Latest / find your cause / Giving At-Risk Kids Their First Passport With Omari Davis
Transcript
- Joseph Smalzer: Do you have a Passion Through Passports initiative that we started up about probably three, four years ago? The youth spend a year studying a particular culture. They learn a little bit of the language. We incorporate culinary arts. They learn how to make one of the dishes. They learn a bit about the culture. And then we have them to, you know, fundraise, get their own passports, and we take them out to that particular culture. So since we last talked. We have taken youth out to Jamaica, Costa Rica, Puerto Rico. You know, it's it's it's it is a it's a hefty program and task to be able to get the youth acclimated, but you know, ⁓ they have lifelong memories at an early age being able to say, you know, traveling, you know, some place outside of my city is not unattainable. And that's Well Alrighty, so thanks everyone for tuning into this episode. Today we have a repeat guest, but it has been a long time since Amari you and I last spoke. But by ways of introduction, we're interviewing Amari Davis, who's the executive officer and founder of Get Out and Learn Something Otherwise known as Goals. So Amari, thank you so much for your time on this beautiful Friday in Chicago. Thank you for having me. Joseph, it doesn't look like you've aged a day in those five years. I appreciate that. Yeah, yeah. Maybe it's my long hair that my wife wants me to grow out. So that that helps me a bit. Well well well awesome. So we we have a lot of new listeners since the last time we spoke five plus years ago. So I thought a good starting point would be ⁓ you sharing a little bit about what the mission is of goals. So that's a good starting point. Certainly. So get out and learn something. Really our mission statement is that we strive to be a catalyst for change in the lives of at risk underprivileged youth. that are ages eight to eighteen. And we do that through the use of supplemental educational programming. We provide primarily summer and after school programs. We do some push-in as well, but we started out doing our summer and our after school programming. And we do offer such topics as culinary arts, theater, music, and art. But we really started out with our life leadership skills department. really making sure that we were able to close as many gaps for the youth that we service academically, culturally, emotionally, all all types of gaps that we did notice. So we do offer cursive writing, financial literacy for our high school students, workforce development, career exploration, making sure that our youth are really good stewards in any community that they choose to go in and engage in. All right. That's amazing. So life leadership is is the initial focus. Take me back to to the founding in and what were some of those initial programs with some of those initial kiddos that were part of the programming that you started with? And then we could talk about how it's evolved since then. Yeah, when we started, we started out it was in Chicago Heights when w when we first met. And we have moved headquarters now towards the west side of Chicago, but still servicing those youth out there. Life's leadership skills really started off as Academic assistance, we did some tutoring. We did do some STEM. Our STEM has, you know, expanded over the years, thankfully. We also did some financial literacy because we knew, you know, the students just as young as the fifth graders were getting money from their parents, had their own little candy thing, candy business that they were working with. So how they were able to build upon that. Those were pretty much the the three primary ones that we did. Now we've expanded up to Foreign language we do a program. This this is classic Chicago though here. Trains going by. We're good to go. We're good go. We did do a we do have a Passion Through Passports initiative that we started up about probably three, four years ago. The youth spend a year studying a particular culture. They learn a little bit of the language. We we incorporate culinary arts. They learn how to make one of the dishes. They learn a bit about the culture and then we have them to, you know, fundraise, get their own passports, and we take them out to that particular culture. So since we last talked, we have taken youth out to Jamaica, Costa Rica, Puerto Rico. You know, it's it's it's it is a it's a hefty program and task to be able to get the youth acclimated, but you know, they have lifelong memories. at an early age being able to say, you know, traveling, you know, someplace outside of my city is not unattainable. And that's let alone outside of the state or outside of the country, which is wild. I yeah, I have I have friends of mine that don't have passports still and they're in their, you know, twenties, thirties, forties. And and and I I think this is I think when I when I heard of your organization, I remember this like six five, six plus years ago. I really resonated with it because the impact travel has had on my life and also that impact in in for my three and four year old what I want to have on their life. And I I I think of course traveling can be expensive. Traveling could also be cheaper, especially nowadays. You if you know if you have flexibility on on on dates, it's it's really the barrier I've seen most is is and and I don't want this to ⁓ like you could travel, you save enough money, a couple hundred bucks, and you could go to lot of different places outside of the US. ⁓ yes. ⁓ so it's just a matter of I feel like the barrier sometimes f financial has been what I've heard a lot of people share is a barrier. But like if you add up the the purchases that you've made over a few months of things that you don't really need, you could easily add up the amount of money you need to travel somewhere. So I feel like more the the more so the barrier is Of course, like focusing on saving money for a little bit, but then like the mental barrier of saying, I'm gonna get a passport, I'm gonna leave this country. Like that's a very scary thing sometimes if you haven't done it yet. So I'd love to hear the experiences of the kiddos getting the passports, going there, and then maybe even now that I'm a parent, like what what the parents said about that. The parents were the parents were fine, you know, please take them. But most part the the youth were it was a mixed bag. We have some youth that were really excited. We have some youth that were very apprehensive, never been on the plane. What's that experience going to be like? So there was a lot of different conversations. It requires a lot of preparation, a lot of reassurance. And this is why, you know, traveling as you stated is so important because it does break down some of our preconceived notions. It opens up our perspective. And it also gives us a little bit of self-awareness because there were some preconceived notions that some of these youth had about some of these locations that we were going to. And and and they weren't correct. So, you know, once they were actually able to step foot on the ground, once we were able to do not even so much the excursions, but just getting out and walking about, you know, in Costa Rica, you know, there's there's a lot of You know, it's pretty much I and I said it it's just black people that speak Spanish. And that was a culture shock for me when I first came there because peop the natives speaking Spanish. So and and I and I you know, I'm poor French, so I w I had to Google translate everywhere I went. But it I it was something that I wish I had known and it was something that we did tell the youth. Be mindful of this. You know, if if you really do want to act interact with You know, the the Costa Ricans, make sure that you are able to speak the language. It's not fair for us to go into somebody else's neighborhood and have them to abide by the rules in our neighborhood. We're not in our neighborhood. We are in somebody else's neighborhood. So just things like that, you know, when you're only used to being and interacting in your own neighborhood, you think all the rules apply wherever you go. And they they don't. So we we we love the The passion to passports. I would love for us to be able to go to, you know, Europe. I would love for us to go to, you know, other countries as well. But you know, you know, nonprofit funding. Yeah. ⁓ yeah. Yeah. No, totally, totally. And I I feel like one of the in I think traveling is and you you you mentioned it just opens your mind. And I feel like it's one of the few things that is a mixture of humbling, but also like confidence building. Yeah. Like humbling in the fact that, whoa, this world is huge. I'm so small. Confidence building, doing something hard that you haven't done before. Confidence building, like realizing that, ⁓ people outside of the United States or my city or my state are humans as well. Like there's a shared humanity that that that I think you could only get. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That yeah, there's just shared humanity that you get from traveling to different places. Not only, of course, this is could be traveling different cities and different states, but definitely different countries. Yeah, it makes you feel big and small all at the same time. Like you're part of something bigger, but at the same time you're in a very small bubble and and like everyone matters, but like there's a big world happening around you. ⁓ yeah. Yeah, yeah. And so it it's it's amazing that you're providing this opportunity for the kids because you're planting seeds that they will look back at and know, like, ⁓ I traveled here, I can do this in the future. It's not as scary. I have the passport and and and that's exactly what I wanted to provide for my kiddos, you know, my my daughters is is why I've brought them to a few different countries already, is because I want them to look back and and not have fear be a reason why they don't, you know, travel somewhere. I want to like remove any and all barriers possible for them to be making decisions to open up their viewpoint of the world and to to broaden their mind. So it's amazing that you're providing this for people and it's so it's so cool. And that's just one of the programs that you provide, right? Yes. Yeah. Yes. Yes. How's this summer? How's this summer looking so far? I I feel like are you mid programming right now or what are what what are kind of some of the next things on the on the list? Programming is generally about to start within the next week to two weeks. So I I do I do have a bit of a break. We did finish up fall programming about a week or so ago. So we are we have been renewed since we have spoken. We have been able to provide programming in Lansing, Michigan. Funding once the COVID funds kind of ran out, we we kinda lost that. So we're still working on that. But this fall, it'll be three years now that we have started up and facilitated programming in East Cleveland, Ohio. So we are getting ready to start up our fall, excuse me, our summer programming there. And it has been such a beautiful experience. I you know, I I'm not a road tripper. Joseph, I'll be the first person to tell you. Me too. Yeah, not long ones. It's too, it is almost too much for me. But I have to say, when we first started this up and when we first spoke, I had the dream of even having a chapter in Ohio. Didn't even hardly have any contracts in Illinois, but it has been, and I have to say, it's truly been a blessing to be able to see that desire come out and and play out in real time. And it it just lets us it it lets me know that even our children have a lot of parallels. There's different there's a different culture in East Cleveland, Ohio. They're dealing with different things than some of our Chicago kids are dealing with. So even, you know, pinpointing and and knowing how to assess that and being culturally responsive wherever you go, because you know, you're trying to give them a prescription for something and and that's not what they really need. So it's really just been a beautiful learning process. We are looking to expand in Ohio. There is another district not too far that we're we're in the RFP process with them to become one of the vendors for their district. And it's interesting, I still haven't even thrown my hat into the Cleveland ring. We still have not even approached really any of the schools. So it it's beautiful to to have a track record. in a foreign land that you're really able to go other places and say we've done this not even in our own home state. Yeah. Yeah. No, that's amazing. That that that scale and that expansion that you're experiencing. If so we haven't spoken in a few years in terms c compared to the last interview you did. I'd love to hear some of the stories of the impact and and if and how you're measuring the impact of the programming and how that's evolved and maybe changed what programming you you're doing or maybe double click into certain programming. Impact has grown. Our our only problem has been really just the sustainability. Like I said, with with these COVID funds, it's been hard, but it's it's been a blessing because even when another school says, you know, we can't really afford it, another school comes in and we're able to use it's been no hard feelings. We've been able to obtain letters of recommendation that have been able to help us secure new contracts. So it's it's really just once we get those, you know, those IDHS or those ISBE grants that are able to continuously keep you. But ⁓ the impact I would say since we've last spoken, we've been working in at least I would put us almost at twenty schools. Wow. yes. And and it's nothing but old fashioned cold calling, knocking on the door, having a flyer in hand. It still it still works. Yeah. Yeah. And when you're approaching these schools and and kind of explaining goals, w what are some of the things that that you think resonate the most with the schools in terms of To filling a gap of a time frame that they have, or or what do you think they're they're really interested in? What have they been really interested in in learning more about and implementing? It it when we started this, I had in mind, you know, my upbringing. We grew up with home economics. We had wood shop, all of those types of enrichment programs. And, you know, they don't have them anymore at some of the schools. And our youth still need them. So that was really much my Pretty much my biggest talking point when I came to these districts, being able to give them those life skills so that they are able to sign their name appropriately on a document instead of doing an X. So that they are able to say, Well, instead of these, you know, three hundred dollar Jordans, I can buy myself probably, you know, five, six ounces of silver. Have something sustainable that was able to keep me for a rainy day situation. You know, we had consumer economics, you know, but they don't have that in these schools anymore like that. So being able to connect those dots, because there has not been much connection lately, has really been what's been getting us in the door. See having the passion and the investment. And and I believe that the schools have been able to see that. Yeah. In in in s the the program usually takes place after the normal school day and and during their breaks and and the schools help promote like, hey, here's a few classrooms that might be interested in doing this. Like walk me through like if if it's a school that wants to get involved, what is their kind of flow and their experience? So Waiting for the train. It's okay. I would say the first step is really assessing what your needs are, an old-fashioned needs assessment. Because, you know, i if your school already has music, our music program may, may possibly not. And and sometimes, you know, we have supplemented as well. But knowing what your school needs first, then how frequently do you have those needs needed? Or how frequently do you want those needs met? We have some collaborations where we only come in once a week for an hour and we're out. We do have some collaborations where we're in Monday through Thursday. I've always believed and I've always advocated for three day weekends so we don't do programming on Fridays. But it it really just depends how much the school needs our presence there. I I've always wanted us to be a pretty versatile organization. Because it's really not about us. It's really about the youth that we're meeting the needs of. And I don't want us to find ourselves putting ourselves in a box while we're finding ourselves in a position not able to serve those that really do need those services. Yeah. Yeah. So you you've been doing this for years now. It nonprofits usually come about to fill a gap that a society or a government or or what have you is not providing. If you were now given your multiple years of experience, be be be granted a wish where snap your fingers and these three types of programming will be deployed to every single school, what would those three programs or topics be and why? Just from from you you doing this for years and years and years. If you had to if you had to pick a couple or two to three that you think have have had the most impact on the youth that you've been serving. I would say Well, of course, life leadership skills, but I would say culinary arts. And it's becoming a dated term, but we still do have a lot of latchkey children that are coming home and they're just eating things that are not beneficial to them, not going to help their brain development or anything like that. And it's not so much a strike on them. They just don't know what else to do. So our culinary arts program does have a specific unit called use what you got. Youth are able to assess what's already in their home, and we're able to formulate meals not so like a like a more edible chopped, but we're able to formulate meals based off of that, how you're able to use this seasoning and carry this and stretch this out longer. So When you do find yourself at home alone, when you do have to babysit or something like that, you feel comfortable enough to be able to go into the kitchen and make yourself something rather than a bowl of noodles and enjoy it. And even then, it's been a a beautiful process because the faces that we see on some of these youth as we, you know, roll out, we don't just do sugar cookies in culinary arts. We're doing balls and French onion soup and jolle rice, we're trying to get them acclimated with a dish from different cultures, something that they may not have been used to. And granted, no, you are not going to possibly like Coco Vaughn at at this particular time, but you can at least say, or at least see it on the menu and say, I've had that, and I know not to order that. I'm not going to make that stick, or you can advise somebody else on something. I would say Yep, so life leadership, culinary, that's two. I would say music would be the would be the next the third one because we is music like lacking. Are there a lot of schools that don't have music anymore? ⁓ yes. ⁓ yes, they've taken the funding out of a lot of schools. Because they just funding it Yep, it is funny. They just wanted to reallocate those funds into other projects. It seems as though most of that performance art has gone into social emotional learning. That's been kind of the sh and what is that? What what is that social emotional learning? Social emotional learning is really trying to it's designed for the youth to be able to regulate their emotions. So teaching Doesn't music teach that? Doesn't art teach that? I feel I feel like it does. Like it's supposed to be an outlet. It's supposed to be an outlet when you find yourself frustrated. Go pick up that trumpet. When you find yourself overwhelmed by life, take that out on the canvas. But yeah, you need that that's that's where we come in because it is necessary for the youth to be able to be cognizant and self-aware and how to regulate their emotions. But you know the the the departments that we do help feed into the multiple intelligences. So there is the emotional con con component of that, but there also is the the cognitive development part of that as well. And that's where I see the gap in social emotional learning because it does help them with their emotions, but it doesn't really help them with the academic, the cognitive development part. Gotcha. Gotcha. So life leadership, music, and culinary. I think life leadership, I feel like I'm glad it's your first one. Especially in the age of technology now, I don't think kiddos have as much opportunity to interact with other humans. And like w the the easy route would be, ⁓ just blame them for choosing to be on their phones or on their tablets or on the computer. But like they're they're eight to eighteen years old. They're gonna do like what what's fun and and what algorithms that have been created by these tech companies is like addicting them to. So like I I I I have I've a lot more sympathy towards the it not really being the kids' fault for just doing what is the most fun thing to do. So I'd love to hear how maybe the life leadership has evolved over the past few years and and how you see it maybe helping combat this this lack of of human interaction that we're seeing. It we we do work on soft and hard skills. So they do have communication workshops and seminars and lessons that they engage in. We do focus on the fact that no man is an island. At some point you are going to have to seek out, you know, write a letter to somebody and it can't be in the form of a text message. You're going to have to s you know you're you're going to be in a a a plethora of different rooms and you're going to need to have your communication styles be applicable everywhere you go. We it Yeah, totally. I I I do because ⁓ it it seems as though this this AI is something that is not going to go anywhere. We yeah, it's not it's not entertaining the idea as to how to get some of our high schoolers to be able to learn how the AI technology is so that they're able to get ahead of it and start making money on AI themselves. They can be the next grok. They can be the next chat GPT. So You know, it it's really pivoting. Really pivoting. Teaching them when it is necessary to pivot, how to pivot and and why it's beneficial for you to pivot. Because you don't want to be still trying to, you know, master and promote the rotary phone while everybody else is is is is on. Yeah. So really just trying to And and I feel like yeah I I I f I feel like if you were to have a conversation with a let's a little bit maybe thirteen plus year old, thirteen to eighteen, kind of the the the the older end of the folks that you're serving, the kiddos that you're serving. And you and I think everyone agrees that not falling behind on the technology that's out there. Everyone agrees to that. Like similar to the rotary phone example you shared. But I also think that those kids would also agree that it is also important to be able to have a conversation with an adult and look them in the eye and know what to say and know how to say it and and learn how to understand cues and emotional intelligence. Like I I think if you were to ask these thirteen to eighteen year olds, they'd be like, Yeah, I I do think we need to stay up to date on technology. And yeah, it'd probably be a good skill to be able to have conversations with adults in person. So so yeah. Yeah, it's just a matter of like how do you develop programming? Yeah. Yeah. Yep. ⁓ exactly. Exac Yeah. And there was one point ⁓ you you you had said something and there was one point that I I wanted to make. But yes, it it is necessary for them to stay with the relevance. We we don't want them to fall behind and and you know, the world is changing and and we just wanna make sure that they're they're lockstep in the change as well. Yep. Yep. Yeah, I think the the the future that we're trying to avoid is kids that need to type something into chat GPT when they're asked any question or when they're asked to do anything, like the having at least some sort of pause where they think, I think that's important. Like that that think, that little pause in between, like yeah, stimulus and and and response, like to to not to not lose that thinking in that pause. And I and I feel like AI could get us to a point where it allows us to not have that pause. So yeah, I think that's what the the future that we're trying to avoid with the kiddos. I was telling somebody if I had chat GPT when I was doing my educational classes, ⁓ my what it would Why wouldn't you use it? Yeah, why wouldn't you use it? Yeah. But you know, critical thinking is is something as well that we do. It's one of the hard skills that we do. And before you head to Google, and even then we show them at at the begin at the bottom of the chat GPT, it says there may be some errors. So that lets them know there's still some part on your on you that you have to be able to formulate the answer to this question. Yep, that's great. That's great. Yep. Well. So the goals, future plans. So looking forward to the next five to six years. What do you hope looking back to see? Next five years, I do want us to get, you know, Lord's will, one of those sustainable grants. We have been hard. working hard just to be able to, you know, one of those grants that's been able to carry us. But you know, we we we've expanded in Chicago. I would love, I told somebody, you know, there's 77 neighborhoods in Chicago. I just want one contract in each neighborhood and I'll be okay in Chicago. But you know, working towards that, hopefully expanding our reach in Ohio. ⁓ you know, five years, I would hope that we've been able to at least court, let alone implement some type of programming in two other towns or cities in the state of Ohio. Yeah. That that's that's where hopefully lose too much more hair in Yes, yes. It's inevitable for all of us. I'm already yeah. It's inevitable. But being able to to see the passion for passion through passports initiative. continue on impacting youth. I'd love to see that in five years. I yeah, I I I'm s that's it's so interesting to me and I fe I and I feel like there's a way to scale that b in a in a cost effective way. I just don't know the answer. But like the just the the long term impact of that on kids, I I think if we're able to convert that long term impact into a like a a today measurement, it would be a very compelling story. As to why that's an area that people should invest in the programming of or even your kids, you know, yeah. So for sure. I think it's all about framing because you know, we're not just taking children on a vacation or a trip, but you know, that there is and they they even have to interact, you know, with the youth there. There there's some yeah, really bridging the the the gaps and and and and the borders. Yeah. So yeah, I I would yeah, and and it's interesting because we still have in contact some of the youth From five years ago, they'll help volunteer. They'll be on the social media interacting as well. So, you know, some some days are discouraging, Joseph. I'm not gonna lie. But when I have, you know, moments like that, and even the untold moments, you know, the youth that have been impacted that we just never got to hear back from. You know, I I told them even when I was just ⁓ a history teacher. You never know the impact of the youth that you're working with. And it can be, you know, years, decades down the line, they find themselves using one of the golden nuggets that that we had and then you know, we're off someplace else. Hopefully sitting down in those twenty years. But Yeah. Wow. So so Amari, people that are listening and want to get engaged with goals, what what type of engagement do you look for? Where could they go to get engaged with you? You can always follow us on our Instagram, get out and learn something, Facebook as well, get out and learn something. We are always looking for volunteers, people that want to or they're passionate about the particular department. Once again, life leadership skills, culinary arts, theater, music, and art. If you have a passion for that and have a passion with working with youth that also have a passion for that, please contact us. GetOutandlearnsomething at gmail.com. If you would like to solicit donations, or excuse me, if you would like to donate, please. We are we are always accepting donations. You are able to do that. There is a donation page at our website, getoutandlearnsomething.com. Cash App is is is always accepted. Zell as well. And we are working on our Givlify. So we are in need of or could always use support. For our upcoming summer program. If you would like to help for our upcoming fall program, please let us know. We'll be able to find a location nearest to you. Please be able to pass a background check, which I know most everybody that works with children are, but you have to state that. And would love to have, you know, all types of assistance as we work to help our children. Cause that's really what it is. This is amazing, Mari. Well, is there anything you want to leave us with or that we missed before we wrap up? I I would like to state if there's anybody that is interested, we do have our partnership with Ravinia. Last year they gave us tickets to go see Al Green. This year we have tickets to go see Snoop Dogg and Ray La Montage. And this is generally for the parents. We we give them the tickets. And if there's anybody that would be interested or more details on either of those artists, please contact us at getout and learn something at gmail.com. Well, Amari, well, thank you so much for the time and and the work you're doing. And it's it's great to check in with you after the five or six years since our last one. And we're we're wishing you luck. We'll share all the links in the website. So people that are listening and want to get engaged, get engaged, reach out. Amario's also more than willing to have conversations with everyone too. So Thank you again for your time on this Friday and have an amazing weekend. You was well, Joseph. Thank you again for having me. I'll see you in five more. Thank you.