Men’s Health Foundation Podcast Episode 5 Transcript

Creating Safe Spaces for Queer Youth of Color

David: Welcome back to the Men’s Health Foundation Podcast. This morning we're joined by Dré Jamison Molette, the director of SoCal Club here at Men’s Health Foundation. Dré, thank you so much for being on the show.

Dré: Thank you. Definitely…excited to have this conversation today.

David: So are we! [Marc: Yeah!]. Thank you. A little background on Dré. Dré, I know you've been working in public health, for maybe more than a decade now?

Dré: Yeah, it's been a decade. [laughs]

[Marc and David also laugh]

David: And previously with ALPHA Health and Wellness, the LA LGBT Center and Essential Access Health, doing STD prevention and navigation. And I know that also you've worked, helping folks get on PREP and PEP, in South LA and of course, in South LA that's where we have SoCal Club. [Dré: Mhm.]

David: How would you describe SoCal Club to someone who hasn't heard of it before?

Dré: Yeah. For me, SoCal Club is, you know, like we like to say down there, it's a place where young, queer men of color want to be. We really want to emphasize that it's a healthcare facility. Making sure that people get tested for HIV and STI, making sure they're having active conversations about sexual health, but also a safe space for young folks to come and really…talk about conversations that they are not able to have in school. You know, with the Children and Healthy Youth Act, or CHYA, sexual health education’s supposed to be talked about in high schools.

But unfortunately with the lack of health educators or…or even, like, you know, people who can talk about it in high schools, there hasn't been a robust conversation about it. Speaking to folks at, like, Compton Unified or Inglewood Unified, when we talk about folks fulfilling their A through G requirements, some of the times they don't get fulfilled to graduate because they don't have that sexual health conversation or that health conversation.

So now, kind of SoCal Club kind of takes that place. And we have, you know, groups that we can talk about sexual health, we have groups that we can talk about, like, life skills, like resume building. We have, conversations— Barbershop Talk where we're like, you know, a lot of our folks are going to the barber to get their haircut, and it just don't feel comfortable, like, you know, that they're having that, like— I wouldn't, like, the— kind of hetero patriarchy conversation about, like, you know, socializing as a man, but not socializing as a gay man.

So we really want to have those kind of conversations where they can feel comfortable, get a little touch up, maybe make a connection with a barber, and then, they're able to, you know, feel free and, socialize with other people. And then we have our health and wellness activities, which, what I like to do is I like to, you know— folks are coming to the space to get information about health, but also what about wellness?

So we'll do like a conversation, called “The D” about love, sex, and relationships, where they can talk about safer sex and also healthy ways to meet and socialize with people. But then after that, they're able to do wellness. So currently we offer yoga, Zumba, kickboxing, where we actually partner with the local boxing gym next door. And then we also do pole dancing, which is like a major hit right now with our partners, Romanceanddance in Carson. And they actually do sexual health conversations for women.

So we're really trying to be a partner with them and have them have our health educators talk to women in the community about, like, ways that they can protect themselves as well. But then that all wraps around, our clinical services as well, where we want folks to come back once every three months to actually get a sexual health checkup so we do wellness checks, led by our SoCal Club navigator. And, those wellness checks are just talking about, like, you know, things around the social determinants of health. Do you have access to healthcare? Hopefully you do because you’re coming to Men’s Health Foundation. And then we're talking about, like, social, things.

How are you socializing with people? What does that look like? And then we're also talking about housing. Housing is a big problem. Not just in South L.A., but everywhere in California. So, we offer kind of a— our THAP program. And the THAP program is really a program to help bridge people to get into housing temporarily so they can, you know, get into permanent housing. So we partner with a couple of community partners that are in the area, AMAAD: Arming Minorities Against Disease and Drug Abuse. And then we have God's Property, which is a sober living space founded by a person living with HIV. And then we have MOMMAS House, which MOMMAS house’s based in South Los Angeles and Riverside County, where they do supportive, transitional housing as well.

David: Wow! [Dré laughs] So many, so many services, wow. [Marc: I know!]

Dré: Yeah, I haven’t even talked about food bank, yet. But yeah. So we just opened the food bank there as well. So yeah.

David: Yeah, I can only imagine the difference that can make for someone.

Dré: Yeah, definitely. So we see, you know, we— it's— my expectation is when a person comes into the space, they're spending about 3 to 4 hours at the club. Not just having a conversation. They’re sitting chilling with friends and then like, “Hey, maybe I need to go over to the clinic and get tested.”

And so they're moving over to the clinical space, and they're talking with their providers, getting tested. And then we're also talking about, “Hey, have you brought a friend?” So asking them to bring friends to come in to know about their status and then, they're coming back over and doing our supportive programs.

David: Wow, how do most folks find out about SoCal Club who come through?

Dré: Instagram. Instagram is like, the biggest way of actually engaging folks. While also we have a robust outreach team which is on the apps, you know, Scruff, Growler, Sniffies. And they're actually, having conversations with folks. So they'll go out to a park and then they'll sit there in the neighborhood and they'll start chatting with people and people will be aware of our services, and we do see a lot of foot traffic.

We're also posting like our little stickers in the area saying, you know, “Are you curious?” And they scan that QR link and it links them back to the clinic. And then we have a specific flier that we use when we're going out, just saying— encouraging people to come and get tested and we'll see those fliers come back. So we know, “Oh, you're coming from park outreach.” [David: Mm.] Or, you know, or you're hearing from us through our, geo social network, which is called GSN so…

David: Yeah. You know, I'm curious when it comes to the idea of a safe space for, you know, queer youth, and especially in the community that you're serving, I would imagine that, part of the challenge would be if they're in a home environment that isn't supportive of, you know, who they are, or maybe them even seeking out these kind of services from an organization like this, how do you navigate that and how do you help create this safe space and keep it safe for folks? 

Dré: Yeah, definitely. We have a couple ways, that I've learned, how to make sure that we're still enabling safe space. I like to use, youth adult partnership framework. So really making sure that when people are coming into this space, it's not like, “You're here at the club. These are the rules.” You know that people receive a handbook, but it's also talking about using— making sure that whatever it is they want, that they're invested.

So we have our community advisory board, and that's a board made up of 11 young folks. And they're really talking about all the things they want to see in the community. So it's from like having activities from Skate Night, which they enjoy or like having like a Valentine's Day activity. Or like, you know, a lot of our folks attend church with their family members still, but they feel like, you know, some of the celebrations, like Easter, don't feel family friendly. So we have kind of like a community Easter brunch so they can feel comfortable with, you know, the day before going to church with their family, they can actually have some kind of community before entering into that space.

Marc: I was wondering about the staff that you have there. In creating this safe space, do you look for, like, certain types of staff, like, how do you go about, like, staffing the club to make it a safe space?

Dré: Yeah. In conjunction with, for, for people, operations team. I really try to standardize a policy that we have here at Men’s Health Foundation. One thing that I do like during the interview process is I do like activities. So I will, during this, during the hiring process, I do, talk about, like, you know, “Can you do a quick 2 to 3 minute presentation about ending the HIV epidemic or talking about, like, services in South L.A.?”

So, like, during the interview, I like— and then my team, we at least, the person, if they're a health educator, then the other health educate— the health educator is interviewing them as well. So we do have kind of a small group interview process. We're looking at presentation, but also how people can facilitate. We also want to understand that, while working for Men's Health Foundation and also at SoCal Club, we wear many hats.

So you may be the health educator today, but you're also going to be doing outreach as well in the community. Or working with community partners. I think it's really important that, you know, South L.A. is very strong, committed to making sure that other organizations work together. You know, one of the strongest organizations in South L.A., Community Coalition of South Los Angeles, which is actually founded by Mayor Karen Bass, is really invested in making sure that, you know, empowering youth, specifically.

They have a Summer Nights Lights program, which we've participated in, community health fairs, and then also, you know, “What's your engagement? How do you feel about talking to young people? That's really important. So I want to just make sure that anybody who comes to SoCal Club knows that, you know, we're not just dealing with young people, but young people who, you know, may be college graduates from USC working at JPL. To someone who is just a freshman in high school learning about their identity. So we have different spectrums. So we try to make sure that if you're going to work for us, you're going to have to deal with a broad range of folks. So yeah.

Marc: Awesome. That's cool. So you, briefly mentioned, like, the range of people that you, cater to. So for people who might not know anything about the club, what are the ages that you guys…

Dré: Oh, yeah! Yeah. Okay. [Marc and Dré laugh] Almost forgot to say that. So we do 12 to 29 young gay men, trans and non-binary folks. So, we're funded by the County, Los Angeles Department of HIV, STI Prevention, DHSP. So, you know, we've been a part of this grant for about five years. What we're noticing in our classes is that we're lacking a lot of health education, like the basic, you know— people don't understand or still don't know what the methods of HIV transmission are. So we're still trying to have— we're still having engaging those people, those conversations so… so yeah…so just taking bits and pieces from everything and try to make the best of it into this current program that we have.

David: I'm so curious, with the experience you've had working with young people— and of course, as you know, they're born later and later­— how has that changed the types of, you know, questions that you get asked or this sort of level of awareness? I'd be curious to hear with younger generations that you're working with, what you see as far as what's…what's changing or maybe we're staying the same.

Dré: I would say this— in their actions with folks, I would say, you know, everyone is on their phone. Yeah. 24/7, you know, back in the day because, you know, I'm an empowerment kid. So I actually started in the Empowerment Program like 20 years ago in Salt Lake City, Utah, where I'm from. So, back in the day, those conversations were like, oh, how do you meet people? You meet them at the bar, or you go to the park or a library.

Now it’s all like, how do you meet people? On an app. Or maybe, you know, there's like a meetup group or there’s an Eventbrite or there's a concert or like I found something and there's an event. So like interactions have changed a lot. And I feel like especially with social media, the emotion has been taken out [David: Mm.] of conversations. People aren't able to see, like, you know, unless you're putting in an emoji in a chat, people don't know how you’re feeling so there's— [Marc: (Laughs) Right.]

So there's definitely— things have been misinterpreted. You know, folks come up to me all the time and they're like, Dré, I'm talking to somebody. And like, you know, I'm feeling them, but they’re just not reacting. I'm all like, well did you call and pick up the phone? [Marc: Right.] They're like, no, I'm texting them. Like, that's the issue!

Marc: Yeah, yeah.

Dré: You’re continually texting. You're not like having that kind of conversation with them. [Marc: Yeah.] Yeah…you just...yeah…the phone, you know. [David: Yeah.]

Marc: I can totally relate to that. Yeah. Just like think, you know, you're missing context clues when it's just purely text, you know?

Dré: Yeah.

Marc: I was wondering about if you could share any, like, stories about members who have you've seen really grow, from where they were and then how they…where they ended up in life, their personal life, their mental health, everything.

Dré: Yeah, I would say like it's only been year two. So I have— I can say like there's been— I've seen good growth, but I don't know if I can really measure it yet. I want to say like within five years I can get like a broad, measurement of like what it looks like to be a successful person at the club. We talk about it in our staff meetings all the time.

It's like, what does it look like for a club member to be successful at SoCal Club? But I would say, like, there's two people that come into mind. The first one, they came through our high school program, our Popular Peer Leaders program. They had already been invested in the…in the community, through activities like Spring Into Love so they knew about health education already, and they knew how to empower communities. They came through and they're like, I really want to be a part of this. This is the space that represents me. They’re a high school senior currently. [David: Okay.] So we help them with their applications to go to schools for university.

And for— they've really supported our high school program. They'll usually bring about 5 or 6 folks that come through our programs. They're saying like, “Hey, did you hear about the event that happened? I'm like, “No…what event is this?!” [Marc and David laugh.] And they went, “Well, I'm going to it.” And I went, “Okay, so we're gonna go to it with you as well.”

So…so supporting them. Just currently finding out that they got a full ride scholarship to a university in Northern California. [Marc: Amazing!] They're being courted. They're being flown out— [David: Wow.] to go to the school. We're like, “Okay, that's great, but what about the other schools? Did you give…did you apply to any of the local UCs?” And they’re like

“Yes.” So we're waiting on those, so hopefully this person can stay local. I would love to see them be a part of the club a little bit more but if they have to go, they have to go. I mean, when you're getting a full ride to a Norcal university, you just gotta go, so…

Marc: Yeah. Wow. That's amazing.

Dré: So, yeah. That's successful. I mean, like, I would say another one. They were a part of our CAB. They've been coming for a while. They have been in Los Angeles for about three years, but they seem to really enjoy work— just, you know, volunteering and so some positions actually came up at…Men's Health Foundation, and they actually applied and they became the PrEP navigator.

So…and I'm always encouraging our young folks to like, you know, if you like the field, come work for us. So­— but they also know that André likes to— I like to work them a little bit more. Like I like to make sure that my staff is on their toes and challenged. So they're like— the word is, I just found this yesterday when I was at a conference. They’re like, “You work for Dré, you’re going to work. [Group laughs.] So yeah, they're the PrEP navigator and then they transitioned to a role— they’re now working underneath me directly as our outreach specialist, so…

Marc: Amazing.

Dré: Yeah.

David: Yeah. I think one thing that's so interesting, when you were talking earlier about, you know, such digital focus on how people socialize it's so interesting that SoCal Club is this in-person experience. [Dré: Mhm.]

That, you know, also can be really physical a lot of times. And I wanted to bring that up because one of the things that I often think about, I mean, I think some of the events that get a lot of attention at SoCal Club are the events involving like the ballroom community. And I'd love to just ask about, your relationship with that, with SoCal Club and kind of the impact that has on the club.

Dré: Yeah, definitely. The balls have been like the highlight of the club. It's taken a while to get them into the space. I do, you know, I like to work with— our existing community partners that actually do the work. So, you know, REACH LA, a very strong partner in the house and ball community. So I didn't want to like, you know, take away from that, but also really invest in to what folks in South L.A. are doing.

And so we kind of had a rule that said, like, if you're in a house in a Kiki house, so there's mainstream ball room, which is like, you know, the whole pomp and circumstance of like, you know— you're going to be there for six hours, they're going to do the march, they're gonna do— they're— all the houses are going to come out.

They're going to have the conversations, and they're going to do the full ball. Like all the videos that you see, that's a full ball. They're giving out thousands of dollars of prizes, you know, there are like at least 10 to 15 categories at a ball. A Kiki ball is shortened. So we're only having about 4 to 5 categories.

And these are— and then they’re Kiki houses. So you know, the main house and ball, you know, you have the House of Marc Jacobs. So you have a lot of those houses. And with the Kiki ball scene, they're kind of, they're not like, they're like the house of…I don't know if I can say this, House of Coochie.

They're like the house— [David: That's fine.]

[Group laughs.]

Dré: [Laughing] Yeah. I don't know if I can cuss, but…so…but yeah…so, like, the House of Coochie, the house of Juicy Couture. So those are the ones that we work with, and they're like, you know, they're smaller, they have maybe about 10 members. Mainstream houses have about 20 to 25 members.

You're paying dues as well to the main houses to keep them running. They're really small. So we said that, hey, we're going to have time for the house— the Kiki houses— to practice at the club. So when they have time to practice at the club, and then we have our vogue classes, then that helps complement each other.

And, you know, we have one of our CAB members, Rome, has been very integral about, doing vogue with his Kiki house and also his mainstream house as well. So he has really brought that foundation. And then we have the Kiki Balls. So we have the, Kiki houses, in the community come. We're maxing out the space, so we're having about 100 people come in and, all different ages, and they're doing their house— they're doing their ball.

And what's really nice is just not, not having just the commentators who are local where people have seen them, like on HBO Legendary. [David: Yeah.] We're having our community really come out and show support. So our next Hou— Kiki Ball, we're going to be doing is during Juneteenth weekend. We're partnering with Center South. And we're probably going to do like a full day event.

So we're going to do not just the— Kiki Ball’s like the main event where we're doing prizes, but we also do a talent portion where if folks have any other talents, they're able to come and show those as well.

Marc: Wow. Amazing. I'm like, I wish I could join, you know?

[David and Marc laugh.] 

Dré: Well come on down! I always invite everyone that's always able. And that's the most important thing. Like, you know, if you want to come down to SoCal Club, especially as a staff member of MHF you’re more than welcome to help come, you know, see the space, see what's going on. We always ask for volunteers. And so definitely.

Marc: Yeah. What are…what are your most, like, popular programs at the moment?

Dré: Pole dancing. [Marc: [nodding] Pole dancing.] The kids love pole dancing. We’re usually about getting 10 to 15 people for pole dancing. And then I’m all like, okay, only 10. You can only do 10.

[David and Marc laugh.]

So…so we have our pole dancing and then our life skills classes have really been picking up. Our health educator, Jordan, he’s been really doing a great job of, like, listening to our community advisory board and really responding. And so he's been doing like, you know, facilitation skills, how to facilitate. He's been doing classes about, like, you know, Outlook, Word, like the Microsoft Suite. ‘Cause a lot of people have questions about that.

And now with the addition of the Borick Think Tank we have Chromebooks. So, you know, it's not just looking on the screen and seeing what's going on. They— everyone has the Chromebooks out, they’re looking…they're…figuring out how to do things. And then, you know, its— I also tell Jordan it's like, you know, you got to present their work. So they're working on an activity and so everyone's presenting their activity. Another one that we were doing was our Sip and Paint. So we were doing that, talking about sexual health and painting. And that was also a hit as well. 

Marc: Mm! Amazing.

[Dré and David laughing.]

Marc: Yeah I mean, I know I…I say amazing just because, like, you know, I didn't have anything like that, like growing up like a place— there probably was, but, I didn't know about it, you know? So it's good that, like, you don't offer just, like, one type of program. There's like a variety of programs. And also, while you're doing it, you're like learning about sexual health too. So it's like…I'm just amazed! [laughs]

[Group laughs.]

Dré: Yeah, well, you know, a lot of— you have to…there's a lot of ways that people learn things. So you have to adapt to, you know, people's auditory learning. Are they people that have to write things down? Are they people that have to hear? 

So that's making sure that we're able to engage people where they're at. And then also one thing that’s been really integral to the club is like partnering with life science to do ASL interpretation, because we do have folks who…who use sign language. So we want to make sure that we're able to bring those people in.

So normally before someone comes to an activity, we use, Eventbrite to see, and we ask that in the box about ASL interpretation. And so we’ll say, “Oh! So-and-so’s coming.” So we need to have at least two interpreters to come through. We're trying to figure out a way for Spanish language as well, [David: Mhm.] because we do have a lot of monolingual Spanish speakers down there as well. We do our intervention called Sin Buscar Excuas. which is led by Ameer. And so, we want to make sure that we're talking about that as well and having those conversations too.

David: Yeah. One thing I wanted to make sure to emphasize to folks who haven't been to SoCal Club is just the space itself. I feel like, it's you know, something to talk about. [Dré: (laughing) Yeah.] It's impressive. And I think that, you know, maybe in my mind, I think it sets it apart from some other community centers just because of what that offers. So could you try to describe that for folks who are listening?

Dré: Yeah, well, I was— when you walk into the space, you're greeted, by our patient access specialist, Kevin. Kevin is really gonna kind of navigate you through SoCal Club, you know, they’ll welcome you in and give you a tour of the space. So you're walking in to the lounge, that's where folks are able to play video games, listen to music, people will be on YouTube, music— playing music as well.

What’s hot…you know, everyone’s talking about the new Beyoncé album coming out. Is it going to be country or not? So we'll usually put a question on the board, you know, and then we'll have the kids come in and answer it through the day. And then as you move into the space, we have our kitchen area.

So if folks, need a snack or something, they're able to take a snack and then we have fridges where drinks are at, and then if you're looking down through the space, then you're having the Borick Think Tank where folks, you know, some folks are coming in to do homework, or they just need a relaxing space just to, like, chill before like going into groups. So they'll be in that space and then right— if you're going back into the kitchen and turning around, you have this huge dance floor, this huge, like, floor space. Sometimes it's open, sometimes it's closed. And that's where we kind of have a lot of our group discussions. We're having our wellness classes there, and we're just also— and our dance and vogue classes there.

So you never know if what day you're coming in, if you're coming into a community conversation or if you're coming to, like, yoga, where it's going to be like super quiet or you're coming into like Zumba, where it's like— it'll be loud and people are going to be really interactive. Or we have our wellness classes where everyone's like, kind of in a circle talking about like where to meet guys at. So…so we have that and then you turn into our RuPaul room area and our locker room.

Our building used to be a bank, and so we still have this huge safe in the middle of the building. And so, a lot of folks will go in there, put their items for the day. Sometimes although— sometimes I’ve seen young folks just chill there as well. They're all like, it's a nice space, it's quiet and it has Wi-Fi, so they'll be in there with the computers just like clacking away, just chilling. And then, what's very nice is we're one of the first buildings in the area to have gender neutral restrooms. And I know Dr. Mills is like, you know— took a lot of effort to get that in there.

So we have our gender neutral restrooms and then we have showers. So if people, you know—because we do deal with the unhoused population as well. So some folks are like, “Hey, I need to take a shower,” and they’re like, “I don't want to go to group or like hang out with folks until I’ve like, been able to care of myself.” So definitely we have the showers available for them as well. And then that's kind of the space. We have that and then they’ll be able to come back and hang out in the lounge area. You go— upstairs is restricted to staff. So, we have the staff area that kind of looks over the whole space, which is kind of cool.

So we're able to see we have these huge windows, and these windows bring in a lot of light during the daytime. And so, the clients like it before— because a lot of our folks have seen it before the construction where it was like really dark. And so we have these huge windows, this huge floating, plant thing that's been designed.

And so…so that brings in with the light and then, you know, then down the hallway we have the door, and the door leads to the clinic. And it's only one way so our young folks can go through it, but other folks can't go in through it unless they get badged through…through security. So which is nice. So the youth always have access to go out and go to the clinic. They're like, “Oh, well I need to talk to my provider today.” Like I have a— like I have a question like, okay well see if there's an appointment available or Kevin will book the appointment for them and walk them over. So…so  yeah, that's pretty much the space.

Marc: Well, anyone out there come through if you want to see it, you know.

David: Well what do you think is…what's next for SoCal Club? What are you looking forward to in the future?

Dré: That's a good question. You know, I am always listening to the voice of our young people. So I lead with that, 100%. So whatever they are asking, we try to meet that goal. We have a robust program. So just right now, just really, just trying to figure— making sure that we have all the things in place before we move forward.

So, integrating wellness checks, for all of our members is something that we're looking forward to do…and that's, that's really it. Yeah.

David: Alright!

Marc: Alright! Well, I mean, I'm looking forward to all of that. So, yeah, I mean, congratulations so far on an amazing program and an amazing space.

David: Yeah, yeah, congratulations and thank you for everything that you're doing Dré.

Dré: Yeah.

David: I think it's really, you know, the space seems to always be, you know, one-upping itself and getting better and better, and…and so much credit to you. So, thank you also for joining us here. Great introduction to SoCal Club and to our SoCal Club Director Dré Jamison Molette, thank you so much for joining.

Dré: Thank you, thank you.

Marc: Thank you!