By Markell Crawford, Vice President of Pathfinders’ Power of Paths Youth Action Board and former Pathfinders’ peer specialist, youth shelter volunteer & program participant.
I’m proud to honor my mentor, Joseph Stanley, on their 40th anniversary with Pathfinders.
Joseph began their career with Pathfinders as a volunteer in the Youth Shelter. Years later, that’s also where I started with Pathfinders and where I met Joseph. They progressed to become a therapist working with youth in the Shelter and, eventually, to providing therapy in Pathfinders’ Anti-Sexual Violence and Street Outreach programs. Over four decades, Joseph has had a profound impact on the lives of tens of thousands of young people, including mine.
In the following interview, you’ll hear Joseph share that Pathfinders saved their life. It saved mine, too. Joseph and Pathfinders showed me what life is about: overcoming and helping other people overcome.
Markell: My first memories with you, Joseph, are from when Pathfinders held groups at Plymouth Church. I knew I wanted to volunteer with Pathfinders then, but we had to be a certain age.
Joseph: And you were too young.
Markell: But I kept my ears open and became a volunteer at Pathfinders when I turned 14. While I was there you told me about Teens Grow Greens, and that was my first job. Later, being a peer specialist at Pathfinders’ Shelter, with you as my manager, was my second job.
Joseph: I think most people who get really connected to Pathfinders are people like you that want to be of service. People don’t need “help,” they need resources. And a resource for you, Markell, was being able to help others here at Pathfinders. You were able to grow with us because of what you provided to other people.
Markell: What has kept you at Pathfinders for 40 years?
Joseph: I just love Pathfinders so much. It saved my life, especially the focus on family preservation. I grew up on the streets and that impacts you. By the time I was 25, which is around the time I started at Pathfinders, 25 of my close friends were already dead. Suicidal ideation, drug abuse and alcoholism were part of life. But I came here and I healed. If you can help somebody because of a shitty life you had, you learn to cherish that experience versus just wanting to die. It made my experience ok.
When I started out here (in 1985) it was Thursday night overnight shifts. I picked that shift because I knew what it was like to be a punk street kid, not attached to my family, homeless. But I didn’t know what you do for those people. I figured, Thursday overnight shift, that’s one where I’ll do the least damage. I showed up to my first shift with a thermos of coffee and a science fiction book.
Markell: How do you encourage youth to grow, to become leaders, to find their purpose?
Joseph: Youth must find their own path. All I can do is provide them with opportunities and try to remove barriers.
When I was in 10th grade, I was homeless. We had to do a presentation in school about a topic of our choice. I was interested in this idea of communism and communal living, where everyone contributes and everyone has access to all the resources. I lived in communes after that, and that has impacted who I am today and how I work with young people. You miss out when you don’t hear from everyone and make collective decisions.
It’s also important to recognize the impact of history on people’s ability to show up and contribute. For example, you (Markell) are a person of color. We need to recognize your history going back three, four generations, and how that may impact your ability to show up here now. When youth come together for a youth leadership meeting or group, you have to remove barriers to everyone being able to fully participate. That starts with creating an environment where everyone has an equal chance to speak.
Markell: What are you going to do when you eventually retire? Are you going to be relaxing? Fishing?
Joseph: That’s hard to answer. I just want to keep helping people. I do a lot of spiritual work and lots of volunteer work outside of Pathfinders. I’ll do more of that. I do a lot of work with people who have addiction and alcoholism, who have spiritual sickness. People get sick if they don’t take care of their spirit and work on being present and building community.
I might do more motorcycle stuff, more travel. I built an adventure motorcycle last year, a Suzuki 650. It’s kind of small for driving long distances, but I put a 6.5-gallon gas tank on it and drove out to New York, up in the Catskill Mountains, near where I grew up.
And I’ll just keep on working on myself. I’ve only scratched the surface. Hopefully, we get reincarnated so we can continue working on ourselves. There’s so much work to do, so much growth.
Markell: I want you to know I’ll still be here for you. We can connect, do work together, go fishing. I know some of the young people need things like that, relaxing, fellowship, connecting with nature. You can call me up anytime.
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