Transcription of Julia Sleeper for the show Growing Goodwill #232
Lisa: Today, I have with me an individual that is doing some really interesting and innovative things in a part of Maine that I think seems to be a hotbed of new and innovative things these days. This is Julia Sleeper who is the Founder and Executive Director of the Tree Street Youth Center in Lewiston. She was born and raised in the Bangor area and initially moved to Lewiston-Auburn as an undergraduate at Bates College. During her time as a student, she began connecting to the downtown Lewiston community youth through service learning opportunities afforded to her as a psychology and education major. Over the past 10 years, she has continued to build on these relationships providing after-school programming for the at-risk youth living in the downtown Tree Street neighborhood. There’s so much more to your bio than just this but this is a start. It’s really great. Thanks so much for coming in and talking with me today.
Julia: Yeah, absolutely. Thank you for having me.
Lisa: You grew up in the Bangor Brewer area. You went to John Bapst. You went to Bates for college and you’re still there.
Julia: Yes. I never left.
Lisa: What was it about Lewiston that’s so true to you?
Julia: I think Lewiston is just an amazing city. There’s lots of emerging new things happening all the time. In particular, what kept me was the youth that I started working with initially as just service learning opportunities in the community volunteering, doing different things just to get to know kids, help them with their academics. After that, after a while, it really evolved as my passion and what I wanted to do. I was working with students who are just so powerful and you can’t get enough of their energy and their ambition. That’s what kept me.
Lisa: You also have a master’s degree in leadership and organizational studies through USM at the Lewiston-Auburn campus. How is that intersected with the work that you do?
Julia: When I decided to go for my master’s, I was looking for a program that could be pretty versatile. I wasn’t entirely sure of the direction. I always had this dream to create a youth space or a youth center in Lewiston mainly because of the kids that I was interacting with and seeing. I always said I just need a building. When I was actually finishing my master’s, writing my thesis at the same time was when I was starting Tree Street not 100% knowing that I was starting Tree Street. What was great about that program is a lot of it is about being innovative and being creative and tackling different challenges with different versatile leadership qualities and ways in which you can look at bigger issues but break them down to tangible ways to create impact in different ways as leaders or as within organizations, how you can do that. It meshed really nicely.
Lisa: Tell me about Tree Street. Give an overview of what this program looks like.
Julia: Tree Street is a very exciting place. It’s very, very busy. We serve about 120 to 150 kids a day through the center. We do after-school programming, summer programming primarily for the at-risk kids living around the surrounding neighborhood which is in downtown Lewiston or the Tree Street neighborhood. We do academic support, arts and cultural enrichment activities which could be anything from visual arts to performing arts, dance or extending to the athletics, karate and different stuff like that as well as cultivating leadership and future aspirations.
One of our big programs is our branches program which is a college prep program where we work with, in particular, seniors but also in cultivating higher education aspirations. We work with seniors literally from application to moving to whatever kids need in order to get to that next step after high school. Tree Street’s really just a very youth driven place. The kids tell us and help us shape the programming, how they like it and what they’re seeing as a greatest need for themselves. Then, we just create a space where they can evolve it. It’s a very, very busy place. It is pre-K through 12 so any school age kid is welcome to come literally from when they start school till they go off to college.
Lisa: What type of interaction do you have with the local school systems and the local government?
Julia: We’re literally located across the street from one of the six elementary schools. We’re across the street from Longley Elementary right in the heart of downtown. We actually do a lot of collaborative activities with the various schools. We serve kids from across the entire district. Some of our activities are providing additional supports in the morning like both within schools and also at the center, in particular, for kids that struggle with more social, emotional, behavioral things going on. We have a unique perspective that we work with kids. We can see them in school but then we also see them out of school and leveraging those relationships that we’re able to establish with them has really intersected nicely with some of our school partnerships at all the levels.
Lisa: What is it that education actually does for kids? I know this is a very basic question but I’m interested in what your ideas are about this.
Julia: I think that’s a great question. I think for what we see happening for any individual but in particular with our youth, education just literally gives them independence. It gives them a tool to define who and what they will become and how. For a lot of our students, they can’t get enough. They want to try everything. With about 65% of the youth that we serve being of the immigrant and refugee families of the city, a lot of it is novelty.
Education sometimes is not just the basic math and reading and those kind of things but it’s building social capitals. It’s having interactions. It’s exploring the world around you. For us and our Tree Street’s philosophy of that type of education where it can span across not just the traditional subjects but also the social skills and the opportunities to just try something and see something for the first time, those are the powerful doors that open up opportunity for any kid or any individual really.
Lisa: What has that been like to work with people of different ethnic and cultural backgrounds?
Julia: It’s very exciting all the time. There’s always something happening, always layers of complexity that are very, very rich and really fun. The dynamics of part of our mission is creating unity across lines of difference. We serve kids from across the spectrum basically of any background and different languages. We’re up to 14 languages in the building right now which is exciting. It’s really one of those powerful opportunities to have conversation that a lot of the times, different people struggle with having because it is complex and it is difficult at times.
We really push at Tree Street to not only have those conversations but give space for the kids to have those conversations with each other, to learn about one another and to do it in a safe place where we can help facilitate and encourage the learning and the education about one another in a healthy way and in a way that doesn’t feel risky or doesn’t feel like, “Oh, maybe I’m not supposed to answer or ask that kind of question.”
We really create a very open environment. That’s why we’ve been really successful at engaging so many kids is everyone brings something to the table. As long as you’re coming in and putting your best foot forward, we’ll love you on your rough days, we’ll love you on your best days. That’s the mentality that’s created a really fun, positive environment even amongst all of the levels of complexity that exist form working with so many kids from so many different backgrounds.
Lisa: It’s interesting to hear you talk about the necessity of openness because I think that one of the things that I struggle with as a parent and talking about things like people with different cultural backgrounds, different ethnic backgrounds is sometimes I’m not even sure what language I’m “allowed” to use. I’m not even sure sometimes that I even want to open my mouth because I don’t want to be misconstrued as having something negative to say but I don’t know what to say.
Julia: Absolutely. That’s something that at any point in time, any parent in the world, even if it’s not about this subject matter, it’s one of those unknowns. There’s so many complexities of society now and in particular, around racial and cultural or multicultural identities and things like that. With the dynamics of this general society right now where these are hot topics, they are very complex and they are very overwhelming at times, I think those are completely normal feelings for anyone to have.
I think it’s naming them like that, “You know what, I don’t actually know. That’s a great question. Let’s figure out the answer,” sort of thing, that’s what we see as one of the most powerful pieces of when you do work with kids and when they do pose those really complex questions that you’re very honest. If you don’t know, you seek to search the answer out in whatever way it may be possible. I think that’s actually arming them with a better toolkit where it’s okay to not know something because no one’s expected to know everything. It’s okay to go and see your own answers. It’s okay to ask questions as long as it’s coming from a place of respect and love and really caring about the other person.
Kids are actually really easy. The kids have way fewer questions than we as adults typically tend to have about these types of subject matters. That’s something that’s also really refreshing is to see the kids as they interact and grow up and develop where they don’t necessarily see the differences until they’re older. Then, they start to understand the complexities of society and history and how that all intersects. If they have a strong base of really knowing individuals as individuals and really getting to know their friends, it sets them on a good path where when they do start to learn those complexities, they can be honest about them versus fearing them.
Lisa: I spent time with Tae Chong who works here in Portland. You’re nodding so you must know Tae. I think everybody must know Tae. We wrote an article about him for Maine Magazine and he’s going to be speaking at the upcoming Maine Live in March. The way that he describes growing up in Portland as one of the … I think he said one of three people of color at the time and the other two were his brothers, there’s some sense of, that he’s had to allude through some really tough stuff, some conflict, some sadness. He’s got a really positive attitude and he’s really worked to effect change but you could tell that it actually impacted him in a really profound way. You have the opportunity to impact the children that you work with in an equally profound way. That’s a big responsibility.
Julia: Yeah. I think all of those things that you just articulated that Tae experienced, I think, are equally experienced for a lot of youth in general but in particular, youth of color especially in a place like Maine where it isn’t necessarily common to, if you’re a person of color, to have someone who looks like you in the predominant culture. It just is not realistic to think that way. When you grow up in that kind of environment, I think some of the things that he cited like those are a byproduct of it. You’re existing in a world that doesn’t exactly represent you.
I think one of the things that we strive to do, in particular, at Tree Street to help support kids through those complex processes is having a very multicultural staff. People of color represent the majority of our staff and the leadership which I think is very, very unique in organizations or in particular, in Maine, as well as just being again like no matter who you are, being open to having that dialogue and recognizing that depending on who you are and who your own identity is, you may not fully understand what is happening but that if something is a reality to one person, it’s their reality.
That kind of mentality helps regardless of who you are to be able to encourage all of the kids to … Everyone can identify with particular emotions. Everyone knows what it’s like to be sad or to be lonely, maybe not because of the same factors like Tae was giving as an example but if you can identify with those kind of human aspects of things, it allows for that conversation to flourish and for that child to feel supported even if you can’t necessarily fully identify with the reasons.
We really strive to have individuals working at the center who actually can because that takes it to a whole new level. Then, they can share how they grappled with that type of experience as well which is it’s meeting kids where they’re at and then just taking it from there, letting them lead and dictate what it is they need because a lot of the times, even adults sometimes, it’s just to vent. Sometimes, it’s just to … “I just need to say this,” sort of thing or, “This drama happened today. I don’t really need anything. I just want someone to know and have that shared feeling.”
Lisa: I must tell you that in talking with you, I’m struck by how much you remind me of my friend, Hanley Denning who founded Safe Passage before she passed away but this was an educational organization for children in Guatemala who lived outside the Guatemala City dump. One of the things that reminds me of Hanley is your enthusiasm, is your enthusiasm and your positivity but also, don’t take this the wrong way, your youth. You are a young woman who has just jumped in here and really taken the reins in your hands and said, “You know what, this is something I feel so strongly about. I’m going to do something about this.” Not everybody has that. Where did that come from for you?
Julia: I’m actually not 100% sure. I came into Bates wanting to be a bio major and was going to be a veterinarian. That didn’t work out justifiably so but no. I think I realized when I was figuring out my path, I think what I realized was the world is complex. It’s messed up. There’s lots of negativity out there and lots of things happening. As I was trying to figure out the direction through college and through all these different experiences, I tried to seek what gave me the most joy. I realized that it wasn’t even necessarily the kids themselves. It was seeing the kids or anyone for that matter doing something for the first time.
It was just this amazing thing that I realized every time I got to witness a kid write their name for the first time or say their ABCs and in particular, the first placement I ever had was at Lewiston Middle School in the seventh grade English language learning class. These kids were 12, 13, 14 years old coming in and they could not even spell their name yet at that age. It was their first time going to school. Everything was a novelty. It was as challenging as that was, it was also this amazing experience and beauty that you could see in just the enthusiasm around doing something for the first time.
I think when I began to realize that that was something that fed me was being able to witness those kind of things, I was able to formulate opportunities where I get to witness that every single day which in working with kids, it’s almost a guarantee especially a whole lot of kids and especially kids from all different backgrounds because every day, you see them working through something. Every day, you see them challenging themselves. Kids naturally do this. They’re not afraid of anything so they try everything which can be to the dismay of others sometimes but it’s one of those things where if you can be a part of that and you can help encourage that and then show them or give them opportunities that blow their minds a little bit and let them know anything that they choose to do, they can do but being also brutally honest.
I also really love honesty. I think a kid can become whatever they want to be but they need to actually know exactly what it’s going to take. I think that kind of combination of all of that just emerged throughout my life. I’ve been very lucky in growing up in Maine how much I’ve been blessed with and been able to experience. I could go from fishing on a lake with my dad to coming to Portland and navigating the downtown and Old Port and going to a place like Lewiston where it was so uniquely different from my experience growing up in Bangor Brewer area but at the same time, it’s Maine.
You’re very nice to people. Everyone’s very open. Everyone wants to, though we can sometimes be fearing change, the reality is people really care about one another. I think all of that’s been poured into me from between my family and all of my experiences and my education that I was able to get. All of that came from Maine. I think that’s a big part of my spirit and then also just seeing where there was a really great need as well was really, really powerful.
Lisa: What type of an impact do you think that the work you’re doing at Tree Street has on the families of these children and perhaps the community at large?
Julia: I think the impact is really significant. One, just the fact that kids have a safe place to be is really, really powerful but as we’ve cultivated the students, in particular with our branches program, the college prep piece, we’ve had 100% graduation rate from our seniors for the last two years running. Last year, we had our all-time high. We had 95% college acceptance out of our seniors. Last year was a group of 28 seniors. Those are the pieces that, the ripple effects out further beyond just that one child getting into college. Then, the next child is expected in the family to go or the bar set gets set a little bit. It also shows other kids in the community even if they’re not related that that’s possible and that you can overcome all these complexities and challenges and all of that.
It’s also very empowering. One of our other programs is what we call Students Leaders. They’re high school youth who we hire on. It’s often their first job. They work as mentors and role models to the little kids. They get paid a small stipend but it’s a big deal to become a street leader. The idea is that it’s a role, it’s not a job. What they do inside the program or outside the program needs to be modeling the behaviors. Giving kids that, it’s really just an engine or an opportunity to demonstrate what they already have in them as leadership skills but giving them that title, giving them that opportunity and that little pocket money is a really big deal. They can lead to really significant ripple effects where a lot of the pride in the community and a lot of any fears that may exist about diving in or trying something different goes away because you’re doing it together.
I think the impact we’re having is really positive and really great. We are a relatively young organization. This is just our fifth year. We’re very progressed in different areas, that we’re still like we’re a baby in other areas but that’s something that as the programming keeps evolving, we’ll keep being able to see those ripples continue out. Our first four-year college attendees are graduating this coming spring. That’s we’re starting to see how those choices of some of those young individuals then are going to start to come back into the community as young professionals now with their degrees and armed with lots of excitement and passion around the community.
Lisa: Julia, how can people find out about the Tree Street Youth Center?
Julia: We have a website. If people want to visit us there, it’s www.treestreetyouth.org. You can also stop in if you happen to be around. We’re at 144 Howe Street in Lewiston. You can call and set up a tour if you’d be interested in coming and checking out the center. Our number is 207-577-6386 or obviously, you can like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter, any of the social media outlets.
Lisa: It’s really been a pleasure to talk with you today and I thank you so much for the work that you’re doing in Lewiston. I know that it’s going to be very interesting to see and gratifying to see what happens with all of these kids as they continue to go up and continue their education and work in the community. We’ve been speaking with Julia Sleeper. She’s the Founder and Executive Director of the Tree Street Youth Center in Lewiston. Thanks so much for coming in today and the work you do.
Julia: Thank you for having me.