North Marion Families Connect, Heal During OYEN Event

By Jillian Daley

North Marion families gathered in Aurora this past weekend to discuss the emotional struggles they’ve had and how to help loved ones with their own issues.

A therapist from the Oregon Latinx Leadership Network (OLLN) delivered a presentation on mental health in the cafeteria of the Intermediate School on Saturday, March 5. The goal was to support North Marion's Latino families with an event on emotional wellness, attracting at least fifty people, including children. 

“I wanted to say how wonderful it was to reflect back and think of the joy that I was seeing with the families interacting with each other,” North Marion Director of Equity, Inclusion, and Title Programs Irma Patton says. “I could just feel that we had given parents an opportunity to slow down for a while and just be with their families, and, for me, that just filled my heart with joy.”

Who is OLLN? Or is it OYEN?

There’s a reason why OLLN came to North Marion, as furthering emotional wellness with the support of bilingual therapists is their specialty, and North Marion families needed a boost. The group is commonly called OYEN, a play on the way the acronym sounds in Spanish, and which also aptly translates to "they listen” in English. 

Made up of more than 70 Latinx community-based organizations and hundreds of leaders and allies across Oregon, OYEN’s Behavioral Health Team came together in 2020 to support the victims of the wildfires and those who were hardest hit by the pandemic. It is the only team of its kind in Oregon. Seeing so many families deeply in need of care and connection, the Behavioral Health Team expanded and continued providing social and emotional support to Latinos. That’s also what OYEN offered here in Aurora.

“I think our main goal was the same as North Marion’s, and that’s always been exposing the Latino community to emotional wellness,” Founder of the OYEN Behavioral Health Team Melinda Avila says.

That emotional support was certainly popular at the event on Saturday, with many families requesting additional services, Avila says.

How does OYEN help families?

At this event, a therapist offered a presentation on:

• Types of mental health issues, such as depression and anxiety, 
• Causes — biology, illness, loss of a loved one — and 
• Ways to address these issues — including medications, talk therapy, and connecting with loved ones.

The family therapist, who prefers to go by José in this article, says that mental health can be uncomfortable for families to talk about during these presentations. But, once they start to open up, they discover that many other people feel the same way and that mental health struggles are quite common.

“I often tell people it’s okay to feel sad or worried, but the most important thing is to process and learn how to cope with those feelings,” José says.

He also tries to make the experience more of an exchange of stories, while striving to ensure that people feel safe when they are sharing personal information. It seems to have worked in North Marion, with families opening up and sharing during the confidential session.

“I could see joy in the families, but I could also see the pain in the families that were there, and it was so impactful what we did when we all came together to help,” Patton says.

Besides emotional wellness support, what else happened at the event?

Families who needed help with technology got what they needed, with North Marion IT Manager Pepis Avila on hand to help. The event also featured free: transportation, childcare (thanks to High School students), clothing, raffle items, and food (hot burritos from Hubbard’s Little Oaxaca restaurant).

“There is something that is so different about having food that is comforting, that is known,” Patton says.

There were also free art therapy activities, to the delight of children and parents. For example, participants dipped Q-tips in paint and dyed shaving cream and swirled it around on a canvas. They also coated marbles in paint and rolled them over a slip of paper inside of a shallow box, creating arced streaks of color across the page.

The results of a little art therapy lay on display in the Intermediate School cafeteria on Saturday, March 5. Photo by Jillian Daley

Avila says that Medford School District held a similar event, but North Marion is the first school district to host an art therapy-style activity like this one. Art therapy has the ability to heal wounds and build connections within a family through cooperation and positive memory building, Melinda Avila explains.

“We had some very emotional parents needing to decompress because of the stresses that they have had,” she notes. “Many families didn’t even realize that and they were working together. It was pretty awesome to see them do that.”

What's next?

The event, or something similar, could be happening again. There may be additional Spanish language activities for English language learners and other OYEN-led events, all of which will be led by Patton and Assistant Director of Teaching and Learning Charyl Dyer, with help from North Marion’s three family liaisons, Rubi Contreras Martinez, Elbia Espinoza, and Rafael Pelaez. 

Dyer also has plans for an emotional wellness event for English-speaking families. So everyone in the community will be united and connected, just as they would be within a family.

To share a story with the North Marion School District, email Communications Specialist Jillian Daley at jillian.daley@nmarion.k12.or.us.