Leslie Harrell’s kind eyes got a bit misty when we first met to talk about her work. “I’m kind of feeling some way right now,” she said. “I’m going to miss my kids.”
Leslie had just finished the last session of I AM Academy before summer break at one of the schools where she leads the youth mentoring program. She wouldn’t see most of the students again until next school year. Some who were finishing middle school wouldn’t be back at all.
But that doesn’t mean they won’t stay in touch. Anyone who works with Leslie knows they can call her, anytime.
Leslie is the community engagement manager for Truly Valued, a nonprofit serving at-risk youth and families in Manatee, Sarasota, and DeSoto counties. Its programs build character and confidence and promote education and community service. Truly Valued started in 2014 with a focus on teenage girls, but it has since grown to serve entire families.
As its flagship program, I AM Academy cultivates the skills and self-identity that young people need to grow into successful adults. Leslie empowers students through direct instruction, experiential learning, and trust- and team-building activities. The program is currently offered at 16 schools in Manatee and Sarasota counties. “We start in fourth grade and follow them through middle school,” says Leslie. Booker High and the Cyesis programs at Riverview and North Port are the only high school sites, but Leslie and Truly Valued are eager to add more.
Lived experience
Leslie can predict one thing about most of the kids she works with: They figure the adults in their lives haven’t experienced anything. “Children feel like grown-ups don’t know what they’re talking about,” she says. But when Leslie mentors youth, she tells them, “There’s nothing you can do, nothing you have seen, that I haven’t experienced or seen.” And she means it.
When Leslie was 18, she visited Tampa from her home in Sarasota for a weekend—and wound up being trafficked for over two years. The honors student was just three months shy of high school graduation when her life changed forever. After escaping that horrific and traumatic situation, Leslie was introduced to crack cocaine and she fell into a spiral of addiction.
“For 10 years I roamed these very streets—addicted, lost,” she says, gesturing beyond the windows of the Betty J. Johnson North Sarasota Public Library. She was a teen mother too. “I’m grateful that my family was there to care for her,” Leslie says of her daughter, Shavonne.
Given her lived experience, Leslie can relate to the youth she mentors—their struggles and fears and traumas—in a way other adults can’t.
Despite the depths of her addiction back then, Leslie vividly remembers the night her life would change again—this time for the better, and for good. It was a Wednesday night, quiet, she recalls. Leslie was walking by herself, scared to death. She was tired too—tired of being alone and afraid. She had a bad feeling she was in danger, and that no one would even know if anything happened.
Walking by Bethel CME Church in Newtown, she saw the doors wide open. Someone had broken in. Leslie found a phone booth (she lightens the mood by noting how this detail really ages her!) and called the police. Then she sat on the steps outside. When officers showed up, they thought Leslie was the guilty party. But soon Rev. Desi Echoles arrived and he asked, “Why are you talking to my church member like that? Leslie, go home and I’ll see you on Sunday.”
Leslie—who had never been inside that church before—felt a higher power was at work. “I didn’t hear the pastor’s voice saying my name,” she recalls, “I heard Jesus saying my name.” That night she overcame her addiction, cold turkey. It was over 40 years ago. She never went back. But she did go to church that Sunday.
Leading with purpose
In the four decades since, Leslie has accomplished much. Though she didn’t finish high school, she has earned her bachelor’s, master’s, and—this past spring—doctoral degrees. She helped her daughter, Shavonne Sams, establish Truly Valued, where Shavonne is CEO. (“Shavonne calls me her ‘biggest cheerleader,’” Leslie says with quiet pride.) Most importantly, she has helped untold numbers of children and adults transform their own lives.
Given her lived experience, Leslie can relate to the youth she mentors—their struggles and fears and traumas—in a way other adults can’t. And the kids get it. In fact, they’ll run to the classroom on days they know she’s coming. “It’s really exciting to hear the children and see the improvement from where they start to where they finish,” Leslie says. “It’s just such a difference.”
Leslie works with parents as well as kids through Nurturing Families, another Truly Valued program that’s designed to reduce abuse and neglect. Most participants are referred through child protective services. But more people are learning about the classes and signing up on their own too. “We’re teaching parents to nurture themselves, so they can better nurture their children,” says Leslie. “When your inside is healed and you’re whole, you don’t put your baggage onto your children.”
Just as Leslie was helped so many years ago by the pastor outside that church, today she’s a bridge between the community and law enforcement. Last year, Truly Valued helped launch the juvenile crime-diversion program Youth Empowerment Services, or YES. When patrol deputies with the Sarasota Police Department or Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office see a youth who might be at risk, they can make a referral to Leslie. She then connects the youth with Truly Valued, Teen Court, or Brotherhood of Men for mentoring and support.
This summer, Leslie is training leaders to be Nurturing Families facilitators, so the program can be offered at more locations. She’s also working to certify men for a program dedicated to nurturing fathers. “I just want everyone to find their full potential,” she says. “So many times, people haven’t told us our purpose. Purpose drives us; it’s what makes us thrive.”
The heart of Truly Valued
Amid all she does to help others, Leslie does manage to squeeze in self-nourishment too. “I can’t tell parents to take time out for yourself and nurture yourself when I’m not doing it,” she says.
She finds peace in embracing nature. “I love to go sit out in my backyard,” she says. “I can hear the different birds and think, ‘Oh, you’re back…’” Her tree-adorned yard isn’t always quiet, though: She’s big on hosting backyard get-togethers too.
“Some children don’t get hugs. They don’t get told how great they are. We want all our young people to see how special and important they are.”
Reading is also important. Leslie started a virtual book and interactive study group with several women early in the pandemic, and it’s still going strong. “Shavonne knows not to schedule me at a school first thing on Tuesday mornings,” she laughs.
She also counts on “an amazing husband who has walked with me through 15 years of education,” Leslie says. “When I’m beating myself up, he brings me back in every time. Because of my background, I struggled with the idea that I wasn’t good enough. But I finally got it, that I can walk in purpose and be comfortable in the skin I’m in.”
That’s the same love, acceptance, and empowerment Leslie extends to everyone she works with. “Some children don’t get hugs,” she says. “They don’t get told how great they are. That’s the heart of Truly Valued. We want all our young people to see how special and important they are.”
Leslie Harrell (left) with her Truly Valued colleagues Lucia Villalpando and CEO Shavonne Sams
