Category: Q&A

New program facilitates healthy connections

Through a new contracted partnership with the New Hampshire Department of Education, One Trusted Adult, a program that works to ensure that children have an accessible, trusted adult to provide support outside of the home, will be implemented at 125 New Hampshire schools serving students in grades 5 through 12 over the next two years. Brooklyn Raney, One Trusted Adult founder and author of the book One Trusted Adult: How to Build Strong Connections & Healthy Boundaries with Young People, discussed the program.

What led you to develop the One Trusted Adult program?

I’m a teacher, coach and school administrator. … There was one year when we had [multiple] prevention programs in one month — substance abuse prevention, suicide prevention, sexual assault prevention — and every program ended with [the presenter] saying … to our students, ‘If you have a worry or concern, reach out to a trusted adult.’ I sat there thinking, ‘What does that term mean, exactly?’ We throw it around a lot. Do the young people in this auditorium look to the adults in this room as those trusted adults? Are we thinking of ourselves as those trusted adults who can support these initiatives to keep kids safe? … I started looking for programs that could come talk to my staff about what it means to have healthy, boundaried relationships with students, and I couldn’t find anything, so I created one to use with my own staff, and other schools started inviting me to come talk to them. That’s when I really dug in and did two years’ worth of research to write a book.

How did the New Hampshire Department of Education end up partnering with One Trusted Adult, and how will the program be implemented throughout the state?

The research we were doing was showing that just under 50 percent of students in middle schools and high schools could name a trusted adult at school. That isn’t good enough. … The [New Hampshire] deputy commissioner [of education] Christine Brennan read the book and said, ‘There’s a great opportunity here to get this information to educators and youth-serving professionals across the state.’ … We ran a pilot program last year with five schools and received really amazing feedback on the positive outcomes. … It’s super simple and free for schools to get their hands on these resources. Schools simply have to … fill out a form on what they like from the offerings of One Trusted Adult and how they’ll implement it. We send off the materials, and the DOE takes care of funding it.

What are the main facets of the program?

The important conversations we need to have are about strengthening healthy connections while also setting boundaries to protect youth and adults, as well as what young people should be looking for in trusted adults, mentors and role models, as well as [how to] create more opportunities for connection. … We began developing our Accessible, Boundaried and Caring advisory program for middle school … and high school students … and we train the adults through an online course on how to use these materials to strengthen healthy connections. … We also have a program for parents … geared specifically toward showing up as a trusted adult for our own children.

What qualities should a trusted adult have?

In the research we’ve done … talking to adolescents about the trusted adults in their lives, we heard the same quotes over and over: ‘They were there for me when I needed them.’ “They encouraged me when I needed it.’ ‘They challenged me when I needed it.’ ‘They were fun and playful, but they also taught me something.’ … What emerged from the data was that trusted adults show up in three ways that I call the ‘ABCs:’ accessible, boundaried and caring. The overlap of those qualities is where trust is built.

How does having a trusted adult impact a child’s life?

The research shows that when a student can name a trusted adult at school, they’re less likely to abuse substances, less likely to be depressed or anxious, less likely to be suspended or drop out, and are more likely to be available for learning, to engage in after-school opportunities and to pursue their education.

Why is it important for children to have a trusted adult outside of the home?

The parent or guardian relationship at home is absolutely foundational and the most important relationship in a child’s life … but there’s an amazing psychologist, Lisa Damour, who says that [as kids get older,] parents go from being jelly beans to Brussels sprouts; they’re healthy, they’re good for you, but they’re not the thing you’re most excited about. … Young people who can name a trusted adult at home as well as at school are thriving in ways that [young people who can’t] aren’t. It’s even better when those trusted adults from home and school are partnering for the well-being of young people.

How are trusted adults chosen for each child?

It’s up to the young people to decide who those trusted adults are in their lives. We’re looking to build capacity in all adults — community members, neighbors, parents, teachers, coaches, you name it — to recognize how they can be accessible, remain boundaried, and show young people that they care and invest in their well-being and success

Featured photo: Brooklyn Raney. Courtesy photo.

General counsel returns from public leadership program

Mary Ann Dempsey, general counsel for New Hampshire’s Judicial Branch, was named the 2022 recipient of the Caroline and Martin Gross Fellowship, awarded by the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation. Dempsey talked about the experience in which she spent three weeks in July participating in the Senior Executives in State and Local Government program at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.

What is your background and current role in public service?

After law school, I started my legal career as a law clerk with the New Hampshire Judicial Branch, which is where I am now. I did a two-year clerkship. I went into private practice for 12 years. Then, Attorney General Mike Delaney, in 2011, asked if I’d join the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office to head the civil bureau. That was my return to the public sector and working in state government. The civil bureau team would represent all of the state government, including the state agency, in litigation, helping them with client counseling and things of that nature. I was at the AG’s office for approximately three and a half years when Gov. Hassan asked if I’d serve as her legal counsel for the second term of her gubernatorial administration, so I moved over to the governor’s office for two years. … When Gov. Hassan was elected a U.S. senator, that’s when I came back to the judicial branch, in 2016, to be in the role I’m in now, which is as the general counsel.

What is the history of the fellowship?

It’s a three-week intensive program for state and local government leaders throughout the country. … The group consists of elected officials, law enforcement, city and county folks and then some state people who work in state governments, such as myself. … Martin Gross and Caroline Gross were both very active in public service in New Hampshire, so they created this fellowship to provide the funding for one person from state or local government in New Hampshire to attend the Harvard Kennedy School executive education program.

What led you to apply for it?

Judge Tina Nadeau, who is the Chief Justice of the Superior Court, was selected by the Charitable Foundation approximately 10 years ago to participate in the Harvard Kennedy program. I work closely with her, and she has been such a proponent of the program and the skills that it helps to develop, so she had encouraged me for a few years to apply. It wasn’t until this year that it was a good year for me to do so, and I was lucky enough to be selected.

What exactly did you do during those three weeks?

The program [runs] Monday through Friday, all day, with lectures from Harvard Kennedy professors in specialized areas. Then, you work in groups, and you work on projects. The whole goal is to teach individuals new skills and how to address policies, how to move programs forward and how to engage in dialogue with folks who may have a different view of a policy or a program from you. It’s an executive leadership program that’s designed to help individuals engage in tough discussions to either have a more comprehensive program or to be able to have opposing viewpoints in a respectful and professional way.

What were some educational highlights from the program?

One of the classes that was really impactful for me was a crisis management program which teaches skills to mitigate against a crisis, whatever that crisis might be — any unexpected issue that disrupts the flow of business — and how to essentially be prepared for the unknown. It’s a difficult concept for most of us to think about, but after Covid, every single business, public and private, has had to live through a situation like that, so it’s so relevant in terms of how to make sure your organization is able to continue operations, projects and necessary work. That was incredibly interesting to me. There was another class on how to engage in informed communication, both with constituents and with members of your team. … One program was about power dynamics in the sense of understanding the different groups that you may work with in your role in government and how to interact with each [in order to] make a successful team engaging in that type of work.

How are you planning to apply these new skills to your work in New Hampshire?

One example I can give is [that] the judicial branch is working on the centralization of our mental health docket, specifically our involuntary emergency admissions. It requires interaction with other members of the state government, with hospitals and with advocacy groups. That’s a perfect project to use these skills to help make sure that we’re all talking the same language, that we have common goals and that we can make productive steps throughout a complex process to bring it across the finish line.

Is there anything else you took away from this experience?

It was, without a doubt, the most diverse group of individuals that I’ve probably been in a classroom setting with since college. The conversations were so enlightening and enriched by having folks with different experiences, different backgrounds, diversity in jobs, diversity in race, diversity in geography.

Featured photo: Mary Ann Dempsey. Photo by Cheryl Senter.