leader and also showed us that leading doesn't only take determination,
but it also takes perseverance because you have to
know when to, you know, whenever to lead and whenever to sit back and wait your turn? I want to thank
my mom because it helps because one of my talents is I like working. So my mom usually, how do I say
that? You can take your time.
Oh, like when we go to church together, I used to be scared to go up and speak. My mom would go up and
speak and sing sometimes. And that showed me that I don't have to be afraid to go up and speak and talk.
Because maybe not everybody is thinking about how bad you're going to do. They're probably thinking
about something else in their life.
or probably even thinking about the words instead of how you're doing. Are there any ways that Thriving
Connections as a community helped you build the skills to build a community outside of TC? Yeah, it's
helped me find new friends. It's helped me change my groups of people and how to shift from
not only being to where I change myself around a group of people, instead I'd stay myself and see how
that would work out, because in TC, no matter what service learner you're around, no matter what member
of, like all the members of the youth, if you're around them, you could stay yourself and be perfectly
fine. They wouldn't look at you differently, and yeah.
Like something that my mom does say, and a lot of people in this room say, is that changing
your surroundings. Like if you're hanging out with the wrong crowd of people, that could just change
your surrounding. Like TC has helped me find better, positive ways to introduce myself to new people.
like not just staying in one group all the time, going out and finding new people. So not being afraid
to meet new people and try new things. I think watching my mom build her little community inside of
TC, like with even Eliza and J'Kae being her best friends, I've watched all of them grow up basically.
And I think it's taught me just,
how to just connect with anybody and everybody. All right. The next question we have is, how has it
helped you break down barriers? It really helped me break down the barriers of being able to talk in
front of a crowd of people. It helped me break barriers on speaking my mind to people, speaking how
I felt after school, how I feel after
certain people say different stuff to me at school and it also helped me like break down barriers of
like I said singing from the talent show and also like show my talent and not be like scared to show
it because people may not like it. People may do like they may like it but it's like at TC they don't judge.
Like Matthew said, one TC tradition is the talent show. And I've always been naturally shy. And showing
my talents or my skills in that talent show have really helped me get out of my shell and broken down
that barrier for me. Well, breaking down barriers like opening up to people and not being afraid to like
Not keeping everything in and not just like being able to talk to someone instead of being like just
putting everything down and trying to handle it yourself, like talking to someone could help. And like
that's really helped with talking to people and like being able to talk, being able to talk, like being
able to talk and open up to people has helped with a lot of issues.
like opening up to different crowds of people say you didn't really fit in with the cool group of kids,
but you're like, say like during P.E., you're in a group with a few people that you may not know that's
a part of quote unquote the cool kids section, and being able to like open up to them to like talk to
them, not be like followers, and being able to like become like somebody of all natures like,
Breaking down the barrier for me is horseback riding. I was really, really scared to do it. And TC helped
me with being able to pay for it, number one. And number two, not being afraid to get close to a horse,
because they are really big. They're quite big.
So it sounds like what I'm hearing from you guys generally is it's helped you first and foremost get
into some of your interests, but also Thriving Connections has helped you foster Thriving Connections.
Forgive the pun, I wrote that down earlier. But I know Evan touched on it a little bit, and it's been
touched on a few times through some topics. Thriving Connections has some extracurricular funds that we use
who do certain things. You talked about the horseback riding and plays. Is there anything other than
those things that you guys have got to experience through this that you wouldn't have normally been
able to experience? Oh, running track in high school. I mean, with track, I never saw it as a sport
with tons of equipment or anything like basketball or football where you need to purchase everything.
But with even the extracurricular funds,
when I needed new spikes, that was a thing that helped because spikes, they carry very easily. And it
just helps, I guess, break the barriers of actually being able to wear the right running shoes to run
instead of not. Well, for me, I
participate in a lot of sports. And one sport in particular that the extracurricular fund has helped
me be able to do was cheer. And cheer's a lot. And there's a lot of supplies you need to be a cheerleader.
So things like palms and spandex and things like that, they can run up a lot of money. And
the TC extracurricular fund has broken that barrier for me.
Or like when I did horseback riding, the TC Extracurricular Fund helped me pay for that because horseback
riding is really fun, but it does take a lot of equipment. And like, what if I had fall down and got
hurt? That's also going to cost a lot. And the boots. Boots also.
does kind of round up to a lot of money. So the TC extracurricular fund helped me find something that
I was good at and I still like it to this day. The extracurricular funds helped us be able to go to
the YMCA, my whole family. And me going there really helped me step outside of the house more instead
of being on the couch playing video games all day.
I'd say that really helped. And it also helped my sister, Michaela. It helped her get into gymnastics,
which is something that she was really passionate about at the time. And yeah. I personally have experienced
through the funds, I had never been to a play before. And I actually got to go see Huckleberry Finn.
That's not the cartoon, if I remember correctly. And that was an amazing experience. I did want to kind
of switch from,
that to, sorry, I'm dyslexic, so give me a second. So we've talked a bit about poverty, so I feel like
we should kind of dive into that and the struggles that happened to come with that. Even as a young
person, you can experience stress because of poverty. Is there any particular experiences you guys feel
comfortable sharing about stresses that you've had to experience with growing up
dealing with poverty? I personally think growing up in poverty, I guess I would thank my mom-in-law
for this, but I don't really know if I really realized that I was in poverty until I was way older a
few years ago, basically. And I don't know.
It definitely feels different seeing other kids experience things that you can't. But I think it definitely
just helped create different opportunities and helped me build new experiences that are just different.
Poverty, sometimes you can't always think about being in poverty. It's a bad thing because it can help
you think as a different mindset. So help not being like,
Well, sometimes if you haven't experienced something, you would just want something to be handed to
you. Sometimes you have to work for stuff. And sometimes it can help you realize that sometimes you
don't have the stuff that you need, but you have to think about the bigger picture, and you know one
day you will get there. Yeah, and I'd say I didn't.
noticed that we were somewhat close to poverty, because my mom would like spoil us a lot. And I'd say
I didn't notice until like two years to last year. And I'd say, yeah, we did. I'd say, I'm really, shout
out to my mom, first of all, because she really did spoil us. We got a whole bunch of stuff. Every Christmas,
we'd get what we want. And yeah.
Well, for me personally, I have to thank my mom for this. But personally, I never really thought about
where I would get my next meal from because I always knew that my mom would provide for me. And so that's
never really been a stress for me. But maybe sometimes when I wanted something and I may not have the
resources for it,
kind of taught me resilience and how to problem solve. Yeah, you kind of like, everyone grows up normal.
And normal is just kind of like your starting place. So when you grow up a certain way, it's hard to
realize that you're technically different. Your normal is different than everybody else's different.
And so you kind of get into this situation where you don't realize you have less, per se.
less resources financially, and certain things just become like, that's Tuesday. My go-to saying is,
that's a Tuesday, dog. I don't, oh man, the bills are high, okay. But you learn different things. You
learn different skill sets. It's not always just about your financial security. You can be emotionally
impoverished or
I'm not gonna get political, but we know what I'm talking about. You can be emotionally impoverished,
you can be empathetically impoverished, and you can, some people don't know how to work hard. And you
come out of a situation where you've got all these resources, and suddenly, I've known people who, like,
they start school, and their parents start around, and they're like, I don't know how to function. I
drive in this town, and it makes me so mad when people don't know how to function. So is there anything
that you guys know
that you've learned through this sort of experience that you feel like has, in a weird way, made you
better off? I think resilience definitely. I mean, in high school, I guess that's when I first really
started noticing that people were all under different circumstances. And I would see friends or just
other, like my peers,
grouping up and like, oh, let's all go to Florida together. Let's all do this together. And I don't
know if I really noticed, but when I would be like, oh, mom, this, blah, blah, blah, she'd be like,
if it was important enough to me, I think my mom made it work, which was always great. But when sometimes
stuff didn't work out my way, I guess, I just
did other things and just learned to be resilient. So again, about working harder, sometimes you have
to run the extra mile when someone wants to stop. Sometimes you have to run the extra mile and work
harder than a lot of other people.
Because not having the money, you're not going to have some of those advantages. But it can also sometimes
teach you something about how to run the extra mile or work harder or thrive to get something. And I'd
say thriving connections really helped us thrive to find connections and being able to connect to different
people and not just the same group of people over and over again.
Well, I think being in poverty has really taught me independence, because I have naturally
been an independent kid because of my mom. And it has also taught me how important mindset is. And you
have to think glass half full, because thinking negatively won't change your situations. Nice.
stigmas you've experienced as growing up in poverty, and possibly what are some stigmas you have towards
people who aren't in the same sort of circumstances? So thinking back, I'd say during my elementary
years, now that I'm in middle school, I noticed that when I would be asking my friends if we could do
something, like go to birthday parties and stuff like that,
I guess I've changed now because I kind of seen that I was kind of a jerk. I would kind of bring it
to where, say somebody would be like, oh, I can't go because I have to do this, or I can't go because
my parents can't afford that. I guess I'd be like, oh, dang, they're just boring. But now I kind of
see their stand of view and see that not everybody has it. I think, personally, I have
I don't think I have any stigmas towards people in different financial situations than me. Growing up
in elementary, middle school, high school, I knew I was on free and reduced lunch. And I don't think
people really talked about being on it, but I definitely heard, oh, people will make fun of people.
Oh, you're poor. I mean, I didn't really.
I didn't really know what it all meant, I guess, but I also just didn't really talk about it. Nice.
I have to say with the free and reduced lunch, I always was like, I eat for free. You're the idiot.
Why are you paying? That said, what are your thoughts on people who have
more stable financial situation. I don't know if we've kind of gone over that enough or not. I feel
like people who have a more stable financial situation that sometimes that they can be less educated
about poverty and how it can affect people's mental and physical health. So I think everybody should
get more educated on poverty.
Sometimes when someone has a higher income than you, you would want to, sometimes when people think
they have a higher income than you, they just think they can buy their way through life. When really
it's about working hard and fighting through a lot of things. Even when things get tough, you have to
know how to fight through it. And I'd say,
Touching on what Bella said, some people may, like in higher financial statuses, may have gone through
poverty at least once or twice. But that's a maybe. Say like, if you were born outside of poverty, you
might have noticed and felt bad. But not all people are like that. So yeah.
I also agree with what Bella said. With the education and not understanding, I think being in a lower
financial situation definitely teaches you empathy. And I guess when you get older, you can start to
notice that other people don't think like that, I guess. And I mean, it's...
It's not anything negative towards them. I guess it's just how your experiences shape you and just build
things that some people don't have. It's almost like a first impression thing, because if you run into
somebody that was in a higher financial status and they were nicer to you and you were in poverty, you'd
have that good impression, like, oh, they actually care.
and they actually see what I'm going through. They may not know what it feels like, but they see what
we're going through. And if you run into somebody that's like, oh yeah, no, you're not cool because
you can't afford this and that, it's more like you have a bad impression against them and stuff.
All right. It looks like we're wrapping up on that one. Is there anything you would like the people
in this room to know about our community in general?
notes here on the phrase you are more than your circumstances. Did you guys wanna elaborate on that
concept? Yeah, so it depends on who you are as a person. If you're in poverty and you're more of like
the positive side of it and you're thinking highly, you're thinking about, like Evan said, the bigger
picture, you'd have more of like a positive vibe to you and to like everyone around you. But if you're
not really,
thinking positive about the situation you're in and thinking that, oh, I could get out of it someday.
Someday I'll do really good. And you don't have that mindset, then you may go downhill. It's almost
like a roller coaster. If you're on the ride, and say you're on the ride of poverty, when you get off,
you notice that maybe being in poverty, you had a lot more fun than you did outside of it because you
could connect to a whole bunch more people. Even outside of poverty, you were able to connect to the
people. And you may notice that, oh, wow, I kind of miss those times. But during the ride, you may not
like it. You may like it. It depends on the person you are. If you don't like roller coasters,
then yeah. I think that saying is definitely really impactful.
with everything you do, if you're just thinking that you're in poverty, I won't say it totally eliminates,
but it eliminates kind of room for just growth in other areas when that's all you think about. But also,
growing up, I think it makes me just kind of want to give back. As I'm older,
in my career. OK. For me, I want the people in this room to leave. Instead of the mindset that poverty
is just a line, I think that poverty is a spectrum. And some people on the spectrum can be more fortunate
than others. But I think that everybody should be more educated on poverty, because you can all
Always learn more about something. Nice. I have spent this whole time up here trying not to turn this
into church and say amen a lot, because they've made some really good topics, points. It's time kind
of now for questions, if we'd like. Or is it time for questions? Sorry. Don't pay attention. So I guess
we're going to take a break real quick. We're going to get ready for some questions, if any of you guys
have any questions after our break. All right. Thank you to the TCU.
Thank you guys. Oh my goodness, could a program be any more appropriately named than Thriving Connections?
We're going to take a 10 minute break for the youth to just get a drink of water and chill out a little
bit, get off the stage. And this will give us some time for some table talk amongst those that we're
sitting with to maybe talk about the highlights,
Did they say things that you expected? Did they say things that you didn't expect? What were
your impressions? So let's, for the next 10 minutes or so, just have some table talk. And then when
we get back together, we're going to have a Q&A. The kids will come back up on the stage. And we'll
have a chance for you to ask some questions directly to them.
So Asia and I'll walk the microphone around. And if anybody wants to take the mic and ask them a question,
we can do it that way. Or if you don't want to speak your question and you'd rather write it down, you
can pass it to me or to Asia, and we can do that.
Remember that they're 11 to 18 years old when you're asking the question, please. But man, the wisdom
that they've shared with us already has got me thinking about lots of things. So let's take 10 minutes
to think and reflect and share amongst our tables, and then we'll bring the kids back up. Thanks. Thank
you for that time and conversation. It was fun to walk around and hear what you guys were thinking about.
They've given us an example of how Thriving Connections provides protective factors and develops assets
in youth. You were likely thinking about ways your programs do that, too, or ways you can add elements
to the things that you influence to develop assets in the youth that you work with. Maybe you have some
questions about their experience or comments about
how they responded to some of the questions. So I'm going to come down and bring the microphone around.
Asia's got a microphone. And if you would rather have yours read, Leanne here can come grab them. And
Asia's got a few to read as well, I think. So you guys can, we'll have the mics out here so you guys
can pass them around as needed. So Asia, you want to get us started?
Is there a service or program or any programming that you haven't been provided that you think would
be beneficial? I'd say for me, that would be, I actually don't know. I think as an older kid in TC,
it was always like an effort to make
No, there's always an effort to make programs for the older, older kids of TC high school level.
And I mean, I think that would be great for the future high schoolers. I personally think nationwide
free health care would be great.
Hi there. No, I think you all did great. I really just have a question. I'm not as familiar with, or
I'm not familiar with Thriving Connection. So I'm just curious how the program works. How do people
become involved, and how do they, how often do you meet? And just all, basically the logistics of it
all. OK, so we meet every Thursday and, we meet every Thursday and,
I guess we start with the dinner, and then there's programming. I'm actually also not sure what the
adults do, but I know for the youth, they separate it by age range and just do academic and fun programming
to help the kids. Yeah, Asia, do you want to give any of the background from an organizational point
of view? Yes.
Thriving Connections is a program through SCAP, South Central Community Action Program. So you can find
our link through the SCAP link. Is it SCAP.org? InSCAP.org, I-N-S-C-C-A-P.org. That'll give you all
the information you need about Thriving Connections and all the other programs that SCAP provides for
the community.
I also want to add that it's mainly on Thursdays but sometimes we had like events that we would do on
like Saturdays Sundays and stuff like that like trunk or treat for Halloween. We'd go like sometimes
on Saturdays sometimes on Sundays and we also. So we also do back to school programs where we also do
back to school programs where we usually meet at.
we'll all get together and we'll go to like, and they'll have backpacks and stuff that we need for school
and that'll also help. And last time we had back to school, they had haircuts. So that helped a lot
and I appreciate it. I think we have a question here. This question is for
A couple of you guys shouted out your moms, and I don't know if they're here, but I just wanted to know
what motivated you all to get involved. Hi, I'm Evan's mom in the black. So for me, what motivated me
is actually just to change my life and come out of poverty and provide my children with the resources
and the things that they need to be successful and hopefully avoid
living in poverty as adults, building skills. And I'm not ashamed to say, when I first heard of Thriving
Connections, I was actually coming out of a domestic situation and living in The Rise and just around
found the positive ladies there. And they were like, hey, there's this group. We're going. And when
we first went there, it didn't seem real because everybody was very friendly and extremely friendly
and just like, we are here. This is no judgment. And you're like, mm.
Because when you're in poverty, you are thinking that people are always judging you. But as you go,
and you come, and you have dinner, and the kids are gone. First of all, as a parent, you're like, wait,
dinner, and the kids are gone after that? And we're like, woo, no kids, you know? But in that process,
you're like, learn. Like, they offer us, like, credit building classes, or like,
Just any different things that we need and we bring up and we're like, Hey, we're interested in this.
They foster that environment like they empower the parents, which in turn empower the kids. So that's
why it's like, it's a, it's a amazing pro. I'm so glad that I started my family and I have been a part
of it for eight years and I have
My life has did a 180. So I'm very thankful for it. It's just like having that village and that supportive
environment has helped me. So to see my son up here, I'm sitting in the front crying because it's showing
me that it has also empowered and helped him and changed his life. And I know that he will have a better
life and have more skills to do that because we went through this program. So.
I will say we would tell people when they come in, we're not a cult, but that would make us seem more
like a cult, so we don't do that. Do we have any other questions? I just want to say that I am just
so proud of all of you. I was involved as an ally with Thriving Connections for over a decade. And I
have seen these guys when they were really tiny. And I am just floored by how
articulate you are and how respectful you are of your parents and how able you are to talk about the
program. And for me personally, I mean, our, my husband and I were involved together and he came from
a place where his mom was not able to provide, you know, wasn't sure where the next meal was going to
come from.
And, you know, he is in a place where we now have adequate resources. And we really wanted to be together
with families. And it was so enriching for us. We came from the other side. And in Thriving Connections,
your question was, you know, how does it run? They pair families that are trying to work their way out
of poverty with individuals who have enough resources.
We're called allies and they are the team leaders. They are the captains of their own ship and make
their own direction. And it has just been so enriching for me to be involved. And I wish I was still
able to be there. I have family needs that I can't do that right now. But I am just floored by how articulate
and wonderful both the moms and
the kids. And I would encourage any of you who would like to, you know, serve as allies. It's a very
enriching experience. And also your church can be involved. The meals were often provided by teams of
people from various churches. And it really is so important
gathering around a table together enhances relationships, creates connection. And so if, you know, even
if you can't be involved on a weekly basis, you could get a team of people from your church or from
your community that can provide meals for the family. They come in and the family comes in and it is
so important just that time together, the family not having, the working mom not having to come in
do their own meals. So I just, you know, anyone who would like to be involved is just so wonderful.
So anyway. I do really want to say two things off of what Angela said. We are technically a secular
group, but we are very welcoming to any group that wants to help us. You don't bite the hand that feeds
for sure, especially if you're cooking. We love it. And as I stated during the intros that I am a second
generation team lead,
I wasn't going to get too into it, but I was the first second generation captain. And Angela's husband,
Gerhard, he was one of my direct allies on my ship. And it was really great because we share a sense
of humor, and more so than I've shown today. And he was fascinating because he is, I always like to
brag that I got to know the economics chair at IU because that's who he was.
and to learn more about where he came from because he was German was an incredible part of our program.
I got to learn more about his culture. I got to learn more about economics in general. I still don't
understand what a dollar is worth, but hey. And so it is an incredible program that really helps. And
if you can add anything and want to add anything to a program, you're more than welcome to come in
And at the very least, steal some dinner and have a conversation. We welcome everybody, at least for
dinner. So of course, come in if you'd like. Looks like Asia has another question. I have a question.
I would like to ask you all about the topic of reciprocity. What does reciprocity mean to you? How has
Thriving Connections impacted that? And just to please give some examples of some
reciprocity opportunities that you all have been involved in? I'd also love it if one of my daughters
would speak to that. I have a question. What does reciprocity mean? Oh, OK. Yeah, I can't remember my
ABDs, so somebody else take that one, please. Well, basically, driving connections, like a huge pillar
it is like we get notations and stuff like that and we like to give back. So I think once every year
we make blankets to give to the homeless shelter for the cold winter and so that people have something
to keep them warm throughout the winter. And also we bake cookies. We bake cookies once a year for the
service learners and like
people who are involved with DC, and we just like to give back to those who give to us. Well, branching
off of Bella, we do make blankets every year. And personally, for me, I definitely enjoy making cookies
for the service owners, just knowing that, yes, they've helped us, and also that we're saying goodbye
to them, but it's not always going to just be goodbye.
Because I also noticed that a few of the service learners that we haven't seen in a while had came back.
And one of them said that they're going to keep on coming back because they like seeing us all grow
and seeing our growth throughout the years of TC. And yeah. It kind of goes along with what Bella said.
Like all the different organizations that help us,
I don't really even think about it like that, but like when we, like we'll make toys for the pet shelter,
we'll make cookies for IU, like we just, I think it's really fun to give back. I think one of the things
that Thriving Connections teaches through its reciprocity is, well I guess not teaches, it sort of makes
instinctive the idea of gratitude. We're always very thankful
for those we have with us, for those who we have had with us, for those we've yet to meet. And I lost
my train of thought. But yes, gratitude is very important to us. We always talk about what we're grateful
for at the end of meetings. We always thank each other and talk about what's new and good in our lives.
And we try to stay in the moment. And that's an important part of our community.
So I, too, want to say I think all of you are awesome, and I see you as future leaders, whether you
stay in this community or go elsewhere. I am thinking, though, that we've heard family. We've definitely
heard family members, and we've heard thriving connections. But is there someone in the community that
you felt was a mentor or instrumental in your current path? I could say my big brother.
or I'm in the Big Brother Big Sister program and my big brother Desmond, I get to hang out with him
and I know I can talk to him about anything and everything and we have a really big connection and I
like being able to see him every month. I also seen one of my principals here and I'd say seeing her
in the hallway, always being like positive towards everybody, seeing how she greets people, kind of
really showed me to stay positive.
I think that's what we have for that question. Do we have another one ready? Yeah, so AJ asked about
reciprocity, giving back to people who've given to you, and I'm thinking of wondering about how you
will, I'm sure you will be, and maybe how you already have paid it forward to others that you may come
into contact with at school,
other people that you see, that you recognize are struggling and how that impacts you or how you might
demonstrate compassion. Yeah, so one of my friends at school, I'm not gonna name drop, he was telling
me how he was going through a really rough time and he had always been coming to school and he was always
trying to give me something.
and I ended up giving him this, I remember it was like this goody bag that I got from one of my teachers.
I ended up giving it to him, because he always tried to give me something throughout the day, and me
knowing that he was going through some hard stuff at home. And yeah. Me personally, I think the easiest
way to show reciprocity is through kindness.
kindness doesn't cost anything. So just being kind to everyone around you and those who give to you
always makes a difference because you never know how important that person is or how they will affect
your future. So you should always be kind to everybody you know. Yeah, with compassion, I think just
being in the community like this
It teaches you to be compassionate for people under all different circumstances. Even if you don't relate,
I feel like just like what Bella said, just giving them kindness, compassion, that just goes a long
way. And I think that coming from less fortunate situations,
It always teaches you to have compassion for people and to not be rude when you see somebody on the
street who's less fortunate than you. Because you should always remember where you came from and how
far you've got. Looks like we have another question over here.
OK, I have a specific question for Daisy, actually. So Daisy, you just graduated, and you're at IU now.
So what does your role look like in TC, since you're no longer really in the youth section, but you're
also not a parent yet? What does that look like for you? I mean, being in college now, it definitely
takes up a lot of my time.
When I can, I definitely will still go to TC and engage with the youth and with my mom. I just help
her think of stuff to do. Currently, I have not been as involved as I want to be yet. But just getting
settled into college and coming when I can, that's my start.
Coming from what you asked, Daisy, since my family isn't a current member of TC, my mom's actually running
the program now, I kind of am growing into that leadership role. And I come to TC every single week
to help my mom with little things, like getting the food prepared, getting the little kids in a certain
place, and just
really going into that leadership role since I grew up with my mom showing me how to be a leader and
stuff like that? I like volunteering at the events that TZ has. I don't know actually how recently it
was. It might have been like a month ago. But with the poverty simulation they just started doing last
year, I just help out when and where I can. And yeah.
I will also say that now that you're 18 and once you get a more stable placement in college, you are
more than welcome to come and join as a captain. Are there any parting thoughts? Asia, do you have anything
you want to add? I just want to say how proud I am of these babies.
I want you to know how much I've been sitting here crying because you all gave me the honor of teaching
you to write poetry last year, if you remember. And I'm just so blessed to hear you speak and who you
are becoming. So thank you so much, and thanks to you for your moms and for Thriving Connections. That's
all I have to say.
And I also want to thank you because you really did bring out one of my newest talents. And I have been
writing a lot of poetry because of you and because of the program that you did. So I really want to
thank you for whenever you came in and did the program. And I'm looking to see you again if you're up
to it. Asha, did you have anything to add before we wrap up? Just how proud I am of these babies. Can
we give these babies a round of applause?
I think this is most of their first time doing anything like this, sitting in front of a group of people
this large. And it speaks to the drive that TC instills in you. All these babies, all I had to say was,
hey, look, I want you to do this. And we lift them up.
so much of our community here today to support them because that's what TC does. It's been a huge part
of our lives and we're more like a family. I want to say that I recently, I previously was volunteering
with all of them and it's been about a year or so since I've done that and I didn't know you could learn
that many words in that amount of time. They've done really good, they've become really good
public speakers, and I just want to say as a closing statement that from someone who's gone from youth
to upper youth to a community member, it is, I'm very in and out because of circumstances, but I will
never forget this place. It has deeply impacted, I can tell not just me, but them as well, as well as
the parents. There are crying fests every Thursday night, it seems like.
This is a very important community to not just me, but all of us. So thank you for your time. And we
hope you guys have a wonderful day. Let's thank them again. Thank you, TC, River, Daisy, Bella, Evan,
and Matthew. Thank you to all of you who cared about this topic and cared to stay. For me,
Asking TC to come to this session was a way for us to see something that's working, a way that we can
build connection in our community. And so I'm really pleased that they were willing to put in the effort
to do that for us. Evan, you got something to add? I'm really glad to have this opportunity to do this,
because being able to do this will also be able to open up a lot of doors for all of us to be able to
do public speaking like this again.
I'm really excited to have the chance to be able to do this. I just want to say that if you came here
and if you guys aren't
involved with TC at the moment, I think that if you are in those more fortunate situations, or even
if you're in those disfortunate situations, that you should get yourself involved with TC, because Diving
Connections is really a great program, and has lifted me up, lifted my family up, and lifted everybody
on this stage up. And I also want to say thank you to everyone that did come here to listen to us speak,
give you guys some information about TUC and how they've impacted our lives. I think we have a few more
thoughts. Daisy or Evan, did you guys have something? I see microphones moving. Yeah, I mean, I think
I don't even remember when I first started coming to TUC. It was definitely near the time I moved to
Bloomington.
like eight, nine years ago, definitely. And it's just been a wonderful experience. And I just want to
thank everyone involved. And like what Bella said, encourage anyone to be involved. Good, good. You
get the last sentence, Evan. OK. I wanted to say, if you do choose to join TC, we'll be welcoming you
with open arms. Fantastic. Thank you.
Well, thank you for welcoming our TC friends into our session. Thanks to all of you. We love your feedback
to know what was useful to you or what you'd like to see and future opportunities to gather. So if you
want to leave a feedback form, we've got a box in the back. We have 15 minute break until our 3 o'clock
closing session. So if you have a chance to do the feedback form, you can leave it in the container
in the back. We have time for drinks.
and breaks, and we'll come back together at three.