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Welcome Back, Kelsey Olson! New Staff (Re)Joins BAE-B-SAFE Team at Alamo City Colleges
Kelsey was an essential early member of the BAE-B-SAFE team who helped to shape the model that remains a hit on the Alamo College District campuses.
Kelsey is back at Healthy Futures and ready to make our programs even more strong with her new experiences and skills.
Read below about how it feels to be back, what she did during her time away, and what her hopes are for the future of BAE-B-SAFE.
1) How does it feel to be back at Healthy Futures?
It feels like I’m returning to my home away from home. I am excited to have the opportunity to continue working with an amazing group of people in such an important field. I am excited to see and be a part of all the exciting new initiatives!
2) What did you do during your time away?
I spent my time away from Healthy Futures in my hometown of Corpus Christi working with and remarkable agency called the Coastal Bend Wellness Foundation (CBWF). CBWF is a community based non-profit organization and federally qualified health center that offers a very wide variety of programs and services.
I worked as the Prevention Coordinator for Project Turnaround under the Youth Programs Department where I coordinated substance misuse prevention education programming for the evidence-based Too Good for Drugs curriculum for 1st through 12th grade students in eight counties surrounding the Coastal Bend. Our team worked with youth to build resiliency skills like goal setting, effective communication, how to resist peer pressure and practice good decision-making to help youth avoid the dangers of alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs.
Project Turnaround provided prevention education presentations on the State’s four priorities (underage alcohol use, tobacco and nicotine products, prescription drugs misuse, and marijuana and other cannabinoids) to youth, parents, and professionals. We also hosted and attended many community events to bring awareness to the community and provide a safe and healthy alternative for children and families.
3) What are your hopes for BAE-B-SAFE?
My hope is that BAE-B-SAFE continues to grow and that others might take this model that’s been developed and replicate it at other community colleges and universities. I am truly grateful I have had the opportunity to see where this project began and how successful it’s come to be over time. BAE-B-SAFE has further shown me that when providing any sort of prevention education, it is critical to meet young people where they’re at and it’s important to keep bringing innovative strategies to the table.
4) How does it feel to start a new job during stay-at-home orders?
Although working from home has been a transition, I am grateful to have jumped back into a program I am familiar with and have experience in. Thankfully, with online courses being a norm on college campuses prior to COVID-19, before leaving Healthy Futures, BAE-B-SAFE had already begun exploring a virtual facilitation model. The shorter commute has been nice, but I do miss having daily interactions with people in the office though and can’t wait to get back in!