Jesse White has an intriguing blend of life experiences, education and job training. Jesse was born and spent half of his life in the beautiful Columbia River Gorge; the other half he spent spent living, working and traveling throughout the Western Hemisphere. His parents spent a number of years working with neurologically diverse people which exposed Jesse to neurodiversity at a very young age. When Jesse was 10 years old, his father joined the Peace Corps and moved to Central Americ; thus Jesse was raised to be conscious of the importance of diversity in all its forms and grew to value new experiences, ways of thinking and points of view. Growing up in such a diverse world and being surrounded throughout his life by people of a wide range of races, creeds and nationalities who all spoke different languages, thought differently, and lived differently, Jesse grew to value equality, justice, respect, regard and honor for all peoples in all of their diverse ways of being.
Jesse put himself through school with scholarships and earned 3 college degrees in which he pursued his passion for music, his curiosity in the sciences of healing (focusing on music therapy), and his last degree, in which he learned how to reach out, engage and teach youth serving juvenile-life sentences (many of whom struggled with behavioral and mental health issues.) His coursework included topics such as popular education and community-based participatory research, social issues, cross-cultural communication and deconstructing power and privilege. As a volunteer teacher/ skills trainer with The Gateways for Incarcerated Youth Program, Jesse organized, facilitated and co-taught youth incarcerated and the Maple Lane School for Incarcerated Youth. Jesse studied and learned to implement the practice (as developed by the likes of Paulo Freire and Myles Horton), with Dr. Carol Minugh, ex-director of the Highlander Institute.
Since he was young, serving his community and helping those around him has been his life’s path which he was blessed to have been guided along by a number of amazing teachers, skills trainers, community organizers and healers he has worked with and for over the years. Jesse pursued his passion for service work throughout his career, always pursuing jobs that allowed him the opportunity to inspire those around them to pick themselves up, dust themselves off and to Reach Higher.
In addition to his work, Jesse loves to play music, dance, practice martial arts, cook and read extensively. Jesse enjoys camping, hiking, gardening and diving. Jesse has traveled extensively throughout the Western Hemisphere and has a passion for travel. Most important to him, however, are his friends and family who surround, support, inspire and dream with him.
A Summary of Jesse’s Professional Skills:
- Meeting, joining, engaging, developing a relationship with and promoting critical changes with clients regardless of who, what, when, where, why and how they present themselves.
- Strength-based skills training treatment planning, provision, and evaluation that assists clients in developing and achieving goals relevant to mental and behavioral health.
- Crisis Intervention.
- Collaborating with therapists, high-fidelity wraparound support service teams and other community partners.
- Quality case notes and documentation using electronic client records systems.
- Diversity/ Cultural Proficiency.
- Multi-lingual: English and Spanish (fluent), Portuguese (proficient).
- Grant Writing.
- Organizational Management, Supervision and Leadership, Community and Event Organizing and Volunteer Coordination.
- Flexible, thoughtful and well communicated, organized, presented and scheduled services.
Mental, Behavioral and Community Health Employment, Training and Experience:
- 12/4 – 12/5 Oregon Intervention System – General Level Training
- 3/10 – 7/12: Skills Trainer, Options Counseling Services of Oregon
[Provided “hands-on” in-home, and community based, demonstration, teaching and support to achieve behavioral changes in families with youth mental health issues; helped assess the client’s needs and co-created behavioral plans with the family and our mental health team; collaborated with other service providers and community agencies and gave oral and written reports.]
With Options, I received my Qualified Mental Health Associate (QMHA) Certification and trainings including, but not limited to:
Solution Focused Brief Therapy, Collaborative Problem Solving (1&2) (with Dr. J Stuart Ablon, PHD.), Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST), The ASIST Training for Trainers, (and the current/ recently updated ASIST model 11), SuicideCare, Trauma Informed Practice Strategies, Understanding Traumatized and Maltreated Children, Motivational Interviewing, Working with Children with Autism and Asperger’s and High Fidelity Wraparound.
With Options, I received exposure to and on-the-job training and practice of the following modalities and best-practices:
Skills Training, Positive Behavior Support Systems, Positive Youth Development, Strength-based and Client-Focused Social Work, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, Solution Focused Brief Therapy, Rational Self Counseling, Trauma Informed Practices, Motivational Interviewing, High-fidelity Wraparound Support Services and Family Systems Theory.
Additionally, at Options I learned more about the importance of, and how to:
Foster genuinely caring therapeutic relationships; Embrace neuro-diversity while working in the field of mental health; Utilize, in my practice, an understanding of neurological development, cognitive development, executive functioning and the Biopsychosocial Theory of support as they relate to understanding and addressing skills deficits; Work with disadvantaged individuals and families in the provision of services; Utilize the techniques of Non-Violent Communication, Action Reflection Learning, and Popular Education; Inspire hope, inter and intra-personal freedom, and interdependence; Utilize and teach caregiving and parenting skills and techniques.
- 1/10 – 3/10: Volunteer Coordinator, Home Plate
[Supported, trained, recruited, and oriented volunteers to feed and mentor youth experiencing homelessness. Edited a training manual for HP’s volunteers built on the Positive Youth Development model. Trained volunteers to provide behavioral skills training with homeless youth many of which presented with mental and behavioral health issues.]
- 10/09- 3/10: After School Tutor, Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization
[Taught after-school math and English courses to mostly immigrant and refugee children, (many of them from Darfur). Assisted the children in improving their study habits, self-image and confidence.]
- 12/04 – 4/05: Organizer, Family Care Team
[Organized a community team to care for a family and their children they endured the mother’s near-death bout with cryptococcal meningitis. Worked with the kids to prepare them for their mother’s potential death and assisted them through the crisis.]
- 1/03 – 8/03: Participatory Research/ Popular Education Facilitator/ Skills Trainer, Gateways for Incarcerated Youth
[Co-organized, facilitated and taught classes for incarcerated youth serving juvenile-life sentences, (based on a curriculum developed in conjunction with them), to assist them in earning a GED, high school diploma, or, for some, even college credit, by studying subjects that captured and retained their interest. Implemented and studied the practice of participatory research, popular education and skills training (as developed by the likes of Paulo Freire and Myles Horton), with Dr. Carol Minugh, ex-director of the Highlander Institute.]
- 5/01 – 9/01: Volunteer Farm Manager/ Ed. Development Coordinator, Casa Guatemala Orphanage
[Managed a farm that fed 200 + children while helping to educate and care for them. Developed a farm-based curriculum for youth exhibiting behavioral issues. Worked with Guatemala’s war orphans that exhibited severe mental and behavioral health issues. Worked with a diverse cross-sector of Mayan and Creole farm workers to improve the farm’s production and sustainability.]
Education
- 2003: Bachelor of Arts, The Evergreen State College
Earned by studying and practicing Popular Education and Community Based Participatory Research as a volunteer teacher/ skills trainer with The Gateways for Incarcerated Youth Program. Organized, facilitated and co-learned/ co-taught youth serving juvenile-life sentences, many of whom struggled with behavioral and mental health issues. Implemented and studied the practice (as developed by the likes of Paulo Freire and Myles Horton,) with Dr. Carol Minugh, ex-director of the Highlander Institute.
- 2000: Bachelor of Arts, The Evergreen State College
Studied the applied sciences (chemistry, physics and calculus) as related to music therapy; also studied abroad.
- 1997: Associates of Applied Science Degree, Mt. Hood Community College
Studied music and the sciences.