F3 Initiative at Alexander Youth Network

F3 Initiative at Alexander Youth Network

During the past month, a number of men from Area 51 have had the opportunity to get to know a beautiful group of kids that live at the Alexander Youth Network [AYN] campus just a few miles outside of downtown Matthews, NC. The range of services offered at AYN is impressive. I can’t do it justice in a brief post, but here are some fast facts to give you a general sense for AYN:

• AYN is a non-profit facility that provides professional treatment to children with serious emotional and behavioral problems.    
• AYN provides a comprehensive array of behavioral healthcare services, serving more than 5,000 children [ages 5-18] per year in more than a dozen programs.
• Children are referred to AYN from hospitals, physicians, parents, schools, and organizations such as departments of social services and the juvenile justice system.
• AYN’s mission is to help kids recover from severe emotional and behavioral challenges.
• AYN offers both day-treatment services as well as a residential program.

When I was introduced to AYN a few months ago I couldn’t help but wonder how F3 could get involved. After a 6-degrees of separation conversation with Haywood [from the F3 Foundation Board of Directors] I discovered that two men of F3 [i.e., Puppy Love and Sweeper Boy] serve on the AYN Board of Directors. I should have known! Puppy Love connected me with the AYN team, and we jointly decided to try a four week program whereby men of F3 would lead workouts for the AYN residents on Saturday afternoons from 4-5PM. AYN has as many as 36 full-time residents in treatment at any point in time, most in the age range of 8-12. The residential program serves children that require 24-hour supervision; with a typical treatment duration of four to six months. Each child has a unique story, but the common thread is that these are kids that have experienced some real challenges in life, including various forms of abuse.

So, for the past four Saturdays we’ve had a collection of F3 men – Puppy Love, Frasier, Slim Fast, Mermaid, Spackler, Iron Horse, and myself – rotate Saturdays to lead workouts and connect with the kids on a personal level. It’s been – I think – a mutually beneficial experience. The kids showed gains each week… getting the counting down pretty well [better than some of my F3 brothers, who shall remain nameless]… and by the last week we even had some of the kids leading exercises. The kids loved the fact that we had silly nicknames [thankfully, all of the F3-ers on site had family friendly nicknames]. As the weeks progressed it was pretty cool seeing the kids come out of their cottages at the start of the workouts and call out to us by name.

I wanted to share all of this, not for a pat on the back, but rather to make you aware of AYN and to give a small example of how men of F3 continue to find ways to connect with the community. My gentle challenge to the men of Area 51 is to keep your eyes open for community engagement activities. I’ve found that all it takes is one person – with a bit of passion – to attract other men of F3 to community projects/programs. It’s a bit like Field of Dreams… “if you build it, he will come”… just flesh out your idea and the men of F3 will lift it up and make it happen.          

So, you may be wondering… well, what next with AYN? We are in the process of working with AYN to a) have a fun F3-AYN cookout to goof around a bit with the kids, and b) establish a long-term commitment with AYN whereby we get men of F3 out with the kids on selected Saturdays throughout the year. So… stay tuned… there will be opportunities to get involved.         

Joker