Whatever, whether thats right to say or not, has brought me to, it was such a blessing because now i really understand, i couldnt understand if i hadnt had that background and not only was i poor as a little girl, and i was then my husband, we went broke, my husband is an entrepreneur, as i said, and we went broke, so i was also broke with my children in my adult life but you know, with he came back. No, we dont have the race thing and my husband had a mentor, mr. Kaufman, who owned the Kansas City Royals at one time, who helped us take our 401 k and start my little 5 million business which sounds like a lot but it wasnt the the time but it made little alcohol sips and freps and we started from there, seven of our children worked for us and we were kind of a Family Business and the rest is history. But anyway, my point is, we want to give money. We want to give back but were giving it to the wrong when i met bob i was just, i was like its got to be organic, like one of you gentlemen said. Its got to be people, but we can be the foundation. We can support, like bob, who can then get the job done. But you know what . If washingtons not going to do it, were going around washington. Were not going to stop. [ applause ] i think your comments are a prime illustration of the truth of what deon was saying earlier, which is were all in the comeback trail, right, and its the degree, if wealthy people and people who are in authority and power, if they have the capacity to understand that they, too, you know, are on a comeback trail, they, too, are overcoming things. Its not just the folks who are here, you know, that weve all got stories like glen lowerys, and we have to be in touch with that story in order to understand the profundity of what these folks forring. Do we have time for just a quick yes. Why dont all you ph. D. S and pul i Pulitzer Prize winners take one last shot, right, at maybe at in response to what miss brandmire said. Yes or whatever anybody wants to do. I think what was said was terrific. The money that will come from people like you is much better than money that gets filtered through government. I think, and yes, its better if its done on the state level than done on the federal level, but its still better if its not done through government at all. Right. Bill, i would just say, i think one of the things weve seen and one of the things you see looking in any direction today is that were a country more divided than were used to being. Were polarized. Theres distances. Theres nothing more important now than bridges of the kind that bob woodson builds and i leave this day thinking, you know, thank god for bob woodson and if he didnt exist wed have to invent him. [ laughter ] here, here. So thank you. [ applause ] all right, i would agree with that and i think for people who are looking for places to put money to donate for their down face grants, i know its hard to shop around. Its easy to go to heads of government, mayors, governors, but this is why ive been happy to try to help publicize the good things that are happening with bobs organization, because there are a lot of great ideas out there and a lot of grassroots folks who once in a while they get a big high profile. The late bertha gilke in st. Louis, 06 minutes did a nice piece on her. There are a lot of 60 minutes worthy stories out there that arent being heard about. Im happy about the way youve been able to raise that profile. The thing is helping to raise the profile of Civil Society in general because we dont really think about it that much and its not focused on in the schools in that way so maybe were moving in that direction now. I was going to say nowadays ironically were in an era of sagging faith and institutions in general. People are questioning erg, even miss america, for heavens sake. Theres just no limits. So maybe were in the beginning of some type of a renaissance. Go ahead. Very good point to close with. When i heard what you said it reminded me of dr. Kings last speech that he had given in memphis, and what he said is, when the slaves get together, thats the beginning of the end of slavery and if i can paraphrase it and say when the committed, the public, the private, the community and the state get together, thats the beginning of the end of what we call a bureaucracy, thats number one. Number two, i hope the next person who decides to become or is elected president of the United States would change the language we use to talk about people. War on poverty, we use war to talk about port and when you look at poverty its women and chirp. Youre not going to say a war on women and children. Instead of war on poverty change the language and call it a mission for prosperity. Amen. [ applause ] let me just say a word here, because ive known bob woodson for 30 years. I mean, literally, and he still is standing. Right. And that aint a small accomplishment. I think it needs to be noted, before we lapse into despair. I agree. Thats right. Thats great. Hes not only standing but you know, ill say this about bob. Bob has been picked up and dropped by some of the best politicians in the country, and he has ive come to appreciate this more and more, ive known him for 40 years, he has worked tirelessly with the politicians to get the resources, to tell your stories to them, and they pick him up, you know, he will tell, you know, hell bring you to the attention of the public, they tire of it, they move on to something else, they win in election so they dont need bob anymore and they drop him, and bob has remained without bitterness through that whole thing, and in a way that amazes me. I would be so angry, right, if i experienced onethird of what bob woodson experienced from the politicians and the intellectuals and the elites who make this public our countrys Public Policy. Its an extraordinary testament to his character and we need to get his autobiography published as soon as possible because thats really where we hear about that kind of depth of character that were all familiar with. Anyway, so lets thank our panel for a terrific conversation. [ applause ] i want to thank everybody for coming. We want to start our conference, im bob woodson, founding president of the center for neighborhood enterprise, organization that i founded 34 years ago on the premise that people who are experiencing poverty are the experts on how to solve poverty, and so for the past 34 years, we have been like a Geiger Counter that has gone around the nation in some of the most crimeridden, druginfested neighborhoods and unlike the poverty industry, we go in looking for strengths. The traditional approach is to addressing poverty, they go into lowincome, highcrime neighborhoods and they want to know how many people are raising children that are dropping out of school, in jail, on drugs, and with this demographic profile, they go to foundations or government, apply for grants. The government then funds these professional organizations, who then parachute programs into lowincome neighborhoods with the expectation that poverty will be alleviated. 70 cents ofur every dollar spe on the poor goes not to the poor, but those that serve poor people, they ask not which problems are solvable but which ones are fundable this year, so as a consequence, we have created a commodity out of serving poor people and we wonder why we have failed. And so i think, and also the experts at solving poverty are the professional social scientists. I been in washington, d. C. , for over 40 years, and whenever a conference like this is convened, what you will see are academics, people who study the problem and then they provide Scientific Evidence about remedies, but when these are applied, we end up with a failed remedy. I think sew what we have done at the center is that we have brought the practitioners, the poverty warriors, the people that share the same cultural and geographic zip code as those experiencing the problem. I feel like that weve had in the last 50 years with 20 trillion spent on the poor its been like a team that has lost every game every year and we never think about changing the coach, the players or even the playbook. And so also i feel like im a fan that watches my team with all the best players on the bench. So this conference is intended to change that, the dialogue, but in order to do so i think its important to understand why we have failed to address poverty in a proper way because you cannot generalize about poor people. I believe there are four categories of poor people. There are those who are just broke, they dont have any money, a significant breadwinner has died or factory has moved away, or the company went bankrupt and theyre out of work. They use the welfare system the way it was intended as a temporary bridge over troubled times. They use it as an ambulance service, not an entire transportation system, and then you have those that are poor and are in need characters intact, but they look at the disincentives for working or marrying and they conclude that im going to lose more benefits if i am productive, and therefore ill just acquiesce and stay on welfare, and then the third category, those who are physically and mentally disabled, we must find a way to care for them. But the fourth category that concerns most of us are those who are poor because of the chances that they take and the choices that they make. They have character flaws, and so what the center for neighborhood enterprise does and the groups that you see assembled here, we specialize in category four. Our groups run to people everybody else runs away from. We operate within the zip code of those experiencing, they are like what i Call Community antibodies, the most effective way of treating the human body is strengthening its own immune system. You dont start with a transplant, so we believe that these poverty warriors that are indigenous to lowincome communities represent a new source of knowledge, a new a resource that, if properly resourced can really begin to bring about dramatic declines in poverty if we can only recognize them. As my friend bill chambra said years ago the qualities that make them recognizable make them invisible. Theyre not part of the victims league, theyre not whining, theyre not protesting anything. Theyre just busy doing their work. Theyre not looking for you. You have to go and find them. And so were just delighted to welcome you to hear our panelists. Afterwards were going to have a panel of thought leaders that are in the audience that will come up and the second half of this, and begin to respond to what our practitioners have said and done and ive asked them to share not just what they do but why they do it. What is the magic sauce, what is it that summons people to responsibility when prisons couldnt change them, psychiatrists couldnt change them, but somehow you inspired them to want redemption in their lives and then you provided them with the means on achieving redemption, and we want you to share with us what it is that you do that promotes that kind of transformation in people that results in the restoration of entire communities and im going to ask my comoderator, pastor buster sorres if he would offer some opening remarks and then we will start we want a die lale here, a conversation. Now i know why im here, im moderator. Ive been waiting to find out who i am and why im here, so thank you, bob. Let me thank the board and the staff of the center for neighborhood enterprise for the work that they do. They are similar to people that i read about who were assigned the task of making brick without straw. That group left the country. Promised land. But bob and his staff have persisted in this arduous task that is almost impossible, and i want to commend you, bob, for what you do, but let me just as comoderator describe the assumptions that were here to counter, that the presence of these panelists and those in the audience have a conis encuss around, assumption number one is that problems can be solved if enough money is spent. So if the problem is poverty, there is in the culture now a consensus that the more money government spends, the more commitment government has to solving the problems of poverty, and these men and women were invited but theyre not here yet, just know, for those who are concerned, these men are here to describe the work that they do that really offers an alternative view that the changes that happen in peoples lives that give them the capacity to overcome poverty and other personal challenges is not dependent upon levels of spending of government programs. Thats assumption number one. Assumption number two that has seemingly gripped the great part of our culture is that race is the undeniable predictor of all outcomes, particularly when it comes to black people, africanamericans, whatever term you use, and until the race issue is resolved, then neither poverty nor education, nor any of the social pathologies that we are concerned about can be successfully addressed, and that racism as a systemic evil is such a strong undercurrents that until racism is eradicated, then we can reasonably predict that a disproportionate amount of black people will be stuck in poverty and in negative outcomes. These men will counter that assumption. The third assumption that we have is that government ultimately is the preferred provider of services to solve problems, that government can do it more effectively, that government can do it more efficiently, and whats going to happen today is that were going to describe strategies that have tangible outcomes that were not in fact performed by government, although theres a role for government, none of these presenters today will assume that government could have done what they did better than they did it. Further, there are times when their work has been inhibited by government, by government programs, government regulations, and the reason our presence here today is important, therefore, is because unless voices like these are heard, we will continue to focus on assumptions which lead us to historical political, economic dead ends. The war on poverty has led us to a very expensive dead end, and after 50 years of fighting poverty with government spending, we now see higher rates of poverty and we see even deeper wounds created by the presence of poverty, and so if we continue doing the same thing the same way, we will certainly get the same results, and so our hope today is that those of you who are here and those who will tune in later as we record this, will be able to glean from these experts strategies that have measurable irrefutable outcomes that will inform both Public Policy and neighborhood practices. Good. Id like to just start by introducing someone ive known for a number of years, and as i introduce you, ill ask to you make remarks and then ill introduce the next person, but when this young man omar jawa, was 23 years old, working as a full time paid employee of the texas prison system inside gainesville prison, and he was paid to do gang mediation inside between black and brown gangs, between black and black gangs, and i was impressed with the fact that, as a full time employee, he was also trusted by all of the inmate factions, and he roamed freely in that environment, resolving conflicts, and i knew that this was a very special person, and so i said to him, if you can do this inside the prison, you can do that inside the community, and so we summoned him out and helped start vision regeneration in south dallas, and id like omar to talk about how have you been what have you been able to do in terms of reaching gang members, reaching people that everybody else said that are useless to try. First, bob, thank you for allowing us to come and i appreciate the opportunity to share and as bob said im amore jawa from dallas, texas. When i was much younger and much smaller, i was a prison worker, and i thinkojawa from dallas, texas. When i was much younger and much smaller, i was a prison worker, and i thinkmjawa from dallas, texas. When i was much younger and much smaller, i was a prison worker, and i thinkomajawa from dallas,. When i was much younger and much smaller, i was a prison worker, and i thinkrjawa from dallas, t. When i was much younger and much smaller, i was a prison worker, and i thinkomar jawa from dallas, texas. When i was much younger and much smaller, i was a prison worker, and i think i am asked how do you do it . I said you got to be young and unintellige unintelligent. [ laughter ] no, im just playing. You have to be a little offkilter to believe you could go into prison and do some of the stuff i was doing. Its funny, ill start with a story and answer your point. One of the young men in prison the way i met bob was through a prisoner. He was leaving the prison and he was going to coming to d. C. He was kicked out of texas. He could not return to texas. Thats how bad his behavior was and the state had banned him from being released to texas, so we found an aunt in d. C. And so he came to d. C. But he was still motivated by the teachings that we had taught him inside the prison, and his brother called me and said brother omar, i found this brother who talks just like you, acts just like you. The only difference is hes old. I said really . He said yeah, man, and so me being very, you know, i had a lot of vitriol and i was really serious about this so i called bob on the phone and i said to bob, if you are really that committed, brother, come to the prison. You know, i was in my heyday, and i was challenging him to come to the prison and do what you do in prison. He said ill be there tomorrow and he brought his whole team to the prison and did a book signing and gave books away to all of the inmates and said, and then he said those words that he just said to you, he said those to me. If you can do this in the prison, let me help you do it in the community. And so what weve done is, weve asked that in my opinion, the most effective tool in deterring violence in gangs are soldiers committed and not afraid but theyre usually the most underutilized because people are frayed to talk to the soldiers. If you dont know how or who to reach, you normally become, you become under siege by what you see, and you can misdiagnose them as all useless, but they are the most useful tools that you can ever have is a person who is committed and is not afraid. See, they are not afraid of the environment. They control the environment, and theyre committed and here is a second thing i want you to know, is that poverty and pain does not mean a person is not motivated. Right. They may be miscalculated but it dont mean they are lethargic. Most people assume that those who are in poverty think thats a permanent condition but in their mind, they coming out some way, just depends if you are able to help them reach their goal of resuscitation, revival, whatever theyre trying to do. You have to have someone who is saying your motivation is not wrong. Your tactics are. I used to tell young men in prison, i said your character is flawed, but your characteristics have a marked advantage. If i can help ship your character would you help use your characteristics as a leader . They would say yes. I did a bloods and cripp peace treaty, i asked all of the brothers i said