January 2011 - Lisa Seymour: Passion & Energy, Ingredients for Asset Building
When Lisa Seymour walks into a room, your first thought is: ENERGY. Lisa is energetic, exuberant, and passionate. “I have a passion to speak, to help youth, especially young women to find their path”, states Lisa.
Lisa came to DeKalb to attend Northern Illinois University, where she majored in Communications with an emphasis in Culture & Advocacy. After some ups and downs, Lisa graduated in 2002. “I am a real person, and I had some real experiences” stated Lisa, and those experiences, both positive and negative helped shape her desire to help others.
She started volunteering at Hope Haven while at NIU, doing various things including providing child care for Hope Haven families. When a position for the Children’s Case Manager opened up, she applied and has been working at Hope Haven ever since. “I started as the Children’s Case Manager in 2002 then became the Emergency Shelter Coordinator and now I’m the Transitional Housing Coordinator” Lisa shared. At Hope Haven she found her niche, “I was a little girl when I started in 2002 and I am a grown woman now”.
As the Children’s Case Manager Lisa started the “Study Tables” opportunity for the youth at Hope Haven. The program provides homework help for students K-12th grade. Community members, NIU & Kishwaukee College students help tutor the youth and engage them in learning. The youth have shown an increase in academic success, and more amazing, parents have become involved with their children’s learning. “When we started Study Tables, the parents didn’t want anything to do with it, but once they saw their children engaged in learning and doing better in school, they wanted to be a part of the experience” recalled Lisa.
Part of Lisa’s passion is her strong faith and relationship to God. Lisa spent a year as the Youth Minister at New Hope Missionary Baptist Church. While there, she worked directly with the teenage members of the church. The youth planned and delivered Youth Church twice a month, where they were responsible for planning the service and sometimes delivering the message. During church lock-ins (overnight meetings at the church for teenagers) the youth would get to talk about real issues such as substance abuse, teen pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases and whatever else was on their minds. “Those may sound like funny topics to talk about in church, but I have to be real”, stated Lisa, “and I have to give hope”.
Lisa is also a volunteer facilitator for the Junior Leadership Academy (JLA), a group of high school youth learning leadership skills through a program sponsored by the DeKalb Chamber of Commerce. Lisa feels like JLA is a great opportunity to cultivate youth leadership. “I think we underestimate our youth, and we lower our expectations of what they can accomplish, through JLA we can work with youth to develop the tools to succeed” stated Lisa.
The point that Lisa, energetically and passionately, expresses is that as a community “we need to stop underestimating our youth and take the time to listen to their stories, especially youth who may be in trouble. It only takes one person to be there… to say ‘I believe there is a better you’”.
