Courtney Smith & Kevin Felix bring “HOPE” to Detroit youth

Courtney Smith has constructed one thing outstanding in Detroit. As founder and CEO of the Detroit Phoenix Heart, she’s created greater than a nonprofit, she’s constructed a lifeline. Then we’ve Kevin Felix, a 19-year-old Youth Motion Board member who is aware of firsthand what it means when adults truly hear. Collectively, they’re navigating Youth HOPE Month with a easy however highly effective mission to offer younger individuals what they deserve, a protected place to name dwelling and the liberty to be children.

What’s the heartbeat behind the work you do on the Detroit Phoenix Heart?

Courtney Smith: The heartbeat behind the work that we do is the younger people who we associate with. They’re extremely resourceful, they’re resilient, they’ve overcome so many obstacles, however they’re not simply recipients of assist. They’re additionally brokers of change.

Kevin Felix: The younger leaders reminiscent of myself and my coworkers and shut pals like Tristan, Kassidy, Caylene and our Youth Motion Board president Bobbi, we’re all of the leaders and we’re strongly linked to the youth as a result of we’re youth. We all know what the youth goes by and the way it feels to be a child and a youngster and a younger grownup nowadays with the economic system, with everyone making an attempt to move off youth struggles. 

As both us being lazy or not figuring out issues. The heartbeat begins with us as a result of we present the world the youth will not be simply sitting again on their telephones or simply laid up on the sofa doing nothing. We are literally out right here making an attempt to make change and paving the way in which ahead.

For individuals who is likely to be listening to about Youth HOPE Month for the primary time, what does this month characterize and why is it vital?

Courtney Smith: Youth HOPE Month stands for Youth Homelessness Outreach Prevention and Schooling Month, and it’s a nationwide initiative led by the 1-800-Runaway Secure Line that mobilizes people from everywhere in the nation to make a distinction. Yearly we come collectively and we launch our personal marketing campaign to coincide with the nationwide efforts, which is Each Youth, Each Mile. It’s actually a marketing campaign to raise younger individuals’s voices, to return collectively to help younger individuals which may be experiencing housing insecurity or some other systemic boundaries. 

We’ve a slew of occasions that we maintain reminiscent of meals giveaways, hygiene merchandise, coats. We’re doing pop-ups in our metropolis to essentially meet the younger individuals simply the place they’re and to primarily present hope. We even have a billboard marketing campaign that we simply launched citywide that has the faces and the voices of our younger individuals on these billboards as a result of we would like individuals to see our younger individuals. We would like them to listen to their voices and we wish to elevate their brilliance, their lived experiences, as a result of they’re the heartbeat of Youth HOPE Month.

From your individual perspective as an adolescent, why is Youth HOPE Month such an enormous deal for younger individuals proper now?

Kevin Felix: From my perspective, it’s an enormous deal for younger individuals as a result of we get extra assets that we want. It brings consideration to us. Within the large rooms, in training boards and issues of these natures, it reveals extra help to us, not simply the teenagers, the little children too. After I was little round this time, there was occasions the place I didn’t have meals or simply wasn’t capable of get the assets that I wanted from college. 

Throughout this time it pushes the assets nearer, it makes it extra accessible for the youthful generations to have the ability to entry and get the assistance they want and present them that others like them and other people older than them are invested in what the youth wants and what the youth needs. It’s not simply making an attempt to pin an answer which may not assist the youth, it’d simply be for a publicity stunt. It’ll truly assist and profit them.

What are some points going through youth proper now? What wants hold developing?

Courtney Smith: I’d undoubtedly say one of many largest points that we’re going through is psychological well being. A whole lot of the younger individuals are actually pushed to the margins. It’s been a tough yr for thus many individuals, however notably for younger individuals who might not have the identical social help or the maturation degree to have the ability to navigate a few of the challenges that we’re experiencing on high of the pressures from college, the pressures from household life. However you set that on high of not having essentially the most primary wants, that may add further stressors. 

One other problem that I’m seeing with younger individuals is lots of them don’t really feel like adults are listening to them. That’s why the work that we do on the Detroit Phoenix Heart is so vital as a result of we would like younger individuals to know that they’re valued, that they’re protected, that we hear them. We don’t have a look at them simply as a pawn. We’re taking a look at them as somebody who’s worthy of help and never solely to obtain help however then to be ready to have a platform to additionally return and provides again to their neighborhood.

Kevin Felix: A number of challenges that youth face is a few of the youth need to develop up a bit too quickly. I’ve skilled this a couple of occasions. My cousins and pals and other people I do know have skilled this a couple of occasions the place we must primarily take over the position of wanting on the youthful siblings and that causes a psychological pressure on our thoughts as a result of it’d be like, oh effectively, my mother and father are out working and I acquired no cash. I gotta discover a solution to feed my youthful siblings or my youthful cousins or guarantee that I eat and get what I have to be my finest self the following day or simply to make it by the day on the whole.

Courtney Smith: We see that lots and we attempt to alleviate a few of these boundaries that these younger individuals face and a few of these stressors by assembly their most elementary wants. It’s one thing that may be a human proper to have the ability to present meals, to have the ability to present clothes, to offer hygiene kits, to create a protected area for younger individuals to attach with each other and be in neighborhood, to have a supportive grownup that they really feel that they’ll belief in order that they don’t have to hold a few of these challenges alone. That’s primarily what Youth HOPE Month is all about, offering hope to younger individuals and ensuring that they really feel that, they know that, they’re capable of embody that.

You lately launched YouthUp, taking assets on to younger individuals. What sparked this concept to go cell?

Courtney Smith: We’ve a 40-foot RV that goes across the neighborhood to take that stress off of creating younger individuals come to us for assets. We’re going on to them. The RV is supplied with a kitchenette, a bathe, a gaming space, meals, hygiene merchandise. It supplies linkages to different helps reminiscent of housing and psychological well being. What actually sparked that is through the pandemic, we took our companies cell and we noticed the impression that we had whereas we had been in neighborhood. 

As we had been popping out of the pandemic, making an attempt to determine how can we proceed to answer the felt wants in our neighborhood, we did surveys with our younger individuals, with our households, with our board and we requested does DPC want a bodily location or ought to we proceed this cell factor. It was unanimous. Everybody agreed that we have to go cell and that we would have liked a bodily location. We got here along with the younger individuals, the Youth Motion Board, and we labored with them to design what is understood at present as our YouthUp Cell. 

Younger individuals had perception at each step of the method, from what colours the unit was gonna be to the branding on it to what was within the unit. We’re considering we have to deal with offering these assets and the younger individuals are like, we would like gaming on the bus. It made sense. Not simply specializing in the speedy wants however pleasure. Younger individuals need to have pleasure too. The bus can also be a useful resource however it’s additionally a spot of pleasure. Once you have a look at it, it’s colourful, it’s brilliant.

Kevin Felix: Each time I’m with the YouthUp workforce, we exit to those colleges, exit to the occasions. The youngsters actually get pleasure from this bus as a result of they’re listening to what it’s actually for they usually’re capable of get on and expertise the gaming middle, the useful resource middle, the multipurpose room. They’re ready to enter the kitchenette and get non-perishable meals objects that they could want of their dwelling. They’re actually interacting with this bus the way in which it was made.

For individuals watching who wish to help youth in actual sensible methods, what does that help appear like?

Courtney Smith: It’s Youth HOPE Month and we’re amassing non-perishable meals objects. We’re doing a turkey giveaway for Thanksgiving. For Friendsgiving we’re making a gift of meals packing containers. We’ve a coat distribution developing. We’re accepting non-perishable meals objects. They’ll go to our web site at www.detroitphoenixcenter.org to study extra or they’ll e-mail us at [email protected] to donate. We’ve a marketing campaign on Give Butter the place people can contribute financially or they can provide in-kind contributions reminiscent of coats, hats, scarves, gloves, non-perishable meals objects, present playing cards as a result of we’re quickly distributing these objects to youth and households in want in our neighborhood.

What do you suppose younger individuals actually deserve past the assets?

Kevin Felix: We actually deserve simply the liberty to be children. I’m nonetheless 19. I’m nonetheless thought-about a child myself. I nonetheless contemplate myself a child generally. We nonetheless deserve that freedom as a result of I really feel like we shouldn’t be compelled into a task the place we’re not even able to tackle ourselves. Most of us are simply now popping out of highschool. 

The transition from highschool to varsity is hard already as it’s as a result of we gotta do FAFSA, we gotta be sure that we get the meals and the whole lot for our dorms and ensure we’ve the assets to remain on campus or log on if wanted. That takes up more often than not of us being a child as a result of whenever you’re transferring out of your mother and father’ dwelling it forces you to develop up at a sooner tempo than what you’ll truly like. 

You immediately have to begin eager about payments, cellphone payments, the way you gonna get to work. That takes a toll on individuals, particularly younger individuals. It actually does. It took a toll on me for a little bit of time as a result of I had simply graduated highschool and I used to be like, wow, I’m nearly completed. What do I wish to do after highschool? We nonetheless deserve that potential to really feel like we’re children, we haven’t aged out of sure issues.

Courtney Smith: We’ve a billboard and Kevin’s featured within the Each Youth, Each Mile billboard. Kevin, I would love so that you can share what your quote was once we requested you, what does each youth deserve?

Kevin Felix: After I was requested what my quote was for the billboard, I stated each youth deserves a spot to name dwelling. After I was requested that query I used to be considering there’s numerous children my age, even youthful than me, who I see outdoors underneath the overpasses, sleeping in entrance of the liquor shops, gasoline stations, malls, arcades, eating places they usually’re sitting out right here asking for assist, asking if any individual will help them discover a place to sleep for the night time or give them meals. 

That hit me as a result of I’m like, I might be in that place proper now if my mother wasn’t the way in which she was, if she wasn’t laborious working to guarantee that me and my siblings, my cousins, my complete household at this level, had a spot to sleep underneath, roofs to sleep underneath, garments on our again, meals on the desk. It’s bleeding as a result of I’m like, y’all are children. Y’all shouldn’t be outdoors sleeping within the chilly, sleeping within the warmth. 

Y’all shouldn’t be enduring this a lot trauma in your life at such a younger age and even in any respect. All of us deserve someplace to put our head and really feel protected. All of us deserve some place to really feel safe, a spot nobody can take away from you. It simply touched my soul as a result of I’m like, it may actually be me in that state of affairs.

Courtney Smith: Each younger particular person deserves a house and each younger particular person deserves to know they’re protected and that they’ve a neighborhood. That’s what we purpose to offer on the Detroit Phoenix Heart.

What’s subsequent for Youth HOPE Month?

Courtney Smith: We’ve Friendsgiving and we’ve a turkey giveaway after which we’ve some activations in December. Yr-round we offer housing, educational help. We’re a lifeline for younger individuals. These efforts that we’re doing are amplified throughout Youth HOPE Month. We turn into extra seen however we do that work each single day. We’ll proceed to guarantee that each younger particular person has a house, that each younger particular person feels protected, that each younger individual that we are available in contact with has these linkages to different helps. We’ll proceed to construct a bridge, proceed to plant a seed and to be a lifeline for younger individuals.