Patty Garza, Community and Family Resource Coordinator, South District

Human Services Specialist Stephanie Trujillo Ramirez, fondly known at Ayres House as Ms. TR, keeps constant lookout for ways to help the youth prepare for the working world.

With COVID limiting the youths’ ability to get out in the community, Ms. TR has had to think creatively over the past year. She recently reached out to a barber in the community to see about presenting to Ayres House after discovering that several of the Ayres youth were greatly interested in this possible vocation.

Lauren Ozuna, a barber at Bexar County Kutz, jumped at the opportunity to share her knowledge in the field. Several youth signed up for her virtual workforce development workshop and were treated to her thorough "Barber Career 101".

Ozuna gave an overview of her experience attending Williams Barber College and obtaining her license. She worked hard, she said, and built on her skills as an independent contractor to become the manager of the barbershop after just five years. She gave a virtual tour of the barber shop, showing the tools, products and offering tips about the trade, and also answered questions from the youth.

She shared experiences about client interactions and the importance of safety for both barbers and clients. Some of her clients, she said, had even become barbers.

The youth’s eyes and smiles grew bigger as she talked about career earnings and business opportunities. One youth enthused, “I wasn’t really thinking about becoming a barber, but that sounds pretty legit!”

At the end of the presentation, Ozuna encouraged the young men to follow their dreams and career aspirations. They can make it “out here,” she stressed, if they work hard and connect their skills to a trade.

She spoke frankly to them about how she understands the appeal of “easy illegal activity” money, but she showed that a barber career can be lucrative and really is “legit” with none of the worries that come with illegal activities.

The youth greatly appreciated hearing from someone in the barbering trade and immediately asked for more virtual tours about other trades and other career-building programming.

Photos: Youth listen to the virtual presentation (upper right); Ozuna spoke from the barbershop (lower left).

By Y. Denise Caldwell, Community Resource Coordinator, Northern District

Blossoms abound at Willoughby House since the students, led by volunteer Cassie Green, spruced up the flowerbeds in front of the house and in the backyard.

According to Green, they had to plant the flowers before it got too hot.  

“If it’s too hot the flowers will burn up,” she said.

Green took the lead on this project again this year, ensuring that the flowers would bloom once more. She donated personal funds and time to this project. She also received generous donations from the McFadden Community Advisory Council and longtime volunteer Bridget Marchetta to buy the necessary supplies, which she delivered to the halfway house. (The McFadden council has turned its attention to Willoughby since McFadden House closed this spring.)

The donated items included hardwood bark mulch, petunias, hydrangeas, azaleas, iris, lavender, jalapeno, sweet mint other colorful flowers and various herbs.

All of their hard work will pay off, Green said, because “the front landscaping will come back year after year and grow to be really beautiful and full.” 

Green said she plans to do even more next year to beautify the grounds.

Staff and students were especially pleased with the finished results.  “It looks a whole lot better,” Green said proudly.

By Pedro Lozano, Youth Development Coach

Recently, we Tamayo House coaches had the pleasure of introducing S’more making to the boys.

“What are S’mores? Why are they called S’mores?” the boys asked.

To this question, I instantly applied algorithms, theorems, and every ounce of knowledge that I have attained through my many years of schooling, and the best answer that I could come up with was: “Well, they are so good that after you eat one, you want ‘some more’; hence the name S’mores.

They chuckled, and said, “That is so lame.”

The preparation began. The skewers pierced through the marshmallows, the Hershey’s chocolate bar was broken into pieces, and the Graham cracker was separated down its perforated line. And to the backyard we went.

The mesquite-filled pit was ignited, the fire immediately began to rise and crackle giving an almost hypnotizing orange hue, and the marshmallow roasting commenced. There was laughter and we all shared numerous recollections.

But it was quickly apparent that the majority of youth had never done this before. They approached the pit in a humorously awkward fashion. After a few attempts, the youth managed to configure a scrumptious-looking treat and devoured it as they sat around, presenting an image of a lovely, family gathering. If ever there was a true, “Kodak” moment, it was then. They stuck together, there were no ‘hurts’ (insults or putdowns), and they had fun! It was absolutely empowering for them.

As we were about to conclude our activity, one of our boys approached me. No amount of educational hours helped me, correctly, answer that initial question about the treat’s name, nor did they equip me for what followed.

The young man said, with a smile, “Thank you all for doing this for us. I have never done anything like this before. You’re the dad I never had. I’m leaving soon, and I’m going to miss you.”

I was at a loss for words. How do I respond? What do I say? I followed with an “I got you, that’s what we’re here for.” But he heard the knot in my throat as my voice cracked when I responded.

This kid broke through my testosterone-filled person, reached in for my sentimental chord, and plucked it. This is where my perspective changed. On the journey we call life, there are times that we lose someone, either through circumstance, absenteeism and even death, and although it is hard, the true difficulty lies in learning how to live without them. Once I had thought that void always existed and could not be healed. I even wrote about that in college for my Rhetoric class. But I don’t think that anymore.

I believe Karen Purvis said it best when she said, “Our children will experience healing through nurturing relationships.” That’s where we coaches come into play. We are that nurturing relationship. We are the putty to the youth’s emotional crevices. We fill their void.

I can’t help but remember the movie, “Stand and Deliver” where Jaime Escalante teaches the famous algebraic rule, “a negative times a negative equals a positive.” Rule #2 in the 6th grade, taught to me after watching this movie, claimed that a negative times a positive equals a negative, but here at Tamayo we invalidate that belief as we are confronted with a negative (a person’s harmful past), multiply it with a positive (our nurturing), which always leads to the end result -- a positive.