Busy Days, Bright Futures: Turning Winds’ Ongoing Journey

In this episode, Turning Winds Program Director Enoch Stump joins us to discuss the exciting developments happening at Turning Winds, from Halloween festivities on campus to the launch of a new alumni support group and the anticipation of an upcoming service trip to Greece. Enoch shares how our alumni are stepping up as leaders, supporting current students in their transitions, and staying connected long after graduation. Tune in to learn how these activities are helping our students and alumni continue their journey of growth, resilience, and community.

To learn more about Turning Winds, visit turningwinds.com or call 800-845-1380.

Transcript

 This is what it sounds like when you witness teens who have invested the time in themselves to then become leaders.  But yeah, we do have some just rock star kids back there. That are, I mean, some, some that are doing it as professions already that are like mentor coaching and those kinds of things. And, and I'm eager for them to take the lead.

You know, once we, once we get it going. Kevin Zundl Welcome to the Turning Winds podcast. My name is Kevin Zungel.  Turning Winds has a full continuum of care for teens to get the support they need clinically and academically.  Today, I have a great conversation with program director, Enid.  Headed into November.

It's incredible how much is going on in just the next handful of weeks on top of everything else.  We talk about Halloween, a new regular alumni group that is meeting weekly and a trip to Greece that students are taking where they get to be of service, become immersed in ancient history and learn about another culture.

Let's get started. What is it like there on campus? For Halloween. So we've already done decorations. There's like a ghost hanging around and Halloween themed things sticking in the building for October. We'll have a pumpkin carving contest. So we'll divide up into teams and, uh, we've got amazing artists at turning winds and so the pumpkins are pretty impressive typically, and then we'll have a process with the staff that will judge all the different pumpkins.

And, and then we'll have winners. We'll probably watch a PG-13 appropriate scary movie at some point on Halloween. We'll do. Some candy and some Halloween sort of baskets. It's a balance between like trail mix and candy. So we don't kill it with sugar, but we certainly give them some additional candy and some expectations on Halloween.

They also dress up. Parents are encouraged to send a costume. So staff tend to dress up on Halloween and serve the kids. It's the one day that Owen and Carl get to have hair because they always wear a wig on Halloween.  What else do we have planned? I think those are probably the highlights of the day. I don't, what day is Halloween?

It's a Thursday.  So it'll still be a school day. We'll still do school like, uh, like normal, except in some costumes, much like school, you know, in a public school setting, and then it'll be a  fun movie at night and, and we'll, all of our groups will sort of be associated around  probably Halloween's in the past, good fun and negative fun, and being able to process sort of the differences and, uh, and some of those things and take advantage of.

Of some constructive conversation around that. Yeah. We do, we go all out at all holidays. I expect it to be fun and kids love to dress up. They get really creative and have fun. We'll see what the staff bring this year, but there's always a handful of them that, uh, that impressed with their costumes. Tell me a little bit about what's going on with the the alumni program, these, these new Wednesday night meetings that have just started.

So we, we just reached out to, to some of the alumni that we've been in most recent contact with, and, and they are already communicating as a general rule without us. They have big chats that a lot of different generations have that past kids are all on.  And so we reached out to a handful to get started. 

Our hope and intent is, is to have all of the shared experience of all the kids that have left through all the years be able to help the kids leaving, to be able to help support them. So often our kids,  they build such great connections with each other. They,  they talk in a therapeutic, emotional language well together.

They, they sort of let their guard down, talk honest and open, and then they go home to friends that don't talk in those ways or families that don't really process in those ways. So Turning Woods has a unique language. That's really what kids understand and appreciate. And so,  we hope to do a group led by kids.

Right now, Coral and I are running it, but we want it to be taken over by kids in the next three or four months. Where, where they just talk about, um, the struggles that they're having, talk about issues that are coming up, talk about solutions that others have used, um, and be able to support and give a forum to share in a safe place, and then give a forum for some productive feedback when they're interested and motivated.

We, uh, last week  With our kids, we set goals individually, and we all set goals on what we want to do this week. So there's some goal setting and some accountability to each other, you know, the following week to check in on some of the things that we had discussed. And so  it's a little different than sometimes an AA group might look like.

AA is sometimes being able to share, and this is a little more interactive because our kids are oftentimes They have thoughts and feedback, uh, for each other. So it's been really encouraging early on. We've got kids that left three or four years ago in it. And, and you have a conversation that it's like, it's like they're back in a room.

This was a week ago. And so it's fun how easy it is to connect, get down to the nitty gritty and how eager  kids are to talk about what's really going on. And we have a lot of kids that are going to college and doing some really amazing things, got great jobs and. In our great situations, and still, like the rest of us, there are some really heavy topics that they're dealing with and struggling with, that it's wonderful to have a forum to talk through those things, and  We're excited to get some of our newest kids that are just leaving  involved in that group.

We haven't done a lot of that yet as we're just, we've only done two, two weeks so far, but the intent is, is that every kid that leaves will have a part of their transition plan, there'll be a part of that group. Um, and so that's the, that's the hope and the goal moving forward, and we just think it will grow.

And we're just focusing on turning one's alumni at this point and see where it goes. It's, it's a mirror from the parent group that the parents kicked off and started doing. And so it's really their model that. We're using and they meet every other week right now. We're meeting every week just to get us started and it's so great.

And so all of us just want to keep, keep doing it as often as possible. And so we'll see if that's sustainable or not, but, um, but it's been really encouraging and, uh, kids seem to be really engaged in the process. And so we hope we'll keep adding as the weeks go on right now. I think we're at, I mean, we're less than 10 still, but that, I mean, it is interesting because teenagers, maybe adults too, but teenagers even more, like  they're not going to get on if they're not participating.

It's very rare though. You just got to keep their attention. And so the smaller group setting is key, but there's a bunch of people that are sharing and people are getting on and they're not  engaging in those ways. They won't keep showing up. And so you're going to want to keep the groups fairly small.

And so, yeah, Coraline and the timing, I mean, it's trying to coordinate  These, these,  you know, very busy teenage lives when they leave with jobs and school and families. And so, yeah, Carl and I might end up doing, you know, two a week for just for different timing on a weekend or on an evening and sort of giving more options for.

For our kids, but yeah, we do have some just rockstar kids that, that are, I mean, some, some that are doing it as professions already that are like mentor coaching and those kinds of things. And, and I'm eager for them to take the lead, you know, once we, once we get it going, cause it is going to take a lot of time, but it's been really fun for Carl and I, because it. 

You know, we've reconnected with a couple other, uh, students and, and you do these, so you'll have a group setting and then you'll end up having three or four scheduled calls, one on one sessions with those kind of kids, because maybe they've got more or there's something that's maybe not appropriate for a group that's better to talk through one on one.

And so it's been fun to reconnect with some of those kids and get down and dirty at, uh, as soon as just working to try to find the time to do all those things is, uh, sure is a wonderful show. Yeah. And we're going to be dealing with. Over 18 young adults and under 18. There's some risk and liability.

That's going to come with all of those things, uh, of the kind of age group, the kind of kid we serve. And so it's this balance of like having an ideal situation and having a sustainable situation. So rum roll. The next location is Greece for you guys. How did, how did you pick that?  Yeah, well, well, Greece, we've done Greece once we've been all over and we did Greece, I always get my days wrong, maybe to the, maybe 2021 or it was, it was right, right in the middle of COVID kind of COVID process and we did. 

There was a lot of Syrian refugees during that that crisis, and so we went over there and we serve them, and the cultural experience of Greece was so powerful. Because there's so much history and it's so rich in culture. And, and we really love that. We really liked working with the refugees, but.  During that time, there's a lot of like, um,  there's a lot of  guidelines that prevented a lot of access with a human connection.

And our, our biggest one with our kids is making the relationships and the human connection of, of, of meeting these people that are going through, you know, uh, a struggle in life and really be able to connect with the person. And now we're going back to do, to work in schools. And a lot of the people over there are from Ukraine.

So it's a very current event. Ukraine is going through a crisis. There's a lot of refugees that are Finding themselves in Greece and they've started up these schools with our children. And so we're going to be working directly in the schools with, uh, with the Ukrainian children and, uh, and doing some service projects there. 

Wow.  We're going to stay in Athens and we're going to go and see the Parthenon and all of the, the old history. We're going to travel over to Delphi, which is an ancient Greek civilization. And that's where the culture there started. And they've got an awesome new CEO.  And some small tunnels to go through.

We've got a lot of other fun cultural things. I think we're going to be renting a sailboat in the Mediterranean Sea. And be able to take our kids sailing. And it's just the most bluish water you've ever seen in your life.  And then we'll get some Greek food served to us on the, on the sailboat. So we'll do some fun  cultural experiences along with our service. 

Is, is language going to be an issue? I actually think I, so the Greek language will probably take some, some language classes like we always do. And so in one of the evenings early in the week, we will, uh, we'll meet and we'll take some Greek language classes. The Greek language is, is far more challenging than Spanish or a lot of the common languages that we, uh, we get the greetings and the hellos and those sorts of things.

And so, so fortunately in Europe, uh, English is well spoken,  although with the Ukrainian kids, I don't really know what to expect with them. I, I don't know what, what their language will be. And a lot of the adults in order for us to navigate the area, they speak English and can, can do that really well. But, but when we're working in the service areas, when the kids are interacting with the other kids.

Typically the language is a bear  and we get really creative at having some universal communication. Um, and so, yeah, I think we'll be interested to learn how that, how that language goes,  we're taking a large group. I think we've got 12 kids signed up, uh, boys and girls, and, uh,  we're bringing Sean, one of our amazing therapists, Tara, one of our, our favorite program managers, because love and, uh, and Owen and I will be going on this trip, so we're all looking forward to it.

So as you just heard. There's so much happening  and if you were an alumni or family member, would like to have a conversation and help the next family understand what treatment is all about on this podcast, just write to Carl or Enoch. Carl at turningwinds. com or Enoch at turningwinds. com. If your family's in a situation where there are real concerns about your teen, I encourage you to reach out to Turning Winds and share your story at 800 845  1380 or check out the wealth of resources available at turningwinds.com.