November 2012 - Parks & Recreation - 14

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HOW WE DID IT

Eureka Teens Find their Center
With G.U.L.C.H., a California agency reaches its
toughest market.
BY DONNA WOOD

N 2010, the City of Eureka, California's Recreation Division made
the decision to step up its game
when it came to serving teenagers in
its community.
" The teen population is a challenging
group to market to, " says Brian Millett,
who oversees the city's youth programs.
" We really wanted to provide innovative
programming that would go beyond
homework help and basketball; quite
frankly, we wanted to do something that
could compete with driving and dating. "
Eureka Recreation started off by
rebranding its teen program as " the
G.U.L.C.H., " (Growing Unity, Leadership,
Community & Health) and kicked off its
new direction by offering free monthly events, including the city's ﬁrst-ever teen skateboard competition. " From
there, we just kept trying new things to
build on that momentum, " Millett says.
The turning point for G.U.L.C.H. came
when Millett was having a conversation
with one of his staff members, who happened to moonlight as a local hip hop
artist. " We started talking about the power and inﬂuence of music, and ended
up developing a music program where
teens learned to write lyrics, produce
beats, and record their original songs on
professional equipment. " Teens had their
songs featured on local radio stations,
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Parks & Recreation

and some even performed live on stage
at local performance venues.
On the heels of the success of their
music program, G.U.L.C.H. expanded
into the world of ﬁlm. " We tapped into
the skills and passions of our staff and
discovered one of our youth leaders had
a previous life as an award-winning
ﬁlmmaker, and within weeks we developed a curriculum and launched a teen
ﬁlmmaking workshop, " Millett says.
This workshop set the stage for one of
G.U.L.C.H's biggest moments when Hollywood ﬁlmmaker M. Night Shyamalan,
who was in Eureka shooting a movie,
made a surprise visit to G.U.L.C.H. " We
had a room full of aspiring teenage ﬁlmmakers, having the once-in-a-lifetime
opportunity to pick the brain of someone who has reached the ultimate level
of success in moviemaking, " Millett says.
" It was very inspiring and a great reﬂection of how far the program had come. "
The secret to G.U.L.C.H's success has
been the people.
" Eureka Recreation invests a lot in
our staff, " Millett explains. " We are very
selective with our hiring process, and
we provide ongoing training and the
tools to set staff up for success. Our
staff are identiﬁed as VIPs-which
stands for Very Important Players, because they play a very important role

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Top: Participants watch in the City of
Eureka's ﬁrst skatebarding competition.
Above: Participants share a laugh during
the Teen Filmmaking Workshop.

in the lives of youth in our community. They are amazing role models who
create a fun and positive environment
where teens want to be. "
Today, G.U.L.C.H. runs a twice-aweek program in a facility of its own
that features a skatepark, disc golf
course, ﬁlmmaking, music production, dance groups, and more.
" We have far surpassed any expectations that we initially had, " Millett says,
" and we're very excited to continue to
provide a platform where teens can express themselves in whatever form of
passion they have, and feel genuinely
listened to by the adults in the program. "
For more information or to contact
the G.U.L.C.H., visit www.facebook.
com/gulchteenprogram.
Donna Wood is the co-author of
Organic Play: A Trail Guide to Changing
the World by Transforming the Way We
Live, Work & Play. She is the Recreation
Manager for the City of Eureka,
California, and currently teaches a
Recreation Leadership class at Humboldt
State University (dwood@ci.eureka.
ca.gov).

November 2012 - Parks & Recreation

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