Keeping the Door Open: An Interview with Community Leaders

By De Nishia Yearby, October 8, 2008

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Family Focus has been serving Illinois communities for over 30 years. What's the secret to their success?

It's hard to imagine Leslie Daniel as a shy teenager. But the bright, self-possessed 27-year-old woman says she would not be who she is if she hadn't had a place like the Family Focus Center to guide her through tough times. The Evanston, Illinois-based community organization started off as a drop-in center in 1976 and has since grown to provide counseling, tutoring and after-school programming to families in five other Illinois locations. JoAnn Avery, who has been with the center for 27 years, has seen Leslie Daniel through becoming a teen mother, college graduate and now working as a fellow employee of Family Focus, leading pregnancy prevention workshops.

For Avery, the success of the center comes down to the deep connections they have made with the community. The focus has always been on serving as a "safe haven" for all members of the family, seeing thousands of people through financial and emotional hard times. Funded through a combination of government, foundation and individual donations, Family Focus provides free, all-purpose programming -- from early childhood literacy to community leadership training. Both Avery and Daniel emphasize the center's open-door policy: No one who agrees to abide by the basic rules is turned away.

Rock the Trail recently sat down with Avery and Daniel to talk about how the center became a place so many people in the community consider part of an extended family and a home away from home.

Part I

Setting the Ground Rules: Conversation with JoAnn Avery

Rock the Trail: How do you define a student’s success?

Jo Ann Avery: I define a student's success by their academic achievement and social development. It doesn’t just have to be academic, but I do look at that, as well as self-esteem, social and mental capacity.

What do you teach students?

JA: We teach a lot of reading, writing and math. We also teach cultural development. We have several groups that talk about loving the skin you’re in. We let the students know that they are unique and special, that the sky is the limit.

How do you measure a student’s progress in this organization?

JA: I do a lot of one-on-one with the kids. I also do progress reports on them every month. I usually share the progress reports with the teachers and parents because I have good relationships with both. I couldn’t do any of this without the school or the parent.

How is this organization different from similar programs?

JA: Family Focus is all about values. We thrive off of who we are as a people, bettering ourselves and making things happen despite being faced with tough challenges.

We’ve also been at it for a long time. I’ve been here 27 years and we’ve been successful for over 34 years. We always come to the table with fresh ideas on how to reach parents, students and teachers. The longevity of our staff makes us different as well. Everyone has something unique that they bring to the table.

What programs have been most effective in reaching at-risk students?

JA: I don’t like to classify them as at-risk youth. I like to classify them as at-promise youth.

We have a lot of one-on-one time with the kids. We ask them how their day was. A little thing like that helps with the transition because they know someone is consistently here for them. They can talk and vent before we get started. I have kids who come to me and say, Mrs. JoAnn we need to talk because I had a rough day. They just want me to listen. These are 8 to 14-year-old kids who may have had a rough day at home or at school and it was with them all day.

What organizational structures are in place to smooth the transition from the program to adulthood?

JA: We have two sections: Second through fourth grade and fifth through eighth grade. I set the groundwork, and then they move on to the fifth through eighth grade and build. It’s our hope that when they graduate from junior high they will be involved with so much during high school that they won’t have to come back here. We’re a prevention program -- prevention from drug abuse, pregnancy, dropping out -- whatever it takes to prevent them from all the negative things of society.

What role do you think education plays in the lives of struggling youth?

JA: It plays a great role. I have a lot of students who, because their parents didn’t get it, aren't encouraged to get it themselves. All we can do is be a positive role model for them. We are all about letting them know that education is, like Malcolm X said, the passport to their future. I use that picture over there [a poster of Obama that reads, "Yes I Can"] to let them know that they can be whatever they want to be, but that they need education. They have to go to school.

If there were something you could change about our schools, what would it be?

JA: Suspension. I think kids get into more trouble outside of school. I think there should only be in-school suspensions. I think kids should go to school six days out of the week. They should have a Saturday school or go year-round like a lot of cultures do. There’s nothing wrong with that. I also think they should have school uniforms. Kids put so much emphasis on outer wear -- gym shoes, Baby Phat [labels] -- if they had uniforms, parents wouldn’t have to worry about keeping up with the fashion. I have kids here who don’t want to go to school because they don’t have the right clothes.

Are kids responsive to the program?

JA: Very. They come in and know what to do. They bring friends here. The program is over at six, but I don’t leave until eight because the kids don’t want to leave. I know it’s okay for them to be here because I know what they’re going home to. They’re very submissive to the rules. There's low tolerance for negative behavior here.

Is it a challenge to get strong-willed and opinionated kids to connect with the program?

JA: No. That’s one thing we don’t have to worry about. Some girls, when they get to seventh or eighth grade, feel like they know everything and we know nothing, but that comes with the territory of growth. That’s adolescents; We just have to let them know that they still have a ways to go.

What educational changes do you hope the future president will bring?

JA: I think they should redo the No Child Left Behind Act because there are children still left behind. Kids should all be on equal footing as far as education. The technology [at poorer schools] isn’t the same as at more affluent schools.

How can young girls get involved in the organization?

JA: All they have to do is want to be here and adhere to all the rules.

Part II

A Study in Success: Conversation with Leslie Daniel

Rock the Trail: What first inspired you go to Family Focus?

Leslie Daniel: It was the place to be. My big sister went there and she used to come home everyday and talk about how much fun she had talking about this or that in her group. I wanted to go. I was little, but Mrs. JoAnn let me come into her group. I was young, but just a year off from the other kids. It was definitely a safe place where my friends and family could come to.

How did you hear about the program?

LD: Family Focus is all about helping families and the community. My mom use to come up to the center for services when we were really little. My first real encounter with Family Focus was when I was five. It was raining really hard, and my mom brought us inside.

What did they teach you here?

LD: I don’t think your tape recorder is long enough to record it, but briefly, they just teach you to be you and be comfortable in your own skin. They teach you to fight for whatever it is that you’re trying to get. I went through a few programs here, starting off with "Primary Prevention." There was an "All Girls Crew." Then after that, I was connected to another program called "I Have a Dream." I was in that program from fifth grade all the way up to college. That program helped you get in college; they helped you get the finances you needed. Before I left for college, I entered the "Teen Parent" program, then went to college and came back and started helping out with the ESPP program, which is what I now run.

What is the ESPP program?

LD: ESPP stands for Evanston Subsequent Pregnancy Prevention. It’s a branch from the ISPP, which is the Illinois Subsequent Pregnancy Prevention. It’s aimed at young teen parents, arming them with information they need, such as understanding birth control options. They go into great detail about this stuff, not just saying, "This is Depo Provera. Take it every three months." I have to tell them what it looks like, how if feels, how it works, all of that. We also talk about STD prevention -- how to tell one from the other. We also discuss career and educational development. You name it, we discuss it.

After that, there are people who become peer educators. They have usually been in the program for about a year, they come to the groups and demonstrate that they want to take what they’ve learned to others. They go through an intensive training over the summer. Once they pass that, they go out into the community and talk to the youth. Right now, we just had our first young father become a peer educator, and that’s a first in all of the ISPPs. He is definitely an asset.

What do you like most about Family Focus?

LD: It is like a home away from home. I grew up with both of my parents, but they both worked quite a bit. No kid wants to be stuck at home. I had an older sister who was doing her own thing, and I had younger siblings who wanted to tag along with me. I didn’t want to be stuck with them. I wanted to hang around my friends. Family Focus offered a place where all of us could go and be safe. Our parents were able to go to work and not worry about us burning down the house.

Did they assist you outside of the school environment?

LD: When we were going through rocky situations -- like before my parents actually split up -- they offered counseling. I remember Mrs. Richmond, who passed away a few years back, helped our family out. They have a donation room, so if my mom and dad were having problems with finances we could come and get clothes and food.

Did they assist you in your adulthood as well?

LD: In the Teen Parent program, they helped me find scholarships. I pretty much had a free ride from the state in college. There is a lot of grant money for teen parents, but if you don’t ask, you won’t know. Family Focus pointed me to all of these scholarships that fit my criteria, and I won about four or five thousand dollars in Unity Scholarships.

When I graduated from college and came back looking for my first job, Family Focus pointed me in the right direction.

What were your aspirations growing up in the Family Focus programs?

LD: Growing up, I was a shy person. You would never know I was the same girl some years ago. I was that quiet little girl off in the back that wouldn’t say much out loud.

Do you think Family Focus helped you achieve that dream?

LD: Yes. When I got pregnant, I felt like I let a lot of people down. Family Focus didn’t shun me. They said, "We have a program; you’ll still be able to go to college."

I’m a teen parent. I wasn’t supposed to make it out, but I did. I didn’t end up a welfare mom, and I didn’t end up with 50 million kids. I ended up with one child. I graduated from high school on time, went to college with my daughter, came out and was still able to support her. I stayed with my mom for about a year after graduating from college, then I saved my money and moved right out. I’ve been on my own since. My daughter has never had to say she needed anything.

What are your future hopes for Family Focus?

LD: Family Focus has been standing in this community for a long time. It was a symbol, back then, of unity. I want it to stay that way. I want it to remain here well beyond my days, the building still standing and doing exactly what it does today.

De Nishia Yearby is a reporter of Rock the Trail -- a project of Rock the Vote and WireTap.