Breaking the generational cycle of poverty | Duncan Campbell | TEDxPortland

[Applause] love you too my mother was an alcoholic my father was an alcoholic and he was in prison twice he wasn't a mean drunk in fact he never hit me or anything but he was pretty sad and pathetic we are a welfare family I grew up in North Portland went to Jefferson High School I'd like to share two stories from my childhood we'll help paint the picture of my childhood which is basically because my parents lived in bars and taverns I was left alone most of my childhood and what a social worker would call them the collect the forest story I'm four years old I wake up around midnight wandered through the house going into my parents bedroom no one's there then I go to the rest of the house and this totally empty so what do I do I put on my pants inside out I head down the street make it about three blocks there's a bakery worker out there having a cigarette he says where you going kid I said I'm looking for my parents of course he calls the police the police come and they know my parents because they've been to our home a few times to break up fights they take me and we go down to the local bar my parents are there I still remember this like it was yesterday the rotten stale beer smell of the bar the look of despair even on the police officers faces and my parents having no idea that I was there I was so lonely the second story I'm 8 years old I'm in the my own grade school auditorium which it was now Martin Luther King and it was gonna be one of the proudest days of my life I was all excited about being sworn in to be a Cub Scout I'm there with all my friends their parents are there we're sitting in the front row then the Scout leader comes over says Duncan I can't swear you in as a Cub Scout today because your parents need to be here and they're not you can imagine I sit in the audience and total Emelia humiliation and everyone else was called up on the stage and sworn in and the minute was over I start to run out and it gets worse coming in the back door knocking over chairs dead blind drunk it's my dad I'm here I mean now I'm embarrassed beyond imagination I just keep running running all the way home crying you know that's a lot for an eight-year-old child to handle it it was that moment that I thought and I actually thought I knew that I was white trash I felt like I did not belong my life would never amount to anything and then something became crystal clear to me even then I knew that I didn't want another child to ever feel the way I did in that moment or to have the childhood that I did so let's fast forward about four pivotal experiences and people in my life that involved role models who shaped me and provided something that I'd never had my life something that I'd never seen or felt hope for people in my life gave me hope my first-grade teacher mr. Brown will happen to be the first african-american teacher in Portland at the time he was just amazing encouraged me supported me then I had two coaches my seventh-grade basketball coach and my high school varsity coach saw something in me he gave me a spark but a tipping point for me and probably the most poignant moment up until that time was a senior counselor Jefferson and he said Duncan you can be more than what most people think you can be all of these people took time to get to know me they instilled belief in me they saw something in me in me and invested time and me and they cared about me that was all I needed this life experience led to my idea and that's the idea I want to share with you all today my idea is to create and support a model in a program that will break the generational cycle of poverty for especially for children at risk [Applause] research has shown that the single most important factor for building resiliency in children who face the highest risk is a long-term consistent relationship with a loving caring adult children can be resilient when they are supported [Applause] [Music] [Applause] and I'm going to repeat that because it's so important children are resilient when they are supported so the mission behind my idea has actually been the calling of my life I firmly believe that I was put on earth to be what you'll understand to be a friend and so unfortunately it was nothing like that when I was younger in my career so 25 years ago I started Friends of the children and we've been building learning and changing lives now ever since and I believe we're just getting started and with your help and willingness I believe this is an idea worth sharing and spreading so the more you understand about friends in what we do I believe we you and I can play a part in changing the generational cycle of poverty in Portland can continue to be an example to the world a bit more background I actually worked at the juvenile court in detention for four years and then after that I became a lawyer a CPA and then I became an entrepreneur I was meant to be an entrepreneur and later a social entrepreneur but when I was an entrepreneur I built a business that was fortunately grew we ran out of money seven times and my wife went nuts but but it didn't bother me at all but anyway and then I did further research to make sure this idea might have some viability so I funded and started Friends of the children 25 years ago in my old low income high crime community right here in Portland we hired three friends selected 24 children from Martin Luther King Boys and Vernon grade schools back then and we're off and running but what makes friends so unique you're probably asking how is it different from Big Brothers Big Sisters in foster care well let me elaborate we pick the most vulnerable children in inner-city school we're in the middle of Harlem for example where there's the least amount of Hope so imagine a child at the end McKenney already fighting or bullying other kids we're sitting in the back of the classroom with dirty clothes isolated stinks or inappropriately clinging to the teacher because they're starved for affection that's the child we want that's a child we invest in it's not like the first child chosen on the playground before to be in a game a softball game or whatever we actually of the hundred kindergarten children our number one pick is the least behaved child probably in the whole school but we do something else besides take the most at-risk children we start at the beginning we start at the end of kindergarten nobody does that we make a long-term commitment of twelve and a half years from kindergarten to high school friends are paid a livable wage they're not a volunteer and our commitment to the child is unconditional many programs make their continuation conditional ours is we stay with a child no matter what for that twelve and a half years but the core of it is actually the relationship the friend has with the child and we actually teach the children core assets we work once again with the most vulnerable children there are in the school we start early and commit for 12 and a half years and we do it no matter what and the friends are paid a living wage but it's important to shed a little perspective on all this because back in 1993 when I had this idea and I was a child advocate everyone thought I was a little crazy they actually said I was nuts my peers and colleagues said you're gonna pay mentors and offer benefits and you're going to commit to a child for twelve and a half years and work with the most at-risk children there are you can find conventional thinking at that time was telling me and everyone else spend less get more kids in the program for a shorter period of time and being a child advocate for 50 years I knew that didn't work and hadn't worked for a long time for especially for these children so I told these folks that they were nuts that I wasn't nuts and yes [Music] it was unconventional because nothing like this had ever been done before yes it was out of the box because there was no box and I thought this is going to work because to some extent I was evidence of this with my own childhood and subsequent success I'd live the life I knew it we knew what it was like but what's truly revolutionary it's one thing to have an idea and put it in place or the outcomes what I'm sharing with you today is real and it works if you remember nothing else about this talk is what I'm telling you is real and it works 83% of our youth graduate from high school although 80% of their parents did not complete high school 93% avoid the juvenile justice system although 50% of their parents had been incarcerated 98% avoid early parenting although 85% of them were born to a single parent something even more profound I mean I was satisfied with those outcomes but the Harvard Business School Association of Oregon actually did a economic study of the friends model and showed that for every dollar we spent and invested in friends saves the community $7 out into the future the opposite of what everybody is saying helping one child saves the community almost a million dollars for each child that that is taxpayer money that is your money I mean I've had people come to me and be emotionally touched just by the nature of the work would say I'm with you but I've had some creamed onions come in and say my wife drugged me here but once I heard the numbers you got me cold and the way it works is you're basically avoiding all those costs of the judicial system incarceration social services etc it all adds up but it's avoidable and preventable time and professional mentorship is a bankable solution that delivers hope positioning the right relationship to the right time at the right time to these children with the greatest need that's where it works that is the answer this breaks the cycle and we're all about real outcomes and if you can't tell I love outcomes we were once three friends with 24 children in my old neighborhood we are now 50 friends and over 500 children in the Portland metro area [Music] even better we've now grown to 17 chapters throughout the country including England all around the country and thousands of children are now in our network in in addition we now have a goal to grow to 25 cities by 2025 [Applause] well we're all about outcomes we do tell stories the data and outcomes for once again to me or everything but in closing I would like to share a letter that I received from a young person named nuni that's not a real name who's now 23 years old who as a child was first abandoned by her father then soon abandoned by her mother and then she went to live with her aunt where she was abused she was introduced to our program so now after almost 12 years with her friend she wrote me this note and these are excerpts from that I'm gonna read it dear Duncan given the difficult times of my early childhood my friend has given me so much for which I am grateful and appreciative for the first time someone cared about me for the first time someone believed that I had value for the first time someone validated my thoughts and feelings and that person gave me the skills to form healthy relationships with others without my friends steady presence and understanding I would not have come this far and had the strength to continue my friend was always there beside me to cry laugh and feel for me when I no longer had the courage to do so now I have that courage to stand up for what I believe in to find my voice to pick myself up and continue living she has shown me that no matter how hard life might be it seemed there are people who care for me you're a blessing and for that I am offering you this piece of my heart so you will see how thankful I am [Applause] so remember children can be resilient and we can break the generational cycle of poverty together help us spread this idea together we can make a difference and change children's lives forever thank you very much [Applause]

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 29,086

Keywords: TEDxTalks, English, Humanities, Life Development, Personal growth, Poverty

Id: tK2OPkz2LTM

Length: 18min 41sec (1121 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 12 2019