From Cell to CEO: How 13 Years in Prison Led to a Million-Dollar Anti-Violence Nonprofit

all right guys welcome back we are home and uh this is uh a special episode we got another Westchester resident shout out to the none yeah for sure so when I was at the State of the Union um a few weeks ago and shout out to representative Underwood who took me to she I was her guest at the state of Jamal Bowman who's our congressman from our area where we from and where we currently live that's right um his guest was Jonathan that's right shout out to the brother and he introduced me so every every congressman and every Congress person and Senator gets one guest to the State of the Union so he brought you he introduced me to you and um he told me a little about your story then we connected then we spoke again offline facts then we actually have a mutual acquaintance as well shout out to rayon boots boots yeah I shout out to the brother yeah what up fol I ran it to him and he gave me some more background on you as well so was a good story to tell as far as Redemption entrepreneurship um figuring out a landscape after coming home from being incarcerated something that's extremely difficult so it's another side of the story as far as financial literacy and business and I think a lot of people can relate to and a lot of people are you know trying to figure it out so thought it would be good to highlight your story so first and foremost thank you for joining us appreciate it appreciate that thank you for having me yeah for sure absolutely all right so let's get the back story first so you're from yonas Southside souths side on the S mil what part what part what part exactly uh sou BR in lman Street okay yeah shout out only rais on that side shout out to yonas it's like three landmarks it's like the DB block Car Wash nothing the hand Community Center that's a fact what's the square the square square and got the square definitely a landmark um so shout out to yonas so okay so you you growing up in yonas and I'll let you tell a story but uh unfortunate situation happened right and you get incarcerated pretty much your whole entire 20s from 17 to 30 yeah right 17 to 30 and then you come home and you start a nonprofit organization and it's designed to keep kids off the street to prevent gang violence to prevent violent crimes right so that's kind of the quick overview but I want you to kind of really tell the story in detail no for sure for sure um so like you said I went away when I was 17 for violent crime I was gang involved right I did uh nearly 13 years um when I came home in fact my interest was not in 2018 it wasn't the nonprofit Lane it was fashion cuz what I studied for my undergrad so like I tell most people when I went away I turned my story around by getting my education and that's the key thing right self-investment while doing all that time um I went in with a 10th grade education came home with a bachelor degree in social studies but what I studied was fashion trends and urban poverty and understanding the social significance so I came home with the desire to like do fashion curation right like I wanted to curate spaces to tell our story and why we we what we we in poor communities right so 2018 I applied to the new school top Elite fashion School in the US I got W nearly a full scholarship right so it's really my re-entry experience that inspired the nonprofit work um my first year home I'm still on parole I'm living with my aunt a lot of elements in the environment I'm in is toxic uh me struggling trying to find my way right but I'm all preparing to get into the Masters program um I'm talking I'm serving tables in downtown and yonas in the restaurants right like I'm doing all everything to make it happen working for a congressman in Newberg traveling to Newberg into yanas I'm doing it all that I can to stay out the streets and figure it out I get into school 2019 top fashion school just did 13 years home 9 months at the time and it was in that experience that kind of woke me up of what it's like to return home and not have certain things in place even someone to help you to guide you along your journey so I jump right in um December 2019 is when I had what I call my first mental health breakdown right my first Pitfall and what I learned was I was too goal focused and oriented I never really understood the trauma that comes with after doing so much time mind you 17 and 30 right so now dealing with that trauma um I felt you know I realized I had I was working two jobs I was working at a fashion production company called Spring Studios is where they launched New York Fashion Week and I was um working eye job I had to let the jobs go cuz I had to focus on school right but now I'm behind on school and now I'm broke in that first semester that's all that happened in 2 and a half months and I think I never acknowledged that like I was moving too fast so a lot of us know we come home want to play catch up some of it in a negative way some in a positive way mine was like trying to play catch up to get in position and like kind of gain some Independence but I skipped a couple steps right so 2019 I tell the story coming off the train 14th Street going to school and I just started crying like straight breakdown I call my brothers you know what I'm saying one of them is in the room and um in the group chat like I let them know like yo you know I'm going through it and each one came to my Aid like we here for you bro we got you so I was advised to go see counseling I withdrew from the Masters program and I learned to say you know yes to mental health and no to education and start over in 2020 that experience like the Leader in Me wanted to do more for people like myself who never had a support system so me and my bro co-founder John cabera A friend of mine for 30 years um you know I was like I want to organize a male support group called The Year not alone Brotherhood in 201920 right in the New Year we started a first group a bunch of men coming together to talk about the traumas that we deal with cuz most conversations around politics music you a bunch of fillers I'm more about real talk and that inspired me to go forward I connected with the former superintendent Dr Gada of the school district he connected me to my nbk My Brother's Keeper in 2020 and I did my first speaking engagement at Lincoln at the lanes right out Lincoln um 2020 and I spoke and that that that's a school I got kicked out of at 15 so he BR he was the principal that actually expelled me really word so full circle you know what I'm saying it's full circle I'm coming back for an opportunity he seem I changed my life and um I spoke in front of a group of like 40 Youth and I first time I learned how to tell my story you know what I'm saying in terms of what I've been through gang culture Street culture prison and now post relas struggles and um it was in that moment like that I noticed that there's leaders missing like me in the community who was not coming back after so much time and I realized having the support I had allowed me to make it to that point and that was like the birth of 914 me seeing the gap of Brothers not coming sisters coming home from prison and not having somebody who walked that Journey who been there to say yo we got you so the um name of the suppor group was called the you're not alone Brotherhood that's how like Creed now that you're not alone 914 United um and in 4 years we just Blossom right but but you know the movement kept coming until I mean we kept going until the um pandemic hit right March 2020 right so we already was doing the nbk work after my speech engagement I'm toring all the schools before the school shut down I'm telling my story and then when the pandemic H we had to go virtual so the mbks their mission is uplifting young men of color providing mentorship so that's where the mentoring element of the work we do now was develop you know I had three mentees at the time they were all in school giving them guidance and then the pandemic hit and then that's when we kind of just pivoted into doing Co work in the community helping other uh cenal workers on the front line and not for nothing that's when we learn to organize and learn Community work and becoming a 501c3 and building a nonprofit and a more structured more formal way um I'll go on and on but you know basically that experience led me to where starting the movement you said something very important that on that Journey as you were going you felt like you missed a few steps and a lot of times returning citizens is like there is no blueprint like what what are some of those steps obviously you took some that were forward but there was some that you miss what are those steps that you you realize now that this is how I probably should approach it when I um a solid foundation right you know I wasn't in a financial position so like now I I like I operate from Like A needs assessment everything is strategic right if I want to you know achieve this goal I got to think about the needs first right you know there's like levels to it so I think for me I was trying to build my Foundation but then ski the step to getting into position but I never had a solid foundation you know I wasn't financially independent for example I was saving up money with the hopes of starting school not knowing what school was going to actually be like right not knowing that trauma was going to hit me so it was like not understanding the foundation is so important to actually grow something solid so all right work for examp we talking about prison reform a lot and most of the time that's through laws changing or probation and different things of that nature but as far as prison reform actually being able to adapt into society right that's something that is not talked about a lot like talk about that for people that may not have ever experienced incarceration or don't know anybody that's incarcerated um like as far as you being incarcerated pretty much your your first half of your adult life and then getting released into the world how hard was that to adjust as far as you know having bills credit understanding how finances work you know trying to get an apartment and and having a felony on your record like you know talk about that aspect of n n for sure so even like opening my first bank account right so again what we do with the work is provide somebody who knows how to take that person where they where they need to go my best friend John Cabrera the co-founder he was the one that took me to get my ID he the one that took me to the bank account and say this how you open up a bank account right you know there's a lot that goes into like where do you want to park your finances and like some of us don't have that one person who's going to take time out their you know their busy day to walk you through so like that's where the Gap is at right with people who want to be in that Gap taking someone who don't know where to go but they got to learn how to park their money right um taking them physically just being that guide to them right I had that um the system is you know the re-entry landscape what you talking about in terms of when people come home and what's set in place there's a lot of lack specifically in Westchester and that's why our work is when people talk about re-entry we say it's not really when the first day that they come home it's actually the first day they arrested right re-entry starts when they inside so our work to speak on the financial education and credit building right we actually host a financial education program in the county jail we did it in Woodfield Detention Center as well right so like our program is it's core bases mentorship but we provide career Readiness Financial education and now recently digital Equity is teaching people how to navigate Tech right so when we go into these institutions like Westchester jail we're talking about life skills right how to communicate right we talking about how to develop action plans for yourself goal setting right but these kids like money they like to understand numbers so now we launched a 8we program in the county jail that took them all the way from the banking enss to credit building right with with other people who are specialist in this field right and all the way to entrepreneurship like how to start a LLC a lot of them want to do llc's and build businesses but there's so much Dynamics to that right so we had workshops teaching them now with the hope that when they return home they have some foundation and also someone to call and say yo now I'm ready to apply what I was just taught inside right um so that aspect when we think about prison reform I think about how to change the landscape inside of the institutions so that when they return home that they better equipped you know I was recently appointed by Andrea Stewart cousins to um sit on the New York State Prison education committee one of my long-term goals is to change the landscape for State prisoners right it's having what we call credible Messengers like myself someone who navigated the criminal legal system and is using that lived experience to you know leverage for impact right going into the institutions and shaping what program looks like in the state cuz we can have curriculum like Financial education teaching people how to build budgets using their commissary money right like that's what we was doing in the county giving them real applicable tools so that when they come home they at least one step ahead which ironically is one of the name of our programs is one step ahead right so my aspect of prison reform because it's so broad right it's really just changing what education and programming looks like inside of the institution so that when they return home they could be one step ahead than I was what's the current state of it though like cuz like you know a lot of I know friends that is in States and feds and a lot of stories that I hear is just like gang fights just survival a lot of people's on drugs is it I don't hear a lot of stories of like the whole point of jail should be so you can become a better person I know are programs in jail but from your Vantage Point what is it as far as the day to day for a prisoner to go through because it's like I I look at it like a lot of people don't It Gets Lost in Translation like people was like okay you do something bad you get locked up and then you just go to jail for a long period of time but if it's supposed to rehabilitate somebody there should be mental health programs there should be financial literacy programs there should be like a boot camp to stay in shape all kinds of stuff and I just feel like from the people that I'm hearing stories from it's just a lot of free time or it's time that you can kind of just navigate and just do the same thing you was doing on the street that's not beneficial right and then this is why a lot of people fall into the Trap of becoming career criminals and career inmates right so like speak on that aspect of it on like the day-to-day and what it looks like inside terms of so just so you know it's mission statement they not true that it's mission statement right it's Corrections right it's not correct nothing right it's actually corrupting um you know the rehabilitation component sounds good in theory but practice that's not what's happening um but what is happening is that you do have certain movements that just like mine is looking outside into the system saying this is what's missing and they're going to fill in that Gap so I would have to shout out the college program I graduated from right B prison initiative right this is a program providing free liberal arts education for brothers inside sisters inside right there like was that always there no cuz after 94 with the pilgrams taking way right they yeah exactly right that that wasn't available so and I'm going to get to the day-to-day stuff too to talk about but with elements like BPI right which is a it's is privately funded this is a top liberal allart School in the US it cost $250,000 to educate one person right and they getting this money for free they done graduated over a th uh incarcerated Learners is what we call them right um that program it being in place is really an exposure for us to know that it's a possibility right some place don't have that program so what it looks like is it has to be really where you at as a person and that's the one thing I learned I went in at 17 I had my Pitfall I did box time right but I always was a curious learner I like to read you know what I'm saying and at the time I was married I was married in prison young I got married at 18 and my wife at the time she was in college graduated early two jobs right she was shaking so I was motivated to like match energy so I wanted to get my GD so everything was like self like self initiation right like if you want to go you have to go after it it's there the GD programs is there but are they really going to help you pass it's really up to you then you have like um outside programs like Pace HIV awareness programs alternative violence programs they're there it's good for your learning and being around Brothers like I was who are Learners and want to build so that like once those safe spaces are available it's really up to you to enter them cuz they available for all right the mandated programs is GED because and um vocation the vocation they have electric heating and plumbing skill yeah but it's not effective right like you go to those programs you could just just attend and pretend and you're literally passing right you're satisfying for the state the state it's what it's missing is intentionality right because if it's intentional it's going to create spaces where people are not just going to want to come learn but they really going to learn right so everything is really upon you so on a dayto day to answer your question directly right it's broken up in three modules at least in the state you got the morning afternoon and night time module each module has a Rec time available right you can either go to the rec or you can go to school stay in your sell and read or go to the law library right so it's really where your mind is at and I think early on you know shout out to a lot of my big Bros that were old school gangsters that educated themselves and transformed their lives right they made education look good for me right they still swag they still moving the yard they well respected but they in school and I think that exposure for me made me realize like yo that's the right I want to be so my day today was like I'mma divide my three mod up into ways that's going to help me while there's a lot going on there's Wars going on stabbings gun knife fights police everything still happening you just got to understand where your role is in this right there was five things I was told to stay away from in prison you know what I'm saying don't interact with police no telling don't play with the m uh no no gang violence right and don't sell drugs actually they're six and don't gamble those six things is going to lead to one outcome right so me I'm like I'mma work out and keep my head in the books and just move militant right so the way I view my time was like investment into time and like what I really wanted to be early on I got told on on my case right five people told on me so I already knew the streets is not an option right whatever I thought was real is not real for me no more right so I start to look at my time like God damn I got 13 years to do like you know and I made some mistakes I went to the box and all that trying to like you know Dibble and Dabble and it was in that box time that really also woke me up like yo you haven't still learned right you now solitary solitary confinement right you know a the shoe they call it or whatnot um and you know just having a lot of time to myself made me start to see I'm going break my days up like this you know what I'm saying when when I'm going to the yard I'm going go call my people on the phone I'mma hit the shack and I'm going to go mingle with the Bros that are likeminded and from that structure it's like it looks different for everybody you know what I'm saying some some brothers is coming out they on the phone all day some Brothers is working out all day or they in the corner with they Bros all day politicking doing what they do right so with the limited programming uh that's accessible is really up to you to make it work for you you know what I'm saying like that's why they say don't do the time um no don't let the time do you you do the time you know what I'm saying it's really like kind of like giving you the position to be active with it cuz you got do s for 20 years and they get their GED then you got to do s for 20 years got their Master's education right so it's really about what you really want to come out of it so what what was I mean you it sounds like you have people to look up to in there right while you what was the foundation or was there a foundation on the outside cuz a lot of times people there's families that are affected by you going to your family's affected you said that obvious see your man is here but what was that Foundation like when you go in everybody's like y send you writing you but as time goes on and progresses we see that all the time like it's almost like a forgotten family member what what what was that like for you yeah no I had to shout out my ex-wife on that one right you know she was uh the most consistent I had consistency in some family members like my brother that was here and others but you know she was the one kicking down the door when I was 5 hours away right she's the one that's sending me cards letters every week right so unfortunately what you learn when you go away is that family going to love you but they struggling too you know what I'm saying and like you just came a whole another bill that they didn't ask for right so like you learn that like you become a liability right so like you know it's really when you have a mom or father in position and usually it's the mom that's knocking down those do so my Foundation was I had my aunt you know two of my aunts that was you know shouting me out um some f members checking for me here and there you know what I'm saying some of my peoples and my Bros is coming to check me but my most consensus port for like my first five seven years was my ex-wife to be honest you know what I mean and um it was I was fortunate to have that so everybody's Foundation looks different too right like you might go to the visit room and you see somebody his mom brother cousins and aunt is there every week right also it depends where you at when I was in singing that's what 20 minutes away from the town right so I'm getting more visits right than I was when I was in kasaki or com so it's like really about positioning I think my um last 3 years is when I started seeing my most support but also I was also sending like you know evidence of my gra of my growth I was graduating I'm getting my degree now I'm inviting my folks to come into the institution and come to my graduation so it's like everything now they hear me is something positive which I think encourage a lot of people to like really believe in me you know what I'm saying so but that's kind of relative but we do look at it in a general sense the found foundation for everybody's different so when you start your nonprofit right what was the steps to actually get that off the ground and up and running as a formal nonprofit or just like even starting it like um both but definitely the formal side I want to talk about that no for sure for sure so um basically for us I again it was just organizing so like you kind of got to market the work unpaid and just do the work you're in the community doing it um until you know uh actually a former County legislator was like yo you guys are 51 C3 I didn't know what a 511 C3 was and for those who don't know that's the actual nonprofit tax bracket where you're a tax exempt right that's when you become an actual uh public charity identified by the federal government that you are a nonprofit you could receive money people could donate and it's a tax write off we weren't even that we were just organizing like we was leading with the heart right so we out in the community we putting on um that was the first question I got that made me think about like yo I have to organize the second question was from um who's the current mayor of mount ran we did a a full drive with her and she's like yo who are y'all like you know I mean y out here putting on but who are y'all and we didn't have no real organized answer so it was me again like nah we got to get it together like you know and then I started thinking about the name you know what I mean that that's when now for United kind of like started to come about and um I was fortunate too so like in the at the same time that we doing this organizing work one of my board members now one of my Bros from high school am M badru he was the current executive director of his own nonprofit in yonas so he was the one that actually like like helped me sat me down and like yo this how you become a 501c3 um and he took me to the website right and legit sent me the link and it's a step by step right some people could hire Zoom I mean um what's that called the uh legal Legal Zoom right to do all of that but I legit took it mind you everybody's at home right it's shut down so I had all the time in the world and I just took the steps and then um we did the New York tax exempt to be like uh to be exempting the sales for New York any purchases um we did that process uh and then after that was just about your brand right cuz now you like on documentation you are a nonprofit but now how do you build your brand and that's was something I just learned along the way and what helped was that you know being a formly incarcerated you know person taking a leadership role in the community I think that was like kind of seen as one of one and that's how we were getting called right my first call was to speak at a uh at a black lives matter rally after George Floyd was you know you know unjustifiably killed and um I spoke in front of a community of like 800 white folks in hastens for like five minutes and I was talking about that issue and we raised $5,000 right and that took that 5,000 and put it back into the business right and I had to uh develop a website you know from there now I'm thinking about the marketing part of it I hired a uh contract M and I'm working with this dude from Bangladesh trying to figure out how to you know organize and build the website and then I got another call Bronxville now these are like affluent communities they start to hear about this individual in this movement and so it was like we became formalized by becoming a 501c3 but like what really catapulted the movement was the eyes that were on us and then the opportunities that we took and each opportunity was like a uh training ground for me cuz after the Bronxville um speech a real wealthy lady I didn't know was wealthy was like yo who's your board of directors you know um how's your fining I'm lost right I don't understand the four Dynamics so Lang I'm like it's a new language for me so now it makes me pivot go back to Lamont like yo how do we set this up so it was like we kind of put the C before the horse in a way right like we kind of like jumped and and did the work led by the heart and then we had to kind of dial back and then organize you know um and then one of the things that really really helped me was you know knowing that the work I wanted to do was around gun violence prevention and positive Youth Development um I was looking for a job in that industry right so I applied for yona's Family YMCA but with the intent of it being my training ground like this is a nonprofit business now I'm going to learn nonprofit business by working for a nonprofit business and then I got a kind of double reward where the nonprofit that I was working for is funded by a state agency so now I'm getting experiences with a state agency right which is a whole another bureaucratic structure that looks different right protocol hierarchy relationships how information is shared so I'm learning things in real time at my job but that was my intent I parked myself there with the intent of like and then I'm still building the nonprofit We Still organizing you know I actually got my first contract through all those movements and meeting people during Co I got connected to who was the former Deputy Commissioner LS Molina he's now the deputy uh the uh Deputy of New York City iot his position but um he's under Eric Adams now and um he got me my first contract working inside the county jail right so now I'm going inside the institution and I'm using my hourly contract money to run my programs in there and that's when everything start to come full a circle so now I'm with institution I'm seeing what's missing I'm working for the nonprofit I'm learning what's needed right and I'm also doing my research on the side understanding the Dynamics I got to pour into the nonprofit business so it's kind of like simultaneously three moving parts that helped us organize and become officially a business entity yeah you building the plane and flying the plane at the same time so this this is interesting because as you were speaking and you talking about branding and marketing I'm thinking to myself 13 years if I go back social media is not even I mean Facebook is probably around before you go you get locked up I think Myspace Myspace is it Myspace it was Myspace mypace Facebook's probably maybe only for college at the time you come home and the landscape is completely different 100% what what was what was that like studying social media right because now it's it's Snapchat it's Instagram it's all these apps and you're like I mean I could imagine what that's like like this is a whole new one yeah yeah yeah no for sure um on a personal level you know my peoples taught me yo what not to post and to post like you know I was posting stuff I shouldn't be posting like I got my ID so think about I'm so excited I got my first dat ID and I post on the gramit and bro like yo bro take that down you got your address on there so we don't understand the Dynamics of who's watching um so my pees every time I will post something that's like the dos and don'ts they'll pull me up and teach me informally right also women too right you know um but on a personal level when it comes to The Branding part like I'm not a social media expert right so like I always lean on the other experts in the field and and sometimes we have volunteers or we have an intern like currently we have an intern now that's helping us with our marketing and branding um or people who we contract to come help us with certain projects so that's how we've been able to elevate our marketing um we're trying to enhance the website now it looks pretty good compared to what it was um but leaning on you know other experts like I'm a big believer in delegation right like I can't do it all right like I'm the visionaire I'm a strategic planner but delegating requires finding the right Human Resources you know what I'm saying and then bringing them in and then hopefully they can push your vision along so that's how I kind of like overtime I just opened up a Snapchat no a Tik Tok right trying to do my own thing with my other page that I got and and it's it's tough It's it's a lot of like too it's changing too fast right so as far as a nonprofit um the business model behind nonprofit you still get to make money though right like you still got to live right of so how does that work cuz people hear the word nonprofit and it's like okay everything it's like it's just a charity everything that comes in goes out but it's still it's still a business 100% yeah explain that as a like it's easy to explain a for-profit organization everybody knows that but the nonprofit I I think it's interesting like it's a nonprofit but it's still a business at the same time yeah for sure for sure so the business part of it just to for the viewers right it's about like the the way it's broken up in it taxes right like the entities is about the taxes is different right the way it's broken up the structure is the same just a different market right um so the fo profit I have to say that you're selling a good to make a profit right I sell you this candy bar I make money off that candy bar the nonpr is about providing a service that's not being sold I'm not selling you my financial literacy program I'm not selling you my mentorship right you're in the program for free but it's funded by that could be a diverse pool right so we have Government funding right primar with a lot of nonprofits are funded by government and interestingly enough you don't want to be funded by government right cuz it's not guaranteed political shift happen you lose that money um private you have private donors people who own companies people are well wealthy that love the cuse you're doing they want to donate contribute um there's a diverse corporate right fundraisers crowdfunding so all of that money really goes towards your budget the same way a foot profit is set up right everyone has expenses right you got rent you got utilities you got salary that's where the money comes in so I'm salaried as a CEO of my company right I started off unpaid right and that's the part with the nonprofit like some businesses too that had to start unpaid build it and the way we grew was uniquely because we started like as contractors me and my team right cuz once I got two or three brothers that join the movement that came home right half my team got over 110 years in prison FYI like we all came from the same fed State and County so they all love the noble movement they jump on board so what happened was people stting to see us and they like yo can you run this program our first program was manhood uh uh what was it called the um manhood training right it was a 8we program and it was focused on adult hood and life skills Communications and we went into the Youth Shelter of Mount Vernon you know shout out to the Youth Shelter they gave us one of our first contracts to run program that's how we started right what they paying for the program x amount of money all right you come run work you do two workshops I paid for those two workshops and we just started like building Financial systems based on contracts then it got a little deeper when grants come in so you get a grant from a government and they're like hey you get this x amount of money in this particular first experience it was a reimbursement Grant so you had to spend the money in order to get back right so all of that taught me how to do budgets spreadsheets right like from the very beginning and it kind of worked out cuz it wasn't I turned down a lot of money by the way right in the early uh parts of my career cuz I didn't want to do too much and then not be able to have the infastructure to maintain it you collapse like that so I took each opportunity intentionally if it was align with my values and my mission which is very important with the business and nonprofit can't chase the money got to chase the mission cuz sometimes the dollar is tied to somebody who's not aligned with your mission or your values and a lot of nonprofits go wrong with that they looking at the dollars they need it for expenses and then they you know wrap themselves up and they not they can't produce in our case it was like we kind of like started to not put the car before the horse started walking you know we crawled now we walking and then we started slowly running and with the nonprofit game was just understanding how to diversify your income right diversify your portfolio right how to get corporate funders how to get Foundation money how to get um you know crowdfunding fundraisers money how to get government money and then looking at that money the money's coming in tying it to the budget and that's where salaries insurance bill I mean your utilities anything that you have as an expense for your nonprofit hope I kind of answer that how you said you had the as a CEO did you built the board of directors how did you go about choosing that and then you said that obviously the team has all been incarcerated how do you go about selecting who's going to be a good fit to now join you on this Mission I know for sure for sure um for the board of directors it started with Lamont badw right he was our cuz he was our first fiscal sponsor so that check that we got for 5,000 we couldn't take it cuz we wasn't a 501c3 yet so fiscal sponsors are like other more established nonprofits that'll take that money pass it through their bank account to you because then that check um the person who wrote the check to that it went to a nonprofit right it had to be a 51 C3 so him being our fiscal sponsor and being somebody that was you know helping us build the business um he was our first board member right and then we you know at the time we were selecting people who was helping us on the ground but it was like I try to get people who are either an expert in different spaces whether in in education whether in fundraising right whether it's marketing right operations to contribute and pull back down into the organization but it never works like that you find people that's dedicated then they're too busy they got too many kids over the family level so they can't contribute so we ramped the board in 2022 going to 2023 and one person who still we have actually F there's five board members right now me I'm the um president the co-founder is the board Treasurer then we have an advisor and two secretaries and um the other two besides Lamont we met them through just networking and they had the the skill set that we needed which is understanding nonprofit business understanding operations right other one worked in um Correctional Facilities she understand program and leadership development so we started to select People based on like how are they tie to the mission and what do they bring to the table and right now with that small team we're starting over because we're literally formalizing the board process on what recruitment strategy looks like right we have to re um enhance our bylaws right the B laws is the governing structure of the nonprofit we're literally working with three different law firms to um tighten up some of the backend documentation such as the bylaws and that bylaws is going to dictate how we Recruit new board members so while that's being developed by a legal consulant firm we're working with the board to make sure our strategy is in line with the bylaws and it's really you want to Target people who's going to bring to the organization they're volunteering their time but you want people who's going to bring in money bring in resources bringing connections and also information right so we're still in that development phase when it came to the um Team it happened through me knowing individuals from serving time with them um and them returning home and reaching out asking for the opportunity and then it just kind of working out at the right time right that was like a unstructured way that we recruited of course with intention right like you know um now so now the whole team is forming C only half the team we have woman on our team that's been impacted by the system indirectly they got you know different careers that contribute to the movement but now we have a actually HR department is in now with developing the HR System where we're doing onboarding more formal and more corporate but there's a caveat that we are keeping with the organization and that's the voting process so I like member Le organizations right where my team has a say so on how certain things right so one of the last two uh excuse me the last two members we had we did a panel discussion right so and it's somebody I was up North with Master grad bilingual solid brother well intellectual he brought so much to the table but I knew he just came home we got to kind of groom him and that's how we start to do it we like here take an opportunity at Woodfield they'll build their like kind of experiences working with the population we kind of observe them we put them in spaces to kind of get them to job with the team and then we like yo this person's dedicated this person actually brings a lot to the table and they bring diversity that's the other key diversity right so um then from there if we feel like we want to vote them in we'll do a panel meeting with the person and I'll have the whole team could be a little intimidating but it's more like just really interviewing you about your interest in this movement right cuz we don't call it a nonprofit or a company or a job we a movement so there's you know company values and cultures that we have to talk about and how do you like assimilate into that is what we try to figure out and fortunately you know we have a team of 13 right now you know um again I said half my team did a lot of time five of them have former gang experience from Crips Bloods Lon Kings to anos to you know uh I think yeah criis oh no Bloods so like they all were gang leaders in their own way so now they use that to go back into the institutions working with the young kids who are gang banging so the diversity kind of worked out but the the cherry picking comes in with who are we bringing in and why and um now we just going to implement the more like formal process of it cuz you need a HR I have to remove myself from also the interviewing process just to some degree to offset any liabilities you know what I'm saying so it's more member Le but now we're bringing in more corporate structure so you said as far as like nonprofit the lifeline is fundraising right you have to be able to get money and you said government is not the best source to get money so it's private donors but that's also very challenging right to kind of like always it's that's not guaranteed either that you're going to get a stream so how has it been for you as far as fundraising what are some challenges and what are some best practices that you learned for sure for sure um so right now we have a strategy so I started implementing strategic planning right um the the Strategic plan like I said earlier is based on your needs assessment right so we look at what do we need in the organization and then okay we need this and how we going to get it right so what we did was this year we have um three approaches so we have a grant writer that we contract so this grant writer that spends time in the library because they have a source called foundational directory and it's a a free database that tells you where all the grants is at companies pay for that but at the library is for free right so he'll spend hours there and researching finding grants that align with our mission he'll present it to me and say yo this is a good Grant to go after we'll have several meetings on it talking about budgets how it's going to align with my current Mission and budget and then he's going after them right so that's one approach the other approach is more like a traditional model Outreach right so I was fortunate through one of my donors so we have some secure donors from last year that gave us a lot of money um he gave me a list of like over 500 companies throughout the US worth up to $7 billion right his company is based on C calling that's what we're doing right we have a team my team is dedicated some of their hours a week to co- calling those companies to introduce us share our mission and hopefully build relationships so when it comes to money and Outreach it's about relationship building as y'all know right so that's what that that's one approach that we want to measure too to see if this even effective is a waste of time is it working um so we doing that to raise money and then crowdfunding right is another thing through online campaigns social media right GoFundMe and things like that for specific things and then um what we did last year which was really really interesting it was our first one which was our F first fundraiser Galla right the goal was 50,000 we walked away with $68,000 in the first night you know shout out to Styles P came as a guest speaker um we had 432 people in the building first fundraiser right and um that's how you you raise money you sell tickets you get you get a venue space right you Market the tickets you use the money for um not profit but to invest back into the company the money that we raised for that fundraiser the goal was our first office and we just you know signed the commercial lease in February and we finally moved in and up and running so those are the ways in which now you have to think about getting money for the nonprofit because if you the goal for every nonprofit is to try to secure consistent donors even if one person G me 500 a week I mean a year one person give me 50,000 a year count that you got to count all of that money right while still going after grants you still need Government funding right um and then what kind of put me in position was a unique opportunity to executive order 211 um by Governor Hoku uh you know it was announced in 2022 as a result of gun violence so a lot of money GBP is a buzz word right now gun violence prevention right you know a lot of people going after it that money was a lot of money about $20 million was pulled into an initiative um called project rise so project rise was a new approach to funding nonprofits from the state it was never done this way right um where they was giving you the money up front right so we applied we got accepted we were like one of like five nonprofits and yonas that got it and we got a nice chunk which played a major role in me going fulltime right so now we got part-time staff members I got I'm a full-time staff member I got volunteers and I got paid per DM so that's as I need them right you go into per contract so we've Diversified our money by using the state money the contract money the crowdfunding the fundraiser to now pay all the stuff that we need for the company let me ask you a question so is like is there like a test or like a limit like is it a rule because let's say hypothetically I have a nonprofit I raiseed $5 million right I have to use because like somebody could just deposit that in their bank account right so it's like is there a rule to be like okay if 80% of the money that you rais you have to deploy in the course of 18 months like how did they track that yeah no so when you do your own fundraiser you determine that right unless a donor that's giving you x amount of money says this money's for this so the donor could determine like this is for your rent only you can't spend this on program expenses for example you can't spend it on food for the office right um so that's how one stipulation comes in with the uh project like when it comes to State funding there re controlling right you have a budget a proposed budget that you have to actually adhere to right so that money is controlled and the timeline that you said you're going to spend this money they monitoring like whatever the case is when you do your own fundraiser like you know you got to be authentic to your you know your supporters right our goal was an office space right so when we got the money right we didn't have no stipulation like you got to spend this money on the but we like n y'all helped to raise money for the location we're going to get the location cuz we actually needed the location right so the stipulation depending on the grant that you're going after right some grants are unrestricted so shout out to J Jeff bz's wife hopefully she sees this man she's been running around um dumping millions of dollars into nonprofits unrestrictedly though do you like unrestricted is like yo do what you need to do with it there's no um police reporting on it right like that's a nonprofit dream you know so that was she just announced that like six billion she's yeah she's putting on right now she's I think New York state was the first place she looked first and it was I think she's looking for like something a crazy number of nonpr yeah no and and her process is hard to even find she they have to find you so hopefully they find n one for uned mean but um no for sure for sure but the unrestricted comes from you know Noble individuals with a lot of money that's like y I love what you're doing we trust your work but this is something good for all business owners right your finances have to be in order right like part of what got us the location part us would got us into these a lot of these deals grant writers I mean um Grant providers they want to see finances sometimes right there's something called God star they have the IRS website that they go look at and check how much went to program and how much went to salaries right some of them care about those like little details but your books your financial story is your engine for the organization specifically for a nonprofit cuz people are giving you money right so like what we've been working on which is a financial project is getting audit ready that's what we call it right getting audit ready making sure that when any fun hopefully real wealthy funer wants to see Financial story it aligns right there's no disconnect so that's so that's what I'm getting at so all right you audit ready so if somebody wants to pull your records they can see okay this amount of money went here this amount of money went here so if you're doing due diligence even for the public to know like if they if they want to give money to a nonprofit but they're not sure about if the money's actually going to go to help people like they can actually look to see Financial records yeah the the the IRS if not the IRS there's something called godar so godstar has like certain seals like uh platinum gold bronze this the more transparent you are on God star the higher the sale you get so if you show them like your breakdown of your board the ethnical breakdown who you serve your team your finances you got to publish your 1090 I mean your uh 990s every year you have to publish that right so they can see your finances so that you know and if they don't like I had a funer who you know shout out to Bron with Rotary Club you know they was on it like looking at your finan let me see what this why you don't have this on GAR it was some like steps that we overlooked and he was like intentional and he's like yo you guys are doing the right thing so once you build that trust with your finances everything else is like just you know what what are some of the the biggest challenges obviously the money raising the money figuring out how to get it but what are some of those challenges that people who are not familiar with the space what are things that they should know that you face right like the go that that is something that somebody put you on what what are some other challenges just if we get into the space um the the the politics right the politics is tough right um and I just want to touch on something you asking answer to the challenging part right so me being a full-time CEO right just to talk about the executive 211 they talking about taking that off the table right so imagine a fund is like here for three years you good and your first year they like oh hold on some political things are going on we got to take it off the table now I got to think about how I'm going cover my salary now I got to like pivot and and I got to work overtime because you know June come I might not have a salary right so those challenges is about having a strategy in place to Pivot the things that you don't see and that's always hard right um but there's many challenges with this work when it come to fundraising it's about how you build relationships and with who so that's the political part of it right like you know there's campaign season so even like some partners of mine that I really jve with you know politically I can't take open stances with you because the 501c3 guidelines is that if I endorse a a politician we get dissolved right and what does endorsement look like it could be them taking your swag and posting on their page that they was actually a event it could be you taking a picture with them and it's you know framed a certain way so you have to be real careful right so and then it's like a lot of the challenge you see is that you cannot separate community service from the political sphere they go hand in hand so now you got to deal with politicians who really don't believe in what you believe in right and that's some of the things I'm working on like emotional intelligence right like how to navigate these spaces you know cuz I got that Rebel in me but I'm also going through refinement I ain't got it all figured out and there's times that I'm in a space and it's like I really want to talk how I feel but I can't and Leadership is about your brand ambassadorship right like what are you representing online and offline cuz people are watching you know and and so those challenges about policing yourself you know being careful where you hanging out at how you moving offline and online um but who you really deal with because your brand can be separate from who you are you know what I'm saying so if again have to navigate those even now I'm doing my grand opening for the N for um space and I'm like who do I invite right like it gets tricky cuz you don't want to feel like you're favorite you know you're showing favoritism to one politician or another you know because that might just be you got a close relationship with this person but they don't understand that cuz they run against each other so now if he gets a he or she gets a position they like yeah we asking you out of this money that we you know you could have had had you voted for us or you to show the support so like being intentional with who you support and how you support which leads to another problem and challenge is how do you focus on internally and externally the internal part of the organization learning Finance Management learning how to manage a team as you grow learning how to manage new systems that you need HR Consultants learning all of that and then the external pressures of yo we have this event can you come support oh hey can you do this or we want to do a collaboration or can you come to this like it's a lot of like just being pull tuger wall from two different directions you know and those challenges are very exhausting but I think if you stay true to your needs right and your mission everything else is going to follow what about the the challenge of em you alluded to emotional intelligence you're a full-time entrepreneur you're leader in organization but you also have a personal side right so like how are you managing that is I know you mentioned therapy is that something that goes on a continuing basis like how how are you managing this because it's I mean it's new for a lot of people entrepreneurship is new for sure and there's no book on how to handle it right there's ups and downs how would you managing through it yeah no for sure um well I'm literally seeing therapy right every Monday every Monday evening um I got a good brother that you know gives me great perspective on my life so therapy is one of my Outlets um also a lot of trainings right um even for me and my team um we actually are implementing uh it's something that we do for the Youth when they're in distress we're doing something for the team right to like provide a safe space so that when they come into this space they have the village to support them cuz as you said right like life is lifing right you got family you got loved ones I lost a lot of people we lost a lot of people in the last two years seven and Counting you know what I'm saying some to gun violence so dealing with those traumas right you need to just find a way to outlet like you need an outlet right so besides us leaning on each other um therapy and also learning to just focus on my self-care like slowing my life down I'm on I'm I'm going to school fulltime right now that's another thing right I'm in school fulltime I'm running the organization and life is lifing so what I'm learning is to try to find balance and just taking time to myself turning off my phone and just staying still so sometimes that helps right um and then the other things I mentioned and just being the student of the game and and and being humble about it man so as far as um you said you had a nervous breakdown or mental breakdown something right was a nervous breakdown a mental breakdown mental breakdown but we never really compounded upon that so all right as far as um that is concerned right talk about that as far as being incarcerated what is that due to your mental health like even being in solitary confinement there's been research said that I think like after like a couple days like you kind of clinically start to deteriorate mentally like especially some people being old for 6 months like 3 months at a time like you know it's like you a lot of mental illness that comes from isolation that comes from just being around men all day that comes from having trauma of seeing people killed in front of you stabbed in front of you dealing with cos that you know abuse prisoners a whole mental aspect of this so talk about the mental side effects of being incarcerated yeah so interestingly sex weighs into what I was talking about with the team um we actually the for those who serve time right there's a psych there's an article about the psychological impacts of prison and we're all dissecting that article and identifying ourselves in it so we're trying to build awareness of our trauma in order to overcome it that's another thing right but the psychological impacts is deep right um I could go on and on right but for me you know part of what just feeling like the feeling like There He Go um e espol on the way so feeling like so one of the concepts is that like when you have serve so much time right you feel abnormal right you come out into this world and I think part of my like urge with building the support group was to try to like be around like-minded people because there's this like otherness this this concept of the other right you know it's a lot of African-American Scholars talked about being the other in the white man space feeling like the outside of the stranger so the stranger concept is I walked with that a lot right you know being in spaces where I did 13 years so I'm around men talking about traveling and they like it's came from Dubai you feel like so uncomfortable uncomfortable you can't partake in the conversation you can't relate right you you don't like you just did your whole 13 years in your adult years in prison right so is there some level of embarrassment like you don't even want to tell people that you were incarcerated type like well for me some people do have that they have this shame of their identity I owned it from this gate like it became my advantage actually right it became my currency because some people didn't know I serve time right I might have been working when I was at the Fashion production company people like oh you know you did 13 years I would have never knew so like I always didn't mind it but some people are ashamed of where they came from so they keep it deep down inside you know um but you know the guy that not to cut you off the guy that runs Jordan brand you know his story nah so the guy that runs Jordan brand he um he killed somebody years ago and he went to jail for it but it was like a thing that nobody knew about so he worked his way obviously a very intelligent person he worked his way up the corporate ladder to the point where the CEO of Jordan brand and it was something that it it haunted him not having nobody knew about it it was like a secret that nobody knew and he um like recently like last year two years ago he wrote an article and that was like him coming out and telling his past but for 20 years nobody knew his past history yeah so it was one of these things and like I said he probably could have went to the Grave with it right I guess it was before laws was so transparent where everything was you know it's probably like in the 60s or something but he didn't feel comfortable living a double life he felt like he just you know like he had suppressed it and he was just hiding it for so long that even though nobody knew about it it just was causing him anxiety because he knew about it and he wanted to kind of get it off his chest yeah no no it's it's it's deep um I somehow I'm blessed you know by the grace of God in that way where I was always okay with being vulnerable you know what I'm saying I think that we're so guarded when we come out um that we want to like protect this narrative and it's like n let people know who you are right so for me I came home open to that but I never really felt like my peoples understood me right so being the stranger you know there's times where like I don't play with the hands I was C too serious y you know loosen up man like you know what I mean you mad like on some and it's like I just came from a hyper violent environment right so like I can't just be flexible and it took me time to like loosen up to new faces trust issues right um I was questioning everybody in my Bros circle like nah like you know cuz my own trauma people telling um so you start to generalize and that's delusion right you start to think everyone is who you experienced that's like literally delusion and one of the biggest experiences I remember was being in barber shops right you know what I'm saying you behind a chair getting a lineup and one dude pulled up he was a former cop that's the funny part pulled up with a hoodie on his hands in his pocket I jumped up dumb fast I mean I just came home to a town that I took a life from right so those type of things where people don't understand your anxiety is the first time I H in New York City to go to a contract I seen like a her of people and it's remind me of the yard like people won't know what you're walking through people walking past you you like yo you on super Edge so those moments made you feel abnormal like it made you feel broken you know what I'm saying and it's like what I learned was like accepting it that that's a I'm scared in that way right it's not really what happened is how I react to it cuz I can't change the past now right it's how I move forward but those type of things man are constantly walking with us and I was just speaking at on Pati University yesterday for the law school there and um I talked about the symbolic baggage of trauma that we all walk with on our backs right and I felt the heaviness of that trauma when I was in the school you know what I'm saying there was mad times I was in that school bougie elite school and I felt like then I a belong you know what I'm saying it's like you feel like the stranger and that feeling is an internal thing you know what I'm saying and to get even deeper you know what your relationships right you know some of us got like you know issues with our family our fathers our moms right and if you know I served so much time as a kid so like I learned that the impact that prison had on me was like the abandonment issue right you know I a see people for so long so you have trust issues you know and your relationships you see it come out right and that's where you need to understand and partner and you need to be aware of your own triggers you know and the good thing when when I was working with the Y under DCJS like I got to understand trauma informed practices and how to like really like let go some of the issues I was holding on to um so a lot lot of it is Letting Go and understanding um that it's there right a lot of us move into avoidance a lot of men I know even on my team like you become so self-sufficient in prison that you come out here thinking I do everything by yourself and I'm like that's a trauma response right you don't realize you're not in prison no more bro you got the world out here you got people to call you know what I'm saying we had a deep conversation the other day with with a brother that just did from 16 to 39 years old right one of my guys again he identified somebody as a prospect for the organization he's a Muslim brother again diversity we looking to diversify the team he just did all his time solid brother up north I actually know him and um yo beautiful experience was that he was not a prospect to serve he needed to be receiver he needed to be a recipient he was like yo I'm I've been on five months and I'm like you know struggling I'm like trying to figure it out he's like I need help and he that might have been the first time he said that cuz for 5 months he's like I got to do this on my own like this is mindset that we have coming home from so and because Prison you know makes you have to protect yourself and rely on yourself I talk about three battles that we experience in prison you battling against the correction officers that's a whole another culture right especially you up north you around them white boys up north that culture is mad conservative right then you battling with your P right the the the the the just the the the the segregation the doggy dog world the back door right and then you battling with your own internal demons you know what those three fights every day feel like after many years you come home and look at people different your friendships you define them differently you know a lot of my brothers that I like really feel my brothers is brothers who I did time with that's home now celebrating life for me you know despite my real brothers but you know so it's like it changes your Dynamic with people you know what I mean yeah part part of the the growth is not only helping those who are return but preventing those from actually becoming incarcerated so I know obviously spoke about the why talk about impact and speaking to the youth because as we seen especially in New York City and I mean I mean pick in city like G grounds is at all time high facts um so talk about the mission that you're on in that aspect because I mean that's e is not even more important for sure for sure so you know part of we kind of categorize our work in two ways right the preventative Services is what I'mma lean on in the second and then the transformative work so the transformative work is when we're going inside the correctional facilities so right now we in Woodfield County jail and working with youth coming out of ocfs state detention centers the work that we do there try to inspire transformative thinking through programming like I mentioned Financial education is one of them right you know giving them just one a person to connect with who know that we're going to support them showing up to court with them and all that helping them like yo we want to see you win when when you get out of here change that thinking cuz some of them never had that they don't know what love is like it's that deep right so like we trying to change how they view their relationships with people cuz they traumatized being in the hood all day seeing violence so going up in there and trying to change that narrative so that when they return home they tap into our community and that leads to the other program the one step ahead part and it's preventative in the sense that we trying to prevent them from going back so that's giving them all the aspects of training from career Readiness education Financial digital and um being a mentor to them while they transition right so any needs that they have upon their return We Are The my team and myself are working on supporting those needs just against so that they don't revert back um the preventative part is disrupting the school to prison pipeline right disrupting the child welfare and prison pipeline right and when we looking at the kids in the school right we're talking about these kids that are either gang influenced cuz they're not really active they just influenced then you got gang involved those are the hitters right or the want to be hitters cuz some of them are involved and you know so our programming with the school is the preventative part and what we've been doing is sending in a team to these different schools we introduce the work that we do and then if most times the youth show actual interest and they want to sign up and the teachers are always baffled like yo how y'all get them to be interested I'm like cuz they never met somebody did 13 years that cares about them right they see like oh this is who my uncle did time now we relate to them in a different way and then what we do with them is um we try to work with the Guardians right provide the parent support and then work with the youth and getting them into programming right whether it's a workshop whether it's a coaching session around something that they want to learn sometimes we sponsor programs if they like we give them an incentive like look you like music my brother owns a studio right called the Hub studio in yonas right so we sent kids there on our dollar to pay for their studio time keep them off the streets but while they in there we educating them working with them building with them right and showing them that we care then working with the guardian the goal is that our community right underserved under resource lacks that support mechanism from people that look like them that's where the one and one of us coming in at right I'm we're Grassroots so as a nonprofit we're born from the community we come from the community so people understand this they know my story a lot of people you know and they know my team story so when we show up at your doorstep it's like a different situation right then CPS showing at your doorstep you know what I'm saying so the preventative part is again just trying to work with them getting them out of gang culture you know what I'm saying we're working on keeping them out of the streets sometimes it's not that easy and clean sometimes they one foot all the way in and arm into our world right we're trying to like that's the battle because they're really caught up right so our work is to be consistent be authentic and walk along their Journey one day at a time and with the hope that we continue showing them options and exposing to resources that that could take him away you know so our thing is um and then by default talking about gun violes prevention we start mediating conflicts right like I might have one youth that knows another youth that's actually really happened and one youth commented on somebody's page online I gez like the source of world war right now and then um one youth called me like yo bro out of line I now I'm involved IM mediating like your whole long relax and I appreciated him from doing that because he's all the way outside he could have just handled that the way he wanted but he realized that we available see that's also sometimes is not that deep just being available for the young boy to call like I really want to make this move but I know he with us Mano talk to him now we're talking to him and he like yo you right I wild out he's taking that down and now that situation IM mediated a life two two lives are saved right there right so through the mentorship you have mediation happening then the goal is to get them into education based programming to change their thinking and that's an ongoing process so how can people if they want to donate or what's the for sure for sure um so you can find us on all social media uh platforms um we have a website ww. 914 united.org there's a donate button there um if you want to reach out to us directly and have a meeting with us before you want to donate you can um reach us at info@ 914 united.org we have again social media Tik Tok Facebook Instagram DM us shoot out to us you know um to find different ways of payment methods but if you want to go direct to our online on our website you know so is it to um expand further than 914 or you just want to focus on what y great Point um right now I need is a I need a full-time staff there's 13 of us I mentioned the breakdown earlier right so we looking to one secure the full-time staff build quality right and focus on the quality here in Westchester cuz we we've been offered to go to Rikers Island we've been offer to go to the city but there's a whole another landscape out there the money look different there's a lot of lot of political stuff going on so my goal is to really like conquer Westchester right we have a lot of villages in Westchester like you know what I mean there a lot so what areas do you focus on obviously yonas Mount Vernon we have youth that come out of Newberg Mount Vernon yon uh summon Peak Skill um newelle we have very few youth in new relle um we got one on our Cas Lo now um and uh some even some in the Northeast Bronx now right that we have coming to us like North Mal yeah yeah yeah for sure so um like that's where we at right but then get called out to like Mount Kisco they they want to do work in there Portchester there's another need in Portchester and again I turn you know situations down cuz like I can't chase the money cuz it's dead we need to focus on home so right now with our location in yonas Central Park Avenue 2025 you know we just we're doing a grand open in April 26 and it's to really let people know we got up that we planted our flag and we're going to start launching mad programs so the other part I really want to highlight is the linkage between those institutions I talked about Woodfield County ocfs a direct linkage from there to our office right we're doing that we was doing it like in a more like decentralized way where we meet them in the park at the house at the restaurant CU we have a location now we want to make sure that they have a direct access to our space and get their education going that basically continuing the mentorship program that we started so I want to focus on yon's youth like primarily but also because the count is so diverse and the program we work with in the county is the yop program the youth Defender program um we want to make sure that pipeline is clear and clean before we replicate that Pipeline with the other parts of the general population well keep up keep up the good work man definitely um you know a lot of education and is definitely important cuz uh yeah it's needed work you know you look at the gang violence right now it's exploding and um it's one of these things that nobody really has an answer for except for the people that's actually on the ground that have been through it they can be you know credible Messengers to try to um you know provide a different way mediate situations and and give the kids a different Outlet as opposed to just you know something that's going to give them 30 years in jail 100% so um definitely keep up the great work man appreciate you coming and having me my pleasure yeah man I'm sure we'll be uh connecting soon yeah for sure for sure continue that discussion congrats on the on the opening too yeah man man 914 91 stat man sure brother we here putting on for the city for sure so thank you guys for rocking with us we'll see you next week peace peace

Channel: Earn Your Leisure

Views: 15,147

Keywords: earn your leisure, business, finance, sports, entertainment

Id: HvNHGAyLlsM

Length: 67min 1sec (4021 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 30 2024