Let's Talk Kids

Unifying Government & Community to Support Next Gen | Let’s Talk Kids

• ACNJ • Season 1 • Episode 4

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0:00 | 53:09

Charlie Venti,  President of Inventive Strategies LLC and Board Member of the Let’s Talk Kids parent non-profit ACNJ, explores his experiences with how the U.S. and state governments have worked with American communities in the past to support families and kids, as well as how this alliance could be revitalized.


Learn more about the Family Success Institute and how you can get involved below!

https://familysuccessinstitute.com/ - Family Success Institute

https://monmouthacts.org/ - Monmouth ACTS

https://ironboundcc.org/financial-opportunity-center/ - Ironbound Financial Opportunity Center



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Thank you so much for watching. See below for more information on Let’s Talk Kids and ACNJ.

SOCIAL & WEB LINKS

LTK Linktree - linktr.ee/ltkacnj

Advocates for Children of New Jersey (ACNJ) Official Website - acnj.org

PODCAST LINKS

CONTACTS

  • mcoogan@acnj.org - Mary Coogan - Host of Let’s Talk Kids | CEO of ACNJ
  • vjabon@acnj.org - Viggo Jabon - Editor of Let’s Talk Kids | Multimedia Specialist at ACNJ



SPEAKER_00

Welcome to Let's Talk Kids. I'm Mary Coogan, president and CEO of Advocates for Children of New Jersey and the host of Let's Talk Kids, where we invite community partners, policymakers, and experts to have a conversation about issues and concerns that impact children and families. Today I'm joined by Charlie Venti, who is the president of Inventive Strategies, but also a longtime board member of ACNJ, which is why I call you Charlie. Welcome. Thanks for being here.

SPEAKER_01

Nice to be here, Mary.

SPEAKER_00

So now I understand your consulting firm is really trying to help build local systems and put them together. But I also want our listening audience to know that you've had a long career starting, I guess, as a caseworker in Child Protective Services, eventually leading the agency. And then you ran a community foundation, which provided funding for different programs, and then started your consulting firm. And I know have done a lot of work. And I I say that sort of maybe to embarrass you a little bit, because I know you are modest about all the work you've done, but just so that people who might be watching today understand that you really have a vast experience working with families, children, and in the community. So I just want to talk about some of those experiences. But welcome. Well, my I guess first community work was when you came to our board a couple years ago and with a group of people under the umbrella of Mammoth Acts. Could you talk a little bit about what Mammoth Acts is and what its goals are?

SPEAKER_01

So Mammoth Acts is a unique public-private partnership that involves residents, service providers, leaders in county government, a lot of involvement from the county commissioners to look at how systems can be established to assist residents with access to services, to identify gaps. It's kind of an intensive human service advisory system. And I I could give you uh one or two quick examples, if you'd like, of the work that they've done.

SPEAKER_00

Aaron Powell I think that would be helpful because I my recollection was it was sort of a struggle to get that partnership to form. And maybe you can talk a little bit about what is that struggle of community people partnering with government.

SPEAKER_01

Well, all right. In in in a general sense, um I've always felt there's a tension um between government and community in terms of decision making, control of resources, and it's a challenge to have a balance where the voices of the community can help inform decision-making over budgets, allocation of resources, yet the government maintaining its fiduciary responsibility, its responsibility, you know, its legal responsibilities to manage those resources um effectively. I think Monmouth County, going back some years ago, has really found a great balance in that work. And a quick example in the aftermath of, or during COVID, uh there were a lot of resources allocated to communities from the federal government. One uh example was the rental assistance uh program. The money was made uh distributed to counties. I thought Monmouth County did something very unique and exceptional through its Monmouth Acts partnership. It quickly allotted 13 contracts with community organizations to outreach to people who would have difficulty applying for that rental assistance. So disabled people, seniors. So they had people able to go into the housing projects, um, set up at community centers, et cetera. And county government staff, along with those community partners, uh, were there to meet with residents. But beyond that, because of the way they were used to doing business, um, it wasn't just a human service issue. Different parts of county government participated. So the planning department was able, through mapping, identify census blocks of low-income people where uh blanket approvals could be made for rental assistance, engagement with landlords. It was a very comprehensive effort, public-private. And in the end, Monmouth County spent all its money, was allocated additional funds from other counties, and really just about doubled their impact in terms of that assistance. They worked with legal services, they put staff at the evictions court to be available to residents. So it was natural for them. They didn't have to set up a system, they just kind of allocated uh their time and their effort from an existing partnership that they have in place.

SPEAKER_00

And that sounds wonderful. And I think the end result is people didn't get evicted, right? So during times where people had lost their jobs or had some type of other disruption because of COVID, they were able to have the security of knowing that they could remain in their homes.

SPEAKER_01

And this was part of a broader financial recovery initiative. And one of the things that they learned in that process was that uh although they had set up a hotline for any resident in the county that was having financial distress, it wasn't enough. And so they established service navigators that could stay connected with people who had um issues that were complex, where they had to deal with more than one system and provide that kind of high-level case management and support for them. Um, and they they continue to uh have that today.

SPEAKER_00

That's great. So, navigators, who makes a good navigator?

SPEAKER_01

Great question. I think first and foremost, someone who can relate to the social condition of the people that they're attempting to support. And often that uh means that people from the community, people who speak the language, if someone is having trouble paying their rent or they're going to be evicted, someone who can um find out more about what's going on and what are the other supports or things that might be needed beyond just a uh a cash payment. Motivational interviewing. That's what I've been trying to capture. Um so someone who has those skills in terms of assessment. But I think real important is someone who's gonna stick with you and uh through thick and thin, so to speak, for the amount of time that's needed for you to achieve whatever uh goal you need to achieve. It doesn't often exist.

SPEAKER_00

I mean, it sounds like it's a special person, somebody who can engage, but also meet the person where they are, right? And understand and ask the questions. Because I'm thinking a lot of the clients are not necessarily going to trust the system, right? And so you have to build that trust.

SPEAKER_01

I started my career early as a caseworker, a state child protective caseworker. I actually started before that as a probation counselor, but that's another story for another time. But it was similar. There was always a some degree of mistrust or concern. So I think that certain services, certain supports uh provided through whether it be a faith-based organization, a nonprofit, a community group, formal, informal, you know, often can be that connection that can be more lasting for people.

SPEAKER_00

Because they're familiar, right? Or people look like them or talk like them and understand what they're going through without being judgmental.

SPEAKER_01

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Going back to Mammoth Acts, what you described in terms of helping people with rental assistance, working together with community providers, to me seems like common sense. Why, why is that so difficult?

SPEAKER_01

I don't think it's so difficult, but I think that there needs to be a um a motivation to take that extra step, so to speak, not just deal with the routine responsibilities or, you know, the whatever you need to comply with to get the job done. You have to be able to do a little bit more. And um I think the issue is really, I think people in government want to do that often. I think leadership has to be supportive of that. When I was the child welfare director, we invested in bringing the family group conference program that was being used on the West Coast to New Jersey. We contracted with community agencies for visitation for kids in foster care rather than where previously we were doing it in the state offices in a very sterile environment. I think that the comfort level for people, um, that connectivity, I think they did a lot better. I think they put the rate of participation was greater. The supports, the relations, and in some situations, the relationships they built with other community members that were more lasting were, you know, were more meaningful. Uh it wasn't that we were not um doing our best, doing a good job or whatever, but it really enhanced the experience for uh people who participated in the in that programming.

SPEAKER_00

That's great. And I do remember some of those programs, and I remember the family case conferencing. It was partially because you had an independent person, again, the trained person, almost like your navigator, who was neutral, right? Like they understood what the parent was going through, they understood the responsibility of the caseworker, but they could get people to try to look at the third option. What would be a different way of addressing a problem, right?

SPEAKER_01

That was absolutely the idea. Um, it it's it's like that whole vill it takes a village to raise a child type of a, you know, an idea. I've always been interested in where there are opportunities for government and families, communities to work together to advance the well-being of kids, um, give them a better start in life. So I'll tell you another quick story. So again, when when I was a child welfare director, um, I heard in Newark um Monsignor Linder at New Community Corporation was developing some new housing on Martin Luther King Boulevard Community Hills Townhouse program. And I knew him and I called him one Friday and I said, Monsignor, I understand you're building this big housing complex. And I said, you know, we in our system, we're working with some families who are interested in adopting kids with special needs. We have many of them already in foster care. And one of their obstacles is having an adequate housing and adequate space. And would you ever consider we do a pilot, one of those townhouses that you're developing, could it be dedicated to a family that's adopting a special needs child? So we said, well, let me think about it. I'll call you, I'll call you on Monday. So Monday I got a call from him and he said, you know, I thought about your request, and I the answer is no, we won't we won't develop one of our homes for a family uh that's interested in adopting a special needs child. He said, We'll do 40.

SPEAKER_00

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_01

I said, oh my God. I said 40. He said, let's tr let's shoot for 40. You know, let's um we'll get the word out, we'll recruit amongst foster parents, adoptive parents, greater Newark, you know, whatever. We'll do all these other things. He had great ideas. So started on a joint process. Well, it was very difficult because many of the people who applied could not become eligible for mortgages because of their credit histories, uh, other issues, lack of employment. Um, and so um they worked very hard uh at helping people around their income issues, around getting jobs in their child care program. Um there's gonna be a new program on site at uh Community Hills and et cetera, et cetera. And in the end, after assessing about 100 families, six families were able to purchase uh with the supports through New Community and other partners that they had, were able to purchase rent with option to buy, setups, beautiful new three-bedroom townhomes. And so it was my thought was a pilot for one. Uh a hundred were you know assessed, six purchased homes. I thought it was great. And one of the things he said to me in that process, which is the point I want to make, I think I remember making a comment to him during the journey, and I said, you know, it's really great how you're able to level the playing field for certain people. And he said, no, no, it's not about. He always was correcting me, I guess. He said it wasn't about leveling the playing field. He said, what we've done here is we've tipped it in their favor. We had to do more than level the playing field because they're starting from such a deficit. They're not starting at the same starting line as everyone else. So we have to tip the tip the playing field in their direction in order to get something done. So that was one of the things that a lesson I learned. And and um, so where there are opportunities for government to tip, but like with that rental assistance program, to go into the apartment of the senior, the disabled senior, and with a laptop and fill out the application with them in their home and get the you know, get the assistance. It really is something that government can do with community partners.

SPEAKER_00

That's really a great. I remember, I think I met Father Linder once. To me, he was always you heard of him as a force to be reckoned with, right? But that's very interesting comment and so true. So let's talk a little bit about other efforts where I know you've helped tip the playing field. Um, I know you've done some work up in Patterson or Passaia County. It wasn't, I think that might have been around housing, right?

SPEAKER_01

We did work in part with housing, in part with uh uh working on a system similar to Mamethax with Passaic County government. Uh to be honest, it didn't sustain and and not to the no to no fault of theirs. It didn't sustain the way Mammithax has, I think there were turnover in terms of administration, turnover of county commissioners. And maybe we didn't do the work well enough to, you know, get the foundation done. But another example I think that is kind of extraordinary. I've been on the uh board, the advisory board of Lisk Local Initiative Support Corporation for the last uh maybe 20 years. But prior to that, as a funder with the Nicholson Foundation, we seeded the funding for the development of the first three financial opportunity centers in New Jersey in the city of Newark. And now there are seven, um, and hopefully someday there'll be more. And what these centers do is they offer not just employment and training opportunities for people, attachment to benefits, but they offer and provide long-term financial coaching, um, additional educational and um employment coaching, and a connection to other supports for people. So a quick unique example when the Perth Amboy program was getting developed, we went to some of the other centers to see how they were operating. And at Ironbound, we learned in um Newark they had some unique training programs for people, and they were getting people employed with jobs to do solar installation. But some of the jobs were outside of Essex or the city of Newark, Essex County, and people had to travel. And when they started their job, they didn't really necessarily have the resources to pay for their transportation. They weren't going to get a paycheck for two, three, four weeks, whatever it may be. Um, so they had a fund that could provide that transportation for people till they got their second paycheck. So learning from that, the people in Perth Amboy with through uh raising private resources to the United Way now do are able to do the same thing, having learned from the other organization. So, in addition to the other supports, um the Perth Amboy Um Center has a priority focus on families with children zero to five years old, although they'll serve anyone in in the in the county. Um, and they've had a unique opportunity to work with mothers in the nurse family partnership to participate. One of the goals of beyond the health goals of the Nurse Family Partnership is self-sufficiency, funding from city, funding from the state, funding from the federal government. So excellent partnerships in the community. So those those centers are something that um take a very holistic approach, an assessment of what the obstacles are for people. That's not just about getting a job, but a career path and main maintaining those services. It's it's really a a great resource.

SPEAKER_00

That sounds wonderful. But it makes me think of a couple of questions. So who's coordinating the center? Is that LISC?

SPEAKER_01

So it's the United Way, but under an agreement with Lisp. They can look for any anyone who's involved in the center, they can measure the changes in their credit scores, measure uh changes in their wealth, changes in their income. It's all in uh a database. And they can compare how they're doing vis-a-vis other centers in that system, so they know where their strengths are or maybe where their weaknesses are.

SPEAKER_00

So I'm thinking the data is probably showing increases in wealth and progress, and you have people federal, state, local, who work decided to work together to partner, right? And pull whatever resources that they could. And to me, I'm thinking again, sometimes systems create barriers for people to do that that you have to overcome. Why do you think this has become so complicated? That you have to figure out agreements and partnerships. Is it all about the source of the funding, or have we have we just created barriers to people getting help?

SPEAKER_01

I I think it's because we don't have a structure in place that facilitates it. Uh another group that I'm a board member, the Family Success Institute, we've been um supporting legislation now for the past six, seven years. It's gotten introduced a few times in the legislature, it has yet to be passed. But what this legislation would do, it would set up integrated community planning groups that would facilitate exactly what I was just talking about. And so it would be a combination of government and community people. It's more of a holistic um, there were a lot of there's a mental health board, there's a human service advisory council, there's uh groups dealing with substance abuse. You know, there's varying groups. This would be our a compilation of a group looking at opportunities and providing support for community-driven efforts to um break down silos for people. So, you know, earlier I talked about getting a holistic assessment. Well, if you have multiple needs, right? If you have financial needs, you have mental health needs, you have a child who has special educational needs. It's very, very difficult. I mean, you you have to have extraordinary skills and time and effort, and you're working a uh, you know, a job and whatever, you might be a single parent to get everything done. So um for these community systems to look at other ways to deliver services, um, to reorient systems that may not be perfectly in alignment to do that kind of assessment and work on how to facilitate support for people in their community.

SPEAKER_00

So I know the Family Success Institute, I'm a little bit familiar with it, but in looking at their website, I think the tagline is invest in success, divest from distress. So it's really focused on prevention. Absolutely. Helping people before they wind up becoming system involved, or Yes. Okay.

SPEAKER_01

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00

Why can't community agencies just do that on their own?

SPEAKER_01

Well, one of the reasons they can't do it on their own is That most of the investments in working with people who are in need come after the fact. So if you look at the amount of money we spend on incarcerating people or on people getting their primary health care in emergency rooms, or people who are unemployed or are not working because they don't have adequate child care. If you look at those costs, we the institute um did a study, and it's a little old now, of the of the 2018 New Jersey state budget from the viewpoint of success versus, or we'll say prevention versus distress. And at that time, 80% of the funding was going towards institutions that were trying to pick up the pieces for people welfare, foster care, juvenile justice, incarceration, et cetera. And if you looked at the investments in prevention and support up front, it was about 10%. And then there was 10%. So if a child, if a newborn child gets an uh early intervention services when they need it earlier in life, they're going to avoid some special education costs down the road. So that, you know, so there's a lot of research. National groups look at have looked at different issues, the value of quality child care, you know, for a child, or and quality preschool education, um, in terms of uh what the what the return on investment is in society. So it's turning that around very difficult because a lot of the money that's in these systems already is tied into government jobs in some degree. Um it's status quo change difficult. That's what the Family Success Institute or movement is about, trying to make even a small shift in those allocation of resources, get money more into the hands of local people to solve local problems and see what happens.

SPEAKER_00

So you said something about change, right? So I think we both agree and know that it's very difficult because people like the status quo, and it's very difficult for them to change for a variety of reasons, right? The not knowing what's going to happen if you take that risk or even having it backfire on you, right? So I know you've had experience with that too, in terms of you try something new and then all of a sudden it doesn't work out, and people are pointing the finger saying you cause this problem. So as frustrating as it is to keep pushing, what what keeps you motivated that through all these projects, some of which you've seen real progress and others that appear to have been very frustrating? What keeps you motivated to keep going?

SPEAKER_01

You know, I think it's um for better or for worse, uh for me, it's um kind of my memory of people I've interacted with over my career that really were at a tremendous deficit in terms of um their opportunity to um make a good life for themselves, whether it be their starting point in life, you know, they were an infant born at, you know, six and a half months pregnancy that was exposed to AIDS, you know, back during the AIDS epidemic. That there are people that haven't had the advantages that I've had in my life. Not that I came, I mean, I came from a lower middle class family, but I had very intact, a lot of support, still due to this day, and my, you know, always been oriented that way. And I remember when I was a caseworker and one of the first cases I was assigned, uh, the first child I met who was in foster care, eight-year-old boy. His name was James, and I went to the foster home, and he was, I had read all the material. He had been evaluated at the Hackensack Child Development Center. He was way behind, you know, two, three years in his development. Um, his mother was uh a former heroin addict. She was in a in a residential treatment program. That's why he was a foster care, didn't have a lot of family support. And I introduced myself to him and I said, in the course of trying to connect with him, I said, James, what is it that you want to do? What would you like to be when you grow up, or what are you interested in? Something like that. And finally he looked at me and he said, I want to see the turnpike. And I was confused. I said, and I realized that I knew where his home was, and he lived underneath the on Baywei Avenue around exit 14B on the turnpike. He lived like basically he would look up and he would see the bottom of the turnpike from where he lived. And he said, he didn't say he wanted to go to Disney World or he wanted to be a fireman. He wanted to see the turnpike. So I said to the foster mother, even though I was green and young and I knew enough, I think I said to the I said, Would you mind if I take James for out for a ride? I had a state car, you know, that we would use. And he got in the back. We didn't have car seats at that time, I'll be honest. But he was eight years old. He was, you know, seatbelt in the back seat. I was driving. And we took a ride on the turnpike extension over to Newark. We made like a loop. And I looked in the back, in the back window, and I saw it. He was in Disney World. He saw the New York City skyline that he had never really seen before. He saw the Newark Bay. He saw all these cars, you know, he saw all this stuff. He got so excited. And his and it made me so sad because we're a product to some degree, I've always believed, of our imagination or curiosity about things. He was so limited in terms of what he had been exposed to in his life. And he needed, he needed a lot, you know. He wasn't alone. I mean, a lot of the kids that I became aware of, either as a caseworker or as a child welfare director or whatever, in my in my life, the gap is so great that I've always wanted to stick with it until uh I can't do it anymore, just to try to make a bit of a difference. And but that was very profound. And it wasn't just James, there were other kids that were part of what we called our neglect caseload. You know, he had been neglected, right? But uh I got to know his mother. She was, I thought, a terrific person, trying to do her best, had been the victim of domestic violence. You know, there have been a lot of issues. The this work will never be done. That um, that we're all involved in. That's why I love ACNJ. I always, always had such a high regard. And when I was asked if I would be interested in joining the board, it kind of blew me away.

SPEAKER_00

And we are so happy that you did decide to join the board. Because I think you bring that wealth of experience. But I think myself, even just thinking about James, right? The child you just spoke about how if you if you don't ask those questions, you don't even know what their whole viewpoint is on something, right? And the fact that if you hadn't asked him that, he wouldn't have realized how much he needed, the exposure to something outside his very small, limited world, right? So I mean, ACNJ has always been about improving outcomes for children. And I think we give it our best, but we don't, we're not always successful either. What do you think could be done either through the Family Success Institute or other projects that we could give more kids that chance to increase their imagination?

SPEAKER_01

One thing that ACNJ has done a tremendous amount to advance, and I see this with my own grandchild children. Not I guess I am old. Um I see this with my old I am too. Grandchildren is um giving those kids the exposure, the opportunity, the care, the support, the opportunities in their development for their curiosity to be supported. Again, high quality experiences for them, whether they're in their own home or they're in uh childcare or preschool. I think the advances that have been made in New Jersey have been tremendous. I would love to see in terms of doing more universal, um funded, regardless of income, high quality child care, preschool opportunity for every child in New Jersey. That's the type of thing we could do if we put our minds to it. I think that we have challenges for those young adults, kids who are not connected to some type of support, uh, whether it be recreation, job program, finding out ways to engage with them in a different way to enable them to continue to be curious about things or to be motivated about things and not, you know, not get stuck. In general, things have gotten better in a world that's gotten more difficult. Um, I think there has been more attention to the issues of family success and support at all levels, um, both from government and communities. But I I think we could do better in terms of engaging with people in the community, listening, understanding maybe how to align things in a way that could be most beneficial and not to be afraid to make mistakes, to fail. It's failing as part of progress, you know, and not to get stopped when when things maybe not don't work out so well.

SPEAKER_00

Talk a little bit more about involving people from the community. So it is, I'm gonna say, very in fashion now to bring what we say people with lived experience into projects, right? Yeah. And yet I think to a certain extent, everybody has lived experience. So who are the people we're actually talking about when you say bringing people from the community or people with lived experience?

SPEAKER_01

So I have to give you another example. And this is a little broader, but in the in the 1990s, uh in New Jersey, Governor Florio had near the end of his first term, implemented uh $2 billion in new taxes in New Jersey, and there was kind of a revolt, right? There was um no new taxes, et cetera. And in my community where I live, there were two schools that were in need of repair. There were boilers that were about to um, in some cases, maybe explode. I mean, there was dangerous. So a bond issue was put together and it went out to the public to fund renovations, put in the you know, new heating systems, and do other things. And and it, and everyone figured, like they always do, it would pass because it nothing had ever failed, and it failed because of this atmosphere. The people were tired of paying more taxes, the environment, there was a movement against the renovation of the schools that it was gonna raise taxes. So there was a crisis, right? It was potential for the schools to close, right? And so I wrote a letter to the mayor and to the superintendent and said, I'd like to volunteer, whatever's gonna happen next, you know, because there really was a crisis. I ended up the chairman of the committee to redesign these renovations and this bond issue. And what was unique about it was was that there were so many people in the town who had expertise, whether they were electricians, plumbers, architects, you name it, every aspect of what of input of what could be done. And over a six-week period, through committees, um, we brought people together to look at these plans and how they could be improved and how costs, what opportunities were there were to contain costs. In addition, we brought uh senior citizens in the town, the the their group, other people into the school to see the boiler room. And they had to walk through the library in order to get to the boiler room. And in the library were the special ed kids because they didn't have a class, the teachers that didn't have a classroom, because they the people had outgrown the size of the school, and there was a lot that needed to be done. In the end, through the participation of people in the community and the redesign of the renovations, the program, not only did a new bond issue go out for less money than the original one, but it included the construction of a new gymnasium also for less money because the school didn't have the larger school didn't have a gymnasium. And it passed with about 75% support from the community. People who were opposed it, who came in through the process and gave input and lent their expertise, volunteered their time, coordinated visits into the school to see what was going on, people who mobilized around this effort. So they ended up naming the new gymnasium after the superintendent who then retired, put his name on it. He was really in opposition to doing all of this work. But that was also part of this, you know, part of the whole deal was make sure that every no one felt that they were not a not a part of it, you know, of what happened. I learned a tremendous amount from that um process. Um if you engage people, if you listen to them, um then you know really great things can happen. And same thing with Momethax, with the uh rental assistance program, there were a lot of people who figured who came to the table to figure out how to reach the people who needed to be reached, you know. So just have to be open to it.

SPEAKER_00

And and I think listening to them achieve a better result, which makes them feel happy that they put their time in. Right. Because I do sometimes think that people are discouraged, and that's why they oppose things, because they don't see any positive impact of some program that they might have supported in the past, and they just see stuff getting wasted, so to speak, even if it's not getting wasted.

SPEAKER_01

I mean, that's one of the challenges is figuring out how to sustain these type of efforts so that they don't you don't have maybe a short-term success and then they they fade away.

SPEAKER_00

What do you want to see having change, let's say, in 10 years? If you could think ahead, what change, either local or statewide, would you like to have happened?

SPEAKER_01

Organized systems of support for people in communities that are just not a one-off around an issue, but that uh people who need assistance get that more holistic type of um support and a system of support as they go on, go through their journey to success in their life. Many of us have it. I I mentioned that before. But for people who don't have it, that there's something in place and it's not a short-term one-off thing. If we could evolve uh our investments to where there were those types of supports for people, we would save money, but we would have richer communities. Um, the other thing that I would like to see is um, and it's a little beyond my expertise, is a resolution to the immigration problem we have, especially in our state, people who have um been here, maybe on you know, without documentation, who are contributing to our communities that don't have to live in fear, and that there's um some mechanism to integrate them appropriately into our society. Um so those those things I would love to see 10 years from now to be in place. I would like to be alive ten years from now, too.

SPEAKER_00

And I hope you are to see them because I think they're wonderful goals. I guess to me that the immigration issue is complicated, but to your point, because people are afraid, I think they are hesitant to even ask for help or ask a question. Absolutely. And thus the family, their children are not getting the things they need. My sense is maybe 25, 30 percent of families in New Jersey have at least one person in the household who does not have the appropriate documentation to be here. So it does impact a lot of people.

SPEAKER_01

And what's interesting about that is that people who are eligible for supports services, they won't access them because they don't want to bring attention to their household. Right. And so we see a decline in in participation of kids in programs or um, you know, families taking advantage of things like job training or other opportunities because they just don't want their name, their address, their family, and any any type of a system.

SPEAKER_00

Right. That is difficult. I think to the other issue in terms of those local supports. Right. Do you think legislation is required, or do you think groups like Mammoth Acts can be formed on their own? And what what does that take?

SPEAKER_01

I should say there are examples. I mean, there are things that have grown organically in our state. I mean, I'm in awe of the BRICE education in Southward of Newark, what they've done in terms of bringing um uh uh uh more holistic support to support education of kids in the Southward and support for their families. You know, I mentioned the the work of the United Way, you know, in Middlesex County. If you look at the um New Jersey Community Development Corporation, look what Bob Garachi and that group has done, their Spruce Street neighborhood and beyond, in terms of providing a very holistic support uh for families in that community. I mean, people have done it different ways. They've grown it out of a nonprofit. Some have gotten support from the federal government in terms of a promised neighborhood grant. Um there were two in New Jersey. Center for Family Services in Camden, another great example, um, along with the the Southward Promised Neighborhood. Um, so there there are things that have grown. I think that um they've kind of grown independently or Mammafax through through county government making the decision that they wanted to, you know, the leadership there, that's what they wanted to do. I think we could do more about sharing information, training, helping for more local, locally ground-up initiatives to happen, or government to uh come up with other similar type of strategies that would fit for their communities. I do think that having legislation that would support it, that would provide um some infrastructure, um, um could be a modest amount of funding, but ultimately could be reinforced by moving those uh resources from distress-related interventions to success. And taking even a small portion of that to help with those local initiatives will help things to grow. So I I do think that the state government should really take a serious look at investing in communities in that in that fashion.

SPEAKER_00

It sounds like a lot of these initiatives, there is a group or one or two people that's kind of started. So, how do people who might be interested in starting something in their community, how would they learn more about some of these other initiatives you talked about, whether you've been involved in them or you just are aware of them? Is that something through the Family Success Institute people could learn more? Like, you know, if I'm in my community and I say, you know what, I'm really inspired. I really want to do something. What's my next step?

SPEAKER_01

Well, we've established what we call a learning community through the Family Success Institute. And we have basically bi-monthly or quarterly meetings. We try to share information. To be honest, we're drop in the bucket at this point in time. I think the interest of the institute is to support efforts throughout rather than to try to build the institute, to look for opportunities to help facilitate support for other local initiatives. Struggle. I mean, we haven't found, in my opinion, my my co-board members might disagree. We haven't found the right combination of efforts. We have very limited budget, limited infrastructure. We're not looking to grow it. We're looking to get a movement. We're hoping the legislation would be a catalyst, the community recovery and family success act. Uh if I knew the answers, Mary, I think uh I I would sleep better at night, but I really don't, I don't know what else at this point. You know, learn and look for opportunities to advance these causes.

SPEAKER_00

I'm thinking some of the people you've mentioned on other projects are part of the Family Success Institute movement, right? So people could learn about these meetings through the website, which I'm assuming is Family Success Institute.org.

SPEAKER_01

Yes, it is, exactly. Um, right. There's there's information there about how to get connected, um, get on our get on our mailing list, get invited to our learning community. Yesterday I was on the phone on the way here. We had what was called a regional action forum in the city of Trenton with 65 community members, um, organized through the Fatherhood Center. So many single men uh attended, participated in a training workshop as part of it. Um, we have a partner at Brookdale College and uh community college in Monmouth County uh that trains people around advocacy. We want to keep them connected, those 65 people, or as many of them as possible, to join our learning community. Um we have a forum coming up in New Brunswick uh later this month. And we'll have about 40 community people there that have signed up similarly to receive training around advocacy, around what they do as part of the this programming is identify a local issue that people want to work on. Um it could be something from getting lighting on their street to getting better childcare, whatever it may be, whatever the priority is, uh they receive training. But uh, to be honest, we're trying to figure out how to sustain that support for these groups as we, you know, do this work around the state. But one one of the things that does happen is that they get oriented towards this idea of success, about taking ownership, about being involved, that they, you know, can be at the table, they can make a difference. But we have a lot of work to go to figure out how to continue to sustain these efforts.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. That's true. You made me think of something else when you talk about the fathers' group. So I I am aware because of some work here at ACMJ, that there are growing groups of fathers who are, I guess, getting together to address different issues that they see. And to me, that's reflective of them not feeling a part of things. Right. So what do you think it is about how programs, whether they be government programs, nonprofit, community services, the way they've treated fathers, what is that saying about how we've treated dads?

SPEAKER_01

I don't think we've treated fathers very well, especially fathers that are not in the home, fathers that may be paying child support, but not through um the system that may be informal. They have real chat, they can have real challenges around the relationship with their children, the relationship with the mothers of their children, if they're not, you know, currently involved, how to work that out, how to make sure that they stay involved with kids' lives. I think that programs like the Fatherhood Center, these fatherhood initiatives are really important because they can help uh to support people on how to deal with some of these very complex issues. What are the positive aspects of paying child support? What do you do when um you're you know, you want to take the child out for the day and you're getting resistance? How do you you know how do you deal with your anger around issues? Or if you're a returning citizen from maybe prison or or jail and the whole construct, the whole equilibrium of your family has changed and and now you have to reintegrate. You know, how do you face these issues? It's not just getting a place to live, getting a job, or getting some health care. The family issues are are are critical. And so I don't think we have enough adequate supports to help fathers, you know, with that process. And uh, but I think that there are certainly programs that are more and more programs that are addressing it. Um but um I think it is a unique problem. You know, in the I don't know if they still do it, when John Kasich was governor of Ohio, he established Office of Fatherhood with a million-dollar appropriation to help with policy and supports around these issues. The the state of Texas, believe it or not, established a system where through fatherhood initiatives and increased collections and child support were being funneled back to support fatherhood initiatives in the state. That's how they were financing fatherhood initiatives. But it was contingent upon raising money above the budgeted amount of child support, which the fatherhood programs could be effective in in helping to, you know, to do that. So, you know, different strategies uh like that. So I would like to see uh us look at that issue on a statewide basis a little more formally, how we could provide support. Uh, have felt we can do a lot more to bring in other resources for fathers.

SPEAKER_00

So, last question in terms of young people who might feel not engaged in school, right? Or, you know, you you hear about older kids, the guys being really into gaming, the girls being into TikTok, that there's a lot more anxiety. And we are also seeing chronic absenteeism up, right, among high school kids. Any thoughts on what we should be doing to re-engage those youth?

SPEAKER_01

You know, I I I don't know, but I can tell you one thing I think is kind of interesting. Last July, I joined the board of Georgian Court University, which is now the esports center for New Jersey. The so esports, so kids are very interested in in terms of gaming. Uh, a lot of high schools or local groups have formed teams, compete against each other. There's like a uh a worldwide movement around these esports a couple times a year at Georgian Court and the big gymnasium be full, upwards to a thousand young people competing in competitions, online events, sporting events, etc. Community colleges have teams now, and something brand new to me. I'm gonna uh I think in April is the next one at Georgian Court. I'm gonna go on a Saturday just to see. But in that process, a lot of these young people are getting exposed to um not only other other kids that they meet, they're also getting exposed to a college campus. You know, there's there's other things that you know could be potential. I don't know enough about it. I want to learn more about it, but it's a way to bring them out, you know, into a whole different world. So I maybe that's something I don't, you know, I want to I I want to learn about it.

SPEAKER_00

So maybe there could be a positive.

SPEAKER_01

Maybe.

SPEAKER_00

Maybe.

SPEAKER_01

Maybe.

SPEAKER_00

No, because I you hear the negative, right? You don't hear and that there's any possible good coming out of it. But I think you're right. If you can encourage kids to get out into the community, that's first step. That's a good that's a good step. Interesting. Any other remaining ideas or thoughts?

SPEAKER_01

I've had several careers, let me say that. And um, you know, sometimes I'll I I don't really ask myself this very often, but sometimes people ask me, well, when are you gonna retire or whatever? I think the opportunities for learning like this podcast is a great opportunity to learn. And I I can't think of something else I'd rather do than to learn about things I don't know a lot about. So I think that's very important for all of us continuously to learn.

SPEAKER_00

I agree with you. And I hope you never retire. And thank you for all you've done because you have clearly made a difference and will continue to make a difference. So please don't retire, Charlie Venti. But thank you for joining us today.

SPEAKER_01

Thank you, Mary.

SPEAKER_00

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