Empowering Youth and Youth Voice with Sydney Guerette
While still a teenager, Sydney Guerette founded a nonprofit where youth run the show solving problems within their communities and promoting mental health. In this conversation Sydney and Scott Lee discuss how she got started on this journey and how educators and caring adults can support youth who are making a difference in their communities.
Links from our conversation
Be The Change Youth Initiative
In the Company of Wolves Instagram
In the Company of Wolves booking
Other organizations mentioned in conversation
Transcript
Scott Lee: Greetings friends and colleagues, welcome to The Thoughtful Teacher Podcast, the professional educator’s thought partner-a service of Oncourse Education Solutions and SEL Resource. I am Scott Lee. If you would like to learn more about how we partner with schools and education organizations please visit our website: www.oncoursesolutions.net and reach out.
First off, I would like to share a program note: as some of you have noticed, fall episodes are dropping about every three weeks instead of every of every two weeks as in past seasons. This slight change means that instead of taking a two-month winter break we will return with the first episode of the 2025 season on January 14, instead of the first week of March. So, look for the first episode of the 2025 season this January.
Today’s conversation is a bit different as my guest is not an educator or an education-focused creator. When I was first introduced to Sydney Guerette and learned about the nonprofit she started, I was immediately struck not only by the scope of their projects, but how almost everything she does involves teenagers taking on problems that the teens themselves want to confront. Oh, and she started the Be The Change Youth Initiative when she was 15. Be The Change is committed to encouraging youth towards balanced mental well-being, by educating, equipping, and empowering the next generation to become advocates for their communities. Originally from Portland, Maine, Sydney and her family spent most of 2019 and the early part of 2020 traveling the country with Be The Change Youth Initiative until the pandemic grounded their family in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Sydney, along with her younger brother, Brayden, is a member of the indie band In the Company of Wolves. Singer-songwriters, they intertwine music with storytelling as they share their passion for community and their commitment to mental health advocacy, making sure youth, especially those struggling with their mental health, feel seen, heard, and loved. We’ll visit all those experiences, but we started our conversation talking about why she became interested in tackling youth mental health issues and youth advocacy in the first place.
Well thank you so much for joining us today, Sydney. Welcome to the Thoughtful Teacher Podcast.
Sydney Guerette: Thanks for having me.
Scott Lee: So, this is a little bit different from most episodes, so let's start a little bit with your journey, both your little literal journey, and professional journey.
Would you share, what you've been doing, the last several years?
Sydney Guerette: Okay. Yeah. So, for over the last seven years, my family and I have been running a nonprofit called Be The Change Youth Initiative, which is focused on youth empowerment and mental health advocacy. And for the last five years, I've been performing music professionally with my brother under the name In the Company of Wolves.
Scott Lee: So how do you think your experiences shaped your vision for creating a youth centered nonprofit? And, why do that? That, that seems a little bit unconventional.
Sydney Guerette: Very unconventional. I'll go into this by kind of giving a little bit of backstory. So, growing up, my parents had always encouraged my siblings and I to give back in some way.
I'm the oldest of four. And by doing that. We had, instead of like typical birthday parties, we would go to a different non-profit like the Ronald McDonald House, or we would go to an animal shelter and ask people to bring donations instead of gifts. And so that was kind of just an easy way for our family to give back.
So, for my 15th, this was the summer of 2016, I wanted to do something on a larger scale, my parents used to be wish granters for the Make-a-Wish Foundation, and immediately I was like, “okay, well, this helps youth, so this is exactly what I want to do.” I looked up how much it would cost to grant a wish in the chapter of Maine, which is where I'm originally from, and, and it was 7, 000 dollars and I was like, “okay, well, this is a lot of money”. That I already committed to raising already told people I was gonna do this thing And I didn't have a job at the time, so I was starting to freak out and went to my mom and I was like, “what do I do?”
I don't have any clue what to do and she said Just go to your friends and see if you can get a group together to get involved in fundraising with you. And so, I went to, there's like 12 of us, and I encouraged all of them, I was like, “what are things that you guys already love to do that bring you joy, and how can you turn those into micro fundraisers?”
So, some of my friends did cross country, and they decided over the course of that summer to run three 5Ks for each month, and then write fundraising letters. My friend and I, we wrote a song, recorded it in his basement, sold it on Bandcamp, got a couple hundred dollars from that. Some of my friends did like bake sales, some did chores, which is not something that they necessarily wanted to do, but they were like, I can do it anyway.
And then others did things like designing a t shirt. But over the course of six months, we finished raising the 7,000. During that same exact time, I was involved with a youth group and there was a youth pastor that all of like majority my friends in the same group were a part of the group as well, of the youth group.
And he actually discouraged my friends from getting involved and told me really demeaning things. Like I was too young to make a difference and that I wasn't good enough. And, I think because of that all happening at the same time, you just see, like, a difference in the way that all my friends were able to encourage each other to say that we all have something to contribute, and we all can make a difference.
And then on the other side of that, you have this adult that's saying that you can't do these things. So, from that, I was like, “I want to create something where we can encourage as many as possible to say that they have worth and they can make a difference in a matter of their age,” which is kind of how the original idea of be the change came about.
Scott Lee: That's, that's just amazing that you all did that despite discouragement.
Sydney Guerette: And it was really hard because I, I think there's a, there'd been another time before that around the same exact time, actually, it was part of a, songwriting camp. And I had been a part of that for like two years up until that point. And the leader of that camp actually like listened to a song.
I played a song for her that I wrote about the topic of suicide. And I remember her just looking at me and be like, “that song will never be good enough to be on the radio” because like the, it was just a very heavy topic and like people didn't want to listen to those things. And I was like, so there had been moments where people, adults specifically, would say those things when they shouldn't, because they are in positions of leadership, and that a leader should not be saying those things to anyone, period. You should be uplifting the people that you're trying to come around and encourage and support. But I think because those instances were happening all around the same time, I honestly just came to this conclusion of like, you, you have to be able to show and extend love to not just yourself, but the other people around you.
And how best can I do that with the gifts that I'm given and the group of friends that I'm around? We all just need to like, keep on going. And it was really difficult, especially when you do have people saying. Really rude and demeaning, degrading things about who you are and what you have to contribute to this world.
But I think just because of those things, it made me even realize more how important it is to shine a light on that and to give people more of a platform to just, Show what they do best and to extend like their passions to better the world But yeah now looking back on it I'm thankful that I did experience that because it made me who I am today, but in the midst of it-it was really hard.
Scott Lee: Yeah, I'm sure that just that just is not what a mentoring adult should do
Sydney Guerette: Yeah.
Scott Lee: You've told us a lot about, how you got started. Tell us more specifically about what your nonprofit now is the Be the Change Youth Initiative, and you have several ongoing projects with Be the Change?
Sydney Guerette: Yeah. So. This is also gives some backstory to how we went into mental health. So because of that first starting out, process of the fundraising element and that youth empowerment element, we, for the next three years created a fundraising packet, which we still have in the other nonprofits use it as a resource to get people in their own communities to fundraise for them.
But we had that fundraising packet and we had kids all over the U. S. That my mom was connected to through fair trade business that she was working a part of. Actually, that's how we actually met a lot of the families that we ended up working with, but gave that to them as a resource and a fundraise for different organizations that they wanted to fundraise for over the next three years of doing this thing just as a family.
And at that point, we weren't a nonprofit. But my brother started struggling a lot with mental health. And at the time where we were living, there weren't a lot of mental health resources and counseling. You had to wait for like six months. And so, it was just a really desperate time for my family.
And that's kind of when they decided to make the decision of what if we took this project on the road just to surround our family, like surround my brother Brayden with as much like support and encouragement as we can, especially moving forward when they didn't really know what else to do and the resources weren't at place.
And so my dad quit his job and we, sold the house, bought an RV and decided to take this project on the road. And that's when we had our very first fundraising show where we were talking about fundraising for a Make a Wish Foundation in Texas, in Louisiana, Gulf coast. And we had our first show in Austin, Texas, April of 2019.
And that was with my brother and I. And the whole focus on that was me just to talk about my own experiences with starting Be the Change, to have that empowerment element. But during the event, Brayden actually, when we were performing, was like, “Hey, I think I want to share my story for the first time.” So, he did.
And then from that point on, there was a middle school student that came up to me after the show. And she said, And Braydon sharing his story that she wasn't alone. She was reminded that she's not alone in her own experiences with mental health. So we went back to the RV that night and I remember just having a really hard conversation with our parents.
Cause we were like, up until this point has just been the youth empowerment element, but this. The mental health topic has been brought up to us. It's our responsibility to like move forward with that because we don't want to just hear something like this and then kind of brush it to the side because this needs to be addressed.
And it's an important topic to talk about. So that we just stay on the road for 11 months after that. Then COVID stranded us in Chatt[anooga] and we've been doing stuff in Chattanooga for the last four years. That's when we made it official nonprofit. But the whole process of this was when we were on the road, we would ask people, what are things that would better your mental health?
And a lot of them said, “less social media and more in person community.” And then when we moved to Chattanooga during COVID, my mom did a study where she was looking up like, what are some of the healthiest places to live in the world? And a lot of it, a lot of it was like Scandinavian countries.
Scott Lee: Right.
Sydney Guerette: But why was that?
It was because they were giving back to nonprofits, local small businesses, creatives, and youth. And so, we decided to make those the four pillars for Be the Change. And, and so the different initiatives and projects that we have are all giving those people a platform to support them and encourage them and what they're trying to do within their city and within their communities.
So, some of those projects include an after-school program. We believe not in just creating projects and initiatives just to create new projects and initiatives, but if people are already doing really great things in the community, how can we take our connections and resources to better what they're already doing, to support them, what they're already doing?
So that's So Northside Neighborhood House has been one of our partners for the last two and a half years, and they already had an after school set up, and we did it originally in Soddy-Daisy Middle School and Red Bank High School, and we brought in local artists that we met after COVID, who shared a passion in talking about mental health, and they would go into these schools and talk with students about how they use their art to cope with their mental health, how they monetize their art, And, and then also giving the students an opportunity to work with art hands on.
And so, we had an art auction at the end of the semester, the school year, where students were able to sell their pieces, get money back from the pieces, but then the rest of the donations or money raised from that auction, we go back to create a scholarship for a graduating senior at a school. So, the whole purpose is like, how can we in that initiative alone, and now for this next school year, With the afterschool program, we're also already adding an art gallery throughout the entire school year.
That way students can experience what it's like to sell their pieces and to get money for those pieces, but it's also cultivating a relationship with the same students. Cause we want to be super intentional and organic in that mission as well. And then we also have an Ambassadors of Change program.
Which is geared towards now sophomores as well as juniors and seniors in high school to take more of a leadership opportunity and role with Be the Change. So, becoming ambassadors means that you'll get to learn about how to host events, how to do media kits, and talk to the media, and be able to sit in board meetings and have conversations with people in the community and create different things in order to be successful, better Chattanooga as a whole. And when we talked to them about what they wanted to tackle on this year as a topic, they said food insecurity. And so, food insecurity is going to be one of the next big projects for the 2024 and 2025 school year, which we're super excited about. And that was all because high school students were like, “we want to learn about this and we want to create initiatives that are going to benefit this as well.”
We have concerts for cause. Which focus on getting musicians in the community and spotlighting them in fundraising at a different local business for a different local nonprofit here. So we've raised, I think over 40,000 dollars for different local nonprofits in Chattanooga, which is super exciting, and then I'm trying to think of the other initiatives we have we have so many.
Scott Lee: Yeah, and I and I think the you know, the the really important thing and and one of the things that we want to be sure and emphasize is that These are initiatives that are run by students, right?
Sydney Guerette: Yeah.
Scott Lee: And in a podcast for teachers, I think that's really important because one of the things that that that I'd like for you to share is a little bit more kind of maybe on the boring administrative side.
What advice would you give a teacher or a group of teachers who hear this amongst their students who might want to do that? How would they get that started? What, what would you tell, an adult, when you've got a group of kids that are wanting to be active, but don't know what to do? I guess.
Sydney Guerette: Yeah, and I think I'm coming to this also, like, because we've worked with a lot of teachers in the past, especially when going into talking to students, because we want to make sure that we're handling things with care.
We're talking to facilitators about what their students actually need when going and doing a presentation and talking about the, like, important things like mental health. And I know that teachers have it really difficult because they're expected to be the counselor when they don't have any counseling background and they're expected to show up for their students. So I'm keeping all that in mind when I do say like it's so important to just continue listening and just creating space for students to be able to express themselves and show you what it is that they want to contribute.
Cause I feel like a lot of the times, and it always depends on the situation, right? I mean, I think it's a nuanced conversation, but especially with older generations calling like my generation lazy or saying that we don't have a lot of passion for wanting to make a difference in our communities. In my experience, it's like, you just have to see them at eye level and just get down to their level and be like, “hey, I just want to let you know that you're a whole person and you have something to contribute.”
And I want to give you the space to talk about your passions and to say what you want to say and your ideas are important to me. And I think if you do have that perspective in conversations, they'll also like, look at you differently and say like, “oh, this is someone that I can trust. And this is someone that believes in me enough to really encourage me to keep on moving forward, no matter how difficult it gets.”
And even just like having those conversations with students that, you know, we're very like-minded in that area too is just incredibly important. But yeah, I think just like seeing them as people instead of just like youth that you're trying to teach is like really big because they have amazing ideas and some of the best conversations have come when I'm like “I'm still learning as well.” I do know a lot because I've been in this work for a while but there's also so much that I still don't know and I'm always in a state of like I can learn from them anyone and especially when it comes to learning from the youth in my life.
I've learned so much and there's actually a story I don't know if I can share it later, but there's a story
Scott Lee: Go ahead.
Sydney Guerette: Right? Yeah. Okay We had our first Concert for Cause for our food insecurity initiative early earlier in July. I think it's either July or August But, one of our ambassadors of change who's a senior at GPS [a local high school] was able to come and talk about why she wanted to get involved with food insecurity initiative. And so, I asked her during the panel in between our music set for the night. And she was like, “yeah, the reason I wanted to get involved and pursue this topic for an initiative this year was because it was the topic that I knew least about.”
And I was like, that is so wise that you were willing to take that posture and say, I'm willing to chase after this thing and like pursue this topic and learn about this topic because it's the one thing that I don't know much about. Because I think it's so easy. It makes you feel super, I mean, it's an uncomfortable space to be in talking about food insecurity and how it impacts your city and learning the ins and outs of like meeting with the health department, which she was able to do and learning about school debt and what that looks like and how many cafeterias there are in Chattanooga and how much school debt there is when it comes to hunger.
And I think the way that we navigate especially in advocacy work It's so easy to get tied in like I want to be able to talk about this because this is what I know most about And this is what I feel super educated in but how many of us are willing to say That we're not super educated in these areas because I feel like there's even a lot of stigma tied to that because you feel like you need to be educated in All of these different areas x y and z in order to feel like I can lead But she, Gwen, is, she was amazing.
She showed up and was like a really amazing advocate and leader that day because she was willing to take that posture and say I don't know much about this, but I'm willing to learn and That is just so special.
Scott Lee: I guess you're still working on the food insecurity project.
Sydney Guerette: Yep.
Scott Lee: How is that going?
Sydney Guerette: It's going well. We had that initiative and then we have a big project. Another one of the things that we love to do is collaborate with other nonprofits locally because there's so much competition and everyone's competing for the same funding. So, we're always looking for ways that how can we support our other nonprofit friends.
And so, my mom's in charge of heading a a new project Empty Bowls initiative or event with Scenic City Clay Arts. So, we have our friend Sarah who's also going to be running that as well with her.
Scott Lee: Yes.
Sydney Guerette: So they're going to be doing an Empty Bowls event and that will go back to, um, yeah. The food insecurity initiative, some of the proceeds from that night, we'll go back to the food insecurity initiative.
We're hoping to raise 10 to 15 or 15, 000 dollars during that night. And we had an empty bowls event last year and we were selling around 50 tickets, but this year we're hoping to sell around 150. So almost like. Over doubling that.
Scott Lee: Yeah. And, and the empty bowls, tell a little bit about what you actually do at the empty bowls event, event, because I think that's so interesting.
Sydney Guerette: Yeah. So, people will buy a ticket and that ticket will include the dinner for the night, as well as the bowl that you're eating out of. So, we're partnering with Scenic City Clay Arts specifically to do that. Create the the bowls and we had a couple of days of clay recently which is super exciting because that way you're also getting more people involved in the creation of this event It's going back to a good cause and during the night.
You'll hear from speakers someone from the school board will coming on. Some of our ambassador to change will be talking about why this initiative is important. And the food for the night. It's going to be coming from like seven different local restaurants. So, it's a busy. It's like a big collaboration Yeah,
Scott Lee: And and yeah, and the other pieces scenic seated clay arts is of course a nonprofit artist studio clay studio.
Yeah, and so you had a bunch of people come in to actually make those bowls.
Sydney Guerette: Yep, which was amazing like during the first day. I think we got around like It's between 45 to 70 bowls already done, which is super exciting. And we love partnering with our friends. And it's a way to support what we're both doing.
And then also go back to a great cause. And getting other people from the community involved. Because I think that's what's missing a lot of the time. People can come to these events and feel like they can write a check but not feel like they can be a part of it Outside of that And so we're always looking for ways that people can just get involved and bring their gifts to the table in order to make these things happen , which we're super, super excited about but that's happening November 13th.
Scott Lee: You've already mentioned, talking about several of your initiatives, how this is youth driven and essentially member driven because you're backing away to be more of a full time touring artist.
Is that correct? Yep. What is that like for you, as the person that got this started and then having to back away, and where do you see it going, in the future?
Sydney Guerette: I genuinely am super excited about this because the goal has always been at some point having youth make this their own and other people in the community make this their own.
And we're talking with other friends of ours like Walnut Street Publishing. To talk about, taking over like the afterschool component of what we're doing, cause they're connected to so many artists in the community. They're also creating ways for youth to publish their art as well. So. And having like our Ambassadors of Change take over different events and like the podcast that I did.
And so it's, it's really cool to finally start seeing what we've created in Chatt[anooga] over the last, For years and how people are starting to like bring ideas of their own to make it even better than we could even imagine But as far as me stepping away from it and taking more of an ambassador role. The big vision goal is as I'm stepping away and we're pursuing music to have a different nonprofit partner in every state, which is a very lofty goal but for me and Brayden it always goes back to our heart for giving back and how that was a reason. As to some of the reasons as to why be the change even started in the first place was, what how can we use our gifts and talents to give back to other people in?
In our sphere and we want to be able to enhance that through pursuing music professionally because it's such a transactional industry and being able to have that ground us and move us forward where we're constantly thinking of ways that we can give back so as we're touring and that's kind of why we're in Huntsville [AL], is this is our first, like, program into saying this is our vision, and we really want to make this a reality, and who are the nonprofits and people that we've met, in these different areas that we feel super connected to and we love their mission and we believe a lot in what they're trying to do and how can we just fundraise and help serve them wherever we can.
So, the big vision goal is as I'm stepping away from Chattanooga which is our home base and kind of like a test pilot and saying that these things can be done, how can we bring these resources and tools and as we're touring, fundraising not only for the nonprofits in these states but then also showing people that What we did in chat is, can be done.
It just takes a lot of intentionality and hard work, but you guys can replicate it in your other communities and cities and empower people to do that and take action that way. Which has always been like my heart is just showing people that serving is can't it's not easy It's not easy but it can be really fun and it just changes our perspective in the way that we interact with each other just on a human level And hopefully it'll change our mindset when it comes to pursuing different career paths as well.
Like always thinking of ways, how can we add little things here and there that'll change the way that we run a business or that we pursue a career? Like, how can we just constantly be thinking of people outside of ourselves? It doesn't have to be a super selfish thing, but a community building one if that makes sense.
[00:22:56] Scott Lee: Yeah. Yeah, it does I know you shared a couple stories about a couple of different people. , do you have any other stories that you'd like to share with any about any of the people who've been involved in any , be the change and Youth initiatives.
[00:23:10] Sydney Guerette: Yeah, I I always love like pointing out some of the of students.
There's been a handful of students when we do like the after school program, they'll go into an art class and they'll be like, Oh, I'm not going to do this. I'm into sports. Like I have nothing to do with art. I'm not going to be very good at it. I'm like, just. Just give it a try. Just tell me that you'll give it a try.
Just promise me. So they ended up trying it, and then they end up saying, like, being, first of all, one of the best to, like, finish the project. And then also, , they have this, like, joy just light up in them, and they're like, I think I actually might try a class outside of school, because this really brought me a lot of peace or a lot of calm.
So you have, like, instances like that. People will say that I really appreciate the way that you guys run Be The Change, because one of the feedback that we get, which I understand to a degree, is you guys do way too much, and you need to just pick one thing and just get really good at that and just make it your niche.
And I was like, Yeah, but the whole point of what we're trying to do is create a space for everyone to get involved because people need to see that they have value and we want to create opportunities for their value to add to the betterment of their communities. And so , when we were having like some of our first ambassador of change meetings, one of the students that we worked with, he graduated high school, but he still volunteers with us every now and then, which is really sweet.
, his name's Darian and he talked about how I really appreciate the aspect of what you guys do because You're not just for like some people in the community You're for everyone and like just things like that. I think it makes it worth it Especially on like the really difficult days when you're constantly wondering like did I make the right decision?
Because I didn't go to school for any of this I started this work when I was super young like 14 15 and I've learned so much by sitting in rooms with people and having conversations with people And Pursuing music professionally also is another ballgame. And so there's so many days where I'm like, this is really difficult and this is really hard, but it's those stories of like seeing how the students interact with it and seeing how it impacts them and how we encourage other people in the community.
Like it's not just, it's not about us at all. Like, it's not about us, and I'm thankful for the work that we get to do, and how it's grounded us in pursuing all of this, but also, it's just like, super beautiful to constantly create spaces for people to just experience that joy in giving back, and say that I have something to contribute, because I remember when I didn't feel like I had that at all, and it's like, It's really hard to look back on those times, but it makes it worth it where I'm at right now.
So no matter how difficult it gets, I always appreciate like those interactions for sure
[00:25:56] Scott Lee: Thank you so much for joining us today sydney.
[00:25:58] Sydney Guerette: Thanks for having me. This is great
[00:26:01] Scott Lee: The pleasure is ours and we'll be sure and put links to be the change youth initiative and In the company of wolves on our website.
Once again, thank you so much Sydney.
Thanks
The Thoughtful Teacher Podcast is brought to you as a service of Oncourse Education Solutions. If you would like to learn more about how we partner with schools and youth organizations strengthening learning cultures and developing more resilient youth, please visit our website at w w w dot oncoursesolutions dot net.
This has been episode 12 of the 2024 season. If you enjoy this podcast, please tell your friends and colleagues about us, in person and on social media. Also, five-star reviews on your podcast app helps others find us. The Thoughtful Teacher Podcast is a production of Oncourse Education Solutions LLC, Scott Lee producer, a member of the PodNooga Network. Guest was not compensated for appearance, nor did guest pay to appear. Episode notes, links and transcripts are available at our website w w w dot thoughtfulteacherpodcast dot com. Theme music is composed and performed by Audio Coffee. Please follow me on social media, my handle on Instagram, Bluesky and Twitter is @drrscottlee and on Mastodon @drrscottlee@universedon.com
