PHlight Club: The Why from a Student’s Perspective

By: Caitlin Aspery

As a 16-year-old high school student, I believe PHlight Club is an event that everyone should experience at least once in their life. The first time I attended PHlight Club was the spring of 2018 at Klawock School. It was a three-day, two-night "lock-in" event, and I had no idea what I was walking into when I applied to attend.

“Flying” activity at Klawock PHlight Club

Entering the gym was overwhelming; there were so many people talking, hugging, laughing, and playing games. It was a lot to take in. I felt really out of place in the beginning, but within five minutes, someone befriended me. The following hours were a blur of people, trust falls, and lots of activities.

Speaking of trust falls, I was soon standing with my back to a group of strangers, about to fall into their arms with the hope that they would catch me. As I stood there questioning every choice I'd ever made leading up to that moment, a calming voice spoke to me. He was a student I had never spoken to before, assuring me that I wouldn't hit the ground and that I was safe. At that moment, a lot of my distrust in people melted away, and I allowed myself to fall backward. As I fell back, I felt a fear-induced pit in my stomach, but it disappeared the second I landed in the arms of the people who were there to catch me.

Before the end of the first night, the founder of PHlight Club, Derek Peterson, told a story. He described a girl with adults in her life who saw and treated her as though she was "broken." The girl spoke up and said that she wasn't broken. She explained that she needed support from caring adults in her life, called Anchors, who would encourage and guide her to reach her potential. The story made me cry, because I needed the same thing. For the first time in forever, I felt like I wasn't crazy for feelings I had been experiencing. It was a powerful night for me. It was one of the most influential nights of my entire life.

The rest of that weekend was amazing. I mean, it wasn't perfect by any means - I was exhausted, and I had lost my voice - but I was happy. Happier than I'd been in a very long time. Since that first PHlight Club in 2018, I've attended every PHlight Club since, a total of five. PHlight Club is a life-changing experience filled with inclusiveness, support, and joy. The youth who attend do not leave the same; they leave transformed.

It doesn't matter who you are or from where you come. At PHlight Club, everybody is loved and valued. As a PHlight Club veteran, I can honestly say that it is so much more than a bunch of teenagers doing activities in a gym. When you attend PHlight Club, you become a part of something bigger than yourself. You become a member of a family who will catch you during your hardest fall. You form lasting connections and friendships. You help unite students and adults to create happy and thriving environments and relationships. You empower other youth and your community. PHlight Club helped transform me from an insecure teenager into the confident, authentic leader I am today.

Caitlin is a junior at Hollis School in Hollis, Alaska

PHlight Club helps POW students learn life skills while having fun

Listen to Amy's interview HERE.

A couple times a year, students in different parts of Prince of Wales Island are locked up together for three days. It’s PHlight Club, a program that aims to increase kids’ ability to cope with challenges and improve their support system.

ROY G BIV is the common acronym for all the colors in the spectrum: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. Those colors also represent seven components that PHlight Club – spelled with a “PH” rather than an “F” – works on with kids.

Amy McDonald is a facilitator with Brightways Learning, a nonprofit that coordinates PHlight Club events in Alaska. Speaking from Thorne Bay School, she described what each of the colors represents.

Red is the “rule of five.” McDonald said all kids need at least five caring, connected adults in their life.

“Oftentimes, teenagers don’t have five caring and connected adults,” she said. “We celebrate whatever they have. If they have one, we start with one.”

Those adults don’t have to be relatives. So, McDonald said they decided to call those adults “PHamily,” with a ph, rather than an f. That PHamily makes up a student’s anchors. The connections – anchor lines, so to speak — are represented by colored strings.

Prince Edwards Island PHlight Club

“Orange is tangible strings. Tangible strings are things like safe home, safe school, nutritious food, appropriate clothing. So, things you can see, smell, taste, touch, that you know you have or don’t have,” she said. “Yellow are intangible strings, which are more of those values, like curiosity, respect, or sense of humor or faith.”

More strings mean a thicker, stronger web of support.

Green represents the balloon students sit on in the middle of their web. Different factors determine how big that balloon is. Girls generally maintain their connections longer. And more social people have larger balloons.

“That means, not that you’re the most popular person, but that you’re comfortable walking into a room full of people,” she said.

A natural sense of curiosity also increases a balloon’s size, along with an optimistic attitude, and the ability to recognize your own strengths.

Blue represents scissors, which are things that happen in life that cut your strings and weaken the web of support. Indigo reminds students to show their appreciation to their caring and supportive adults.

“And then violet is social norms. Social norms in our story are like wind. If it’s a positive social norm, it can blow and lift your web up,” she said. “If it’s a negative social norm, it can blow and blow your web apart.”

McDonald said they focus on the positive norms, and ways to amplify those within a community.

Whew. That’s a lot of really important, deep stuff; how do you get kids to participate in something like that?

Well, McDonald said, you make it fun.

“We lift people up and fly them around the gym, we do trust falls, lots of relay teamwork, kind of team-building activities that are really fun,” she said. “And for our small rural schools, we start sometime on Thursday, stay up until midnight or 1 a.m., get up early in the morning Friday and do it again, get up early in the morning Saturday and we’re usually done by Saturday afternoon. So it’s a lot of really fun time with a whole bunch of kids and adults who are excited to be there.”

Some of the kids on Prince of Wales have been to six or more events, she said. And while they initially came for fun, they came back to learn.

“Then they’re actually like sponges, right? Learning all that stuff about finding more anchors, adding more strings,” she said. “Kind of looking at the world with a different lens, we call it a full-color lens. So they can set their futures up for success.”

The most recent PHlight Club was this fall in Hydaburg. They’re planning another one on the big island this coming spring. McDonald said there have been around 10 so far on Prince of Wales. And they don’t just work on POW.

“Galena, and then YKSD, Project Grad, which is part of Kenai; Chatham School District, which is Angoon, Gustavus, Klukwan and Tenakee Springs,” she said. “And then we’ve done a few elsewhere like Houston High School outside of Wasilla, we’ve done one; we’ve done a couple in Ketchikan, Russian Mission.”

And a few out of state.

McDonald recalls a couple of specific students whose lives were affected by PHlight Club, one dramatically.

“We had a girl here a few years ago who had been sexually abused in a community prior to moving here. Very traumatic. She was very withdrawn, contemplating suicide” McDonald said. “She started to come to PHlight Clubs. Her mom made her come at first. She will attribute PHlight Club to turning her world around.”

McDonald said that young girl learned to trust adults again and learned how to advocate for herself. That girl is now in college.

Another participant – a boy – is naturally independent and has a really big green balloon. But because he relied on himself so much, his web wasn’t very strong.

“The first time he failed at something, he realized how much a web of support was important to him, because when he failed he was all by himself,” McDonald said. “(He) had to really work at finding people and finding other avenues in order to get back up on his feet again. Had he had that web of support built prior to that, he thinks it would have been easier to step back up.”

McDonald said it’s not only youths who are struggling that benefit from PHlight Club; all kids – and even adults — would benefit from more support in their lives.

PHlight Club has organized a couple of events in the Ketchikan School District years ago as part of Challenge Day. They’re working with some local organizations to offer another event in Alaska’s First City.

New School Year and New Beginnings - 7 Tips for Supporting Teens

As the new school year begins, we have the opportunity to support youth in new ways and see them in full-color. Caring and connected adults (Anchors) can make a profound difference in the lives of youth. Here are some tips to support students in and outside of a school setting:  

1. Be present to deepen connections with the teens you Anchor

Work to deepen the connections between you and the teens you already Anchor by amplifying what is right and strong about them, celebrating them in ways that are meaningful to them, and by working alongside them on projects that you both choose.
 

2. Amplify what is right and strong about teens

Practice looking for the strengths within teens. When you see strengths, point them out, in words, letters, social media posts, or any other way that is meaningful to the teens.
 

3. Let teens know you will never give up on them

Adults are important influencers on teens and knowing that the adults in their lives believe in them and are there for them unconditionally is powerful!
 

4. Make an effort to reach out and celebrate teens

Move out of your comfort zone by introducing yourself to the teens in your neighborhood, school, faith community, and/or youth-serving organization.
 

5. Involve teens

Look around you. If there are are no teens on your committee, in your work environment, in your meeting, or in your midst, change that! Invite them in, and create an environment where they want to stay.
 

6. You (yes, that’s you!) have what it takes to Anchor teens

Never give up on yourself. YOU are the adult. Become an Anchor. You can do it and it will make a difference!
 

7. Encourage and support your co-workers, friends, and family members to see teens through a strength-based lens

Share the Web of Support with others around you and show them how easy it is to make changes in the community by Anchoring teens.

Strong in Every Way

For Kris Devereaux, Chief Academic Officer, and her colleagues at Zionsville Community Schools in Indiana, strengthening the Social and Emotional competence of students throughout the district is a top priority. And they have invited Brightways Learning to help them reach their goals by implementing Kaleidoscope Connect’s Integrative Youth Development (IYD) framework. 

IYD is a strengths-based approach that teaches adults how to focus on what is right with youth and help kids build Webs of Support by identifying key individuals (Anchors) who provide authentic caring and high expectations. This, in turn, builds resilience, equipping youth with the SEL skills, attitudes, values, and confidence they need to thrive amid life’s challenges.
 
The district’s journey to improve SEL – and to integrate IYD – began about a year ago. The administrators, led by Superintendent Scott Robison, began working closely with their K-12 counselors to learn how they could better meet the needs of students at all levels. 

“Something that became very apparent to all of us after listening to our counselors was that we really needed to strengthen the focus on the social and emotional aspects of our students,” said Kris. “Our district has done well academically for many years, but we realized we need to make sure we are giving the same attention to the social and emotional well-being of the kids.”
 
Superintendent Robison had learned about IYD after reading Helping Kids Succeed*, a handbook co-written by Derek Peterson, Youth Development Expert and partner of Brightways Learning. The book explains how the principles and practices of IYD have the power to change the trajectory of students’ lives by building support networks (Webs of Support) that cultivate caring and connected schools and communities.
 
Superintendent Robison gave the book to all counselors and administrators. And after reading it, the counselors agreed that this approach made sense for young people in Zionsville.

Strong in Every Way

Superintendent Robison then developed a human capital campaign called Strong in Every Way™ that included three pillars:
 

1. Developing Webs of Support

2. Developing assets and resources

3. Creating cultures of understanding

The district began putting the pieces into place. In addition to their commitment to IYD, they added Elementary Wellness 360 (PE + SEL), hired an Extended Experiences Coordinator at the high school to connect students with their passions, started a new Career-Based Experiences program, and provided Implicit Bias training for district employees. In addition, Zionsville changed school start times to match the research on adolescents’ need for school to start at or after 8:30 AM, and the district collaborated with The Gift Of Failure author Jessica Lahey to do community book studies online and in person, and to have Lahey visit the district to provide professional development for teachers and a public presentation attended by more than 800 parents.
 
With help from funds awarded by a Lilly Endowment Implementation grant, Kris and six of her colleagues attended a presentation given by Derek at the University of Indianapolis in spring of 2017. “Derek’s presentation confirmed that IYD absolutely aligned with Dr. Robison’s vision and the campaign we were developing,” said Kris, “We immediately booked Derek to kick off the campaign at the beginning of the 2017-18 school year.”
 
Grant funds were also utilized to send four people – Dr. Amanda Slonaker, clinical neuropsychologist for the district; Lynn Kissel, the district’s Community Development and Residency Specialist; and two community members and parents, Erin Bivans-Johnson and Amie Peele Carter – to Phases 1 and 2 of Kaleidoscope Connect’s IYD Academy in Edmonton, Alberta last May. 
 
The Academy qualified them to train others in the district to share the IYD story so that all parents and community members understand key IYD concepts like: being an Anchor to students, throwing and catching supports (strings), being aware of events that disrupt the Web (scissor cuts), and expanding a young person's abilities, talents, and resilience (growing the balloon).

Three months later, on August 3, 2017, the district formally kicked off the Strong in Every Way™ campaign faculty and staff training, with Derek leading an action-packed day! 

Beginning early in the morning, and lasting well into the evening, Derek delivered hands-on IYD workshops and keynote presentations for nearly 2,000 people including all district administrators and staff members, students, parents, community members, and guests from surrounding communities. 
 
“It was an amazing, motivating day,” exclaimed Kris. “Derek exceeded our expectations. He reminded everyone that we are here for the kids, and instilled the importance of coming together as a community to build strong Webs of Support for our youth.”
 
As the new school year begins, the district is continuing to infuse the principals of IYD into their faculty, staff, Board, and key parent volunteers. Zionsville will continue sharing information about Anchors and Webs of Support with community organizations, places of worship, students, parents,  and community members. 

“I was interested to see how the first day of school, just five days after Derek’s kickoff, might feel or look different than it has in years past,” said Kris. “I immediately saw evidence that Derek’s work with the staff had a direct impact on the lens through which we are viewing students.
 
“As I visited the various schools, I found so many teachers taking time to really get to know the students. They weren’t just focusing on curriculum or talking about rules and procedures, but engaging the kids in interactive, getting-to-know-you games and activities.  

“At one school, all students wore nametags so anyone who saw them in the hallway could call them by name. And several teachers were doing Derek’s “balloon-bop” activity with kids, talking about the importance of strong Webs of Support and not letting any of their classmates fall through the cracks. It was very impactful.  
 
“One student who had worked with Derek was in the hallway while a brand-new student was receiving a tour. She immediately walked over to the new student, introduced herself, and asked the student to introduce himself. ‘I’m here for you,’ she said. 'If you see me in the hall be sure to wave.’ It was very touching to see that Derek truly got through to the kids who participated in the kickoff. 

“Parents commented that in the past they received forms to get just basic information about students at the beginning of the year. This year the forms asked questions like ‘what does your family like to do together?’, and ‘what can you tell us about your child’s resiliency and grit?’ Parents felt that the schools really wanted to get to know their kids.  
 
“And we know kids are bringing it home with them. A parent contacted me and said that she was thrilled that her son was using the Webs and Anchors language, even referencing several of them during a family game night.”

So What’s Next?

The district has applied for a Lilly Endowment grant that, if awarded, will help fund their four-year plan, including building in measurements to gauge success with longitudinal data. 
 
“Not all of our plans are dependent upon the grant,” said Kris. “Whether or not we are awarded, we plan to continue reinforcing throughout the year what we have learned. But if we do receive the funds,  Derek will be our first phone call so we can continue to have him work with students and staff for the next four years!”

Derek and the team at Brightways are excited to work with the Zionsville students, staff, and community to help make their Strong in Every Way™ campaign a success. “We look forward to supporting Zionsville’s vision,” said Derek Peterson, "and working alongside them to build a caring, connected community with resilient students and the adults who are equipped to support them."
 


*Helping Kids Succeed--The Hastings Way, published in 2014, was written by and for the people of Hastings, MN along with Derek Peterson, partner of Brightways Learning and creator of IYD. 

Why Kaleidoscope Connect Matters

For nearly a decade, Jennie “JenJen” McLean has been involved with Kaleidoscope Connect through our Academies that teach adults the principles and practices of Integrative Youth Development (IYD), and Phlight Clubs which are multi-day, life-changing youth development events. 

JenJen recently sat down to discuss the impact Kaleidoscope Connect has had on her and the youth in her life.  

Q: JenJen, tell me about yourself. 

A: I have lived in Fairbanks, Alaska my entire life. I knew from an early age that I liked kids and wanted to be involved in their lives. I connected with the kids. I understood their challenges and aspirations. I live to nurture young people, validate them, and make an impact on their futures.  

Q: How long have you been participating in and supporting students through Phlight Clubs? 

A: Since 2008, when I worked at Yukon-Koyukuk School District (YKSD). My colleague and mentor, Andrea Durney, told me about an upcoming Phlight Club that the district was hosting for teens from our middle and high schools, and invited me along.  

During that first Phlight Club, my primary role was to feed and nurture the 50+ students who attended. After I saw the power of Phlight Club and how it affected the kids who attended, I became a part of the team.  

Over the next 8 years, I have attended 16 Phlight Clubs, first as an adult co-leader and then as a facilitator.  

Q: In what ways have you seen Phlight Club and the IYD principles and practices impact youth and adults in their communities? 

A: Phlight Club changes the way teens see themselves.  

Kids in YKSD live in small villages and are raised not only by parents, but also by grandparents, aunts, uncles, and friends. Phlight Club shows them how important it is to maintain those relationships, and it deepens their sense of pride about who they are and what they are capable of. It supports them in growing family, school, and community bonds. And, from this, their self-esteem rises.  

If kids are “thinly-webbed” (lacking a strong support system), Phlight Club teaches them how to “grow their balloons” (develop resilience and self-esteem) and strengthen their webs of support by giving them the confidence to reach out to caring adults (Anchors) to connect and develop special bonds.  

I’ve witnessed quiet, reluctant, and vulnerable kids walk into a Phlight Club looking terrified. Within hours, these same kids have bonded with their peers, made friends and connected with Anchors.  

We adults are all impacted by witnessing the rapid transformation in the kids, and realizing the role that we, as adults, can play in their development. 

The mindset that teens adopt doesn’t disappear when Phlight Club ends. I see kids outside of Phlight Club on a regular basis, in various community settings. Even kids who attended years ago, still talk about their experience and how they have maintained strong connections to this day. They leave equipped with tools that propel them into adulthood.  

Q: How have you personally been affected by what you've learned through Phlight Club and Academy training. 

A: I’ve been affected both personally and professionally. It has changed me.  

Through the Academies and Phlight Clubs, a whole new world was opened for me. I learned that I, too, need a strong web of support and I gained the courage to seek Anchors and develop my leadership skills. I’ve learned that by helping kids grow their balloons, my own balloon also grows. 

Being a Phlight Club leader has reinforced and validated my nurturing skills and love for helping youth. It has provided me with a framework and setting to refine and apply my skills and see, first hand, how students’ lives are improved.  

I now arrange my entire life and my schedule around my involvement in Phlight Clubs.  

Q: What are three key or important reasons you think that a YOUTH should get involved with Phlight Club? 

A: Phlight Clubs wake kids up. They begin to understand that they are not “broken” and they learn how to build their webs of support. They develop the self-confidence and resilience they need to avoid risk-taking behaviors and to thrive. The effect on teens is permanent.  

There are so many reasons why youth should get involved, but if I had to pick three they would be:

• Surviving

• Succeeding

• Seeing themselves and others in “Full Color”: recognizing what makes them unique, resilient and successful in life.

Q: What are three key or important reasons you think that an ADULT should get involved with Phlight Club and Kaleidoscope Academies? 

A: There are so many teens in our communities who need more Anchors. Getting involved with Phlight Club not only helps improve the lives of the youth who attend, but it also teaches the adults how to effectively communicate and connect with them.  

I can’t count the number of kids I’ve Anchored over the years, but I can tell you that I have gained as much as I have given. The Academies have helped me take my knowledge of youth development to the next level. 

Three reasons to get involved are: 

• Making a measurable difference in the lives of children

• Growing family connections

• Strengthening community ties

Q: Any last words you would like to say? 

A: In my ideal world, all children would have a chance to attend at least one Phlight Club in their lives. Our youth would be much better equipped to thrive amid the constant yet unpredictable changes and challenges they face. Wouldn’t we all love to see our communities filled with kids who are healthy, happy, and productive? 

To learn more about Kaleidoscope Connect, Phlight Clubs, and Kaleidoscope Academies, please visit our website or contact Cindy Barnes at cbarnes@brightwayslearning.org.