How Glasswing International Stops Youth Violence and Crises Before They Start | Celina de Sola

When we talk about solving youth violence, the conversation usually starts after crisis has already hit. But what if the most powerful - and most underfunded - work happens long before that? In the daily relationships, mental health supports, and safe spaces that help young people feel seen, connected, and capable of building a future?

In Episode 6, Dorothy Stuehmke speaks with Celina de Sola, co-founder and President of Glasswing International, about what it truly takes to support young people before crisis takes hold - and why prevention-focused community investment is one of the most powerful levers we have for building safer, more resilient societies.

Celina shares how growing up in El Salvador shaped her profound understanding of inequality and led her to co-found Glasswing International, an organization now working across 12 countries to strengthen youth wellbeing and community resilience through mental health, education, and grassroots partnership.

Together, Dorothy and Celina explore:

• Why mental health, trusted relationships, and safe spaces are the true foundation of violence prevention
• How Glasswing partners with schools, healthcare workers, volunteers, and community leaders to build environments where young people feel supported and empowered
• What prevention-focused community work looks like in practice — and why it outperforms crisis intervention
• How communities across Latin America and the United States are building resilience from the inside out

This episode connects to the Do Good on Purpose Giving Circle, where you can directly support Glasswing International and its work strengthening mental health support, youth development, and violence prevention across 12 countries in Latin America and the U.S.

🤝 Support Glasswing International through the Do Good on Purpose Giving Circle – https://www.grapevine.org/giving-circle/LjPhN5M/Do-Good-on-Purpose-Giving-Circle

🔗 Connect with Dorothy Stuehmke:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dorothystuehmke/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dorothystuehmke/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@dorothystuehmke

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Welcome to the Do Good On Purpose podcast, where you can listen to leaders discussing solutions to the most pressing challenges in our world, and where you can also support them by donating through the show's giving circle. Use the QR code below, or you can access the link to the giving platform in the show's notes. Sometimes the most important work in the world happens long before a crisis makes headlines. It happens quietly in schools, in communities, in relationships, and in the moments when a young person feels seen, supported, and safe. My guest today is Selena DeSola, co-founder and president of Glasswing International. Selena's commitment to this work began early, growing up in El Salvador and noticing how unfairly opportunity can be distributed. And that sense of purpose has since grown into an organization working across 12 countries in Latin America and the U.S. with hundreds of staff and a TEDx talk that has helped bring broader attention to mental health as a tool for prevention. What stands out the most about Selena is the depth of her compassion and conviction. She's a leader who transformed an early awareness of inequality into a lifelong commitment to helping young people further. On today's episode of the Do Good on Purpose podcast, we explore what it really means to invest in prevention, in mental health, and the well-being of young people and why caring communities may be one of the most powerful tools we have to address violence, trauma, and inequality. Selena joins us now. Selena, thank you so much for joining me today on the Do Good on Purpose podcast. I'm so excited to have you here with me to really talk about what Glasswing International has been doing for the past almost 20 years across Latin America and the United States when it comes to supporting youth and mental health and violence issues. And I'm just so thrilled to have this opportunity to introduce your work to my listeners. So welcome.

SPEAKER_01 2:06

Thank you so much. I'm really excited to be here and grateful for the opportunity. Thanks, Dora.

SPEAKER_00 2:11

So why don't we just jump into what it is that sits at the heart of the work that Glasswing International is focused on? I mean, I think we see in the world a tendency to spend an enormous amount of resources on what happens after trauma, violence, inequality takes hold of our communities, especially youth. Why is it so hard to come in earlier and fund those issues that can help prevent violence?

SPEAKER_01 2:49

I think sometimes it's easier. We can't take the scenic group to the fire. But the challenge is and the opportunity, I'd say both, is that if we're able to create safety, right? Create safety and make sure that young people and children have access to caring adult figures, for example, and someone who they can go to for support, it's incredible how much that can do to prevent what we're seeing as an emergency now, like mental health crises or violence. It not only prevents it, but it also can address the impacts of exposure to stress and trauma, these caring relationships with people in communities, right? It doesn't necessarily always require a specialist. So I think in in part, I think generally we're not very good at doing prevention, even with regular health, right? We, you know, with chronic diseases or with high cholesterol, we're not good at prevention because sometimes it seems like it's going to be something that'll happen in the future. It's more kind of abstract or or big. But really, um, I find it exciting that there's so many things we can do on the prevention space and that everybody can be involved in. So, you know, I think it's it's getting people as excited and get it giving a sense of urgency around prevention is really important to make sure that we have like a 360, like we really have a the scaffolding around that we need to both prevent and address the consequences of, you know, the so many difficult things that young people are going through.

SPEAKER_00 4:22

Yeah. I mean, I think that's such an interesting point around how it is an abstract sort of concept, right? And when we think about sort of being reactive when we see a problem and we react and we want to help solve it. But what you're doing is you're coming in the other way in many cases, right? You're trying to be proactive before something becomes a problem with youth. And mental health is one of these things that you focus on in helping to prevent issues spiraling out of control in communities, I guess, right?

SPEAKER_01 4:56

Yeah. And you know, the thing at the end of the day, it's like every child, you know, it's like you think about every child has the same kind of potential, right? That you you're born into this world. And really what ends up separating the access, the opportunities is it's arbitrary. It's perhaps where you're born, what conditions you're born into. If you're born into conditions of poverty or living in context of violence or uncertainty or conflict, so it's this kind of arbitrariness that's that just doesn't seem fair, right? When we think about it. And so when we're when we're really considering how we can create conditions, like what can we do around every child, around every young person to make sure that they have what they need to be able to, you know, because you can't, you know, you want kids to feel good about themselves, but that changes, right? When you're a teenager. So really to feel supported, to feel supported and have people around them, whether it's in schools or in the clinics, like who are young people and children engaging with? And I think that that's where that's like where the magic can really happen, and with peers. So it's really finding those moments, those opportunities, so so young people and children can feel safe because because a lot of kids are already facing very extreme things perhaps we don't hear about. So sometimes this line between what's an emergency and what's prevention can get really blurred, right? Because a lot of times kids are exposed to things or feeling things that we may not see. So having this scaffolding and really thinking in like a full circle way about how we provide support, and then also position young people to support each other. Like what knowledge, what do we need to know about in terms of mental health and well-being, and what skills do we need to be able to support, you know, ourselves and to support others? So I think there's these these opportunities to do that, particularly at a time where we're seeing so much isolation and and um you know, there's just sometimes just this huge feeling of being alone in the world. Um, and yet there's so many of us. So how do we you know, kind of how do we activate all these resources that could be so helpful for young people, children to feel better and to be able to access the support they need and the care they need.

SPEAKER_00 7:04

Yeah. I mean, that's so well summarized. I think this is to me not about crisis prevention necessarily. I think when people think about violence prevention or community resil resilience, what probably comes to mind is crisis response. But what you do, what you're doing is a lot deeper and more 360, like you say than that.

SPEAKER_01 7:26

Yeah, I mean, at the end, you know, what we started, we've been working with young people and children for 20 years now, and we ask them a lot, you know, like what are what are your priorities? What do you feel? What do you need? What do you get excited about? So a lot of this constant asking kids and the people that work with kids, right? Pretty primarily teachers and volunteers, a lot of this feedback helps us figure out what to do, especially when things are changing so quickly. So it's, you know, for us, we decided with mental health over the years of talking to young people. We're like, who's talking, who is who are young people engaging with regularly? And how can we give those people who are already working with kids, teachers, doctors, nurses, community leaders, and how can we equip those people to be better equipped with the knowledge and skills? Like, how do we provide the information and training so people that are already working with kids can support them better? You know, so we that way we don't need to create this whole separate infrastructure. And and frankly, most of the world, there aren't enough mental health specialists, psychiatrists and psychologists or social workers. So given that we're not going to have enough resources, human resources in the near future that are specialized in mental health, we were trying to figure out, you know, what we can do to make everybody a part, everybody a potential resource in mental health. And the reality is, and the science tells us that that these human connections are one of the most important, if not the most important things for young people. So, you know, I think that's it's science-backed, right? It's not just an assumption. Not only are we asking kids and young people, but it's also what's been researched for decades and decades and decades, the importance of these relationships. We cannot emphasize enough how much that does to feel safe and have people that you can trust in your life, even if it's one person. It doesn't have to be a lot.

SPEAKER_00 9:17

Yeah, no, that's so well stated. Thank you for sharing that. You talk a lot about this in the TED talk that you that you did a a f a few years ago about mental health really as a tool of prevention. I saw, just having been a a grant maker and been in the philanthropy space for a while now, I've seen really the whole mental health aspect of supporting youth come into play around the time of COVID. But you've been doing it before. I mean, you you co-launched Glasswing in 2007. So tell me a little bit about your observations on that. Is is the sector moving to understand the importance of mental health for youth now finally, because we've seen the impacts through COVID. Um, and how how much further do we have to go?

SPEAKER_01 10:04

You know, I I think COVID was a this like a rude awakening almost, like, oh my goodness, this is a problem, right? So um, and it's you know, I'm glad that it's become more front and center mental health. I think for us, there's a question of language, like COVID all of a sudden gave us a sense of urgency. We realized, you know, young people were feeling isolated, they were really anxious, they were speaking about it more, right? And this is in some contexts, not everywhere. But before that, it's also, you know, mental health, it's not, we don't, you know, the the terms we use, sometimes a lot of the work that that organizations have been doing, for example, with after-school programs and schools, you know, perhaps before we would talk about social emotional learning or life skills. And a lot of that work is also, you know, really part of mental health, right? When we can develop these skills. So all these things, when you think about these skill sets that you need as you develop to navigate your world, that is part of your well-being, right? So I think a lot of the programs, perhaps we didn't call them mental health programs, but a lot of that really helps you build resilience, helps you, you know, communication skills, how to relate to other people, how to, you know, have determination. So I think that that perhaps we weren't using languages like the the words or the terms mental health before, or anxiety or you know, some of these other terms that have come up more. But I think we we were, you know, I think people who work with youth and children have been moving in that direction. And and and we've known for so long about what makes kids feel stable and safe. So, and I I think it's just how we make it happen, right? So for us, I think we were preoccupied and and really concerned about the exposure to violence. Latin America, and I said this in the TED talk, there's statistics, but uh Latin America is 8% of the world's population, but about a third of the homicides globally. So if you think about the proportion of violence in a region that doesn't represent a huge number of people, it's it's a pretty frightening statistic. So I think, you know, we had been looking at this from a long time ago. And I I used to work in humanitarian aid, and it was like, well, what are we doing about this? What are we doing about the fact that kids are exposed to in so many parts of the world a lot of different stressors and these feelings of, you know, uncertainty or lack of safety, and what can we do? So for us within the life skills work, we started to think more about what does that relationship mean? Like if there are volunteers that work with kids regularly, um, if there's a coach, if there's a teacher, what does that relationship mean? And what can we do to make sure that the people who are engaging with kids, not just our work directly with kids, but to make sure that the teachers that are in the schools where we were working would also be okay. So I think that's one of the main differences, I suppose, that we were working directly with kids, but we also said, how can we help other frontline workers that engage with kids so they can also feel well? And I think that this is something really important because all of a sudden youth mental health has become just this huge global issue. It already was, but now it's like even more friend center. And we have to remember that everybody who's working with young people also faces stressors and challenges. So it was like we're just trying to really make sure that we support those who support others, like that we find ways and not just, you know, and and and support the means, providing them with the knowledge also around the science of stress and trauma, and then what the science tells us can work for us to manage our own well-being and also the well-being of those that we care for.

SPEAKER_00 13:36

So you outlined some pretty frightening statistics in in Latin America around violence and and homicides. Where do you think the system has failed youth in the communities that Glasswing is serving across Latin America and the US? Is it government? Is it funders? Is it schools, the education system? Where is the system failing youth?

SPEAKER_01 14:03

Yeah, I feel I actually feel like this is a shared responsibility, right? And I, you know, I think sometimes it's like, oh, this is the responsibility of a public school. You know, my son's in this, uh he goes to public school here in New York, and it's for is it the parent's responsibility, oh, that child isn't behaving in quotes, right? Because parents aren't raising them well. And like, I feel like this is a joint responsibility across sectors, right? Across sectors. And I think it's also when we think about even the buttons, one thing about the education systems that I'll say is that there's so much pressure, including from the private sector, to have like this is what a young person needs to be. Like they need to be productive and they need to be productive in society as defined by this. Like, this is what we consider to be success, financial success. It's and there's a friend of mine, her name is Abby Thalik, and she talks a lot about the importance of just engaging young people differently with purpose, right? So we're talking, you know, we're talking about do good on purpose podcasts. And I think that it behooves us all to think about what does it mean to be a good citizen in the world? And instead of identifying, right, which system is it the public system, is it the private sector, is it what kind of people do we want to see in the world? What kind of people do we want to engage with in the world? And then how do we create opportunities so children and young people can go in that direction as opposed to having all the kinds of pressures to fit into some sort of expectation? And now with, you know, there's it there's so many other kind of pressures, technology or social media, all these things. How do we navigate this new world? And and I and I'd like to, you know, and I think there's a lot of us in this community, they're like, oh my gosh, if we can engage young people more as part of this mental health work, we're we're we're trying to do this a lot more as change makers in in their own lives and their own communities, like what, you know, how can we all take responsibility, including young people taking responsibility for each other? So I'd say we're all dropping the ball, is what I'd say, right? We're all dropping the ball. And I think we're missing opportunities. So instead of like going into a dark place and curling up, which can happen when we see so many things and so much suffering in the world, it's like, where can we unlock momentum around just, you know, creating this like a society where we are more present for each other and we're the person that we needed, and we're the person that we needed when we were little for someone else. I think I heard uh I read that quote by Aisha Sadiq, and I thought that was so cool. It's like be the person you needed when we were younger. And what does that mean? So I think that means that that engages all of us public sector, private sector, philanthropy. And I will say for the philanthropic sector, when we think about youth mental health, like we just have to keep asking young people what you know their priorities are and how they're how what makes them feel better. And and this means young people across cultures, contexts, wherever it is we're working, because it's going to be different, depending obviously on your context. I think we have to listen more. I a lot of conferences I go to, what young people say is, oh my gosh, thanks to that one person that believed in me, that's why I'm here, and that's why I'm the way I am. That's why I, you know, I got through this tough time. It's amazing. When you ask, it almost always comes down to someone that helped you envision a better future, that helped you develop the muscle of hope, helped you have aspirational thinking, and then helped you access opportunities. And it might have been one or it might have been multiple, but that tends to be a common theme. So who's responsible for that? I'd say all of us are, because we can be that for someone else, um, or for lots of other people.

SPEAKER_00 17:38

That was such an amazing response. And I and I saw you put on so many different hats there. So thank you. You responded as a mother, as a nonprofit leader, as someone who's been in the field working in humanitarian affairs, as someone who was born and raised in El Salvador and then understands what Latin America is going through and the youth there as well. So let's unpack that a little bit more because that experience, full circle, has brought you to where you are now. But where did the spark come from to want to actually found, co-found, and lead an international nonprofit organization? Can you take me back to a moment or an experience?

SPEAKER_01 18:19

I'll mention one like really early on, and then I'll just go kind of to my younger adult years because I think you know it's a process. I grew up in El Salvador, and I do remember as a child, I did have access to opportunities. I did have a safe home. I had a supportive family. And I do remember as a very small child, just kind of that fire in your belly starting because I would see children my own age. And it was like, why, why are they living, why are they selling candies on the street? You know what I mean? When I'm like, it just for me, it it wasn't fair. Like this concept of social justice, I didn't know that term, right? But I just it wasn't fair. Why is that girl that's my age or that boy that's my age, that child in that situation? I'm in this one when I had nothing to do with the circumstances of my birth. So that's something that's been really something that I thought about a lot. And then, and then instead of being paralyzed by that in terms of action, right? Like it was more like, what do I need to do to somehow contribute to changing that? So I think that's one thing. And then fast forward, so that's since I was, you know, just as a kid, and I think a lot of kids notice these things. So it's, you know, when they notice it, it's a great opportunity. And by the way, also kids that live in tough environments, they all want to be supportive and help and improve their communities. It's like it's pretty much every human being likes to feel purposeful and helpful. And so fast forward in my 20s, I studied social work. I worked with immigrant families here in the US. And and again, as a Latin American, it was a really interesting and profound experience for me because I had had a very different experience than most of the clients I was working with. And then I after I finished, I worked in humanitarian context, like you said, Dorothy, I worked in a humanitarian context in emergency relief. So I worked in Africa and the Middle East, I worked in in Asia, in countries that faced extreme violence and and really, really tough situations, unnatural disasters. And I remember every time I'd work in these communities, and I just had the opportunity to meet so many frontline workers. I had the opportunity to work with the people who were just every single day, not just during emergencies, but all the time, being so committed to the people that they served. That was something that for me was I knew that I wanted to figure out how to be as supportive as possible to people who were working. Now we say in the front lines, but really um in large part public servants, honestly. Um, because I was in hospitals, public schools, clinics, you know. So it was a lot of times it was just these people who could decided to dedicate their life to to helping other people. And since then, I think that kind of put something in my head. Like, how how do we work as a nonprofit, as an organization? How do I work from the outside of a public system, so to speak, or any system, community system? How can we work to respond to the priorities of those systems and align? Because we can work in schools and communities, and we do. Obviously, we that's like our core, right? We work in communities three schools, but also how can we be also responsive to those people that that you know that are working every day in their entire careers? So I think it was that combination. And I remember leaving humanitarian aid because I was like, you know, with the two co founders at the time, we were like, let's go back and work on development, right? Not just humanitarian aid now. Like, how do we put just be supportive to systems, to communities in any way we can and really listen and ask and ask and ask and adapt and respond to priorities, not to Leads to priorities, right? Like I think having met all these people in really tough contexts and seeing the courage, the determination in many different places really cemented for me that I wanted to work in this sector, right, for the rest of my life. And I and I think it's an amazing opportunity to meet so many people that I have huge admiration for and to learn constantly because we're constantly all trying to problem solve. But I but my story, I think a lot of a lot of my story was really marked by the people I came into contact with when I did humanitarian aid. And then over the past 20 years, I think just the young people we've worked with, about 20% of our staff are former students in in the program. So I think my favorite moments are when kids who have been in an after-school program, for example, or been trained in mental health, when they decide to start volunteering and start working in their communities. Because what an incredible, you know, what with just this full circle moment. And I think, and again, when we think about safety, well-being, mental health, it's about social fabric and communities. So when we see that engagement, it's a really, really exciting thing because it's like you can feel like the the the weaving of all these relationships and how that creates a really strong support intergenerationally across communities, across ages. So those have been kind of moments where I'm lucky that I get to meet so many amazing people that are doing amazing things. So those are some that stick out.

SPEAKER_00 23:28

That thank you for sharing that. It's always so interesting to hear how leaders have been inspired to get into this work because I think it says a lot about your character and it says a lot about your vision. And I think people need to understand that when they learn about Glasswing International. And so let's take all of what you've shared and let's put that into context now in terms of how you've taken all this experience on the ground. You've built this organization over 20 years now. And what does that look like in terms of an actual program?

SPEAKER_01 24:04

What does your program model look like? Sure. Glasswing just to take Glasswing's actually kind of butterfly that exists between you know from Mexico down to Colombia, which is most of the countries that we work in are in that region and we work here in New York City. But Glasswing now we're we're working in 12 countries. We're an organization that started in El Salvador. It didn't start in the US, even though now, you know, we've we are a 51c3 and we've been here um working in New York for a long time. It is an organization that started in in in Latin America and now has expanded in a very small country. And what we do primarily is work in communities where kids and families are facing a lot of adversity, mainly circumstantial, contextual and like adversity, right? Again, nothing that they, you know, it's it's again born and and raised in communities where there weren't necessarily opportunities. And yet these communities so often like overcome and transform. But what we do is a few things. One is with mental health, we're trying to create safe spaces in public schools, in other spaces and communities and health facilities. But in schools, our mental health work is to make sure that public schools that we work with. Most kids go to school for about four hours a day in a lot of these countries. So we create safe spaces in schools where kids can access opportunities during the school day, but also in after-school programs. And we're caring adults through volunteering help them develop skills, but also have access to this kind of support and a person that believes in them, cares in them, and is really invested in their in their success and in their happiness, really. So we work in public schools that way with after-school programs and mental health. We also train the teachers, parents, and other community leaders on mental health. And then in other spaces, we also train health workers, doctors, nurses, even security guards in hospitals and clinics. Everybody in a hospital or clinic will train them on our mental health program, which is called Sanamente, which means healthy minds. And that training helps these frontline workers, right? These public servants, community leaders, really feel better. Like I said before, be able to manage their own stress better and be a better support in the community. So our work really at the end of the day, it's it's looking at, you know, it is like you said in the beginning, Dorothy, we look at violence in this macro sense, but really we also know that even though people can hurt people, people also heal people. So our mental health work is about equipping each other with the knowledge and skills to help others heal and support each other and and us heal in the same way. So whether we're working with young people and children in schools or through youth service programs that we also work on with young people and this mental health training, it is really all about building care and communities so each of us can have the same opportunity to become the version of them of ourselves that we want to become, right? So it's that's what we strive to.

SPEAKER_00 27:00

Thank you. I I love this because it's not just about looking at the youth and trying to problem solve around the youth with a direct service program that just touches them and educates them and supports them. Um, it's about a whole 360 community approach. It's like building the capacity and giving the training to every person who has some sort of touch point with this and this young person so that they feel that they are safe and protected and can access opportunity because there's trust. So I really I think that's wonderful.

SPEAKER_01 27:42

And you know, I will say it's like obviously we do, you know, that we're 500 people now, right? It's a big team and we do a lot of evaluations and a lot of what what's exciting about what we can learn from and with communities together, as we like, you know, with young people particularly, and because our team, there are a lot of people who, you know, we've pulled into the the the team. What's exciting is a lot of what we learn over time, then you can share with bigger systems. You were talking about institutions and systems. If you're able to do things, you can learn from both what works and what doesn't to then inform systems, right? We don't all need to reach every single school or every single person. What we need to figure out is how we can what does work in response to people's priorities and then how you we can share what works. I mean, we've been, you know, we've adopted strategies that we've learned in South Africa and India. So it's this kind of mentality of collective action, right? And learning from each other and having the humility to try other things that you might never have done or don't know as much about, you know, and test them out. And I think that if we can come, and again, governments change, but usually public service providers stay across multiple administrations. So the exciting thing about working with young people and communities over the long term is that what we can learn, we can then share with systems. If we're lucky, some of these strategies and approaches can be integrated or they can support systems and becoming stronger and also being part of these enabling environments for young people to thrive.

SPEAKER_00 29:13

So what you're doing must be working because you started in El Salvador and then you expanded across Latin America and into the US, and you're operating in what 11, 12 countries total now? So that's something is working. Something is definitely working with your model. So what does that look like in terms of an actual youth who has gone through your program and has succeeded, whatever the definition of success for them means, because success can be different for everyone. Tell me about someone who you met where you thought my program really made a difference in their life or in their family's life or in their community. Oh my gosh, there's, you know, I think and I know there's so many.

SPEAKER_01 29:56

I know, I know. We had, you know, we have this program called the it's a fellows program where we young people in the schools, once they get older, they can apply and become fellow. And basically they work with us for a year. It's a paid staff position. And I think that one of the, you know, for me, we have eight about 80 fellows annually in three different countries. And and I think when you see the progression of like a, you know, a young boy like Maggie, and someone, you know, 10 years old started in one of your after-school clubs and you know, with very timid, you know, maybe didn't talk as much with adults or even with his peers. And over the years, you get to see a child like that develop into a leader who then starts, you know, maybe they're in like an English club and a discovery club. In his case, he was in both of those. And then, and then he starts wanting to volunteer. And he's like, I want to volunteer with the younger kids, right? So at like 1415, wanting to volunteer with younger kids to run programs with those kids and developing that confidence, feeling safe, and seeing how, in his case, one of my colleagues who would also volunteer, because aside from working there, a lot of our team also volunteers. She became his mentor and just got company to company to company this young boy who then becomes a young man, um, and perhaps had no aspirations, right? No one in his family had gone to college, nobody had had that kind of experience, right? Outside of the community, coming from a community that faced a lot of like stigma and discrimination. So then you see the progression and the confidence and and and the futures thinking and then goal setting, and then the volunteering, the service, and then getting access, becoming a fellow with us, working with us for a year, and then in his case, right, just getting to the point where right now the fellowship is ending and we just want to keep him on staff, right? You see, like this progression where you have these kids that go to college, didn't go to college before, and then you just see that person that you want to work with, that you want to hire, that you think the person you want to see in the world, and knowing that there's so many kids that that aren't like that, that are just these amazing human beings. I think for me, that's that's when it really comes full circle when you see someone from a child, uh, you know, again, we've been around for 20 years and then see them as a grown-up, a professional who just you know, and and deciding to do something to support the well-being of others and to support their country and their communities, right? So I think that for me is really special. And I, you know, I also, you know, we've worked with young girls, and you know, that's something that also sticks out for me a lot. And I think when young girls, we have girls' programs as part of like the education mental health work. And when you see a young girl, young mom who had a child, you know, in their teens again continue to persevere and just continue with studies and and come back and and then work with other girls and work with communities and and to feel like I get to work, I get to have colleagues that I get to work with that bring all this experience and perspectives is amazing. That's amazing.

SPEAKER_00 33:01

So what gives you hope then and what keeps you up at night still?

SPEAKER_01 33:05

You know, I think you know, we can hold despair and hope at the same time, right? So I think it's a time when it's these contradictory feelings are coexisting a lot in a lot of situations. And I, you know, I'm learning more and trying to understand better how to just exercise hope as a muscle and develop hope as a skill, not something we have and don't have. So I'm finding that I draw a lot of hope from my colleagues. I think the people I get to work with, it's important for me that I and I feel privileged to work with the people I work with, and I also to see how even though it seems sometimes globally, you feel like so much doesn't change. When you do focus on specific things, things and things change, that's where I draw hope from because I also get so overwhelmed, you know. And when you think about just the global context, it is so overwhelming. And and we're talking about people today, but there's, you know, there's the planet, there's wildlife, there's all these things. So I do try to just exercise developing and maintain hope. And and and even if I feel that with other feelings that don't align, but it can coexist. I think just finding speaking with people and seeing the impact that that can be achieved, like on one person's life, on a community's life, or you know, I think it's important to leverage that. I think it's important to always remember that, that things can change even if it seems like it's it's slow sometimes. And I also have a teenage son. So it's like, you know, I'm I look at young people and when they're engaged and they and they can harness their hope, right? And and I I think that that's also something that gets me excited because I do feel like a lot of young people want to change and do things differently than we did, perhaps, right? And do do things in a way that hopefully will accelerate and change for the better quicker and not at the expense of other people, but in a way that brings everybody forward and leaves space for everybody to lead from different contexts and places.

SPEAKER_00 35:06

Yeah, thank you. That's so well said. So we're coming to the end of the podcast, and I want to ask you to share with our listeners. For our listeners who are interested in making a donation to the Do Good on Purpose Giving Circle, um, and have those donations go to Glasswing International, what would those donations support?

SPEAKER_01 35:33

Well, right now, the donations, one and thank you so much for the opportunity, Dorothy, and for all of you who are listening, thank you so much for listening in and for supporting the different causes that you support. And if you do choose, one of the things that we're really focused on right now, particularly here in New York with mental health, is working with young people, training young people to be able to provide support to their peers. So we're doing work. So that's really what we would focus this funding on right now, is both here in New York and also in Central America in particular. How do we help young people become mental health supports for their friends, peers, and younger kids in their schools and communities? That's a really big priority of ours because we see a lot of potential in that becoming just a real force for change.

SPEAKER_00 36:22

Fantastic. Selena, thank you so much for joining me today. Um, I think you're doing some incredible work around helping us all to keep youth front and center and really focus on enabling change through a very community-led approach. I love the way that you explained how you bring the entire community into the work to support youth and to give them a safe space so that they can thrive. So thank you for the work that you're doing.

SPEAKER_01 36:52

Thank you so much for the opportunity to chat today, Dorothy. I'm really excited we got to spend this time together.

SPEAKER_00 37:00

Thanks so much for listening to today's episode on the Do Good on Purpose podcast. And if today's conversation inspired you, please consider supporting the work through the Do Good on Purpose Giving Circle, which is linked in the show notes. And if you really enjoyed this episode, please subscribe. Share it with someone who believes in building a better world because change rarely happens by accident. It happens when people decide to do good on purpose.