Founder and Executive Director Steffani Fletcher combined her teaching experience and poetry therapy expertise to create Hope at Hand, a non-profit organization that uses poetry to inspire confidence and change in at-risk youth through year-round programs and the Jax Poetry Fest.
As told to Holly Tishfield
Tell me about yourself and your background.
I’m a Jacksonville native, graduated high school from Fletcher. I went to Florida State University, then back to the University of North Florida for my master's degree. I never moved very far away because I like being here and doing good things in my hometown. Career-wise, I started as an elementary teacher and spent my first couple of years teaching in Polk County, but I really just wanted to come home. I’m a Beaches girl and I missed the beach. I've worked in a handful of elementary schools here in town and in 2009 I launched my organization.
How did your career shift come about?
I’m nationally certified in Montessori education and I'm also nationally certified by the National Association of Poetry Therapy. So, in 2009, I mashed up my favorite parts of Montessori and my favorite parts of poetry therapy and started as a volunteer working with at-risk teens. The more I did that kind of work, the less I wanted to work in an elementary school. It just grew from there. I left after about 23 years with Duval County Public Schools and I've been doing this ever since.
Tell me about your non-profit organization, Hope at Hand.
Hope at Hand provides poetry therapy for at-risk youth. We actually do two things: we provide poetry therapy for at-risk youth and then connect with a global audience through Jax Poetry Fest. Most of the time, we work with our groups of kids. We go into jails and drug and alcohol rehab facilities. We work with kids in tough places, but then we also do Jax Poetry Fest. The heart of what we do is working with kids in tough places.
What is Jax Poetry Fest?
It’s an annual event presented by Hope at Hand where spoken word performances, poetry slams, youth poetry contests, and a variety of other workshops are offered at no cost to the public. We do it in April because April is National Poetry Month.
What is the process like for a child in the Hope at Hand program?
The kids do three things in our classes: they read poetry, they write poetry, and they use an element of art. In the end, the art aspect combines their writing with an element of art. For example, we do watercolors and haikus together. At the end of the class, they rewrite their favorite haiku on top of their watercolor, so they have a final product that combines art and poetry. They complete the product and there's a lot of confidence in doing that. All of our lessons tie into confidence, self-esteem, choice, and change.
Why is the work that Hope at Hand does so important to the community?
When bad things happen to kids, it can impact their whole life. What research shows us, though, is that positive interactions with a caring adult can counteract those childhood traumas, which is exciting to think that you can do something to help them set themselves up for a better future. We think about what we can do now that might change their future, and it seems very simple, but everything we’re doing is about confidence, self-esteem, choice, and change. We're trying to change lives through poetry, but it's really not about the poetry, it's about sitting side by side, shoulder to shoulder, with a lot of kids who don't trust adults. We’re not there to grade them or judge them, it's about creating bonds with a trusted adult.
What’s your favorite part about what you do?
It's really sweet when you're in there, in the moment. We don’t think of them as “bad kids,” they're just outside that line and we're trying to get them back, to give them a little bit of hope and a shift in perspective. Working with these kids is so much fun. We have a lot of retired teachers working with us, a couple of licensed mental health counselors, and several social workers. We have an amazing staff.
