Encouraging and inspiring at-risk youth with animals
By Michelle Williams
A parks department in a community is often something that people use to entertain and educate young children or to take a stroll through nature. At Hamilton County Parks and Recreation, employees work to have additional programs that most community members will never see.
Amanda Smith, superintendent of natural resources and education for Hamilton County Parks and Recreation, administers one such program, using her experience with animals to help at-risk youth.
In response to the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary in late 2012, Smith, a Westfield resident, found herself asking what she could do to make an impact and help prevent a similar occurrence in her community.
“I’m a mother of two, and I had a first-grader at the time. It just really affected me. I think it did everybody, but it was just one of these things that was altering overall,” Smith said.
Through her role, she had been visiting the juvenile services center once per year to speak about her occupation and decided to use her talents and resources to step up her efforts.
Smith said she wanted to do something to inspire a sense of empathy in kids who may be at risk. She had learned ways that animals had been used to foster empathy among adult inmates, and wondered if she could do the same for minors by using the animals she cared for in her programs.
She now visits the center at least once per month, and sometimes makes weekly visits during the summer, bringing along turtles, salamanders, snakes, and other reptiles or amphibians from the Cool Creek Park Nature Center. To add variety, she also sometimes brings taxidermy animals and furs.
“She’s bringing nature to them, something they’re deprived of or may not even know of that they seem to crave,” said Cindy Baney, a K-5 music teacher with Carmel Clay Schools.
“The kids are always really appreciative. They like their critters, and they have great questions,” Smith said. She described how Chumley, the 25-pound sulcata tortoise, “lumbers around the room” while the kids take turns holding the smaller animals and telling stories about their personal interactions with nature.
“Part of her goal is to encourage (the kids) and she uses the animals as a bridge to make the connection with them,” Baney said.
Smith allows the juveniles to interact with the animals as much as they want, and she speaks to them about her personal journey in life.
“I barely made it into college. To be successful in a career right now, it’s not something that I think most of my teachers would have expected,” she said. “Your past doesn’t have to completely shape who you are in the future. You might find something you never knew interested you like I did. I just try to give them some passion and hope to find what it is they love and tackle that if they can.”
Smith said she would ultimately like to see more people in the community engage with the youth at the juvenile services center. “They’ve obviously been in stressful situations that I can’t necessarily even fathom,” she said.
“I see it as a really positive role model and a way that somebody in the community using their love can really have a voice to encourage people towards good. Having someone speak encouragingly to them about a future, a life, I think that’s important,” Baney said.
“I encourage them to figure out what their passion is and do that,” Smith said. Although she originally planned to bring animals to the juvenile services center a total of 26 times — once for each victim of the Sandy Hook tragedy — Smith now intends to continue her program indefinitely.
About Amanda Smith
Age: 39
Family: Husband, Shannon Smith; daughters, Amaya, 9, and Phoebe, 4
Favorite pastime: Bird watching and exploring the woods
Favorite local restaurant: Chipotle
Motto to live by: “Be Silly, Be Honest, Be Kind” –Ralph Waldo Emerson
