Changing the Narrative, Episode 3 Wanting to Live

Young. Black. Alone. How do you lift yourself up when faced with trauma, few options, and a mountain of history pinning you down? The answers lie in connection and community. Paul Terry knew from Day 1 of the Changing the Narrative  youth program what he wanted his topic to be. Having battled depression, he wanted to reach out and connect with others who might be suffering. Mentors and a sense of purpose had helped him stand back up. In his interview with  SJLI staff members, Education Equity Programs Manager and educational scholar David Turner, and Health Equity Programs Director Derek Steele, Paul searches the underlying causes of depression in communities of color. What emerges is a nuanced narrative that fills the room with affirmation and hope. 

More than half of the podcasters in our mentoring program, are mentors themselves, volunteering in their churches, at SJLI, and at various youth programs offering their musical, tutoring and coding skills. In creating opportunities for themselves in business and art and career choices, they all made choices that lift others up. Connection. Community.

Jonathan Zeno offers up "Legacy" a poem that powerfully reflects the interview with a chilling sound design by Daniel P. Castillo

Music:

Young Ambition: Be Free, Infinity, Inner Thoughts

Quest: Soul Journey

Visit the Changing the Narrative page on our site for more content

 Produced/edited by Betsy Foldes Meiman

Created in a 5 week collaboration between Connectopod and The Social Justice Learning Institute, developed and taught by by Andrea Lopez, Daniel P. Castillo, and Betsy Foldes Meiman

Original concept for Changing the Narrative by Daniel P. Castillo.

Changing the Narrative is supported in part by a generous grant from the California Arts Council, a state agency. Learn more at arts.ca.gov 

Thank you!