Pittman and Friends Podcast
Welcome to Pittman and Friends, the curiously probing, sometimes awkward, but always revealing conversations between your host, Anne Arundel County Executive Steuart Pittman - that’s me - and whatever brave and willing public servant, community leader, or elected official I can find who has something to say that you should hear.
This podcast is provided as a public service of Anne Arundel County Government, so don’t expect me to get all partisan here. This is about the age-old art of government - of, by, and for the people.
Pittman and Friends Podcast
The Palmers Deliver a Faith-Based Nonprofit Service Model
County Executive Steuart Pittman holds a deep, enriching conversation with Apostle Antonio Palmer and Dr. Barbara Palmer, founders of Kingdom Celebration Center and Kingdom Care. What began as a single church in Annapolis in 1995 has evolved into a comprehensive service network touching thousands of lives across Anne Arundel County and beyond.
When pandemic hunger struck, the Palmers didn't just respond—they scaled, expanding from serving 500 people monthly to feeding 3,000 individuals across 44 zip codes. This remarkable pivot exemplifies their approach: identify community needs, build capacity to address them, and create partnerships that amplify impact.
Dr. Barbara Palmer's journey from corporate accountant to nonprofit leader highlights a crucial ingredient in their success. "My passion is to help other faith-based organizations build their capacity," she explains, pinpointing the administrative expertise that allows Kingdom Care to employ over 55 staff delivering services from early childhood education to teen mother support programs.
Their violence interruption work represents some of their most innovative community impact. By hiring "credible messengers"—former participants in street life who've changed direction—they've prevented numerous potential violent incidents. One success story involved averting what could have been a dangerous situation similar to the tragic Brooklyn Homes shooting, accomplished through careful communication between their team, local officials, and community members.
What makes the Palmers' model extraordinary isn't just what they do, but how they do it. Rather than competing for resources or claiming exclusive expertise, they constantly seek collaboration. "We have over 50 partners that we can get on the phone and call for whatever resource our clients need," Dr. Palmer notes. This collaborative mindset, combined with professional management and faith-based motivation, creates a powerful force for positive change.
As federal funding for social services potentially faces cuts, organizations like Kingdom Care represent crucial community anchors. Want to see how faith can transform communities when paired with strategic thinking and professional execution? This conversation offers both inspiration and a practical roadmap.
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Welcome to Pittman and Friends. The curiously probing, sometimes awkward but always revealing conversations between your host, Anne Arundel County Executive Steuart Pittman - that's me - and whatever brave and willing public servant, community leader, or elected official I can find who has something to say that you should hear. This podcast is provided as a public service of Anne Arundel County, so don't expect me to get all partisan here. This is about the age-old art of government of, by, and for the people. Welcome. I am here this morning with two good friends. I have Apostle Antonio Palmer, and I have Dr. Barbara Palmer, and they are with Kingdom Celebration Center and Kingdom Kare. And we'll talk about what those things are, but welcome.
Apostle Antonio Palmer:Thank you. Thank you for having us.
Dr. Barbara Palmer:Thank you so much. We're excited to be here.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:Yeah, this is the first time I've done two people in a podcast, a total of three. So we've got another microphone. Hopefully, it's working.
Apostle Antonio Palmer:We're known to be pioneers. First things.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:You are. You are definitely pioneers and we'll get into that. So, I got a lot of things I want to talk about with the two of you, because you all are doing an amazing number of things. I will just say for listeners that the work that this organization, these combined multiple organizations, does has almost gotten to the point like it's a department and county government, but it's a nonprofit. It's an independent nonprofit and it's faith-based. So you have Kingdom Celebration Center that meets every Sunday and I'm sure during the week as well, attending to people's spiritual needs. So let me ask. I'll start with you, Apostle Palmer. Tell us the scope of what you are and how you started.
Apostle Antonio Palmer:Yeah, so I really have to go way back to 1995, when we first started the church here in Annapolis. It was called the Burning Bush.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:The Burning Bush, okay.
Apostle Antonio Palmer:And so, in 1995 is when we started. And maybe for about a decade we were here in Annapolis and built up a lot of relationships here across the county, across different government agencies. We started way back then. I was 27 years old. Imagine that. Wow, and my wife and I, we had created basketball leagues, sort of like what you see today. But we had started then back in 1995. And then we took and went out to West County. That's when we began Kingdom Celebration Center and in the midst of all that we had missions, work that we were doing to Africa and now in different countries, now in Africa and also in India. So I just took aboard my 75th church that's under our umbrella or covering whatever you want to say that.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:And you get to Africa. What about once a year?
Apostle Antonio Palmer:Yeah. So annually we go to check on the churches, and when I say churches we also have missions work. We have orphanages that we support and have churches to manage while they're there, and we just took on the last trip we took on helping supporting widows. That's from the Maasai tribe. So there's a lot of work that we're doing. So Kingdom Celebration Center, we say it's a church that loves God, loves people and fulfills needs. So our whole motto is to fulfill needs, and to do that you have to create synergy and collaboration, because you can't just do it in and of yourself. It takes others who are like-minded, who have a caring heart, to be able to help fulfill needs. And we have a lot of needs, what we call home missions, the outreach that we do that you see that we're connected into doing too. Like you said, I took your model and said we want to make our county the best place for all. So we are in those communities where it may not seem like it's the best place.
Apostle Antonio Palmer:Right, and so they help out with you on that.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:Well, I think the first time I met you, you were in a strip mall. You were worshiping in a commercial space in a strip mall and you had that all set up, but you also had almost like a restaurant.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:You were feeding people and cooking the food. I going there, I was still a candidate. I think I wasn't a county executive yet, um, and and then I attended service. Um, I think you actually put me. I think you were the first people to ever, you know, put me at the pulpit. Yeah and uh, that was, that was a champ. That was a good experience. You preached yeah, you put me behind a pulpit.
Apostle Antonio Palmer:But you got to preach. We found out you were a Quaker.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:Right, right, right. Yeah, my faith tradition is Quaker. I was a member of a Delphi Friends meeting for many years and a member of the men's group. That was part of that. I think that was maybe even more impactful to me. But we sit in silence and there is no pastor and then between the silence anybody can speak and it's frowned upon to talk for too long because the silence is really valued. But it's a Christian faith and I still from time to time go to the Annapolis Friends meeting. Not as much as I'd like, but maybe I'll get back to it. But so I remember, after first going to a worship service with you and going to, I think there was an event at your cafe. I think you called it Kingdom Cafe, right?
Dr. Barbara Palmer:Kingdom Cafe. Yes, kingdom Cafe.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:When you were still in that, and then I remember an event with Partnership for Children, Youth and Families, and that might have been after I came in, and then I realized that you are integrated with that part of government that is serving families and children. And I was impressed by that and I was trying to figure that out. And then I realized you had a few contracts, and then the thing that really jumped out at me and seemed like it was the beginning of a lot of growth was the beginning of the pandemic.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:It was pouring rain and y'all put together food distribution and the cars were lined up for a very long time.
Apostle Antonio Palmer:When the pandemic first hit, we had already, and my wife can share, we already had, prior to the pandemic, food distribution. And it was perhaps, like I believe, once a month, and maybe 500 people, individuals we were serving when the pandemic hit.
Apostle Antonio Palmer:We had the first time, I think, about 3,000 individuals we had, and it was across 44 zip codes. I didn't even know it was that many zip codes around, but across 44 because we had to keep track of everything. And so that's how it really just, the pandemic really helped us to bring forth our servanthood, our service, and fortunately we had the capacity to do it. We had volunteers coming and that's what I love about this county. People really band together. We had volunteers that were coming.
Apostle Antonio Palmer:We had at one time maybe 60 volunteers when we first started with the food distribution, but that's really.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:And that continued. You kept at it
Apostle Antonio Palmer:And let me say this. It wouldn't happen without the collaboration with your office. It wouldn't have really been as successful because you were able to see it. I've been here for 30 years and to have that kind of collaboration with county government is amazing to us, with county government is amazing to us.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:As we get into this and start talking and Dr. Palmer will talk about some of the services that you provide and all the different things.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:I really want to focus on how important it has been for you all to be connected everywhere and you all are everywhere. And I'm sure not everybody loves you, but it seems like everybody loves you that, that you really make a point of not competing against others for resources, as much as introducing others to resources and expanding and expanding.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:It's sort of like, um, you don't have to just be, just accept the size of the pie, you can grow, grow the pie, and continue to do the work. So jumping over to you, Dr. Palmer. Yes, you really run the nonprofit, right?
Dr. Barbara Palmer:Correct, yes
County Executive Steuart Pittman:And then you have a lot of services. So how's that set up and how big is it?
Dr. Barbara Palmer:So, we started Kingdom Kare Incorporated over 12 years ago. When we started, we started with just the early learning center, Kingdom Kare Child Care Center, and we expanded those services to serve all children, youth, and families in this county. So, we currently employ over 55 staff. We have programs throughout this county from early learning.
Dr. Barbara Palmer:We just awarded the Maryland Blueprint for pre-K, so we offer that free service to children that are underserved and underrepresented in our county, and we also our stellar program is our Family Support Center, which serves teen mothers. So we have 18 teen mothers who come to our facility every day with their babies and they get a free education and free child care and they get wraparound services to support them. We want to make sure that nothing stops them so they can get everything done that they need in life to succeed. And on top of that, we offer mentoring programs, and we have our, of course, our violence interruption programs that are located in West County and in Annapolis as well. So we want to make sure we have well-rounded programs to serve all children, youth and families in our county.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:Okay, and I do want to get into that violence interruption work before. Don't let me forget that, because that's a big one. And what I remember hearing from Dr. Brown in partnership. And I think from some of our other Health and Human Service agency heads, is that Dr. Palmer is amazing because she understands the way the bureaucracies work, and she does the detailed work of running an organization, running a business really, and that's not often the case with church-based organizations. People come in with the faith and the passion, but that doesn't necessarily get the bills paid.
Dr. Barbara Palmer:Correct.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:That doesn't necessarily get the work done. So, where did you learn to work the bureaucracy and run the business? That must have been a skill you had to develop at some point.
Dr. Barbara Palmer:Yeah, first of all, I want to thank them for such an amazing compliment. My background was not nonprofit management. I started my career as an accountant. I wanted to be an accountant from high school and I kind of stumbled into nonprofit management. The YWCA of Annapolis and Arundel County had an article in the paper looking for volunteers to kind of read and tutor some students in middle school. So, I was home and I took that time to do some volunteer work.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:Oh, you were a volunteer there and you were doing accounting for private businesses in the corporate world?
Dr. Barbara Palmer:Yes, yes, and so I went to the YWCA, fell in love, came home and told my husband, "I think this is what I'm called to do. I think I'm supposed to help children. And so I changed careers and I went into nonprofit management from corporate America. So it was a big culture shock for me, but I learned everything that I needed to learn at that nonprofit in order to form my own. My passion is to be able to help other faith-based organizations build their capacity. Understand that. It's great that we do amazing programs in the community as churches, as grassroots organizations, but there's another side to that, and that other side is the administration of those funds making sure that you are capturing all the information those funders need, making sure you're reporting correctly, spending the money the way you're supposed to spend it. I think that was the weakness of grassroots organizations. They just don't have that experience and knowledge. So my heart is to provide them with that so they can be successful as well.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:So, it sounds like you're not just interested in doing the day-to-day work of the organizations that you run and providing your services.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:You want to change the whole world.
Dr. Barbara Palmer:Absolutely.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:You want to replicate what you're doing for other nonprofit organizations and faith-based and non-faith, and I know you've done some of this mentoring and some of that assistance. And I guess, coming from an accounting background, you get what it means to help a business to get their act together. Absolutely, or a nonprofit. Well, that's exciting to know. That's exciting to know and I've got to say that. Even just a few days ago, when we were meeting with our housing ACDS, Arundel Community Development Services, about the housing trust fund and some of the ideas. Of course they were doing their budget pitch, but some of the expansions of housing and transitional housing work, they mentioned that y'all were starting to provide housing and needed more places to provide transitional housing for the moms, the single moms, that are in your program.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:So when you said wraparound services, you were serious.
Dr. Barbara Palmer:Oh, very serious. There's teen moms in our program who were sex trafficked here to this country. Some of our teen mothers are homeless, so it's our responsibility to make sure we find them someplace safe to stay. So now my heart is I need a transitional home to put all these girls in who need that support, because, of course, they're not going to graduate high school if they don't have someplace to live, someplace to stay, something to eat. So we want to be able to provide those services for them.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:Okay, okay, that's great, and I know from working in nonprofits myself and watching the way organizations operate that it is really easy to think that you are the best, you are the only ones who can do it right. Then you start doing whatever you think should be done to help people, but you fail to look around at what others are doing to make sure that you're actually filling a needed gap in services and not just replicating something. And I know we talked about that just a few days ago. Always looking for that gap. So how do you do that?
Apostle Antonio Palmer:Well, we keep our ears to the county. What you guys are seeing or sensing. What people are reporting.
Apostle Antonio Palmer:Also, because we're in communities, we also get to hear the voice of the community and so then we're like, okay, nobody's doing this particular service. Can we build capacity to do such a service?
Apostle Antonio Palmer:And then that's when we start confronting everybody about resources and funding, because our heart is to get funding or resources into the communities where the needs are. And I think that that kind of bridge with your administration here that we were able to bridge that when there was such a disconnect because people had a phobia of churches, faith-based work. Even though we were doing the work, and so it was low funding going towards people who were actually doing the work, trying to get the resources to the community. Now, because of what you've done over the last seven years. I know you're still counting down the days, but because of the opportunities that you have afforded us, and of course we know that the pandemic kind of helped springboard that into action. But that's how we assess. We put our ears to the doors of what's happening in the community where the needs aren't being met, and also what you're hearing, and we try to consolidate.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:I was actually thinking about that as I was driving here to do this podcast this morning. The faith-based role in it. What it means to be having your worshippers come in every week from people who have needs, who have dreams, who are just living life in the county. And we have an Interfaith Advisory Commission in the county and the idea for me has always been to hear from these pastors, in particular these who, who hear directly from, from people, and it's helped, helps us to identify needs. And so you hear that directly, and then you turn right around and you, you know, walk through the door or walk over to the other building and you, you know, you get to work actually implementing the program. So, um, that, I think, is part of the magic of what you do. You, you're hearing it every day and that way you're always inspired too. You don't just get stuck in doing the work in the bureaucracy. Let's talk about the violence interruption piece for a minute, because I've been talking about it a lot, and let me start by saying that it's happening around the country.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:There are different models where government or nonprofits or faith-based organizations actually hires people from communities who are familiar with, folks who may well be victims of particularly gun violence and all kinds of violence, and may be perpetrators of it as well, may have been incarcerated, may have been members of groups that have committed a lot of violence, and actually hire those folks at the point where they're saying they want to make things better and then they engage in the community and build maybe some trust maybe not complete trust.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:So I watched it happen in Baltimore City. I went up there and visited some programs that they had and I've seen the numbers drop drastically in the neighborhoods that have the programs, and they're always neighborhood-based programs. They don't try to do a whole city at once. And then the health department, through our gun violence intervention team, said we would like to bring in this organization, Cure Violence Global, into Annapolis and do an assessment of whether or not a program would really help, because there have been a lot of shootings in Annapolis and a lot of violence. And then I didn't even realize that you were already doing a program that you had gotten funded by the state called Man Up in West County. So tell us how you started Man Up and what it is.
Apostle Antonio Palmer:Well, it goes back to.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:And then we'll talk about how you took over the whole thing.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:hing goes back to us being present in the community and developing relationships in the community. And we're talking about West County, Mead Village, Pioneer City, still metals and spring metals, and I will just say for listeners that this is the area of the greatest focus for the work that you do. And it has been an area to me of the greatest opportunity for change, of the greatest opportunity for change. We've got housing developments that were built to be affordable for working people, that are privately owned but that are more affordable and some people get vouchers and things to live still Meadows, Pioneer City. And then we have Mead Village, which is traditional public housing through the Housing Commission of Anne Arundel County. That has been totally rebuilt. All the units have been redeveloped and redone. Lots of work.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:You've been involved with the basketball court and the mural on the court and then you were involved in encouraging us to build the Severn Center adjacent to that, right next to Van Bokken Elementary. And that is a place where there's Boys and Girls Club and a senior center, and people come together and there's a basketball court and events. We had a youth gun violence prevention weekend there last year. So to me, this is an area of the county where there's been a lot of violence, a lot of lack of opportunity, a lot of poverty, and I think we have enough pieces that, if we hold it all together, 10 years from now, you'll look back and you'll see that the kids who grew up there are doing way better than they were, than they are now. But the violence is a key thing. So how does it work?
Apostle Antonio Palmer:So we, you mentioned it earlier. When we applied for funding with the state, and part of our model is to find credible messengers that you mentioned earlier. Those who were what we call "in the game before and change their lifestyle, yet still are connected with the community and have the respect and the trust from people that are still in the community. So we hire. T hat's the blessing of the funding is that we, by putting it back in the community, by hiring credible messengers, giving them a paycheck to go out there and know that when they're out in the streets, that they're not just doing it like you know, we used to just do it just because we love the community.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:Like mentors.
Apostle Antonio Palmer:Yeah, yeah, because we love the community and now we're actually able to hire people so that they can do it more consistently. If you will be there more constantly and to be able to interrupt de-escalate situations. I know our first year, we de-escalated about 13 situations that could have ended up in gun violence, and a lot of people don't realize that. So the numbers could be much higher than they are. So that's kind of how we began just finding the credible messengers, hiring them and allowing them to be in the community, making sure that they can bring forth the message of peace and to bring forth the message of hope opportunities. That's where we come in with resources, directing people with different resources, whether it's workforce development, whether it's mental health services, the wraparound services that my wife shared earlier.
Apostle Antonio Palmer:You know, for the girls we do the same in the community. Yep. So that's how we try to redirect or what we call change community norms.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:Right. So I've been out there and I remember one meeting that we did and the intention was simply. I think I asked for this, was simply, I think I asked for this that I don't actually get to hear from young folks and meet them where they are in Meade Village ever and they're not that interested in talking to me. And so some of your violence interrupters said, all right, well, we'll get a group of kids together and we'll go out on the basketball court and just talk. And we did, and it was. I mean, it's so important for me and any elected official to understand where people are coming from and that we all have basic things in common: we all want a better life, we all love our families, we all want to be safe.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:The list goes on and on, but I do remember you said there were about 15 instances that were managed and prevented violence. There was one that I remember very clearly, because it wasn't that long after the Brooklyn Homes shooting, where a block party turned out. It was more than a block party. It was a very dangerous situation where people lost their lives, and so I had heard from the police department that some of the folks not even from this area, from all up and down the East Coast, Mid-Atlantic, were planning a similar event for Mead Village and that there was a lot online about it and the police department was preparing for what could be a confrontation to try to prevent it. But at the same time, your violence interrupters were working to prevent it from ever happening, and they did.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:It was canceled because they talked to the right people. And it wasn't easy. I remember too, because I was hearing back and forth it's on, no, maybe it's off, it's on, it's off. And so, ultimately, some of those folks made the right decision.
Apostle Antonio Palmer:Our credible messengers, who were doing an outstanding job. They were able to redirect whoever was trying to plan whatever house, party stuff or whatever was going on at that time. I know you reached out and then I reached out to the credible messengers to try to make sure you know that there wasn't going to be any type of standoff going on and it worked because of communication. You know, it took the police department, it took your office, it took us to get to the hands of the credible messengers and for the credible messengers to be able to, who know the people more intimately, to be able to diffuse the situation.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:And then one more thing on violence interruption before we get back to some of Dr. Palmer's work that actually gets people from there into jobs, housing, a better life. We had this group come down to Annapolis, the Health Department, did Cure Violence Global do an assessment of whether there was a part of Annapolis that could really benefit and they determined that yes, in Eastport it could work. And a lot of community organizations were involved in those discussions. The mayor came to me and said we don't have any funding for this, by the way, and it was a significant investment, talked me into it. They did an RFP actually for organizations who can run this on the ground in the community, and you ended up or Kingdom Celebration, I guess, or Kingdom Kare. The nonprofit ended up in a role of managing the local organization there and doing the hiring and getting that program started in Annapolis. Right, and I asked to be invited. I'm often not invited to these things, I just ask.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:Once it was started, one of the meetings of the violence interrupters, and they agreed to let me in. You were there. I think you got there late. You have flat tire or something, didn't you? Not that I have an accident, Dr. Randall Bells Jr. Oh yeah, you had an accident, okay. But hearing, I don't remember there were maybe six of them, five or six around the table and hearing them just do their weekly report was, it sold me completely on the program. They didn't use names, they didn't identify people by their names.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:But they talked about people who they were working with and how they were moving from one stage to another and basically signing up and agreeing to be part of the program. And at the end, they're absolutely confident that the reason, and the data shows it. The reason major drop in violent crime in that area. I think there's a two-mile radius or maybe it's a one-mile radius around there that it was because they had convinced people to stop shooting each other and they, very simple, they said now we've got to get them jobs, exactly. And so that's where Dr. Palmer comes in and all the connections with local governments as well. So is it working, Dr. Palmer?
Dr. Barbara Palmer:It's working.
Dr. Barbara Palmer:I mean, we have to have partnerships. We can't do it alone. I always say, no matter how strong our nonprofit is, we cannot do the work alone. We need other grassroots organizations. We need the government. We need other nonprofit organizations. We need volunteers. We need the community to step in and support. So we are business owners, absolutely business owners. Yeah.
Dr. Barbara Palmer:So we're proud to have over 50 partners that we can get on the phone and call for whatever the resource is that our clients need.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:Yeah, yeah, and I think that is part of the reason that it works as well as it works is because y'all are connected and then they can get connected.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:So it's a tough budget year, but I've told my team that there are certain things you can't not do. One of them is feeding people and one of them is making folks safer, making communities safer, and I don't know of a better investment on the safety side than this prevention work. So where do we want to go from here? So I know you all are ambitious about making the world a better place. I know there are more things that you want to do and I know when we talked about this, we said we would talk about things that Kingdom Celebration and Kingdom Care hope to do. But I'm going to throw you a curveball and ask you first Dr. Palmer and then Apostle Palmer. If you were the county executive, if you had that piece of it, or if you had, you know, a few million bucks to throw around, you know almost unlimited money, how could you solve the problems of Anne Arundel County, and where would you start?
Dr. Barbara Palmer:Great question. The first thing that came to my mind was if I had millions of dollars, billions of dollars, to do, it is, I would work with all four quadrants of this county. I would look at those quadrants, see what non-profits are there that are strong and check on some grassroots organizations who are doing the work but may not have the capacity to continue to do the work. And I would galvanize all those people together in each quadrant of the county and say let's give you what you need to make sure that your area is well taken care of.
Dr. Barbara Palmer:I would take a piece at a time and I would train those organizations. I would help them build their capacity. I would assist them in making sure things are getting done the way they need to get done. Then, I would move to the next quadrant of the county. I think the only way it's going to work is if we all work together. We can't Kingdom Kare, can't do this work by ourselves. I know we always get the you know the accolades and we get the support, but when we're in the office we're thinking about who can we bring in to this project with us? Who else is doing the work in our area that we can also connect with and maybe even support financially to make sure that they get up and running and get the support that they need?
Dr. Barbara Palmer:So if I had a chance to do that, that's what, that's where I would start.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:That's a, that's an amazing answer, because you understand how different the parts of the county are and and that you have to then drill down first and find out who's doing what that was the next thing. Yeah, yes, and and and then build off of that um, and I hope we're doing that.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:I know it's a very long-term project. I mean, we have the non-profit uh center now that is helping to train and facilitate and help accelerate some nonprofits. We've got the partnership that works directly with nonprofits and we have you, so that's a good start. So, Apostle Palmer, you're probably going to get all spiritual on us right now and you're going to really change everybody right through their hearts. What's your approach?
Apostle Antonio Palmer:Well, I was always taught that you take a look at the budget, because the budget would tell you.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:That's not what I expected. Al right,
Apostle Antonio Palmer:The budget would actually tell you exactly who you are. So, for example, as a church, if I say we're a mission-minded church but I don't have anything about missions in my budget money's allocated towards that, then I'm not really a mission-minded church. To strengthen the county, we have to make sure that we have funding allocated to those particular programs to say that this is exactly who we are and this is exactly what we're going to be doing.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:You are aware that you're talking to the man who's in the midst of developing a $2 billion budget right now. Let's do it.
Apostle Antonio Palmer:Make sure we're in it.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:No, no. I'm serious, though, though. You just brought together the, you know, the heart, and the, and the, the meat, the, the money, um, and, and you, you did it in the right moment. That's why these guys are so amazingly. Um, yeah, and that was just instinct that brought you to. Hey, this is the moment to start talking about budget.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:Start talking, and it's absolutely true, the budget is a reflection of your values, and I hope that our budgets have been and will continue to be a reflection of our values, even when they're tight. Yes, yes so um, yeah, we do have difficult decisions to make, but I also and part of the reason I wanted to have you on the podcast now is that, as we're facing certainly cuts federal government has been the primary supporter of through the last 50 years has been the part of government that has funded anti-poverty work, community action agencies and housing and social services, because they wanted to make sure it got done and they didn't necessarily trust that every county, every town, every city or every state would have the political will or the resources to do it, and it was that important that the federal government had to do it.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:So now the federal government we have saying that we're going to stop doing that. I mean, we're going to stop doing a lot of it. It's things that are targeted for cuts, are exactly those things that help the most vulnerable people, and so we have to look to the non-profit sector. We have to look to the faith organizations, and local government has to step up and people who we have to look to the faith organizations and local government has to step up and people who care have to show what they're really about. So we are going to be doing a lot of work in the coming weeks and months really trying to reorient government, the way we did during the pandemic. To basically protect the people of this county and ensure that we can continue to be a better place and unite people and connect people to what really matters, regardless of what the federal government does.
Apostle Antonio Palmer:And what's most important about that and going through this transition. Some people believe that it's turbulent times, as we attest to right now, but the communication part is the biggest part. Because when you have to restructure funds and things of that nature, reallocate them because now they're minimized. Communicating with the constituents because people are smart. And if we don't communicate it over so that all of us can adjust, that's where you start to see where there is more bickering and fighting and things of that nature. It takes communication. It takes not only a state of the union, but it takes a state of the county address and things of that nature for everybody to be plugged in. You know, it takes us taking that information back. You know, of course, with the United Black Clergy, it takes the clergy to go back to the parishioners and make sure we're not just preaching the Bible but we're sharing live events, current affairs also, and conveying the same message so that there won't be all the fear and all the stuff that's going on now. That's part of safety as well, because when people panic, all kinds- of things happen.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:Well, you know, I asked to look at the clock here a minute ago, thinking we were going to be at about 20 minutes. We were already at 31 and that was a few minutes back. I don't know. We'll have to maybe cut some things. We'll let it run a little longer, because this time has moved very quickly for me. I hope it has for you.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:I hope it has for listeners too. So we better wrap it up, and thank you so much for being willing to do this, and we've got a lot of work to do so thank you.
Apostle Antonio Palmer:Appreciate you having us.
Dr. Barbara Palmer:Thank you so much for having us.
Apostle Antonio Palmer:On your podcast.
County Executive Steuart Pittman:Alright, and if you're listening and you see the subscribe button, go ahead and touch it and make sure that you are subscribed so you know who our next guests are going to be. Thanks, everybody.
