Elizabethton, a rural town of 15,000 in east Tennessee, is quaint and beautiful, sitting on the fishing-friendly Doe and Watauga rivers in the southern Appalachian Mountains.
But, like many rural communities, Elizabethton is struggling with a shrinking population and dim opportunities for work, education and recreation, especially for young people.
The opioid epidemic has “really got a grip here,” said Shannon Payne, the mentorship program coordinator with the local Promoting Esteem Among Kids (PEAK) program run through the city’s parks and recreation department.
“You got a dark side with the drug abuse and homelessness and things that people just want to sweep under the rug, and it’s stigmatized,” Payne said. “Being a part of this mentoring program, I want to try to blow some of that away.”
Elizabethton Parks and Recreation is one of five departments that have been awarded grants from the National Recreation and Park Association (NPRA) to implement its Youth Mentoring Framework.
The NRPA developed the Youth Mentoring Framework for local parks and recreation agencies to establish mentorship programs to serve the unique needs of their respective communities.
Currently, grantees are parks and recreation departments in rural Appalachian counties, defined as those with a population maximum of 50,000 residents.
NRPA selected grantees using the National Opioid Misuse Community Assessment Tool, an interactive map of county-level drug overdose mortality rates, and other publicly available data on education, income, poverty and rurality.
“You don’t necessarily think parks and recreation are impacted by the opioid epidemic, but what we have found is that a lot of that activity has been happening in parks and on park grounds,” said Lauren Kiefert, a program manager with the NRPA.
Elizabethton is in Carter County, which has a drug overdose mortality rate of 40.4 deaths per 100,000 adults — slightly higher than the state’s rate of 38.4, and 41 percent higher than the national rate of 28.7, according to recent National Opinion Research Center data.
Within the last decade, Elizabethton’s population declined 5 percent. According to US Census Bureau data, ninety-three percent of residents are white, and nearly 1 in 4 residents live in poverty.
The city deals with “generational circles of opioid and alcohol abuse,” said Kelly Kitchens, program and special events coordinator with Elizabethton Parks and Recreation.
Community liaisons are critical to the youth mentoring programs, said Kitchens, referring to Elizabethton Parks and Recreation partnership with Carter County Drug Prevention Coalition.
Kitchens said her department often interacts with the grandparents of the youth they serve because “one or both parents were either incarcerated or, you know, had just succumbed to the struggles of opioid abuse.”
Impacts on the community, parks and public spaces can take a toll on staff.
“We’re typically the ones who are cleaning up things like homeless camps and paraphernalia, so we don’t always have that lens of compassion because we see the ugly side of this,” Kitchens said.
Building compassion through “trauma-informed care,” which relies heavily on the science of trauma and brain development, is one of the main goals of the NRPA mentor training.
The Elizabethton mentoring program, PEAK, was established with NRPA support at the start of 2020, shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic was declared in February by the World Health Organization. The program currently supports 15 matches between adult mentors and youth mentees while maintaining programming and activities for not-yet-matched youth participants.
According to Payne, who leads volunteer training, mentors range between 35 to 55 years old and are typically “people who have lots of experience” and flexible schedules.
While NRPA provides funding for program implementation, training for adult volunteers is designed and led by the Tennessee Department of Children Services.
PEAK training consists of three curricula designed to teach volunteers how to interact with local youth with knowledge about childhood trauma, brain architecture, and stress response, especially in children and adolescents.
The evidence-based framework outlines community assets that are protective factors for youth used in group or one-on-one youth mentorship programming. The framework draws from the Search Institute’s Developmental Assets framework, which outlines 40 evidence-based “assets” — supportive factors that support youth development.
Assets include creative activities, peaceful conflict resolution, positive expectations, reading for pleasure, and instilling positive values like caring, equality, social justice and honesty. The assets fall under overarching themes of support, empowerment, commitment to learning, boundaries, expectations and constructive time.
John Kob, 57, is a retired 30-year military veteran who volunteers with the PEAK program in Elizabethton. Payne recently matched him with a 13-year-old boy who has been struggling with behavioral problems, failing grades and substance abuse.
Kob himself experienced abuse as a child and intimately knows its long-term, adverse effects in adulthood. He also notes the lack of movie theaters, restaurants, skate rinks, and pools in his community and how boredom can lead kids down a troubled path.
“These kids just don’t have an outlet,” Kob said. “They go to school, they come back, they sit at home, wait for their parents, and when the parents come home, nothing’s good.”
Kitchens said Elizabethton’s park and recreation department is “training trauma” to effectively support the youth populations they serve, many of whom are experiencing the fall out of the nation’s opioid epidemic.
A 2018 NRPA report finds 6 in 10 parks and recreation professionals serve out-of-school youth participants who live in households facing significant financial challenges.
Kiefert said considering poverty status in their program starts with ensuring that youth have access to programs and that programs accommodate children living in poverty.
NRPA uses an internal evaluation team to assess each site’s progress using pre-, mid-, and post-surveys.
Based on metrics established by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Program, sites are required to report on mentors’ and mentees’ progress, including increases in social behaviors and decreases in substance use and behaviors considered delinquent.
To date, over 200 youth have participated in mentoring services across all five programs. Kiefert said NRPA hopes to expand the program to the New England region where “we found there’s high opioid overdose, mortality rates.”
Correction: This article was updated to correct the spelling and title of Lauren Kiefert, a program manager with the NRPA.
