A Fresh Start in the New World

Happy New Year! May this year bring you more happiness, prosperity, and peace. Already, in the first weeks of the new year, we witness unmatched events that demonstrate how our lives are changing.  We can begin to identify new approaches and emerging opportunities to be bold in this new, complex, and complicated world. For the good of our young people and their futures, we are being asked to work in partnership to co-create a livable, non-violent world and tolerant for the benefit of our community, our country, and each other. 

The key Tomales Bay Youth Center (TBYC) projects are centered on youth, young adults, and families in coastal West Marin. These projects include 1) the adoption of the TBYC by a community-based organization; 2) engagement with key partnerships to network the home, schools, and community partners; and 3) a hosted youth and young adult platform to produce limited and strategic virtual and in-person access to resources and services.

Before winter break, West Marin Community Services (WMCS) and the Tomales Bay Youth Center agreed to work with the Center for Volunteer and Non-Profit Leadership (CVNL) to investigate the feasibility of WMCS producing a dedicated Youth and Young Adult Program through their agency. WMCS and TBYC selected CVNL's Consulting Services for its demonstrated history of providing expert guidance and professional resources to nonprofits across the North Bay. This agreement reflects CVNL's interest in working with clients in West Marin and communicates shared enthusiasm for elevating the needs of youth, young adults, and families. We are very grateful for the dedicated community partners who helped us get to this moment.

Since 2019, through the West Marin Collaborative, the TBYC has worked with Marin Promise Partnership on both the West Marin College and Career Completion Team and the Tomales High School Success Network. We value the partnership, expertise, and mission to provide coordinated guidance, resources, and support to our West Marin School Districts and community partners to collect data and develop strategies for success between our homes, schools, and West Marin communities. This work prioritizes the known vulnerabilities in our region and prepares stakeholders to develop protective factors and increase resiliency. 

Lastly, through grants from both West Marin Fund and Marin County Parks and Open Space, we continue to build the platform that allows us to coordinate with the West Marin Coalition for Healthy Youth, Marin County Health and Human Services, Marin Prevention Network, and other sector partners.

The next WMCHY event is on February 8, from 6:30-8 pm "Returning Together: Compassion, Conversation, and Tools for Families and our Community." As shelter-in-place restrictions begin to lift, we will all face yet another transition: reentry. If you are feeling uneasy about what lies ahead with reentry, while continuing to process the trauma from the last year, you’re not alone. The ever-shifting demands on families in this pandemic has led to stress, anxiety, and depression, for both adults and our youth. All of these feelings and intense realities, and now we are contemplating and preparing for not one transition but rather a series of transitions for families. This first session is focused on parents, providing space to process concerns, connect with others, and leaving with tools to support your children and family in the upcoming reentry transition. We will be led by Don and joined by Jasper Thelin from High School 1327 as well as other community leaders. Please join us, register here!

Additionally, we encourage you to make an appointment through our drop-in office hours to ask questions, get help, and check-in. We'd love to see you!

It has been 10 months since our in-person program closed. In the face of that truth, we have used the time to develop resources, strengthen capacity, and ensure sustainability. We are thankful to have had the opportunity to make a case for the interconnection, interdependence, and interdisciplinary opportunities between the home, school, and community. We see our collective, lived experience will keep our work relevant as we pass through the uncharted territory. We look forward to the moments when our paths cross.  

Madeline Nieto Hope
Director

Photo Credit: Marin County Fair 2019, Junior Origami Exhibit

Goal Setting and Vision Boards

A good way to prepare for the unknown is to set goals for yourself, your family, and with young people in your life. Unlike new years resolutions, goal setting can start by envisioning what you want in and for your life. It is not dependent on a new year to set your goals. At last week's Rotary Club of West Marin meeting, the club invited Jennifer Blair, a professional coach, and consultant to present on goal setting. We have attached a Dominican University Study which shows this formula as the most successful for setting goals: think, write, action steps, shared plans, accountability.

This year, one of the vision boards Rotary Club of West Marin will work on is a vision board for a dedicated space for youth and young adults in Tomales. We have begun the planning sessions and invite you to come to the table and join us. We invite you to create vision boards, set goals, and act on plans for yourself that support you, your family, and our community. Please contact Madeline at the TBYC  if you need art materials to do a vision board. 

Homework Help and Academic Resources: 10000 Degrees, Marin County Library, Kahn Academy, Live-Tutors, Mentors, Counselors, Coaches, and Advocates

It is challenging to see where to get help and targeted support in specific topic areas in such a vast geographic landscape. In West Marin, you are woven into a fabric with sector partners who have the expertise and talent to support you on your path. Together the community partners and adult allies can work with each student to understand what is needed. One place to be supported is in the TBYC Monday Zoom Room from 12-5 pm. We are committed to supporting you where you are and advocating for your needs. Please make an appointment today.  

I encourage every student to recommit to their academic goals. As a lifelong learner, student, creative, and administrative practitioner, I apply the "whatever it takes" approach. Whether you are a student enrolled with 10000 Degrees, attending Academic Wednesdays, going to the Marin County Library Live Tutor and Homework Help, or have an account with Kahn Academy, these are all good choices: proactive, adaptive, and flexible connections that will develop your independent learning skills and contribute to your own agency to access the lessons you will need in this lifetime.

We encourage you to reach out to family advocates, school counselors, Shoreline Mentors, library staff, and sports coaches to set up a meeting that connects you with a trusted adult who is not a parent or guardian, who can help you access the resources you need.  

Social Justice, Self Advocacy, and Non-Violent Communication

Here are a few tools for your life-skills toolbox. We invite you to cultivate curiosity, learn and practice with our principles that foster accountability, peace, and wellbeing in a divided world: social justice, self-advocacy, and non-violent communication. Leaning into these lessons will increase our capacity to increase awareness, develop shared values, and become a peace-keeper among our peers. These tools help all of us, adults, youth, and families, express feelings, communicate needs, express divergent points of view, be authentic, and repair relationships. More than ever, we want to listen without judgment, adapt for the greater good, and evolve by using evidence-based communication tools that keep us safe; elevate our needs, and foster the capacity to see and hear diverse perspectives.

Doing this weaving together, honestly, will build trust, bridges, and resiliency in a complicated and uncertain world. These tools are best approached as lifelong practices — a known, worthwhile investment of time and energy. There are games, daily exercises, and practical tools to access through the links shared. We hope our hybrid, virtual, and in-person TBYC program will allow us to practice these principles together. We hope for more peace and tolerance in 2021.

Portobello Mushroom Casserole

INGREDIENTS

*Note: slice the stems from the big mushrooms to reduce food waste!

PREPARATION

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Wash mushroom caps well and put them aside.
• Melt ½ stick butter in a large frying pan. Add onions, and sauté until clear. Add sliced mushrooms. Sauté until very well browned. Add celery, carrots, sauté for another 5-10 min.
• Add apples, raisins, almonds, stuffing mix, veg stock, and wine, stir well to mix, then set aside briefly, off heat.
• Microwave remaining butter in a small dish until melted, and use a teaspoon of it to grease a large baking dish (about 9 x 13).
• Put remaining butter aside. Spread dressing mixture in baking dish.
• Then, place mushroom caps with the stem side down on top of the dressing.
• Mix panko crumbs, parmesan, poultry seasoning, plus salt and pepper to taste in a large bowl – stir well. Use last of melted butter to brush onto mushroom caps.
• Drizzle remaining butter over the dish. Sprinkle the seasoned mixture of panko and parmesan liberally (thickly) to cover mushroom caps and dressing well.
• Bake until browned, about 45 – 50 minutes.

Recipe from the SF-Marin Food Bank.