Remy Styrkowicz, chief radical intervention officer at Northwest Youth Services, oversees services in Whatcom and Skagit Counties, including art-based and non-clinical therapeutic services, data, and research. He also works part-time in New York with the likes of HBO Travel Channel and Microsoft.
When Styrkowicz was younger, music developed into an intrinsic part of his everyday life and passion.
“I kind of grew up working and studying with Matchbox 20, Fallout Boy, Seven Dust, and some other Grammy artists,” he says. “In 2013, the Grammy Museum held a camp called the Grammy Music Revolution Project.” The three-month camp included a curriculum that brought in Grammy-winning artists and others in the music business mentor campers. Styrkowicz led a cohort of 50 kids.
One of his projects there involved a writing exercise based on what campers would compose if they were to write a song for Katy Perry. “Her manager had us imagine what it would be like if we were pitching song ideas to people,” he says.
Arriving in Whatcom
Styrkowicz’s cousin, who worked for Ferndale at the time, invited Remy to Whatcom with the opportunity to direct a documentary on Juneteenth.
“I came out here in May of 2022 and directed this documentary that had [people such as] Sheriff Tank and Jason McGill, who’s my now boss, and some other community leaders,” says Styrkowicz. “I was interviewing Sheriff Tank, and he was talking about living in Ferguson, living through that murder. He remembers interviewing Tank and realizing how far his experience had been from that of an older Black man.
For Styrkowicz, it was a wake-up call.
“In that moment, it was all brand new for me,” he says. “I called my dad to explain how I was feeling, that a lot of stuff was coming up for me.” It created a rough patch in their relationship and Styrkowicz’s father cut him off financially. “The only logical, mentally stable, and emotional option for me at that time was to move here and live with my cousin for a year.”
Styrkowicz moved to Whatcom in the fall of 2022, living with his cousin and working on the second part of the Juneteenth documentary. “That’s how I got reconnected to Jason, and he was like, ‘Do you want to work at Northwest Youth Services?”
Youth Services for Skagit and Whatcom
Northwest Youth Services aids young people in Whatcom and Skagit in a variety of different ways. “We kind of break it into three categories,” says Styrkowicz. “There’s upstream services, outreach, and housing. The outreach and housing are pretty parallel between the two counties, but the upstream is really where Whatcom is different than Skagit. Our upstream services really encompass all the stuff that prevents folks from ever entering or reentering the cycle of homelessness.
Teen court is an example of one such service, a breakaway from the criminal legal system.
“It’s through the high schools, so folks can get experience being judges, being part of the jury — they are real cases, peer-to-peer,” Styrkowicz says. “Young people take on cases that involve their friends or not their friends, but the same age, and deciding. We know that hard punishments don’t work. So, how can we holistically come up with outcomes to things that have happened?”
Their queer youth services provide gender-affirming clothing, assist with name changes, financially, as well as gender changes or gender marker changes.
“On the community facing side we have social meetups, queer specific groups, affinity groups, and the YAB, which stands for Youth Action Board,” says Styrkowicz. “Any young person in Whatcom County can help us shape our services, how we can uplift our voice, and really center and address the needs they have.”
Omni Center
Styrkowicz created and wrote Northwest Youth Services’ the Omni Center.
“It is visual media, really any sort of art, for Black, Indigenous and Brown young people,” he says. “We just finished the pilot year of a photojournalism course, and it’s all about using photography to reframe trauma and study and look at how trauma gets passed down generation to generation. We know when you take a photo of something, you cement a very specific moment of time forever.”
Styrkowicz often ponders how art relates to social betterment. “How can we use photography to create that catalyst of saying this is the world I want to live in? This is the way I see the world, and not how the world sees me…how can we reduce the barriers to self-expression? How can we create something that’s educational but not restrictive in the sense of institutional education, or something that’s behind a paywall?”
Hobbies & The Next Project
With so much of his career steeped in his passions, the personal side of Styrkowicz’s life often intersects with the professional.
“It’s a little funny, because my personal life and professional life has kind of merged into one,” he says. “I’m currently in an artist residency through North Sound ACH. CEO Liz Baxter reached out to me last year wanting to collaborate on ways to uplift and elevate young artists of color in Whatcom and the North Sound region. It was an important moment in my career and in moving here, a moment of everything coming full circle.”
An event held at the Hotel Bellwether on Thursday, October 3rd from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. will celebrate all seven honorees and award the Young Professional of the Year. Click here for more details and to purchase tickets. Registration closes September 27, 2024.
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