In this photo from an unrelated past project, Will Massey plays with elementary-age kids on the playground.
Every week for the past seven years, teens and tweens from Jackson Street Youth Services have been coming to Langton Hall at Oregon State University to take a break from the shelter and do what kids do best: play.
A partnership between the College of Health’s Psychosocial Physical Activity Laboratory (2Play Lab), led by associate professor Will Massey, and Jackson Street creates space for kids ages 11-17 to move their bodies and let off steam through weekly physical activity nights, guided by Massey and his kinesiology student volunteers.
With the Jackson Street shelter, he said, they’re working with a population of kids who are experiencing trauma and are often in a chronic state of dysregulation. In this state, youth interpret their world in terms of what constitutes a present threat, rendering interventions like talk therapy less effective, and making interventions that incorporate physical activity and connection extremely important, he said.
“The different brain systems that are active when you’re dysregulated are going to be much more responsive to movement, in terms of being a regulating, calming force on the brain,” Massey said. “That’s a big piece to how we think about how movement can be healing.”
Jackson Street serves a variety of youth experiencing homelessness throughout Linn and Benton counties. Some are transitioning into or out of foster care; some have parents staying in adult shelters; some are runaways or undocumented immigrants. The group shifts from week to week.
At the weekly activity nights, sometimes five kids show up; sometimes 20 or more. The group does introductions and lays down some ground rules for basic respect and safety, then the youth choose what they want to do: cardio, volleyball, kickboxing, weightlifting; whatever they feel like. The sessions also include connecting with OSU mentors, as well as the other youth participants. At the end of the night, everyone comes together for a big group game. Sometimes Massey and students take the kids to dine at a campus cafeteria, or to the Memorial Union bowling alley, so they can experience different parts of campus.
The team tries to keep the program as youth-led as possible, letting them make choices for themselves.
“If you take control away from people and their ability to make decisions that impact their life, that can be incredibly damaging,” Massey said. “We’ve had youth tell us that they feel our program is a place where their humanity is respected. It’s about movement, but it’s more than that — it’s about the relational context where it happens.”
Massey, crouching left, and some of the OSU student volunteers who help guide the physical activity program.
Massey and his graduate student volunteers receive training from Jackson Street to equip them to act as mentors for the youth participants, and Jackson Street staff are always part of the weekly OSU outings. Massey also partners with the OSU Youth Programs Office for the operational and regulatory requirements of the program.
While the program benefits the Jackson Street youth who attend, it’s also been an incredible learning experience for Massey and his students, with the kids defying negative stereotypes.
“So often you’ll see on paper a youth who is struggling, who is challenged in certain ways, or is not coping with the realities of the world around them, and then they show up, and it’s not who you saw on paper. It’s a person with ideas and passion and curiosity, who’s intelligent, who can influence and lead people,” Massey said. “It’s a reminder that youth excel when they’re given opportunities to excel.
“They will always surprise you with how smart they are, and how curious they are, and how kind they are, and the good they can do in the world.”
Related Stories
