Good day and welcome to What's Happening MoCo, an authentic, unscripted podcast of your Montgomery County government.
Derrick kennyGood day, and welcome to What's Happening MoCo. Today we talked to Frederick Hawkins. He is the African-American community liaison for Montgomery County, Maryland. And he's been serving in that capacity in a stellar way for the last year and a half. But before that, I hear that he's had over 20 years experience serving communities all over. Let's talk to him. Fred Frederick, welcome to the podcast. How are you today?
Frederick HawkinsThank you. Thank you for having me. I'm doing well. All right. It's a pleasure to be here. It's awesome having you for.
Derrick kennyOh yeah. I've seen you, I've seen your good work, and we're going to talk about some of your good work. But before we talk about the special thing that you do that's um uh nuanced and really uh helps people stay in touch with you and and what's happening in the community, an African-American community around the county. Let's talk about you. How did you what's what is your journey like uh from the early parts of your career to becoming the African-American community, liaison for one of the most progressive and prolific and uh business engines of Maryland um counties of the world.
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, uh Montgomery County is special. Uh man, that's a that's a big question, it's a long journey. You know, a lot can happen in a year, and it was 20 years ago when it started. Um, you know, I first started uh with the Princeton Review, and I saw I ran after-school programs in Harlem and Brooklyn um to help kids get on track uh with their test scores, et cetera, et cetera. Um, and of course, though, you know, those communities, those schools were primarily black communities, you know. Um, so I worked there, I worked really hard, increased test scores, and I found an opportunity with the Harlem Children's Zone. Through there, I was a director for the Peacemaker program, and we ran a program of 50 staff, over 300 kids, and we were just doing all these great things. And then I was recruited uh by the Bloomberg administration. There was this thing called the Able Program, which was the first, the nation's first social impact bond. Oh, yeah. So Goldman and Sachs gave like, you know, $20 million to two organizations in New York City to go into Rikers Island and to uh participate in like recidivism. To I'm sorry.
Derrick kennyYeah, yeah. Go into Rikers Island. Yeah. And Rikers Island is the prison. It's a jail. It's a jail of New York City. But outside of New York City, okay. It's pretty rough right here. Is it rough? Yeah, yeah. Okay, right. And you and you part of the program was to go into the in there.
Frederick HawkinsYeah, we we were tasked to mentor every young person that was incarcerated for the in the first 24 to 48 hours of incarceration, connect them to resources, opportunities, etc. Just help them get through it. So that that that lets us, you know, and then all of a sudden I saw this position available that embodied everything that I had done prior. You know, um, even before this, I was an SVP for an uh affordable housing development company um in four states in the in the mid-Atlantic. And again, those communities were primarily black. So I was, you know, my whole career was focused on serving the community in whichever role I was in.
Fantastic. Well, we're we're thankful to have you here in Montgomery County, Maryland. And I know residents are already embracing you and welcoming you and benefiting some good people from you. You use expertise and um good efforts. Uh, we're in February now. Um, aside from the ice and snow, uh, we've celebrated the King Holiday. We've um we're in the midst of Black History Month. Um, what things do you have going on? What things have you done so far as African American liaison that people should be aware of?
Frederick HawkinsYeah. So uh the biggest thing we've done so far for the Black History Month is the African American Advisory Group and myself. We put together the first ever Black History Month kickoff at the EOB.
Derrick kennyThe ice leg. First ever. So you're a year in. You say, Yeah, we're gonna do something we've never done before.
Frederick HawkinsHistory. In the advisory group with the support of the county executive. Um, so we brought a go-go band, the too much talent band, okay, to the EOB cafeteria. We had Gail Orwin. Hold on.
Derrick kennyYeah, yeah. You went all the way in. You came in, the EOB Auditorium, and I saw some pictures. Cafeteria. Cafeteria. Cafeteria. Uh, and it was packed. That's a huge 200 people. That's a huge place. And you brought a go-go band, which is the the um the music of love or the the music of note for the DMB, the um DC, Maryland, Virginia area. Um, a lot of percussion, um vocals, um, true music um because they're playing instruments. It's not yeah, it's not records or whatever being no no no shade on hip-hop, but just they are all working together. And I love that you have 10 people or nine people working all together to create one sound and to engage constant engagement with the audience. Yeah, yeah.
Frederick HawkinsAnd you brought what to people were dancing, people were dancing and the tambourines was you know, slamming. It was really good. Very good. And um, people what was important was it not only did it happen, but it was felt. Right. You know, people felt it. And that's what we want to do moving forward. We want to do things for our community that that that is felt. Yeah. That's great that you did that event. And that was in partnership with the um County Executive uh and the African American Advisory Group. Okay.
That was awesome, awesome. And that was one of the events you've done. Um uh you helped out yesterday as well with the um the uh Montgomery County African-American Employees Um Black History Month program. Yeah, yeah.
Frederick HawkinsI was honored to be brought in by uh Director Stowe to be a part of that group. The planning committee is an amazing group, and they've been consistent, and we meet a lot. You know, we get each other. Yeah, so um, yeah, I'm part of that too. Um, also, there's a community exchange, so it's a bi-weekly community, black and African-American community town hall that I host. Um, it's virtual, uh, and it's an uh information and resource share call. So if someone is new to the county and they want to know if there's jobs available, resources if they want to introduce their business or just themselves to the community, then they could jump on the call, introduce themselves. There are other people in the community there, they put their information in the chat, they may come off mic, but um through that uh bi-weekly town hall, organizations have gotten funding. Um, young people have found jobs, internships, you know, collaborations have happened. You know.
Derrick kennySo you're you're you're doing something. You created this um town hall. Is it you created this? Yeah. Oh wow, okay. So something else new, but it's also effective. Yeah. Because people are getting funding, people are getting help, uh, people are getting jobs. How do how do people connect with that? How do people get involved?
Frederick HawkinsIf anyone wanted to reach out, um, so you may see me at like events, um, going around collecting phone numbers, uh, emails. It's add to so if you want to reach out, you can reach out to Frederick.hawkins at MontgomeryCountyMD.gov and just say you'd like to be added to the list. I do a bi-weekly uh email blast with all the events that's happening in the county for the community. And uh anyone that I meet, I add them to the list, and then you'll see the date of the next town hall.
Derrick kennyAll right.
Frederick HawkinsAnd then you jump along.
That's great. That's really it's great that you have programming that is and that is um um consistent and effective is is awesome. Uh what are some of the other things you want people to know about you and your position and even um how you would like them to benefit from what you're doing?
Frederick HawkinsUm, you know, I it's a position of service. You know, it's something that um and I believe this with each of the liaisons, but you know, to take on uh a a role that has the name of your community in it, it means that it has to be bigger than just the position, you know, it has to have some purpose. So I am fully committed, you know, I've been doing this professionally 20, but my whole life has just been the you know, just focused on, you know, correcting the wrongs, you know what I'm saying, and and showing light and bringing joy, etc. Um, but in terms of the position, we're available, we're here to serve. Um, you know, and I go hard, man. I work hard. So if you reach out, you're gonna get something.
I know the uh county's residents appreciate um the way that um you work diligently and consistently uh for the benefit of the communities of the county. Um and you've introduced you mentioned several new things. You bring in a lot of new things. The first ever um event that's you know at the end of the year. Like this remarks kick off at the EO Clubs, those town halls. Um you've brought quite a bit of innovation to the county um that has been effective so far. And there's another thing that you've done that's been new that I know the county's been wanting to do for a while. And uh it has to do something to do with uh with coffee. Coffee, so to speak.
Frederick HawkinsDoes it have something to do with coffee? Yeah. Let's let's talk, let's talk about you have a podcast. Let's talk about your podcast. Yeah, I have a podcast called Moco Black Coffee. Shout out to Barry.
Derrick kennyUm as Barry Hudson, who was the uh director of information for the county, yeah, um, as frequently, as recently as what a year or so ago. Yeah. Outstanding communicator, um, too professional. Uh Barry, you're you're missed.
Frederick HawkinsYeah, an H U alum. So shout out to the couple.
Derrick kennyYou know, all right. Shout out to the HBCU across the country.
Right. Um, but yeah, so you know, upon coming on to the role, I met Barry. He said that there was um a podcast. You know, they had the logo, they had the slot, but there was not many people available to take ownership of it. Um, so when I came into the role, you know, I would meet people, uh, ask them to give me 10 names, then set up meetings with those folks. So I would do like 50 one-on-one meetings a week, right? Um and the common thread or common concern was that they would like to see more of us in these spaces. You know, they was like, oh, we got Derek, but we want to see more people. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, hopefully so. Uh I get it. So if we had a spot and we have a show, we just don't have anybody to host it. Well, I'll host it. That's great. I'll host it. And um, you know, given that it became available in a time where our voices can not only increasingly be censored, but that a censorship can be enforced, um, it only made sense for the betterment of all communities for us to take this opportunity and do it.
Derrick kennyThat's awesome. And I think we we're seeing a trend here. Um it's a boldness to um embrace something new, yeah. Um that you believe will benefit the community. Um, where do you where do you find that? Um is that a a trained uh boldness where you assess the uh situation and say, okay, this can be um something good? Um, or you like the the entrepreneurs of today, like uh they say they want a fast bill, try it. If it works well, then we keep doing it. If it doesn't, you know. Um and and and how does that example um uh how do you want that example to be uh received by young people, um, that ability to take on things that may be scary or challenging and push them forward?
Yeah, I would say uh if you've ever done something scary in life and at the end of doing that scary thing, you're still alive, yeah. Do some more scary things. You know what I'm saying? Especially within reason. Within reason. Yeah, don't jump in within the law movement and no bridges. Let's say yes, you know, the parkour folks, but even that's a little yeah, yeah, but it's beyond scary. But, anyways, um, yeah, especially when you're doing it for a righteous reason, for a positive cause. Yeah. If there's someone who says, hey, there's nobody to do the carry the thing up the steps, but people will eat when you get to the top of the steps. Yeah. Carry the thing up the steps. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? So um, and that's kind of the spirit I've I take through life. It's the it's just a fearlessness. Um, you know, me and my friends, I'm I'm I shouldn't cut out my age on your show. Oh, you can do it. No, I'm 44 now. I just turned February 1st, first day of Black History Month, my birthday. But, you know, growing up in certain environments, it's like, hey, you know, you're not supposed to make it past 25. Yeah. So now I'm 19 years past 25.
Derrick kennyAmen.
Frederick HawkinsYou know, so now, you know, let's do some things, you know.
Derrick kennyAnd that's let's I I think let's take a let's take a point of privilege here as to um African American men that grew up um in urban areas. Um you grew up, I think, in New York. I grew up in DC, and I grew up in DC during the uh era Prack. And there were dangers, there were things we had to navigate every day. Um and and um same for you in New York, um, maybe a decade uh later, but still some of the same challenges. Um youth today have hard um environment sometimes have harsh environments, um, compromising situations. Um What are some of the tips you can give to young people when making decisions to just day-to-day? Who do I do I hang out with this guy? Do I go left instead of right? What it what are some of the tips that you have for like young black men or young um black women or whomever or anyone that's in the right?
Frederick HawkinsYeah, yeah. I would say um, you know, in those environments we get comfortable and try to stay around environments that we are familiar with. You know, like when you're in high school or middle school or elementary, you walk into the cafeteria and you see and you look at the different tables. And you got the chess club table, and you got the Dungeons and Dragons table, and you got this table and that table, and you see the black kid table. You're gonna go to the black kid table.
Derrick kennyRight.
Frederick HawkinsUm, I would just challenge us to try other tables. You know? Um because uh a lot of the times access, our brilliance doesn't have we don't have the access to showcase what we can do um because we're not at certain tables. So I would what I would do is I would take some young men when I was working on Rikers Island, when they would come home, I would take them to places to meetings with me in buildings that would look foreign, you know what I'm saying, based off where they come, where they might not be dressed to match the environment, but they need to see that. Right. You know what I'm saying? And when once I saw it and I learned that I could pick my pants up, you know, then they were able to, you know, uh they could see another man that came from where they came from or another woman making those changes. And that's how they are able to to adjust and get the most out of life. There's a um, you know, also our young people sometimes our glory isn't attached to the right thing. We would ask people, uh, hey, you know, who was your hero growing up? You know, was it the robber or was it the cop?
Derrick kennyRight.
Frederick HawkinsAnd in some communities, it's the robber.
Derrick kennyYeah.
And and why? Because the system that supports the cop never liked the per, you know what I'm saying? Never liked the person. In fact, the robber might have came from my community to eat, or to such and such because blocked out. We could talk about that part all day. Right. But what is your glory attached to? Are you are you do you feel glory when you shoot a gun, or do you feel more glory when you graduate college? So I would say for the young people out there, just do dig deep, um, look inside and ask yourself some real difficult questions. And and it's okay to hang out with somebody who you may see as a square when you're 16, yeah, who might be an alpha male when you look back when you're 35. Right. You know, so yeah, just take those chances.
Derrick kennyYeah, take those chances, get out of your comfort zone.
Frederick HawkinsGet out your comfort zone.
Derrick kennyAnd and and you have the aspire. Aspire. You are worthy, you're able to achieve great things. Um, outside of your communities. Uh, I think a lot of us, um, not just African Americans, we are tied to our neighborhoods, and some people never leave their neighborhoods, their cities to see the rest of the world or to um uh realize that there's other opportunities out there for them. They may want to be a fire man, but you know, nobody in their in their in their group thinks that's cool, you know, and they're afraid to talk about it or to pursue that. They may want to be a scientist, but you know, nobody ever known did anything with science. Right. You know, they don't even know how to get started. But it's it's okay. It's okay to want those things, it's okay to pursue those things. And there's people out here like Frederick that can help them find their way. It's not necessarily that you would tell them, you know, how to do it, but you can direct them to the resources. Right. Um, especially when there's quite a few resources in the county that can help uh young people to succeed, um, to find their way to a career they can be proud of, um, and also um to live safely and um to the fullness of their potential. That's that's awesome.
Frederick HawkinsThat's what I like about the county, you know, because it's so diverse, um it's just a great springboardboard for our youth for the future uh really of the country. Um it's gonna be a diverse country. You know what I'm saying? So I think it's important for all of our youth to just see that and and get used to that. I didn't I wasn't used to that growing up. I wasn't really used to diversity. You know what I'm saying? Growing up. I had to like grow into getting used to it. All right. Um, but the young people here in this county, they starting off at the on the right foot.
All right, all right. So let's get back to the uh we have took a little uh a du tour here, but you know how we do. I think it's appropriate because uh uh, you know, uh any given time as a as an adult, um, young people are watching you. Um and you never know um who might be watching you and and looking for a little bit of guidance, whether they're on their cell phones or they're listening to a podcast in their car or they're driving or they happen to be in the car with their mom who like who listens to podcasts. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Mom, I don't want to listen to podcasts, turn it into WPDC, you know, like these two a square, these two square dudes talking about the county, right? Right, right, right. Um, but there might be this one little thing that might change their lives and help them become the next great contributor to this um fine nation that we live in today. Um so your show covers health, education, business, and the arts. Uh, how do you go about um choosing your your show topics? Uh what's happening, Moco? We we sometimes we get people that call in. Sometimes we have now we're benefited, we have a producers that will help us tell me what to do or where to go. Um how do you develop your um show?
Frederick HawkinsUm part of the role, the liaison role is listening. So once I hear a common thread, whether it's in a one-on-one, a conference call, a town hall, a you know, an executive meeting of some sort, then I kinda I determine, you know, what do the people need to hear about this topic that they could benefit from, or at least be introduced to the topic um, or the person doing the work. Um and yeah, so it all it's guided by the community. If I hear it a lot, I'm I'm gonna put it on the show.
Derrick kennyOh, that's awesome. All right. And how does your um there was a community need inspired for the uh creation of black coffee. Um how do you use the pod the podcast to kind of um uplift um the African American community in the in the county?
Frederick HawkinsUm one first is presence, you know, just being in the room, being on the screen, just seeing us on there. It means something. Um if someone wants to, if there's a young person who wants to do something in the county, they say it's possible. You know, it's not like uh uh you know impossible. Uh what was our second part of the question?
Derrick kennyUm uh how do you use the show's mission to up the community? It's more or less just um how do you use that as a tool to further your your job as community liaison?
Frederick HawkinsYeah, yeah, we just gotta make sure that our community is seen. Right. That's amplify black voices, amplify presence. Yeah, you need to see us. You know, I I said in one uh discussion I had uh maybe last year that if we are threatened with being to be kind of shrunk, you know, if they're trying to take away rights, if they're then our duty is to take up space. You know what I'm saying? Our duty is to be in the room, you know, and that's what this is. It's just to this is one of many wheels to, you know, to be in the room and stay in the face uh and stay relevant.
Derrick kennyRight. We talked a little bit earlier about young people. Uh one of your episodes were about young voices or youth voices, youth voices. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And you talked to some of the int interns, uh uh summarized interns. Speaking of having uh lofty aspirations that are beyond what some kids know are possible. How was that talking to the summarize kids? And the summarize is a program, an internship program the county has that exposes students to the county government, different roles and jobs, persons in the county government.
Yeah, yeah. Oh, it was great. It was great. It let me know the one the future is in good hands. Our young people have the answer. Right. Um, they might not know all the nuances and all the details, but they know what's wrong, they know what's right, and they are next up to make those adjustments. Um, and then I I saw that they want to be at the table. You know, again, back to the thing about access, right? They won't know how a meeting is structured or the little in-betweens of how to make the decision go into action if they're not at the table. They know action needs to happen. They know something is wrong. They're paying attention to us. Even when, you know, when we were young, we're like, what's wrong with the world?
Derrick kennyYeah. Yeah.
Frederick HawkinsYou know, and they're doing the same thing. And uh, sometimes I don't want to say sorry when I see a young person. I just want to give them a hug. Yeah. I am sorry. I try, we try, there's not enough of us. But when I talking to those young people in that episode, it just gave me hope that. We know that, you know, future's in good hands.
Derrick kennyUh and I think uh we have a history in the country of resilience, um, a history within our community of resilience. And I think that our kids, um, or this next generation of kids have dealt with COVID, that have dealt with um social uh isolation and the uh abundance or overabundance of information that they're they're uh targeted with each day, and and bullying and cyberbullying and AI bots that are c trying to c communicate with them. Uh they're they're growing up in a totally different um era. Yeah. Um so uh kudos to them. I just want to give kids a huge round of applause for being um so resilient. And I think it's um creating maybe one of our strongest generations uh mentally um of kids um moving forward.
Frederick HawkinsYeah, they have to slice through a lot of information. I think too much information is just as bad, too much wrong information is just as bad as no information at all. And I think that's the the obstacle course our kids have to go through. But again, they're like much smarter than we are at that age than we were at that age, you know.
Derrick kennyAnd uh that's probably one of the benefits of having a podcast is that you could be in some of the same spaces, uh YouTube, um, uh Apple Podcasts, um Spotify, places that young people or people in general are looking for information and they're getting um 20 ounces of junk, and then every once in a while they get an ounce of knowledge or information and resources um through podcasts that do have a um positive purpose um to benefit the community and society and force the county to allow. Yeah. So so being in those places um really makes a difference. How is it how do you um relay to people once you engage with them and um in your day-to-day operation um or duties as community liaison to help um grow your podcast uh listenership, just continue the relationship?
Um to grow listenership, I I have a bi-weekly email blast that I do. So I mentioned earlier, you know, I'm just getting collected emails and I add them to my list. Um, but I would promote it some sometimes on that word of mouth. Um, you know, I got my my friends, they, you know, they they listen into it, you know what I'm saying? Wife and stuff. So uh so that kind of that's how we are increasing listenership. But as we grow, I think there's gonna be more avenues that I'm searching for now to make sure that even like collaborating like this, maybe doing some live on-the-spot podcast episodes, maybe me and you, and you know, that kind of thing. Um, that's the goal. I think the first uh piece was to get like a first season out the door, yeah. So we could have a ship to steer. You know, and now it's time to step on again.
And you've been known so well. Um quality episodes, quality production, shout out to Tracy O'Connor. Yeah, shout out to the cable producer for the uh information office. Uh she um produces shows like Black Coffee, the podcast of also um 50 Plus Montgomery County. Oh, yeah. Believe that 50 Plus in the County Montgomery County. Uh Katie. And make a difference. Yeah, Katie. Oh yeah. Katie's awesome. Airflow. Yeah. So there's there's definitely the county has innovative ways uh through content creation to reach people. And I think that's become a best practice in the world that you need to get and hold people's attention uh where they're looking for information. And that's cable, of course, um, that's YouTube, that's gonna be Spotify, that's gonna be Facebook and all these other places. Yeah. And they can listen at it, listen to it on demand, they can reach out and see you. So it's not AI. This is it's not AI. So when you see him in the community, you can touch him, you could talk to him, you could give him ideas about his next episode of his podcast, and then you can follow him if you want to hear more from him. Listen to his podcast, Black Coffee, on your favorite podcasting platforms. And of course, shout out to our podcast producer, the maestro. Let's come the maestro, Joel. Um he's a he's he's a humble guy, but he's uh making sure the county's podcasts um get out there, they're distributed, and they're um produced well, and you can hear us clearly. In some cases, you can hear me clearly and don't want to. Sorry, I'm a good engineer, you know. Don't turn me off. Yeah. Um, but but thank you um so much for um all that you're doing for the um African-American community in Montgomery County, Maryland. And then also for the county, because I think we all rise together. Absolutely. And the strong as um any one part of the county is, the better off the entire county is. And so um good decision by the county to bring you in. Um, great decision by you, thankfully, um, to take the position and all the great success you've had so far with the boldness and the um stepping forward. Is there anything that you um want to leave with uh listeners, viewers, um, as we close out this episode? Man, it's it's a lot, man.
We just it's a whole nother episode final month. Um part two coming soon. I know. Uh I mean, I got a Martin Luther King quote and a Malcolm X quote in my head. So I'll just um I'll start with the uh Martin Luther King quote is darkness cannot overcome darkness. Only light can do that. Hate cannot overcome hate. Only love can do that. All right. And I practice that, I've seen that, you know, when working on Rikers Island, you gotta mean it. Yeah. And you can't mean it with hate, or you're not gonna make, you know what I'm saying? So you gotta mean it with love. So I know how to move in that space. And then the last one is, you know, you know, your hand, your hand has digits, these fingers, right? You could you can slap somebody with a sting. But if you want to make real impact, all these communities, all these diverse communities, if you bring them together, that's when you make impact. Right.
Derrick kennyAnd that's what's happening, MoCo here with Frederick Hawkins, African American, brother, community liaison, an outreach manager from Montgomery County, Maryland, and the host of a Black Coffee Podcast. Be sure to like, subscribe, and share not only the What's Happening Moco podcast, but the Black Coffee Podcast as well. Like them both. All right.
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