Meet the Staff: Autumn
“Oh, don’t bite my neck!” Autumn Jackson says, speaking to the tortoise that’s been crawling around their lap during the bulk of our conversation. They laugh, and return to my question—does he have a name? “Honey Mustard. The mother of this tortoise is named Mean Mr. Mustard. All of the babies, at the request of an eight-year-old who lives nearby, are being named after mustards. There are five of them and so far the claimed ones are Honey Mustard, Dijon, and Black Truffle.”
Autumn is no stranger to the whims, desires, and creative thinking of kids. They were MaineTransNet’s first Youth Caucus Chair, and now serves as Youth Programs Coordinator. “We didn’t have youth programming [when I started with MTN],” they say. “The general idea was that kids should attend our adult support groups. Our adult support groups—they’re set up for adults of many ages who are coming into their transness and asking questions like, How do I come out to my employer? How do I handle this in my marriage? What do I do if my ex’s lawyers use this against me in custody court? That was a lot of what MTN dealt with in those spaces. So I was like, let’s create programming that is purposeful.”
Today, the Youth Program offers a range of spaces and support to trans youth across the state. The program runs a Discord server with about 100 youth on it who range all 16 counties, with a typical age range of 13-18 supported by a cohort of staff and volunteer facilitators. The Youth Program also offers in-person support groups, often functioning like craft clubs or tabletop groups.
One program that Autumn has found particular joy in is the Care Package Program, which started three years ago in recognition of some of the particular challenges that show up in late winter. “I had this idea: what if we sent [youth] presents all during this time, things like books that they really want to read, and things like journals and coloring books and art supplies. And so all of these children who, in prior years, had all had a really hard February/March—now, they had this really exciting physical manifestation of the way the community cares for them. They also had low-key agreed that they were going to learn how to knit a scarf. And the facilitators are now like, I thought you were going to learn to knit a scarf. Yeah, like how's that going?”
The program has expanded tremendously; the first year, 17 youth received care packages, and this February, the number had increased to 75. “Next February we’ll send out 100,” Autumn says, “and then we’ll probably plateau at 100 for a while until we receive more funding for more staff members to work on the project more directly.”
Autumn also works closely with parents. “I really think it’s important that we understand that we can be a perfect support environment for kids, but if their parents are unsupported at home—if a child can have a perfect school life, all of those things, but if their mom doesn’t have any friends—that’s still going to impact their mental health,” they say. “So parents can reach out to me and schedule conversations where we just like, talk about what's going on. It's not therapy, it's not counseling. We drink some tea over Google Meet and talk about some of the stressful things. I think in our culture, parents are kind of like, radically under-supported in many ways. Not even just financially but like—it's almost encouraged for family units to just be a unit. And it's also encouraged to have kids that blend in with the rest of the community, which can also often end a lot of friendships.”
To that end, they’re in the early stages of developing a parent peer program. “If people would like to join the early stages of that, we would love more supportive parents of trans kids to join on,” Autumn says, noting that they’re specifically seeking out dads, who often are not the first people to sign up for such volunteer support groups.
For other people interested in getting involved with or supporting the Youth Program, Autumn lists off a number of opportunities. “For trans and queer community members who feel like they really want to work with young people, we are going to be doing another Youth Programs Facilitator Course towards the end of the summer. Folks can also donate to and hold fundraisers for our Care Package Program. If folks are small business owners or have access to something like that, the Youth Program is especially set up to distribute in kind donations,” they say, using Wilbur’s of Maine as an example of a business who donated all of the chocolate included in this year’s packages.
Anyone interested in learning more or offering support can follow MTNYouth on Instagram or reach out to Autumn directly at mtnyouth@mainetrainsnet.org.
