 My name is Mariah Riggs. I'm the director of the Main Street Landing Performing Arts Center and your host for On the Waterfront. This month I am excited to have Shabnan Nolan, who is the executive director of the King Street Youth Center, as my guest. Welcome to the show. Thank you for having me. Oh. So we wanted to talk about all the amazing things. I don't know how much our audience knows about the King Street Youth Center. But if you were going to paraphrase or summarize what the King Street Youth Center does in Burlington, what would you say? So King Street is a place where kids and opportunity meet. And they do that through learning, play, and community. Oh, that's wonderful. I wish I got to play with kids all the time. It's pretty fun. It's way more fun. It's definitely fun. So let's also quickly talk a little bit about yourself. Where are you from? So I grew up in Alexandria, Virginia. And I came to Vermont when I went to graduate school. I got my degree in public administration up at UVM. And I'm actually also a first generation Iranian-American. My parents came over from Iran right before the Iranian Revolution. Oh, wow. And so you grew up basically in Washington, DC. That's right. For those of our viewers who might not know, Alexandria, Virginia is right outside of Washington. The suburb of DC. Straight up across the Potomac. You can see the pencil. Which is a real thing. Which is such a great community. I mean, that's a very vibrant place to grow up. It is. It's a really vibrant place to grow up. And one of the things that was really special about it is a place where, because it's Washington, DC, it's the capital of the United States, many people from all over the world came together. And it made it really special to be among such diverse communities. Because there is a huge disparity and kind of diversity. And the nation's capital has a lot of wealth, but it also has a lot of poverty. That's right. And it's kind of one of those places where it really meets up. It is. It is. Yes. That's exactly right. And that probably helped you develop empathy. Yes. I mean, I think it's important for people to be able to understand what it's like for somebody else who maybe didn't grow up in a neighborhood that they grew up in. And a lot of people might not be. I mean, I'm sure some of you are aware. But Burlington also has its own disparity in different populations within the community. Yes. I mean, certainly, like most communities, Burlington also has the plethora of people who are very low income, people with no income, people with middle, and then, of course, people with very high income, as we're seeing with the housing. Well, it's definitely, and I grew up here, and I've definitely noticed a shift. Burlington, like a lot of places, has become more gentrified, particularly over the last 15 to 20 years. Yeah, it does seem that way to me, too. I mean, just since I've been here since 2007, and that's been the case. And I think we're lucky at King Street to be able to be a place where communities come together. And I think that that can be really rare in our often polarized world. And so it's one of my favorite things about the center is we've got six different languages that are spoken among the population of youth who come to us. And it's so great for them to be able to learn from each other and hear different languages and really celebrate who they are. That's actually, I think even for me, that's amazing. That's a lot of diversity. It is a lot of diversity, and quite frankly, not always common across the state. And so I feel really fortunate to be able to walk in each day and hear the sound of little voices and for those little voices to be so varied. It just makes for a much richer community. And it does, and Burlington has that. I mean, there tends to be a certain monoculture in Vermont. And so that's one of the lovely things about Burlington is that it offers that to a state that can be very monochromatic. Right, that's exactly right. Which is true. So we kind of discussed it a little bit how you ended up working at King Street, but what drew you to it as an organization? So what really drew me to it was two things. One, it seemed to me that in my history a lot of my professional history has been around child advocacy and at the statewide level. And so working on policies that are good for children and families. And oftentimes what I felt was missing for me from that is being able to see how it is realized when it's on the ground. And one of the things that really drew me in at King Street Center was that you can take those policies and those systems and then you can see how they're actually working for families and children when you're at the center. And it's been a real joy for me to be able to be able to take that systems thinking and see what it looks like on the ground and then take that information and filter it back up to the state or whomever to be able to say this is what we intended, this is what's happening, like what would we do about that? As opposed to like, because you have the policy component which is very cerebral. It's very big, big brush stroke, mission statements, thinking about huge populations and then actually having the groundwork where you're actually doing it in the ground, in the community, seeing how it actually rolls out and how families respond to policies probably is actually very, very beneficial. Right, and you can take a look at what types of policies are in place and what is missing. And one thing just in the summer that I've noticed, my first summer at King Street Center and one of the things I've just been noticing is that some of the supports we have in place for children and youth during the school year drop in the summertime. And so what are we doing to ensure that children are safe, that they're fed, that they have a roof over their head and that they're getting education, right? Even in the summertime it's important, right? And so when, just look at mental health care for youth. I mean, if you have a mental health counselor that's connected through a school, what happens in the summertime? Exactly, and then also people have regression. I mean, that's a real problem too. And then sometimes it's a safety issue. Right, that's right. People have to work, where do kids go? Right. It's a significant issue. It's a big part of the reason why organizations like King Street Center are so important because we're a safe place that kids can go to. And beyond being a safe place kids can go to, we're also a place where kids feel like they belong. When you look at our teen population, our teen program is voluntary. Their parents aren't setting them up. They're choosing to come to King Street Center. So right now we have like 20 to 30 kids choosing to come to the center. That means that they're doing really fun and productive things with their day. And if anybody has a teenager and they know how hard it is to have a teenager choose anything, I mean, that's- It's a big deal. That's probably the biggest recommendation I've ever heard. So that's a real thing. It is. And it's a safe space and it's obviously a space where they feel like they're getting growth and they're feeling fulfilled in. Right. Which is invaluable. Especially at that age. Especially. Because that's the age tends to be where things, people get into trouble. That's right. But so exactly, what do you have, I think that's a great segue into what is the King Street Youth Center summer camp program look like? So it's a lot of fun. One of the great things about summer is that even though we have academic programming every single day, it's mostly filled with just like our mission states, connecting kids to opportunities. And that's especially true out in the community during the summertime. So they're going on field trips, they're going to Audubon Center, they're going over to the splash pad, they're going to a park around the area, they're going to Shelburne Farms. Like they're getting out and about and they're getting to have a fun summer, which all kids deserve to have. And that's a big thing. And I mean, that's a big part of our community is like summers are set up, especially in Vermont. It's incredibly restorative to have a couple of months of warmth and sun where children get to run and have exercise and breathe fresh air and be children. And just not have eight hours a day in school. I think that's a big reason for why year-round schooling wouldn't work in a place like Vermont. We also don't have air conditioning in school, so let's talk about that. But the importance too of children, especially I think in Burlington, being able to get out and utilize the resources that Vermont has. Yes, that in particular is so important because most of us who choose to live in Vermont, we're choosing to live in Vermont because we can be outside all year-round. We can go on an amazing, beautiful hike up a mountain and really get to enjoy the outdoors and our kids should be able to do the same thing. And that's what the summer is about. And we also have the resources to drive our kid to the park and have the time off work to be able to take the hike with them. And those are all things that I think a lot of people take for granted. And that aren't necessarily true for everyone. So having a place like King Street Youth Center allows people to be able to have their children receive those benefits of living in a state of Vermont if it's not necessarily available to them. Yes, absolutely. Which is incredibly important. Yeah, we feel very lucky. So being newly appointed to the executive director role in late 2021, what is the most inspiring thing you have learned about the King Street Youth Center? Honestly, the staff. The staff have been the most inspiring part of joining this organization. You know, people in many jobs, they clock in and they clock out. And that's just not true for us at King Street. It's people's passion to work there. They deeply care about those kids. They know the families. They get invited to the weddings. I mean, it's truly magical to see how much the community and the staff are all connected with each other. And I think part of that has to do with King Street Center and what makes it, I believe, particularly unique, which is we see kids starting at 18 months old all the way up through high school. And families stay with us year after year after year. And many of our families have more than two or three children. And so if you can imagine if the first one's coming in into our early childhood education program and then going through, you know, it's a K to five program and the teen program then they get connected with mentors. We're seeing families for over a decade. Wow, so it really is like an entire childhood arc. It is. And so actually kind of to dive a little bit into that, you know, for people's understanding if they aren't really familiar with King Street Center. So there's an early childhood education program. What does that entail? So we have both a toddler classroom. That's where 18 months to three year olds go. And then we have our preschool classroom where a three to five year olds go. So cute. Which is they are adorable. And we also have Head Start embedded into both of those classrooms, which is so great for families, for King Street, for Head Start. It's truly a beautiful partnership. Well, I mean, studies have consistently proven that as long as children get support in those ages, the return on the investment of those children is astronomical. That's right. Early childhood education is critical to child development. And you have to capture kids when they're young and introduce them to all sorts of opportunities as early as 18 months or maybe even earlier than that, right? And so we are so grateful to be able to be a place where we have a partnership with Head Start and they can help support King Street, the youth we serve and the families we serve. And also getting into those ground works and developing those relationships with children at that age. It really is like you become, you're like a constant companion throughout their development. That's right. And what's really great about it is that, if a child comes into our early child education program, because we're a small center, our K-5 staff, they see those kids. The kids see them. People start to get familiar all with each other. And it feels like a second home for them. And we become the trusted place for children. And I would assume for some of the kids at the King Street Youth Center, having that secondary home, a place of consistency, support, having sort of that secondary family option is very valuable for them. Absolutely. Because things can be destabilized at home. Yeah, I mean, I think no matter what income level you're at, right, there can be instability in a family. And that's certainly true in low income families and in higher income families. So, you know, for all children, I think, regardless of their race or their home life or the socioeconomic status, it's been shown that having a trusted adult outside of your family actually improves the likelihood that you're gonna be in a productive, happy adult. And to be the place that can have not just one, but multiple trusted adults outside of the family is really special. And also developing those relationships because it teaches you things like trust, right? I mean, there's one thing in a family, those are your family. So you're always gonna love them. We all know with our family, you're always gonna love them no matter what. But having those other contextual relationships that aren't necessarily just during the school year help build that foundation for children. Yes, especially when services are based on a school year. And so what happens is King Street becomes the place where if there's something going on, we can be there to make sure that everything is, as okay as it may be, right? So, in difficult times. Somebody can go to and talk to. I mean, that's the other thing too, as kids get older, having a place maybe sometimes outside the home that they can talk to people about, talk to people about their lives or what's happening in their lives. I mean, even if it's just boyfriends or girlfriends, I mean, it's a real thing. It's a real thing. I mean, yeah, I mean, if I had a place like King Street growing up, especially in those older periods of time where you may, I mean, some people have that relationship, but you may not want to be talking to your parents about something going on, you know, that feels super private, but you could talk to some friends about it or one of the staff about it at King Street. And you trust them. And you respect them enough to be able to communicate and learning communication skills are invaluable as you develop in life. Yeah, it's one of the reasons why right now we have our lemonade program as part of our teen programming. So when kids get to about, I think it's 11 or so years old, before they get to that 14-year-old age that they can work, they start to build those skills by going through Job Club leading up to the summer and then working on the lemonade stand on King, or on Church Street, which everybody loves, the King Street Youth Center lemonade stand. And if you get a chance this summer, make sure you go to Church Street and buy some lemonade from the kids at King Street Youth Center because it is a wonderful program and their lemonade is absolutely delicious. I can attest to that. Oh, good, I agree. So, and you know, that leads me to another personal interest question. How did the lemonade stand start? That's such a good question. So I was not here when it started, but it's actually, it's 25th year anniversary this summer. It's been in existence for 25 years. And the story that I've heard is that our community outreach director, Gabbay, she came up with this idea or she was at least part of who came up with this idea of like, what can we do to, you know, have the kids doing something in the summer? They can't quite work yet, but they want to make money. They want to be able to learn some of these skills so that once they turn 14, they can have something to put on their resume to go get a job, right? And they came up with lemonade and the rest of history. It is the classic child occupation. And actually, I just had a great conversation with somebody that there should be more children's lemonade stands. I know, I've just heard that too. I feel like somebody was saying, you know, they've gone away, like lemonade stands, you know, kid selling on the corner just kind of disappeared, but not at King Street. Well, Enterprise Earship is alive and well at the King Street Youth Center, which is very important. So I think that leads us into, so after the preschool development, there is a grade school program. That's right. And what is the grade school program like? So we have classrooms for our kindergarten through fifth graders. And what we do there is mostly, of course, during the school year, is an after school program. So during the after school program, our kids come from Edmonds and Champlain. So Edmonds Elementary, Middle and Champlain Elementary. And for Edmonds, we actually like go up and walk and you can see them coming all walking back down to the center together. And they spend their time after school there. We provide meals to them. We have academic time. We've been focused on literacy recently. And I mean, we're always focused on literacy, but that's been a big push for us. And I get some just playtime too. So that's really great. And then in the summertime, and then when school is closed on certain breaks, we also have camp programs. Which is incredibly invaluable to a lot of parents who have to work during breaks. I mean, I'm one of those parents. No, we actually had this conversation before the show. We are both, full disclosure, we're both one of those parents. And it's a real thing. And there is sort of, especially I've noticed since after the pandemic, I believe what I've heard is that there are less of those programs that are actively running. You know, that doesn't surprise me because it's hard. Staffing has been a challenge for us. And it's been a challenge for childcare centers and after school programs. And you need staff to do the work. Yeah, and to support those children effectively. And there are ratios that you have to have for children. That's right. Yeah, I mean, we're a licensed five star program. So that means, yeah, we have to abide by very strict standards. Yeah, so what does licensed five star program, I've always wondered. And you're the perfect person to ask, what does a licensed five star program mean? So basically it's a process that signals that you're a high quality childcare center or after school programs. So the state has developed criteria. And they say, if you meet this base criteria, you'll be licensed. And then if you do this little bit more, you can have a star. And it goes all the way up to the five stars. So it's like a luxury resort. It's kind of like a luxury resort. It's also tied for us to subsidy money. And so that is actually quite important for us. Some of our, many of our families, they take advantage of the state subsidy program. And so the more high quality program that you are, according to the state, the higher the subsidy dollars are for you, which are critical for us to ensure that we can keep our doors open. Now, to be honest, the majority of the way our doors stay open is because this community supports us individually, financially, which is why we're able to ensure that we don't turn children away. And so I think this is also another great opportunity to talk to people in the community about how they can support the King Street Youth Center. So if you were gonna talk to our viewership and let them know ways that they can support the work that you guys do in the Burlington community, what would you say to them? I think what I would say to them is that there's a number of ways you can get involved with King Street. One, of course, is volunteering. We are always looking for volunteers who are going to read with our youth. We're also always looking for mentors. So having those one-on-one personal relationships with youth and then, of course, financial contributions are critically important to us as well. Now you have programs throughout the year too that act as fundraisers. We do. And one of your biggest and most exciting ones was just this past week. Would you like to tell everybody a little bit about the program? So the biggest fundraiser of the year that we just finished wrapping up was our raffle. And we have the, people are amazing and they really showed up, this community showed up for us and we had some awesome prizes and they just picked the winners. Actually, I think it was a couple days ago. But it'll come back next year. So you'll hear from us. Okay, did everybody hear that? Next year you have to do the King Street Youth Center Raffle. Gotta do the raffle. We also, which is this is just a community event but we have a block party that we've been having. We couldn't have it, of course, during COVID but it was back again post, I won't say post COVID but in whatever this new version is, just this past week we had our block party. Which if you've never been or participated or heard about the King Street Youth Center block party, it is one of the highlights of Burlington every summer. So make sure you take a look at for that. It happens every year in middle July. It is a blast. It's wonderful. It's an incredible, incredible event. And so definitely check that out if you haven't in the past because they do it every year and it's very much worth going to. Yes, we loved it. They throw a great party. And the kids, the kids are wonderful. They really are. So it's a really beautiful way to see a community come together. Block parties are great. Block party, yeah. We don't have enough of them in Burlington, to be honest. I know, I know. If I could do it more often, I would. Yeah, but it's a lot of work. So after a kid gets through fifth grade, what kind of programs do you have for the older children? So then we have our teen program. And in the teen program, one of the nice things about the teen program is there's more independence, right? And they can do the lemonade stand. They get to work those shifts. They go out and about during the summertime. At the beginning of the summer, each teen gets a bike and a helmet. And they go around town and they bike to North Beach or they bike wherever. And they also have their fun time and then their academic time, where during the school year in particular, they're catching up on homework while they're at the center after school. They're getting any sort of tutoring support they need or what have you. So the teen program is a lot of fun. They always seem to be playing basketball in the gym, which is one of their favorite activities. So yeah, the teen program has been. And that's incredible. So they actually get a mode of transportation. Which is incredible. That's a big part of being a teenager. I mean, just being able to ride your bike around. Because we're a Burlington is a walkable city, but being able to actually pedal somewhere, get out of your neighborhood, go explore the world is a big part of being a teenager. It really is. So that also leaves me, I mean, maybe some of our viewers aren't aware, but if you were going to describe the facility at King Street Youth Center, what would you tell people about the facility, what's there, what do you offer? So the facility is a gem in the King Street neighborhood and in downtown Burlington, because we have a couple of really little special things. In addition to, we have a different floor for each of our programs. Oh, I didn't know that. Which ensures ample space for kids to play. We have lots of different shared play spaces like the gym. We have a little playhouse. We have a rooftop playground, which is such a unique and... I bet the view up there. Oh, the view is great, right? And so, oh yeah, and the little kids, they love it because they do a lot of water play up there right now in the summertime. And we even have a playground right on site, which is really special because you think about Burlington. There's lots of playgrounds, right? You're gonna have to go out and find the park and go to the playground. We get to have a playground right in the back on our property. And it gets the breeze off the lake, which on a day like today. You need. It's very nice. It's true, it's true, that's right. So that's great. So there's a playground, there's a gym, and so do you guys ever do any activities like pick up basketball games and stuff like that? Yeah, it's interesting. I think one of the things that we're trying to figure out right now is what does this new version of life look like? Because pre-COVID, there was a lot more in and out, in and out in activity. And during COVID, all of that really had to shut down to keep kids safe and follow all the guidelines that the state had put forth. And now we're coming to a point where we're saying, okay, how do we open up? What are we gonna do? What does it look like to have people back in the building all the time? So we haven't started to pick up games yet. That's definitely something we did pre-COVID and we'll be looking at post. Yeah, and so I guess that leads me to a really important kind of final question. What does the future of King Street Youth Center look like? We are asking ourselves that very question right now because we've just embarked on a strategic planning process. Oh, wonderful. Yes, and thinking about coming out of COVID into whatever the new normal is, thinking about having new leadership at King Street and what we're seeing as changing needs given what we've experienced in the last couple of years. What is it that we're going to do next is exactly why we started this planning process and we're going to be engaging our community. We're going to be engaging families and supporters and we're really looking forward to being able to answer that question a very concrete way. Which is the key, right? And I know that those guidelines and the things that you're trying to do probably have shifted. The landscape has changed pretty much for everyone. It has. In a post-COVID world. And as we look at what will happen next, one thing we do know is that we're going to continue to do the work that's our core work that we're very good at which is being a safe place where kids can be connected to opportunities. So again, if people are interested, KingStreetCenter.org is the website for King Street. If you have any questions, comments and concerns, take a look at the website. They have great information about all the work and the programs that they do. Thank you so much for all that you guys do for the Burlington community. Thank you. They are a priceless organization and we are so fortunate to have them here. And thank you so much for being on the show. Oh, it was fun. It's been a delight. Thank you for having me. Oh, it's been a delight. Thank you guys for being here with us today. Have a wonderful summer and we'll see you back next week, next week, next month. Thank you so much. Take care.