Hinds Talks Senate Run Before Teens Lead Coalition Forum
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Before turning the floor over to the teenagers leading the Northern Berkshire Community Coalition monthly forum, Executive Director Adam Hinds had to address a very grown-up topic.
On Feb. 3, Hinds announced he was running for the state Senate seat being vacated by state Sen. Benjamin Downing, who decided not to seek re-election this year. The decision by Hinds to seek public office comes just a few months after taking over the helm at NBCC.
At Friday's forum, Hinds said he wanted to be "very transparent" while leading NBCC and running for Senate.
"There's a firewall between my role here and my decision to run there," he said.
Besides, Hinds stressed, the Coalition is in such a strong position that he said it doesn't matter who sits in the director's chair.
"This work is a community thing," he said, but added that he has been "very deliberate" working with the Coalition's board of directors to develop a plan to ensure NBCC's work continues during the campaign season.
Steve Green, a member of the board of director's executive committee, emphasized that point in brief comments.
"The reality is this is a very strong organization," he said. "We have an extraordinary staff of talented, thoughtful and highly energetic staff. My prediction is this: There will be no change in the work of the Coalition."
Both Hinds and Green said either outcome would be positive for the Northern Berkshire community: Either Hinds stays on as executive director or he becomes a huge advocate for the region in Boston.
"It's a win-win," Hinds said.
After a round of applause, Hinds turned the floor over to the teenagers of the Coalition's UNITY Youth Leadership Program, who were leading their annual forum, this time with the topic of "creativity." The youth of YLP includes teenagers ages 14 to 19 from four different area high schools.
Teen Gabe Barry tried to get the participants' creative juices flowing by asking everyone to draw — without words — something that stresses them out and then something that calms them. Barry said he wanted to use the exercise to point out how that simple act can help people of all ages.
"A lot of teens … get very stressed out," he said. "And they don't have creativity opportunities to calm themselves in. What we want to try to do is create more opportunities for teens to create."
North Adams Mayor Richard Alcombright, who drew some stick figures on his paper to indicate what stresses him out, said the exercise reminded him of the technique of counting to 10 before responding to a stressor.
"That's kind of what this exercise does," he said. "It forces you to count to 10, to slow down."
Barry's exercise was followed by the young lady coordinating the teen speakers, high school senior Sapphire Holland, who introduced the topic of the day as "Creativity: The Good Kind of High." From there Jacob Barrett and Steven Burdick talked about teen substance abuse and Barry was joined by Derek Torrez and Keylon Sheppard to talk about the community stigmas teens often face before Holland took the microphone back to talk about the anxiety and stress teenagers often feel, especially trying to balance academics and personal lives.
"It's hard to take care of yourself when you have to take care of academics," she said. "I totally don't have time to myself."
The teenagers spoke about some current creative outlets that help them, from ArtDoors art camp to Common Folk artist collective, and then led breakout groups for the adults in the room to brainstorm ways to infuse creativity in everyday lives as well as creative ways to address the issues of community stigma, substance abuse, and stress and anxiety. Some of the ideas included a lack of communication between youths and law enforcement, ways to harness the energy of youth, the idea of more nightlife options for youth, and including art in regular places.
The teens all agreed that even more creative outlets — public art spaces, art camps, etc. — would not only give youths the chance to choose creativity over troublemaking or substance abuse, but also help them reduce the stress in their lives.
"If I didn't have art, I'd probably think about doing something else," Barry said. "If you don't have some positive outlets in your life, you're going to do something negative."
Tags: election 2016, NBCC, teenagers, youth programs,
