By Anthony Payton, Columnist, Granite State News Collaborative

This interview is Part 1 of an occasional series by The Common Ground Initiative called “Avoiding Prison or an Early Death,” where I will  write about my experiences growing up as at-risk youth in Brooklyn, New York, and how decades later, in a different state, communities are facing these same issues.  

To kick off the series, I looked at an effective organization in Manchester, MYTURN. 

MYTURN gives at-risk and disadvantaged youth the chance to focus on their goals and succeed in life. It provides mentorship and safe spaces for these young men and women to gain the skills and knowledge critical to becoming upwardly mobile members of society.  I spoke with MY TURN’s executive director, Allison Joseph, for The Common Ground Initiative’s podcast in August. 

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Anthony Payton: Hello, Allison. Please tell our audience a little bit about yourself.

Allison Joseph: Hi Anthony. Thanks for having me here today. As you said, my name is Alison Joseph. I'm the Executive director of MY TURN Incorporated. I've been working with MY TURN for 15 years, just celebrated my 15 year anniversary, and currently I live in Bedford with my husband and my two daughters.

Anthony Payton: Well, you do a lot of great work in a community. I see you everywhere, especially on social media. What got you into the line of work that you're in, and you can explain that as well?

Allison Joseph: Sure. Yeah, so that is a great question. It's definitely complex.There's sort of a lot of reasons that push me toward a career like this a, a career where I get the opportunity and the privilege of helping other people achieve their goals. I think it started when I was very young. I've always kind of been sort of aware of the fact that the situation you're born into sort of determines all of the opportunities you're gonna have over the course of your life, and you really have no control over what situation you're born into later on, or grew up a little bit, had the opportunity to volunteer over at Kids Cal and that really made me feel like that was the kind of environment that I wanted to be in, if you're familiar with that. 

Anthony Payton: So Allison, how does MY TURN benefit businesses and communities?

Allison Joseph: Okay, so that's really sort of our specialty is serving the businesses and communities in the areas that we operate. Our core services revolve around workforce development and increasing financial stability for the families we serve. So we are constantly providing information around labor market data to the young people that we serve and even to the adults we serve, helping them identify what careers are locally in demand. So, you know what, what we're training for in Franklin New Hampshire is probably not what we're training for in Manchester, and might be different than Rochester. We're really looking at how we can best serve the businesses in the communities in which we operate, while also providing access to high quality in demand careers for the people that we're serving.

Anthony Payton: So if I were to grant a wish, let's say right now, how would you help at-risk youth? If you were a government official today, you became a government official, what steps would you take to help those at risk youth?

Allison Joseph: I think the first thing that I would do if I had my sort of magic wand and unlimited resources and approval would be to expand access to mental health care, reduce wait times for people in crisis to be able to access crisis intervention care. Something that I've seen changed dramatically over my 15 years at MY TURN is the young people we work with, their willingness to accept that maybe they need some assistance in becoming sort of healthy in that area of their lives. And it's heartbreaking to see somebody who needs help, who wants help, who's ready to receive help and have them not be able to get that help in a timely fashion. So I think that is probably the first thing that I would do with my magic wand.

Anthony Payton: That's great. I support that all the way. Well, thank you for coming here with us, Allison, and joining the Common Ground Initiative. But I have one more question. We're kind of like foodies here. We're kind of like foodies here at the Common Ground Initiative. So you're at home right now, you're hungry, you open up your refrigerator, you already put something together or you're going out. What are you doing and why are we eating it?

Allison Joseph:  Oh, geez. Okay. So that's a great question because we are all foodies at MY TURN too. Like food is a big conversation. We start talking about what we're gonna eat for lunch at like 9:30 AM Gosh, you know, it varies. Some days it's tacos. My lunch spot lately has been Restoration Cafe in Manchester. I get the Mexican corn salad, the energized smoothie. It's the bomb. We share it in the office. So shout out to Restoration Cafe for keeping me full.

Anthony Payton:  I need to get there because I've been hearing a lot of talk about that place and I need to get over there and become a part of it. Well, thank you so much Allison, again for joining us. We hope to see you soon and collaborate somehow. Sure. Our work will intersect.

Allison Joseph: Thank you for having me, Anthony. It was a pleasure to be here.

Anthony Payton is an award-winning columnist based in Manchester. He can be reached at Anthony.Payton@collaborativenh.org

These stories are part of The Common Ground Initiative which aims to highlight the diversity of our communities with stories of people the average Granite Stater might not get to see or meet, clarify misconceptions and find the threads that bind us all together as one New Hampshire community.  They are being shared by partners in The Granite State News Collaborative. For more information visit collaborativenh.org.