Youth Programs
- School Based Youth Leadership and Development Programs
- Youth/Young Adult Employment Professional Development
- Educational Wildlife Presentations and Community
Outreach - Summer Leadership Science Adventure
- Tobacco Use Prevention and Control Programs
School Based Youth Leadership and Development Programs
These programs form the service foundation for Talking Talons. Our capable facilitators, trained in environmental education, substance abuse prevention, leadership theory and behavior intervention techniques, make weekly visits to classrooms of targeted students.
The young trainees, through safe and intimate experiences with TTYL’s collection of rehabilitated non-releasable birds of prey, bats, and reptiles develop a sense of duty to protect and speak in defense of the natural world. Their training in communication and public speaking skills is enhanced by a variety of unique and interactive exercises in team-building, role playing, debate, and lateral thinking.
The culmination of their work is (a) active participation in outreach presentations to their peers and other community groups, in which they speak and demonstrate with the live animals, and (b) a group conservation / service-learning project
that leaves a lasting benefit to the school or larger community. School based programs typically last the entire school year and are integrated with science or special education curriculums. These programs, through rigorous evaluation, have been shown to effect significant positive changes in the areas of self esteem, knowledge, and attitudes towards science and school. Conversely, TTYL interventions also are effective in reducing common risk factors such as violent tendencies, stress, impulsivity, and rebelliousness. Parent/child days are also included throughout the school year extending the program to the family domain.
Youth/Young Adult Employment Professional Development
The logical next step in human development extends into the domain of employment. Each year, TTYL hires twenty to forty young adults (ages 14 to 25) for paid positions in environmental stewardship. For many participants, this represents their first employment experience. For other older students with more supervisory experience. 
Crew Leader positions offer exciting people management challenges. The work requirement is approximately 30 hours/week for six month periods. Projects, which occur at the Leadership Center and in the community, are varied, challenging, and skill building. From summer camp counseling to critical habitat restoration on public lands, participants walk away with a renewed sense of civic responsibility and, possibly, new career directions. Educational and training workshops such as tool use and construction and public speaking are offered to the recruits.
Educational Wildlife Presentations and Community
Outreach
Occurring throughout the year, youth and staff transport the wildlife to schools, nursing homes, community groups and special events for an unforgettable one-hour discussion of environmental issues using the animals as living examples of how we have the power to squander or conserve our natural resources. Shows are adapted to varying age groups, special needs or topics of interest. Other forms of outreach include guided interpretive hikes along the San Pedro Creek, unique and fun events such as the Summer Science Carnivale, and the dissemination of Migrations, the Talking Talons Newsletter.
Summer Leadership Science Adventure
Designed for youth ages 7 to 12, this ever popular two-week day event balances science, research, and advocacy with fun and creativity. Each summer, an environmental issue, such as water consumption, or dependency on fossil fuels, is focused upon. The curriculum is enhanced with art projects, outdoor recreation, exercise and more. The session ends with a well researched mock public policy debate or a play about researched environmental issues. Students are assigned community roles for which they act, and dress the part using second hand clothes from the TTYL Thrift Store. Top
Tobacco Use Prevention and Control Programs
Efforts are focused in the Edgewood/Moriarty areas (predominantly Torrance County, New Mexico) where teen smoking behavior has become all too commonplace. Prevention efforts at the sixth through ninth grade levels are offered.
Youth cessation programs are provided for students who already smoking and have made a commitment to quit while alternative-to-suspension sessions are offered for referrals from school and teen court. The success of the program is through its ability to frame smoking as an environmental issue – an epidemic – rather than as a punishable offense.
TTYL draws connections with the students between other environmental catastrophes where a toxin or carcinogen has entered the biological domain and caused severe morbidity and mortality. Further, as the focus of these programs is not entirely on tobacco use itself, but also on wildlife and environmental stewardship, adopting a mission becomes one of the key tools for internal resistance. These programs are partially run by a group of late high school, early college age paid interns who, in addition, conduct community education campaigns about the dangers of environmental tobacco smoke.
