Arts and Culture United States Project #31942

Transform teens who have family in prison

by POPStheclub.com, Inc. (DBA POPS the Club)

Transform teens who have family in prison

Project Report | Dec 9, 2019
You are part of our Village!

By Amy Friedman | Executive Director

Valeria performs at POPS Book Launch 2019

Valeria is one of more than 1,000 teens across the U.S. who are treasured student members and graduates of POPS the Club.

Back in 2015, Valeria’s fears surrounding her family’s struggles with immigration drew her to visit a POPS club for the first time. In that nurturing space, she experienced transformation.

Before joining POPS, Valeria hid her fears and anxieties from teachers, counselors, peers, even her closest friends. POPS helped her understand she was not alone and empowered her to open up. In doing so, she discovered that her personal story is her strength!

It is estimated that more than 10 million children have experienced parental incarceration at some time in their life. And these kids face unique difficulties. In addition to the trauma of separation, behavioral consequences can be severe.

Children impacted by incarceration and detention are disproportionately more likely to have higher dropout rates, higher incidences of depression, ill-health, and anxiety. Parental incarceration disproportionately affects people of color and low-income populations, and a system of laws and regulations enacted to profit off the families of the incarcerated imposes still more burdens.

And yet these children have remained nearly invisible.

POPS the Club was founded to change all that, to provide support, hope and dignity for this too-often ignored population, and to amplify their voices.

After graduating from high school, Valeria stayed connected to POPS, and this year we were able to hire her to be our Volunteer Coordinator, even as she continues her college studies and holds down a second job.

One day at that second job, a customer offered Valeria a tip. She asked if instead he would consider a donation to POPS, the organization that had so critically impacted her life.

After he read about POPS’ mission, the gentleman made an extraordinarily generous donation.

It was second nature for Valeria to share the story of POPS the Club because she knows that those who have participated in POPS have experienced:

· a reduction in depression and anxiety

· an increased desire to graduate high school and go on to college

· a decision to leave behind gang associations

· trading violence for artistic expression

· an overall optimism about life that they did not have before

Each week POPS receives calls from schools, teachers, principals and community leaders wishing to bring POPS to their schools. We're ready to launch at new sites in 2020, but we need your support as we seek to raise $50,000 to support our expansion.

You are part of our village, and your support means so much, so we hope you'll consider a donation this holiday season!

With deep appreciation,

Amy Friedman,

Executive Director

P.S. Your gift makes it possible for a POPS provide each club with a nutritious lunch, a trained leadership team, our self-empowerment, self-expression and community engagement curriculum, publishing opportunities, and the kinds of other support members need to grow, heal and thrive.

John performs at the 2019 Book Launch

POPS is Family!

Katherine & Karen, POPS Grads and Ambassadors

Necey and Jennifer

Mikey performs at We Got Game Book launch

Permalink

Sep 19, 2019
The Student Becomes the Teacher

By Amy Friedman | Executive Director

Karen Arellano, POPS Communications Intern

In late spring, I reached out to on of our POPS the Club graduates and asked if she would be interested in speaking to middle school students with incarcerated family members about her experience with POPS. "I'll write up something," Leslie said, "you'll tell me if it's something that would be meaningful for the kids."

When I read what she wrote, I knew not only would the kids appreciate her words, but I also knew how meaningful her words are for everyone who supports POPS. This is an excerpt of what she wrote:

"I joined POPS when I was a senior in high school and I’m going to be honest, I started going because of the food. Who wouldn’t want to have a good lunch rather than the lunch in the cafeteria, right? So I gotta say I tend to be a quiet person. I don’t speak much until I have gained full confidence in the people surrounding me. This time I made an exception to come and speak because I was once a student at Mark Twain Middle School, and while I was, I was going through so much, and there was no way of talking out what I felt. I was going through depression. I was diagnosed with Lupus, and I was home-schooled throughout 8^th grade. I lost my memory. I don’t remember culminating. I only have a picture but a picture doesn’t bring back what I felt that day. Which brings me to the point of why we are here in this room today. We are here to express our feelings, to let everything out by writing it and allowing other people to read what we are going through.

"Many people see us and think we're ok--that we have a beautiful life with nothing to worry about. What they don’t see is our struggles. They only see the mask we wear every day. That's how I felt for years until I joined POPS. I felt ashamed of who I was, of where I came from. I was ashamed of people knowing that my dad was deported when I was 7. I was ashamed of being the daughter of a prisoner, the daughter of an alcoholic, the granddaughter of an alcoholic. Ashamed of being the cousin of guys who spent their time in and out of cells. It’s horrible feeling you have to live afraid that one day one of them won't come home. Having to keep all of that inside is hard.

"...I'd always act strong and pretend everything was all right, but there were days when depression overtook me. I’d lock myself in the bathroom, turn on the shower, put on some loud music and cry it all out and then come out as if nothing had happened. That’s the strategy I used before joining POPS.

Joining POPS helped me understand that I wasn’t the only one going through a situation like that. I wasn’t the only one with a family member in prison. I was so surprised when I saw many people I knew in the club.

...There’s a saying that appearances can be deceiving. And it’s true. You may see a person as happy, but in reality they’re dying on the inside. I always tried to be the type of girl who’d be there for people when they needed a friend. ...I'm here to tell you guys that you are not alone. There's no reason to be ashamed. We have to hold our heads up high and show the world we can be somebody new."

Bringing a POPS club into a school is a gift of light and love, and as Leslie's writing makes clear, POPS allows kids to feel safe enough to speak up, to create, and to connect. That was the light and love she brought to the students at Mark Twain Middle School last May in a pilot program in collaboration with Cedars Sinai Trauma Center's Share & Care Program.

We are working to continue this partnership, and our POPS grads are leading the way. In fact, because of our donor support, POPS recently hired three of our graduates, Valeria De La Torre who has become our Volunteer Coordinator, Karen Arellano, our Communications Intern, and Victor Zapata, our Social Media Intern. With your support, we can continue to expand horizons.

We are ever grateful to be sharing this journey with you.

With boundless gratitude,

Amy Friedman

Executive Director and Co-Founder

POPS the Club

*All participants have given permission for use of their names and photographs.

Established in 2014, POPS the Club is a 501(3) with a "Silver Level of Transparency"

on Guidestar, EIN number 46-4535915. All donations are tax-deductible.

Make a Gift

Valeria De La Torre, POPS Volunteer Coordinator

Victor Zapata, Social Media, back in the day...

Leslie, a POPS the Club grad

Links:

Leslie Mateos reads from her story

Permalink

Jun 17, 2019
We Got Game

By Amy Friedman | Executive Director

Leahnora's dancing tells a story

On Saturday, June 1, POPS the Club launched our sixth annual anthology, WE GOT GAME at The Actors Gang Theater, where 40 POPS students representing eight Los Angeles POPS clubs read, sang, danced, displayed their artwork and played music. They performed before a sold-out and rapt audience, and as I watched the show, I kept wondering how I could somehow convey the magic of the day for those of you who weren't able to join us.

After the show, as audience members moved out to the courtyard reception, the performers stayed behind to talk privately for a few moments. They had just bared their souls, and we all needed a breath. Johnny Rodriguez, POPS board member, performer, graduate and guide, gathered in a circle and asked, gently, "Does anyone have anything they need to say?"

Nods around the circle. People smiled. A few tears fell. "It was good," Mya said. And Bianca said, softly, "No, great." Then one of the guitarists leaned in and said, "I never got to go to a POPS club meeting. It wasn't at my school before I graduated, but I could have used this kind of community...Can someone tell me what the mission of POPS is?"

That's the question I've become accustomed to answering, and for a split second I thought about speaking, telling this young man that "Well, POPS stands for Pain of the Prison System, and that the mission is to heal that pain, and to amplify the voices of those who have loved ones inside..." But before I could say a word, hands flew into the air, and I remembered it is these young people's voices we all need to hear. And so I listened.

"It's a safe space," Alejandra said. Everyone nodded.

"It's this place we can all be ourselves..." Leslie echoed her.

"We can say anything we want...," John B said.

"You know," Lakeia leaned in and said, "I always knew there were other kids around me who had parents in prison, but NO ONE ever talked about it. At POPS we can all TALK about it. It's okay to be who we are..."

"We're kind to each other," Caleb added.

"We make things better for each other," his twin brother Kylon broke in.

"We find out we're not alone," said Amanda.

Nods and more nods. "I want to say something else," Caleb added. "Me and my brother don't have as much pain as other kids...I mean our uncle's in prison, and our cousin has a hard time, and that hurts us, but you know, what happens in POPS is that all that pain drops away, and when the pain drops away, we can let our creativity show..."

"Like the way Leahnora dances her story..."

"And Virginia's poetry..."

"And Lucy's art..."

"Yeah," they said, "yeah, that's it," someone else chimed in, and I realized, again, for maybe the thousandth time, how truly wise and talented and tender-hearted these young people are, and when they are given a space to be nurtured and nourished, a space where judgment vanishes, their pain drops away, and they create.

Six Word Memoir

Sebastian, John and Jose read

In the audience...

Opening the show

Poetry in motion

Links:

Permalink

‹ 1 2 3 4 5 6 ›

About Project Reports

Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.

If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.