(Let's Talk About It from Page 1)
Barbara Silverman, a social worker by trade and the director of "Let's Talk About It," came to the Erasmus Clinic ten years ago. Erasmus is a high school of about 3,000 mostly Caribbean students located in an impoverished neighborhood of Brooklyn. At the time of Barbara's arrival, none of the young people at Erasmus came to see the social worker, because of the stigma associated with asking for help. Barbara and the young people have been successful in overcoming this stigma. Last year the program had 2,965 mental health visits. There are over one hundred young people who attend groups on their lunch hours. There are three peer counselors who were students in the program and have been trained by Barbara to lead groups and provide counseling. The peer counselors have traveled all over the country presenting at conferences on how the program works to change the lives of young people every day.
Erasmus is located in a neighborhood known for its high levels of AIDS, crime, violence and drug abuse. Young people in LTAI face serious and potentially life threatening situations on a daily basis. The youth often talk about how many of them will die or go to jail. Barbara Silverman says this makes it even more important for the young people to grow and develop emotionally, so that they can build their capacity to deal with the hard issues they face.
To do this, Barbara uses the young people's love of theatre, dance and music performance to teach them how to make new and potentially life-changing choices in their lives. The motto of the program is "If you can perform on the stage, you can perform in your life." Barbara points out to the young people that just because they live in a threatening environment does not mean they have to be victimized by it. It also does not mean they have to choose activities of living that create more violence and abuse. Barbara challenges the young people to make different "performance" choices so that they can have a positive impact on the very environment that causes many of the problems initially. She works with the young people to create new "performances," new "scripts," and new "plays" in every day life situations-- situations in which a different choice can have a serious life consequence.
For example, when the young people talk about being "dissed" or disrespected and their desire to lash out at the person being disrespectful, Barbara asks them what else is possible for them to "perform." They discuss and create new "performance" possibilities and practice these new "performances." Everyone works together on the performances as a group. The LTAI group is comparable to a mental health sports team. For instance, in team sports, building the team is one of the most valuable experiences a young person can have. LTAI members learn that they are stronger and more powerful when they support the group/team to grow. They learn that there are things for which to fight that are bigger than they are as individuals. The young people feel that the LTAI group is theirs; they "own" it. As one student says: "We consider this room in the school . . . our room. I had a fight with this girl and we came down here and worked it out. We did it for the sake of the group-- not because she wanted to be my friend or I wanted to be her friend. Because we valued this group more than we valued our stupid arguments."
Valuing the group, being committed to something larger than yourself and having ownership of something you have created helps students take responsibility for themselves and the choices they make. As peer counselor, Brannon Woodard says: "I never had to take responsibility before I came into LTAI . Everything that happened to me was always someone else's fault. If I failed in school it was the teacher's fault. If my home life was bad it was my mother's fault. But in LTAI if the group doesn't go well it's because we didn't put our best foot forward. That was the first time I felt I was responsible. Now I feel honored to help other young people."
Barbara has taken over 20 students, some of whom have never left their Brooklyn neighborhood to national conferences. LTAI has been the site for visitors throughout the world who join in conversation with the youth in the program and experience first hand the impact it has on the young people's development. Young people in LTAI have had dialogues with people from China , Taiwan , Amsterdam , Denmark , Russia , South Africa , Kenya , Canada , England and Bosnia.
For more information on LTAI, please contact Esther Farmer at estherfarmer@hotmail.com |
