Andrea Martinez (she/her) has been an active participant in Y-WE programs since 2021. Her journey includes Grow and its internship, Speak, Nature Connections, and, most recently, the Youth Leadership Council (YLC). A version of this interview appears in Y-WE’s most recent Annual Report.
Q: Why do you keep coming back to Y-WE?
A: The biggest thing that keeps me coming back is that it’s such a strong community – between the facilitators, mentors, and the participants – it doesn’t feel that when you’re a participant there’s a hierarchy. It just feels like I’m coming to hang out with really cool people and to learn some really cool stuff. It’s such a nice change of pace from the rest of the world because I’ve had moments after joining Y-WE where I go to other meetings or groups or events and I’m expecting the Y-WE atmosphere. And then I’m like, oh, this is not Y-WE. This is somewhere else and I’m not going to experience the same thing. I get so used to the Y-WE norm that I’m expecting that from other places, and it’s so interesting to me how we get used to the Y-WE experience – so much that it’s like we almost expect it. Like, why are things not that way in other places?
Q: When you say “the Y-WE community,” what are some of the elements of that?
A: I think it’s the openness. Like there’s a lot of – we always do community agreements and stuff before doing anything. The openness and vulnerability that people have going into Y-WE programming. Where it’s like, we’re all here to do these things, make friends, and talk to each other and to just build community. So it’s just a difference of mindset while stepping into the Y-WE space. Like people have different mindsets when they are coming in. We set community agreements, we talk to each other, we open up about real life things. A lot of times in other spaces, it’s just like, it kind of removes your humanity. At Y-WE it’s always like, you just asking me what’s one thing that made you happy this week or like, you know, what’s your favorite this, that or the other. You connect with people on an interpersonal level versus outside it’s just like all right, like brass tacks let’s get down to business.
Q: What does healing mean to you?
A: I think healing means a lot of things to me personally. Obviously it’s a very long process to heal, but also the smaller things can be healing as well. I don’t think healing has to be, ‘I’m completely fixed.’ I think healing is taking care of yourself, talking to people who are like minded and have similar interests. Keeping yourself social and doing things that make you happy and just being – nourishing every aspect of yourself. Don’t focus too much on productivity, be productive, but also nourish yourself, nourish your social circle, things like that. That is what is healing at the end of the day because we all have traumas, we all experience different things in life. We come from different walks of life, but at the end of the day, if you’re going to therapy or whether you’re just tackling things one day at a time, you’re healing. You just have to put yourself first sometimes and take care of yourself and do the things that nourish you. I think that’s what healing is.
Q: Have you had experiences at Y-WE that felt really healing or where you could tell that someone was trying to create supportive community for that purpose.
A: I think that’s what came up when I was talking about the vulnerability with Y-WE community. How we all feel comfortable enough to share things like that with each other I think it happened most predominantly in YLC. Especially last year’s YLC that Karisa and Shaena did, because so much of it was around taking care of each other and taking care of ourselves while trying to take care of our communities because if no one’s taken care of us – if we’re not taking care of ourselves, we can’t take care of other things. So that was probably the most– I’ve experienced it a lot in most Y-WE programs, but that was probably the most that I’ve experienced vulnerability and group healing where, after program, a bunch of us would just come together and be like, I had no idea how much I needed that. Or, I didn’t know I needed to get that off my chest. Just experiencing it together, but also individually with our own stories and situations and all that stuff.
Q: Have you engaged in Y-WE’s wellness programming?
A: Yes, actually. I was seeing a therapist through the Healing Justice Collective like a year ago, I believe and I did just reapply so that I could meet with the trauma informed financial coach, so that’s really nice. I think the therapy was helpful in certain ways, but I needed to shift paths at the point where I am in my healing process. It started feeling less productive and more like I was sitting in my triggered moments. I was sitting in those and waiting until my next therapy session to release it. I wasn’t processing things in the moment. I was just sitting in it. So I pivoted and I feel like taking control my finances, which has been a big problem in my family generationally. I think that would give me a sense of like I have control over my life. I feel like that would give me a lot more strength to stand on, if that makes sense. That’s just me personally.
Q: Is there anything else you want to say about Y-WE and this theme of healing in community?
A: I think that aside from the environment and community that Y-WE holds and fosters, and aside from its resources, it’s just really healing in and of itself to have these resources available. Y-WE programming for youth and everything being free. Like, I had no connection with the outdoors or my own land. When I joined Grow, I had moved to South Park and the plot is here in South Park so I learned a lot about where I was living, which was really empowering because I wouldn’t have known all of this stuff about the soil and the area and the history if I hadn’t joined a program like that. I think it’s important to know about where you’re living. So I thought that was very empowering.
When I joined Nature Connections, I had always wanted to be in the outdoor environment and go be outdoorsy and do stuff. But, there’s financial barriers and there’s social barriers. I don’t feel like I belong out there because when I go outside to a trail it’s always some skinny white girl jogging. I don’t see myself or represented in the outdoors. Y-WE changed that completely and pivoted my mindset. So just aside from the community itself and health and wellness resources and all that other stuff. The fact that Y-WE gets youth out there and gives us the opportunity to do stuff that we otherwise wouldn’t have been able to do is really empowering and healing.
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