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Driving around Berkshire County one might see the beautiful rolling hills, or the cute shops and restaurants. As a well known vacation destination and the perfect place for a summer home, Berkshire County isn’t a forgotten region. However, some more attention needed to be paid to the local youth a little while ago. When this was needed, the Railroad Street Youth Project (RSYP) was there to pick up the slack that others had neglected.
In 1999 Southern Berkshire was facing a crisis regarding their youth. A shocking outbreak of drug and alcohol-related deaths plagued our community. “When I was in my teens there wasn’t a Railroad Street Youth Project, and there also wasn’t a social space that we were really clearly welcomed to in town.” Ananda Timpane, the executive director at RSYP explains, “...the experience as a young person really felt like (we) really weren’t wanted in our own town."
As teens grew up into young adults, the feeling of not being wanted fostered the unhealthy habits that started the deterioration of our community. “For 17, 18, 19, and 20 year olds… a couple of things happened at once, and one of the things that happened was, it was the first time that heroin was visible in the community.” Timpane was one of many community members that knew someone who either died or came close to dying as a result of the extreme substance abuse problem that invaded our community. At this point, it was clear that Southern Berkshire County was in need of a substance-free space for youth to express themselves and have a place where they were wanted.
RSYP focused on connecting with the youth and creating chances for them to express themselves in healthy ways. Timpane sees the RSYP missions as, “Always meeting young people where they are in their own life, and that we are always approaching our work with young people in a way that sees young people as the leader in their own lives as knowing beings.”
The youth staff at RSYP focused on youth-inspired projects, workshops, performances and publications. These were meant to connect the youth to their community through enjoyable activities.
“When we first started, we were a volunteer organization with a fund of $2,000, and so we really were just the Youth Operational Board, and so one of the most concrete ways that you can see how we have grown the impact of the mission is by looking at what programs have stuck over time, by looking at what didn’t end up being just a one time project idea”, says Timpane. Today, RSYP has branched from their Youth Operational Board to create an extremely successful non-profit with an over $300,000 annual budget.
“Our Youth Operational Board (YOB) is made up of young folks between the ages of 14 and 25, and anybody in that age group can come to a meeting anytime, they are Tuesdays at four…” Timpane goes on to explain more about the YOB, “once a young person has attended three meetings they become a voting member, which means they have responsibility for voting on whatever commitments YOB makes to do projects itself and also for financial commitments to support youth projects that are proposed to the board for funding.”
A YOB meeting at the RSYP Great Barrington Drop in Center.
Timpane works at the staff drop in center which provides counseling, mediation referrals, and advocacy services for the young people in need. “The drop-in center is open Monday through Friday, and from Tuesday to Friday it is open from 3 to 7 and Monday it is open from 5 to 7 and what that means is during those hours what young people are doing in the space is the most important thing that's happening in the space.” Timpane goes on to explain how the youth are able to use the space however they see fit, sometimes that means movie nights, or open mic nights are held. More regularly that means that different clubs are held in the space.
RSYP helps youth carry-out their ideas and aspirations while helping them find where they fit in the world. RSYP strives to meet the changing needs of youth in Berkshire county. “We’re always seeing change and what happens that's really cool with Railroad Street is that because our mission is about empowerment, young people, when they start participating in a program at Railroad Street, or working with their peers at Railroad Street, or connecting with staff, they get opportunities to start to make conscious decisions on how they want to learn and grow,” Timpane expresses.
Timpane explains that she and her staff work together with the youth at RSYP to help them, “start to feel a little less stuck, because there is a lot of stuff about how our world works that can leave youth especially, just feeling really stuck and like everything is prescribed and you just have to do the next thing in the rulebook, and so it really changes things when you start to feel like you have a little control over that and some control over the decisions you’re making.”
Next time you’re in Great Barrington and you drive down Bridge Street perhaps you’ll see the RSYP Drop-in Center as more than just another brick building, it could be the place that saved a loved one’s life.