Ok, so the number one running joke right now is likely to involve some variation of putting 2020 behind us. If you have been in any sort of contact with the planet Earth during the past twelve months, I don’t need to bore you with a list of the reasons. 

But I do have to say that for Lost Voices it has not all been bad news. My Board of Directors asked me to put together a recap of the year for our annual meeting in November, and the exercise kind of opened my eyes. I thought I’d share a version of that report with all of you. (more…)

Since the first moment our Lost Voices journey began, every experience we’ve had with the kids has been absolutely amazing. Without exception, these young people have deeply inspired us with their talent. Every now and then, though, one of them stands out as the perfect storm of a kid who really needs to be making music.

We just finished a program with Samaritas, writing music via Zoom with teenage girls and boys living in decentralized foster group homes. The fact that we could even work with this sort of facility is one of the good things that has happened since the pandemic forced us to figure out how to make our program work remotely. In this program it came as a wonderful surprise to all of us to discover that one of the participants in this group was already a serious guitar player and songwriter. It’s the first time that’s happened in fourteen years of Lost Voices programs.  (more…)

By Christin Perry-Michalik

Christin Perry-Michalik is a licensed therapist and a member of the Lost Voices Board of Directors.

I have been a therapist for the past 16 years, with all but 2 of those years working exclusively or predominantly with children and teens. One of the more disturbing things I’ve been seeing in recent years is increasingly anxious kids who think their lives are all about resume-building. They are convinced that getting good grades and pursuing the right activities will get them into the “right” school, so that they can then land the “right” career. Kids are depressed. They are less able to just be kids, using childhood to figure out and appreciate the inherent value in who they are. 

Instead, they feel they have to earn value by being “good enough.”

Often kids like those we see in Lost Voices programs experience traumas, and this of course creates anxiety. But we also have a large portion of our kids who have supposedly experienced all the right things through education, team sports and other activities who don’t know how to relax, don’t know how to connect, and don’t know their worth.  (more…)

One of the exciting “side effects” of our new Virtual Lost Voices process is that we can now reach out to youth we’ve never been able to reach before. We’ve always known that kids in decentralized foster and independent living programs can benefit just as much as those living in the larger institutional settings, but since they live in smaller group homes our process has never been suitable for them.

But now it is!

I’ve been aware of an organization called Samaritas for several years, and volunteering to help out with recreational programs for some of the kids in their system. I’m excited to tell you that we are finally planning a Virtual Lost Voices program with them by the end of this year. Here is a little bit of background about this wonderful group. (more…)

2020 has been a tough year for everyone. Sometimes it’s easy to forget that people who were suffering already are probably having an even harder time of it now. We’ve been working hard since spring to come up with a COVID-friendly Virtual Lost Voices program for the troubled kids who still need us, and I’m proud to say that we’ve been able to make it happen.

The drawing you see here, which I call “The Healing Tree,” was created by a young woman on the last day of our first Virtual Lost Voices program at Vista Maria. I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen a more powerful statement about the work we do and how it’s perceived by the kids. If you click on it and look closely at the empty bench to the left of the tree, you will see that she drew a tiny commemorative plaque on the seat back.

The plaque says, “Lost Voices.” (more…)

The main topics are how the experiences of people of color differ from those of white people, and why Black men – especially young black men – are often seen as dangerous. (more…)

This is Part II of a frank and open discussion on racism presented by Unity of Ann Arbor and sponsored by Lost Voices. Panel members are Attorney Robyn McCoy, Rev. Patty Bittner, Rev. Ernestine Griffin, Lost Voices founder Mike Ball, and moderator Gwen Scales. Topics include:

• What do we really mean by “Defund the Police?” Hint – it does not mean “Abolish the Police.”

• Healing From the Trauma of Racism, including a 12-step model for recovering from our conditioning. (more…)

Gearing Up for Virtual!

We’re all struggling to cope with the consequences of COVID-19, and this international crisis has changed many aspects of our lives.

But some things haven’t changed. The young boys and girls who so desperately need our help are still out there. And for many of them the uncertainty of the pandemic has made their troubled young lives even more difficult. This is why we’ve been working hard to convert the process of hope and healing that we’ve used for more than a decade to be totally virtual – and virus proof. (more…)

This is recorded Webinar that is a frank and constructive discussion on racism in our society presented by Unity of Ann Arbor and Lost Voices. The panel consists of Rev. Patty Bittner, Atty. Robyn McCoy, Rev. Lindsey Anderson, Rev. Ernestine Griffin, and Lost Voices founder Mike Ball. The moderator is Gwen Scales.

The panelists have also compiled a useful list of informational resources, suggested reading, and related videos.

(more…)

In conjunction with our Giving Back Tuesday initiative in May, we conducted two online songwriting workshops with groups of adult friends and supporters. These were not only great fun, but they produced two really cool songs.

If you’re interested in participating in future songwriting workshops, let us know. If we get enough interest, we’ll schedule some more sessions.

Of course, another thing this exercise accomplished was test-driving the online songwriting process for our new Virtual Lost Voices process.

Not surprisingly, both songs the groups produced focused on feelings surrounding living through a global pandemic.

Here are the two songs we came up with: (more…)