Live EPIC: Youth Development & Leadership

In this episode, I had the honor of speaking with Miss New Jerey 2023, Derby Chukwudi. She is an example of living life with a sense of purpose. This conversation would inspire and educate us as parents, caregivers and business leaders on how we can help the young women in our care to live purposeful lives.

“Winning is the cherry on top, it’s who you are becoming that’s most important” Derby Chukwudi

“The process of becoming is key” Derby Chukwudi

I love working with teenagers! However, parenting teens is no easy task. In this episode, I speak with Royette Williams-James a school guidance counselor and expert consultant to parents, teachers and leaders. We cover three topics from her recently held parenting course. You would be educated and inspired about how to communicate with your child, parenting difficult teenagers and very importantly, how to counter parental burnout.

You can reach out to her at the links below (links to her books are provided as well)

Mentorship has been proven to be a very useful tool for creating positive change in children’s lives. In this episode I spoke with Leah Okimoto Founder and Executive Director of Aaron’s Presents. Her organization provides mentorship to children between 4th and 8th grade. They have directly impacted 3000 children over the last 10 years. You can reach out to Leah to learn more and support the work that they are doing in Lowell and Lawrence Massachusetts.

Contact Information

Money is one of the top sources of stress! In this episode, I spoke with Certified Financial Planner Righetti Joseph about the ‘4 money scripts’. The money scripts are 4 concepts in behavioral finance that explain our attitude towards money and how it impacts the decisions that we make regarding money. The goal is to correct our attitude regarding money so that we can nurture the adolescents in our care to have a healthy view about their finances.

In this episode, I sat down with Anthony & Jessica Cicali to learn how they parent their daughter, Abbigail who has been diagnosed with Angelman syndrome. It is a genetic disorder that affects the nervous system. It results in delayed development, challenges with their speech, balance and intellectual disability. There is no cure. However, the Cicali’s have rallied for over 13 years through their faith, resilience, and a large community of supporters.

Hey friends it's been almost a year! I took a break after the birth of my third blessing, Amiko!

On this episode I interviewed my mother, a retired public/civil servant from Trinidad and Tobago. I hope that if you are a parent or adolescent in or entering public/civil service that you are able to find some nuggets in this episode to empower you.

Intro Music

In this episode, I am joined by my friend Ayana Chester (https://www.blossomcounsellingtt.com) a therapist based in Trinidad and Tobago to talk about suicide and some suicide prevention strategies. September is suicide awareness month.

In this episode, I talk about the four negative defaults referred to in the book The Strength Switch by Lea Waters (Get the book!). These negative defaults can have a detrimental effect on the way parent, educate or lead children, youth and early career professionals...in fact anyone. 

The four defaults are 1) Selective Attention 2) Negativity Bias 3) Projection and 4) Binary Thinking. 

Let's work on becoming consciously positive. The world has enough problems on its own.

In this episode, I discuss the differences between the Deficit-based model and a strengths-based/asset-based model. Deficit-based thinking asks “What is wrong with her?" Strengths-based thinking asks “what is right with her?” Research has shown that focusing on strengths promotes a mental lift that propels the individual towards continued development.

Enjoy the show!

It’s another season of Live EPIC: Youth Development & Leadership.

In this episode, I introduce the concept of Strengths Based Approach to youth development based on the pioneering work of Don Clifton the founder of Strengths Finder.

According to Mary Reckmeyer, author of Strengths Based Parenting, a strength is the result of taking that talent and with investment – skills, knowledge and practice – using it to consistently provide near-perfect performance in a given activity eg analyzing information. This is an introductory episode into the benefits of focusing on strengths.

This episode closes out our focus on resilience. There are 3 resilience factors that relate directly to the work of FBOs. They are 1) Hope, Faith & Optimism 2) Meaning making, belief life has meaning & 3) Connections with well-functioning communities. FBOs are key stakeholders in developing resilience.

There is no problem free life. On this episode of Live EPIC: Youth Development and Leadership, Darryl talks about the skills that you can pass on to the young people who you serve in order to help them develop their capacity for resilience. This is a very challenging time to be a leader in any field and it is the resilient leader that would survive and thrive.

This episode focuses on Suicide. Some call it a major public health crisis and I agree. This week is Suicide Awareness Week (September 5-11). It is a time to bring awareness to suicide and how we can respond to and prevent among our friends, family and colleagues.

According to the CDC, in 2019 suicide was the second leading cause of death for persons 10 to 34 years old.

I put on my Mental Health First Aider hat for this episode and I hope that it helps you to save a life.

#LIVEEPIC

In this episode on Live EPIC: Youth Development and Leadership, Darryl wraps up the topic 'Preparing Youth for Leadership' with four principles to direct the very important work that you are doing. 

In this episode on Live EPIC: Youth Development and Leadership, Darryl talks about 7 principles that should guide you in developing the leaders in your care. Regardless of the arena that you work in, Human Resources, Education, Faith Based Organization or Sports, these principles can help you develop great leaders.

Principles

• Believe in something bigger than you
• Build on what you have
• Bring the best people to the project
• Bridge gaps
• Ignore petty criticism
• Lead with love and courage
• Develop the art of recovering/resilience/bounce back power

I don't want to assume that because you are in a space with young people (adolescents and young adults) that you are sold on the need for a focus on youth development and leadership. In this episode of Live EPIC, you would hear from me about the reality of youth involvement in crime and the worsening case of mental health among young people. 

This episode is a call to reflect on the why and the need for youth development and leadership.