- Just ahead on Black Issues Forum.

From hiking and connecting with nature to engaging in sports and group activities, it's important that young children feel their summer months with experiences that keep their brains and bodies stimulated while out of school.

We'll share some of those programs and opportunities coming up next.

Stay with us.

- [Voiceover] Quality public television is made possible through the financial contributions of viewers like you who invite you to join them in supporting PBS NC.

[upbeat music] ♪ - Welcome to Black Issues Forum.

I'm your host Kenia Thompson.

Stimulating kids during the summer may seem like a chore for parents and caregivers at times, but various studies show that children who participate in camps and other summer groups and programs perform better when school starts back in the fall.

Unfortunately, the American Camp Association and the YMCA report that black children are the most underrepresented coming in at about 4% to 10% of our children attending camps and programs.

Today, we explore why our numbers are lower and share some options for students as we prepare for school to let out and summer to begin.

To start off the conversation, we have the founder of Hike 2 Connect with us today.

I wanna welcome to the show, Tai Caldwell.

- Well, hello Kenia.

It's good to see you lady.

- It's good to see you too.

So let's get right into it.

Hike 2 Connect.

How did you come up with this and what is it all about?

- Oh gosh.

Before there was Hike 2 Connect, there was Tai hiking.

With that I was furloughed during the great pandemic.

And I was furloughed from Lenovo.

I wanted to go to the Eno.

I've talked about it for a while and finally had time.

Went out there, I was hiking solo, then started bringing along my sister and then started bringing along friends and other folks.

It grew from there.

Lost a lot of weight.

Then decided I wanted to do a photo shoot.

I was with Tanisha Walker of "In God's Image."

And she was talking to me and she says, "Talk to me about this transformation."

And I told her about the hiking and the wellness and she says, "That needs to be a program and it needs to be paid because we do enough for free."

And I was so excited and I was so excited I started recording her and then I put it on the proverbial back shelf.

Until some of the teens that I was working with start having an uptick in anxiety, depression.

- So talk about these teens you were working with.

What kind of work were you doing with teens before this?

- Oh gosh.

A great deal of community work.

So out facilitating wellness sessions, resilient sessions.

Doing some one-on-one mentoring, working with StandUp-SpeakOut of North Carolina.

And StandUp-SpeakOut of North Carolina is a 501[c]3 that works with survivors and witnesses of domestic violence and sexual assaults.

So we had a number of young people working in the schools, working after schools with the YMCA, things of that nature.

And our young people were and still are affected by the pandemic.

And that's when I took Hike 2 Connect and started running with it.

I got with Charlene Alice Provilus of Write.

Speak.

Inspire.

and talked with her about it.

And she built the website and got things up and running and made it professional.

And we went from there.

I apologize.

I have to back up.

StandUp-SpeakOut of North Carolina was where I first partnered.

I told her, I said, look, I'm gonna go out, I'm gonna take these young people out on the trail hiking.

And she's like, "Sis, you do the hikes and we'll take care of the administration."

That is actually how it initially got started.

- How did you convince kids and parents?

'Cause this might be a stereotype, but lot of black people don't go outside, right?

We don't hike.

That's not something that is, in my opinion, common or correct me if I'm wrong.

- We actually do hike.

- [Kenia] Okay.

- That is the thing.

So when I was younger, I'm raised, raised in the country.

Bunn, North Carolina.

I don't even think we broke a population of 400.

- Oh wow.

- I was out in the woods playing.

I wasn't doing intentional hiking, but I'm out in the woods playing, running barefoot, all those different things.

Then I come to Raleigh and I'm not thinking about hiking.

I'm like more detached from the country.

'cause we're in the city.

When I hit the trail, is plenty of black folks out there.

It's just that we don't talk about it a lot.

We don't.

We don't talk about it.

And a number of us aren't getting our kids out there on a consistent basis, but our folks are out there hiking.

- Well, that's good to know.

- Yeah.

- Because that was my stereotyping.

I'm sure other people have that stereotype too, right?

- It was mine too.

- But especially today, I think with technology and social media and gaming being such a thing, our kids are not being outside.

We talked earlier about grounding, right?

- Yes.

- Some kids had never had their feet touch the grass.

- [Tai] That's is correct.

- Talk about the importance of connecting with nature.

- Studies have shown over and over again, I'm not going to attempt to cite them, that's not my area.

- [Kenia] No worries.

- But have shown over and over again that getting out in nature has a calming effect.

It helps lessen anxiety.

It helps lessen depression.

It also promotes physical activity, which helps combat obesity, right?

And other health related issues.

So, getting out there and connecting with nature is a part of wellness.

And wellness should be a lifestyle and not just something that we put on our list to check off.

- Right.

Do you ever get any pushback?

When you have a group of kids and they're like, "Oh man, why are we going out here?

"Why are we doing this?"

- The biggest thing that we have going on is in the morning time, because a lot of times I'm trying to do hikes early and we're talking about nine o'clock.

- [Host] That's not too early.

- For some on a Saturday morning, when they don't wake up until 10 o'clock, and then the first thing they do is reach for their phones.

- [Host] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

- So, that can be a thing.

So, when you have this lady out there that's super duper hype.

"Hi, good morning, my name is Ty Caldwell."

And it's like, "Okay, gimme time to wake up."

But they're usually pretty great.

And we do a check-in at the beginning of our hikes and then we check back in at the end of our hikes.

And I apologize, the check-in is just simply, what are we feeling in our bodies?

What type of sensations do you notice?

On a scale of one to five or one to 10?

one being the lowest, like ugh, and five or 10 being like all the way up.

Where are you at right now?

And then we check in at the end of the hike, and they're able to see that progression that just being out there for maybe an hour, an hour and a half.

Just being in nature, detached from Instagram, Snapchat.

I was gonna say Facebook, but I'm dating myself, from those different things.

Right, they're like Facebook, that's my old people, but just attaching from that and touching a tree.

Because one of the things I talked to Jewel about earlier was we go by these trees that provide us this oxygen on a regular basis, but do we actually touch or acknowledge them?

- [Host] Yeah.

- So we get our young people to do that.

If we go by some water, a lot of times they'll instinctively touch the water.

That is what they need more exposure to.

- Yeah.

Do you find that kids are readily when provided space, able to be vulnerable and share and not be fearful of releasing those emotions - That I've seen over and over again that they will be out, not just connecting with nature, but connecting with one another.

Hike 2 Connect is about connecting with deeper parts of yourself, connecting with nature, but connecting with other people around you and they see that your status doesn't matter, what you're wearing, doesn't matter your color, your race, your ethnicity, it does not matter.

We're all here together.

And the thing it's setting that tone.

I've been blessed with that gift to be able to, wherever I'm at, create that space where they know they're okay and they're also seen and heard.

Because that's something that we see on a regular basis that our young people do not feel like they're seen or they are heard for themselves.

Sometimes it's just what they can do and not who they are.

Give us a look into the various programs we've had video rolling as you've talked and we've seen folks hiking, but we've seen them indoors.

We've seen them do doing group activities.

What kind of programs do they go through and what are the benefits of those?

- I love the different programs that I'm able to offer with Hike 2 Connect.

For example last month, in April, we were a recipient of the Say Something Strong Award, $15,000.

- [Host] Wow.

- And I was- - [Host] Congratulations.

- Thank you.

I was one of two people that received the $15,000 award and there were three people who received $5,000 awards, and those funds were to go towards helping marginalized communities in Durham that had been affected by COVID.

When I did the proposal, I told them, I said, "I have a program already that does that."

I was getting people out on the trail during COVID, so going to the programs, we have our hikes, our immersive hiking experiences where we're not just hiking, but we're teaching resilient skills.

We're teaching interpersonal skills, we're teaching social-emotional learning.

Inside, last month we did Terrarium building.

- [Host] I love that.

- They're building their own little ecosystem and we had families coming together, so there were moms and their children or our auntie and her niece and they created something with their hands.

It's something about being able to see the end product of something that you created and then within a couple of weeks seeing it grow up and they decorated the inside.

It was absolutely a beautiful.

- There is a connection that happens with that, it's nourishing.

Yeah, it's like nourish.

It's like your child, you watching it grow.

- Exactly, right?

- Yeah.

- So, they had that, what is that word?

That gratification.

- Yes, yes.

- Of something growing.

And then they had that connection time.

The moms, the auntie, whoever participated, didn't have to figure out, well, what's next?

What's next, what's next?

It was already laid out for them.

We did painting, we did affirmations.

A lot of people have heard of affirmations, but don't know how to apply them to their regular lives.

- Yes.

- On a consistent basis, right?

We did team building.

There is one video that you'll see with one of my mentors, Mr. Dennis Tapering.

He is so amazing.

He talked about effective communication, right?

Because sometimes I feel like I'm communicating with you, but am I speaking in the language that you understand, right?

Also understanding that I need someone else to help me on this journey, that I'm just not out here by myself, 'cause a lotta times, we'll feel like, oh, I got it, I-N-D-E-P.

I went way back, I know.

But to know the importance of, again, connection.

For everything that we were doin', we were teaching resilience.

We were teaching connection, and a part of resilience is connecting with other people.

So the painting, the terrarium building.

- When you think back to all these activities and programs, like what is your most fondest memory, when you've seen like Black girl joy or Black boy joy just come through.

- One of my favorite moments was the second, I believe it was the second hike, and it was a number of kids, I can't remember, it might've been 13 or more.

And we're out there on the trail, we're sitting by the river at William B. Umstead, and it was time to gather up and go.

The parents were there as well.

The parents were on the other side with Keisha Sandage, a friend of mine I also volunteer with at StandUp-SpeakOut of North Carolina.

And I was on the other side with some other folks and the kids, and it was time to go.

And one of the kids was like, "Can we stay a little longer?"

- [Host] Aw.

- I knew I had somethin'.

I was like, okay, God, I have somethin', because they could have easily been like, "I'm ready to get back on my phone.

"I'm tired of bein' out here in these woods, let's go."

But they wanted to stay there, and they talked about they could breathe.

- [Host] Oh.

- They could breathe.

- And that's such, it seems like such a simple thing, but to allow a child, a person, an adult, whomever, a human being, space to just breathe and to feel at peace, I think is the most invaluable thing that you could offer.

- [Tai] Absolutely.

- So, summer's coming, and a lotta parents are like, what am I gonna do with these children?

You've got some programs coming up, some opportunities, share with us.

- [Tai] This is what I want to point back to.

I do have some things that I'm doin' with Hike2Connect, but I'm not doin' a lot on the weekend, as I was doin' before.

- [Host] Yeah.

- [Tai] I have a list.

- [Host] Share the list.

- Because we have these resources that we don't always know about.

We don't understand how simple it is.

Go to visitraleigh.com, folks.

- [Host] Yes, there's so much there.

- Yes, and there are a number of free events.

Because I get it, sometimes resources are a challenge.

American Tobacco Trail, that's in Raleigh and it's in Durham, can go there, visit free.

North Carolina Museum of Art, that is getting outside, and you get to go inside, look at art.

Historic Yates Mill, that's beautiful to go take pictures at as well.

Lake Benson Park in Raleigh, Laurel Hills Park, Sassafras All Children's Park.

And then in Durham, we have Sarah P. Duke Gardens.

- Yes, beautiful there.

- The Eno is my favorite, my favorite place to visit.

That was where I went on my first hike.

Museum of Life and Science, Nasher Museum of Art, and free events at the American Tobacco Trail Campus.

All these things are free.

All these places allow you the space to go outside, connect in nature, and some of the spaces allow you to go inside and have a great time as well.

This is good for parents.

This is good for adults.

I mean, not, individuals, parents and their family, all of them to get out.

And you don't have to figure out what you're gonna do, just learn to go out and just be.

Put the phones down unless you're takin' some pictures, 'cause I do encourage that.

Folks, let me say this, print the pictures.

[host laughs] - Yeah, we don't do that anymore, do we?

Everything remains digital.

And for those that are not in The Triangle area, we wanna make sure that these resources are likely available across North Carolina.

- They are.

- We are lucky and fortunate to have so many parks and spaces across the state, so find one in your area and make sure you get outside.

Before we end our conversation, how do people connect with you, if they want to?

- Please reach out to me at hike, the number two, connect.com, hike2connect.com.

On social media, it's @taiconnects.

Tai Connects is the best way, and that's T-A-I.

Don't transpose the A and the I.

People will say, "Tia, oh my gosh, "it's so good to see your routine, it's wonderful."

It's like, "It's Tai Connect.

- [Host] Right.

- Yes.

- Wonderful, well, Tai, thank you so much.

I've admired your work from afar and close up for a long time, and I'm grateful.

And I'm sure the children and families are grateful for the work that you do.

- Are we gonna get you on a trail?

- I don't know, we'll talk about that [laughs].

But as we prepare to invite our next guest on to talk about what she's planning for our kids, I thought it would be perfect to not quite finish Tai's experience and share a glimpse into the work that she does.

What you're about to watch is a clip from her recently released mini documentary.

It's an impactful and raw look into the emotions felt by far too many young adults today.

Take a look.

- The effects of the Covid pandemic on our teens was in my backyard.

A number of youth I worked with experienced an increase in anxiety and depression, and so many of them were strugglin' badly with bein' in isolation.

How are we when we are not well?

- Everything's more cluttered mentally and spaciously.

My room's like more dirtier.

My outlook, life's more bad.

It's like, even the sunny days aren't like, as sunny as it used to be.

But then when they are well again, everything's coming, it goes my way.

- The thing is, I may not say it out loud to you, but I will be picking everything you do apart when I'm not well.

- I'm quiet, I'm mad, and just serious.

- Even my mind is more cluttered and I'm less optimistic about things.

- One, it isolates me from other people because like you said, I do get annoyed with people a lot easier when I'm like unwell.

- That's a real thing, and like this big smile, I'll still be smiling but on the inside I'm like, I want them to get away from me.

- I don't smile at people's face.

I tell them to leave me alone.

I tend to like, isolate myself in my room, and I used to get my Guinea pig and hang out with him to help myself calm down, and I just listen to music in my bedroom.

I don't really do anything.

Like, I don't eat, I don't cook.

I just dwell in my sadness - Because I'm so stuck in this anger, I'm so stuck in my depression, I'm so stuck in my anxiety.

- I knew I couldn't fix it, but I knew I had a tool that could at least help them in the midst of it.

- Such a raw, beautiful perspective.

Even in that young lady saying that she just stayed in her room by herself, she still had a smile on her face, which just touched me.

But the work that Ty does is so important, and our next guest is also doing some very important work.

She is a Durham native, grew up in a family village mindset, and she always had community around her, and upon graduating from college, it was only fitting that her and her godsister created a village for other young Black children to experience the same love and guidance that they did.

Let's welcome to the show co-founder of Growth NC, Taylor Dorsey-Flowers.

Welcome to the show.

- Thank you for having me this morning.

- You look so bright and beautiful today.

- Thank you.

Yes.

- So we saw that video, we heard Ty's conversation.

It's so important, right?

For children to have space.

- Yes.

- And that's what you created.

- Yes.

- Space.

Tell us about Growth NC.

- So Growth North Carolina stands for Girls Rising Over What They Hear.

It's a mentoring program for young girls in the community.

My godsister, Asha Freeland, and I grew up together.

We both had single parents, so her dad and my mom were very serious about creating a village for us, not only to support us, but to support them 'cause they were single parents.

And we were just so grateful for that growing up because we always had access, exposure, and opportunities so we're dedicated to providing that for the future generations and youth here.

- That's beautiful.

And so what kinds of...

So it's just for Black girls?

- Yes, well, it started out initially just for Black girls, but we realized that it's important to serve families holistically.

So of course we do serve young boys now.

We are expanding.

It's a lot, but it's worth it.

- Yeah, and I love that, 'cause not to exclude any gender, but so much we find that we have resources for us as women.

And then we find that our Black boys are suffering silently and then they grow up to be Black men who are continuing to suffer.

- Exactly.

- So I'm so glad that you've expanded the reach, although the focus is great.

Share with us some of the things that you've seen children experience.

- Definitely with the gap, with COVID and delays, mental health is really important right now.

Children are going through a lot with depression, anxiety.

Social media is tearing our kids down right now with their self-esteem.

- It really is.

Yeah.

- It's ridiculous.

Also, a lot of children are experiencing traumas that we can't even imagine because of what they're being exposed to at an early age.

So we have designed programs to kind of combat that, and to provide effective interventions to make sure that they're successful and can overcome that.

That's why Girls Rising Over What They Hear.

You know, block that out.

You are gonna be successful no matter what because of the village and the support that we are giving you.

- What kinda things do girls hear?

I mean, I remember growing up it was not always fun.

I don't really have super fond memories of elementary school, middle school, high school even, but I know things have shifted a little bit, and they've gotten more severe.

- Yes, definitely.

I mean, threats, you know, a lot of aggression going on between groups of children on social media and in school settings.

Community engagement is really, really a serious topic with us because the neighborhoods these children are growing up in is not always the safest, and don't really have that many positive role models in their household, unfortunately.

Or I would say body positivity is really big too.

That kind of affects mental health.

And unfortunately, I have been in environments and communities where we have lost a couple children to suicide.

So I'm very serious with that.

So Growth did create an initiative called I Matter that focuses on that.

- That's great.

That's great.

You mentioned COVID earlier and how we've seen this gap.

You know, whether it's a social gap or a learning gap.

What types of programs do you have in place to help combat that gap?

- Yes, so we have Grade A Growth, which I'm really excited about.

We've been doing this for like the last three years.

So we offer free virtual tutoring services and in person, and we also help with pre-K students transitioning into the classroom setting, and then we also help high school students with essay writing and college applications, and things like that, helping them with SAT prep.

So that's really.

- That's necessary.

- Yeah, that's really fun.

Then, we also have Grow Healthy, which is our sports and wellness program for children to allow them to be able to go to free sports clinics, have free health workshops, nutrition, healthy eating lifestyle workshops, and then we also have Rising Stars, which is my personal favorite, which gives children access to free performing arts-based workshops and opportunities.

- [Kenia] That's great.

- Yes.

- And I know why you love that, because I love that, too.

- I love dancing, that's my favorite, so.

- And music, is that incorporated into it?

- Yes, music, drama, dance, visual arts, costume designing, all of it.

- Nice, now you have STEM?

- Yes, that's a part of our Grade A+ Growth, yes.

- Okay, that's great, and so, you know, a lot of times, again, I'm stereotyping here, I do it with Ty, I might do it here, but Black families have an issue of trusting, right?

- Yes.

- And so we think, "I don't wanna send my kid "to this place or this program "that I don't know nothing about."

- [Taylor] Exactly.

- How do you combat that stereotype mindset?

- Yeah, so since it's a village model that we live by, I'm really serious about creating trusting and positive relationships with every family we serve.

The first thing I tell families, "When you drop off your kid, to me, they are my child "during this time that they're with me, "so I'm gonna protect them like they're my own.

"I'm gonna make sure that they are well fed."

You know, "I spoil them.

"I teach them the traits and everything they need to know "to be successful as they grow up," so it's all about that, and it's also about seeing people that look like you.

- [Kenia] Yes.

- In these positive roles.

We have professionals that come in that look like them.

An experience that is coming to my mind is we were able to go to UNC for the weekend and spend two days with Howard University's lacrosse team.

- [Kenia] Oh, wow.

- And our girls were in awe, because they were like, "Oh my gosh, they're superstars," and the team were treating my babies like they were the superstars, so, you know, parents like, "That's so amazing to be able "to see a HBCU women's lacrosse team play another "HBCU women's lacrosse team, "and everyone looks like each other."

Right, because lacrosse is not exactly.

And not only, it's one thing to bring them there and then take them home.

- [Kenia] Yeah.

- Right, they went home with a lacrosse stick, with a ball, with gear.

So, it's like, "Hey, you can still keep practicing "if you're interested in it."

- [Kenia] Yeah.

- Or you have the opportunity at least to keep going.

- A little over a minute, conversation always goes by so fast.

- [Taylor] Yeah.

- You two have programs for the summer.

- [Taylor] Yes.

- What are they?

- So, I'm really excited.

This year, we are hosting our first summer camp, Camp Rise, in partnership with Community Life and Recreation Center at Lion Park.

- [Kenia] Nice.

- And we'll also be doing a performing arts intensive and also an academic prep camp to help children, you know, fix the gap that a lot of people are struggling with right now academically, and then also, every year we host our annual back-to-school event at the same location, I'm so excited.

Last year, we were able to serve over 500 students.

- [Kenia] Wow.

- We had over 300 backpacks go away full of school supplies, so this year, of course, our goal is to go above and beyond again, and the theme is carnival, so make sure everyone comes out, and it's gonna be great.

It's free for the community, open to everybody.

- That's great, and so if those images flash by too quickly for you, tell them where they can go to find out more information.

- GrowthNC.org, registration link is up there, all the information you need, and we also do have scholarships.

So, if anyone, I'm not turning anybody away.

That's one thing we don't worry about.

- [Kenia] Ages?

- Four to 13.

- Wow, okay.

I might bring my daughter to you.

- Bring her on, bring her.

- Thank you so much, Taylor.

- Thank you.

- And I want to thank you for watching.

If you want more content like this, we invite you to engage with us on Instagram using the hashtag #BlackIssuesForm.

You can also find our full episodes on pbsnc.org/BlackIssuesForm, and on the PBS video app.

I'm Kenia Thompson.

I'll see you next time.

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