Credible Messengers

At first blush, Yaskin Solano may seem like a typical native of Santa Barbara. He grew up here, and he attended local schools. 

He is representative of Santa Barbara’s unique socio-economic makeup. Santa Barbara County certainly has a reputation for its affluence, but according to statistics published by the Public Policy Institute of California, it has the third highest rate of poverty among 58 counties in the state. It’s something Solano knows too well. Growing up in a low-income household, he soon found himself getting into trouble and in a several-year relationship with Santa Barbara County’s juvenile justice system. 

That’s when he met Dr. Billi Jo Starr, who had encountered the justice system from a different perspective. Starr moved to Santa Barbara in high school, and often found herself in situations where her friends were arrested, and she was told to go home. A key difference was that she had race and gender privilege, being a white girl. Sensitive to this disproportionate and inequitable treatment, along with her own family experience – her uncle Billy, after whom she is named, was murdered in prison – Starr knew that she wanted to work with youth who were involved in the system. 

Starr, Solano, and other youth who were incarcerated with Solano, founded Freedom 4 Youth, a community-based organization that serves people, mostly ages 13-26, who are currently or formerly incarcerated or otherwise impacted by the justice system throughout Santa Barbara County. 

“Our approach is to meet people where they’re at, not some kind of cookie-cutter program,” says Freedom 4 Youth Director of Development & Advocacy, Dylan Griffith. 

Freedom 4 Youth concentrates on four main program areas: education, career, leadership, and mutual aid. Upon meeting a young person who might benefit from their programs, Freedom 4 Youth goes right to work, Griffith says. 

“We hook youth up with someone, co-create a plan together, help them identify their long-term and short-term goals and needs, and then we go about meeting those needs, whatever they may be,” he says. Often, those needs are essential: access to housing, food, or clothing. 

Freedom 4 Youth refers to their approach as the “credible messenger model.” “We want to make sure that people who have been impacted by the system have the opportunity to serve the next generation of people,” he says.  

Many of Freedom 4 Youth’s mentors are alumni who have been through the justice system themselves. They are “credible messengers,” successful at reaching youth because they have been through similar experiences. The program’s success is statistically indisputable. The recidivism rate of youth who participate in their program is 45%, as compared to the state average of 79%. 

After Solano was mentored by Starr and helped co-found Freedom 4 Youth, he graduated as valedictorian of his high school, became an accomplished mixed martial artist, and has recently graduated magna cum laude from UCLA on his way to medical school. He currently works in the emergency room at Cottage Hospital in Santa Barbara.

His involvement with Freedom 4 Youth as a credible messenger remains high on his priority list. As he explains, when he deals with a youth in the program, he can look at them and say, “I was once in your shoes, anything is possible.”