00:00:00.009 - 00:00:21.770

Society and then forward to solutions to poverty that continues. Uh, here at Grove City College, and tonight, uh, I'm happy to have the opportunity to Once again, because he was on campus here once before years ago, to introduce you to Robert Woodson Senior. Bob Woodson is

00:00:21.770 - 00:00:44.529

the founder and the president of the National Center for Neighborhood Enterprise. And uh that um. That particular organization and and his leadership, leadership of it, he's referred to as the godfather of the movement. I, I, I, I didn't stop there. I've got more to say on

00:00:44.529 - 00:01:10.720

that. The godfather of the movement to empower neighborhood-based organizations. He believes, and those that he brought with him believe that remedies to problems can emerge from the residents of low income neighborhoods. And he's been working at this for a long time. He, he began his career

00:01:10.720 - 00:01:34.620

as a civil rights movement advocate and then moved into the National Urban League. And then to the American Enterprise Institute. He is uh an unrelenting advocate of resident management and ownership of public housing. And the need to foster youth intervention and violence prevention in urban neighborhoods.

00:01:34.980 - 00:02:02.940

He sponsored and shaped initiatives to control gang violence in Philadelphia, Washington DC, and other cities. And he's done training over and guidance of over 2000 faith-based organizations of a similar sort in 39 states. In 1998, uh, he wrote a book, The Triumphs of Joseph. And ah

00:02:02.940 - 00:02:32.770

it explains how faith and common sense and courage. can revive and save neighborhoods. And about the power of grassroots, what he calls societal healing agents. He's he's invited and brought with him. 9 or 10 Josephs and may I say some Josephines too and uh. These men

00:02:32.770 - 00:02:52.559

and women Uh, will be joining us tonight in order that you might hear about these efforts to revitalize our cities and those who live in them. The way we're going to proceed tonight is uh that Bob Woodson is going to introduce a brief video and then

00:02:52.559 - 00:03:13.580

uh after that make some remarks and then he's going to invite some of the members that he's brought along to come up here to help answer questions that you might have about uh these problems of poverty. He is a gentle but courageous warrior for urban order

00:03:13.830 - 00:03:44.300

and opportunity. Let's welcome him, Bob Woodson. Thank you. If I were to provide an alternative title to my remarks tonight, it would be how to make common sense commonplace again. In the public square. Or a more lofty title would be how to apply old values to

00:03:44.300 - 00:04:00.949

a new vision of America. But before I show you a brief video that gives you some idea of what the National Center does by taking you around the country. I, I must share with you a little story I heard that puts into perspective, uh, a lot

00:04:00.949 - 00:04:20.540

of what I've heard today, and we get into this bipolar discussion of what's left and what's right and, and whatnot, and it's best summarizes to me, helps me understand it in a little story. About a man who was drowning about 15 ft from the shore. And

00:04:20.540 - 00:04:42.779

a liberal came along. And reasoned that the man was 15 ft away. And concluded that since he had purchased 30 ft of rope, he would just throw. Everything he had at the drowning man. The conservative comes along and determines that the man is 15 ft away.

00:04:43.739 - 00:05:17.959

And says, well, I'm gonna give him 7.5 ft and let him swim the rest of the way. The neoconservative comes along. And observes the man drowning and goes home and writes a column about it. That best summarizes uh. The various philosophies that we must suffer through.

00:05:18.790 - 00:05:34.839

In order to get at some solutions. So right now I'd like to uh introduce uh a film and thanks to the uh the support of rogue City Administration, we were able to throw together uh this uh this brief video that takes you and shows you a

00:05:34.839 - 00:05:54.600

little of what we do. We produce a lot of videos because a lot of our folks will not read bounded reports, even if they're in four colors. They're very verbal and they're very visual. And so we have got to speak to our people in a language

00:05:54.600 - 00:06:09.899

in which they understand. And so I would like to share a little of that with you and the uh person who is the producer of that film is Heather Humphries, a young lady who's been with me some 27 years of a friendship and uh and been

00:06:09.899 - 00:06:46.109

with the center and produces all of our videos and and all of that kind of good stuff. So Heather's over here with. Roll the tape I think that uh the character of any nation is defined by how it treats its weakest members. The Bible says, as

00:06:46.109 - 00:07:02.790

you do it unto the least of these you've done it unto me. In America, the intention of helping poor people has been a noble one, but the means by which this intent has been applied has often injured the poor with a helping hand. For instance, we

00:07:02.790 - 00:07:20.940

assume that uh the problem was uh racial discrimination. And so we passed civil rights laws, Voting Rights Act. We assumed that the problem was money, so we spent $9 trillion in the last 40 years on poverty programs. We assumed the problem was a lack of political

00:07:20.940 - 00:07:41.850

participation, so people of color now run most of the major cities, uh, throughout the nation. And when you look at the consequence of these major policy approaches, you'll find that conditions facing many low income people are worse than it was uh 40 years ago. Prior to

00:07:41.850 - 00:08:03.869

the poverty programs, the moral and spiritual uh centers were the glue that kept those communities together, for instance, the black community. Uh, despite racial discrimination, injustice, uh, no legal representation, still the moral and center of the black community was the family, but this moral glue was

00:08:03.869 - 00:08:22.640

just torn asunder as we had a myriad of interventions such as the welfare programs in the 60s that only rewarded women if they were not married, were not in school, and if they had children out of wedlock. Then they, they would receive support and so in

00:08:22.640 - 00:08:45.820

one sense the welfare program replaced men and fathers in the homes. Also, there was just cultural assault on society uh coming out of the 60s that advised young people to tune out, turn off, get high, drop out. Prior to the 1960s, government assistance to poor people

00:08:45.820 - 00:09:05.260

went directly to individuals and families. In the 1960s, a major paradigm shift occurred. Government spending for poverty programs dramatically increased, but the money went instead to huge bureaucracies who provided service to the poor. They asked not which problems are solvable, but which ones are fundable. As

00:09:05.260 - 00:09:23.260

a result, there were perverse incentives for the maintenance of large numbers of poor people in poverty. If you were poor and pregnant, there was a program. If you were poor and delinquent, there was a program, there was a program. We rewarded failure and actually created disincentives

00:09:23.260 - 00:09:46.359

for people to help themselves and as a consequence we injured with the helping hand. I believe we must instead embrace a new paradigm that looks for solutions among the people suffering the problem. That it's a well known and accepted fact in our life that The most

00:09:46.359 - 00:10:08.469

effective form of treating the human body is to strengthen the body's own immune system. And I believe that the antibodies that are resident in the human body have their moral equivalent in communities. And these are the neighborhood leaders. The Joseph, if you will. Joseph was an

00:10:08.469 - 00:10:26.960

untutored shepherd who was sold into slavery and imprisoned. But he was faithful to his God even in his imprisonment. When Pharaoh had a dream that his counselors could not interpret, Joseph was summoned to Pharaoh and he successfully interpreted his dream. The Josephs of today are the

00:10:26.960 - 00:10:44.000

grassroots leaders or the antibodies that exist within low income communities, and these are the people who are able to reach their peers. The good pharaohs are the people who provide technical assistance and funding, and what the National Center does is bring these two together, and as

00:10:44.000 - 00:11:08.140

a consequence, the rebuilding of the community occurs. We have been affectionately defined as a Geiger counter that goes around the nation. And Looks into these low income neighborhoods and identifies these indigenous antibodies. And once we find them, we apply Miracle-Gro in the form of training and

00:11:08.140 - 00:11:28.119

technical assistance. And access to resources so that they can grow along a continuum. This is a guy that's hooked on heroin. If you can see he's been shooting up heroin for a long time. You can see his tracks. The crisis of alcohol and drug addictions really

00:11:28.119 - 00:11:48.429

is a crisis of the spirit, and Victory Fellowship was founded by Pastor Freddie Garcia and his wife for over 30 years ago. They have transformed 13,500 people from addiction. But although they have been more effective than secular-based programs, they've had difficulty obtaining funding because they do

00:11:48.429 - 00:12:12.799

not comply with state certification. They don't have professional counselors working for them, but the National Center provided training and technical assistance and also led them to $1 million in funds that enabled them to build a brand new facility to house the people they serve. The organizations

00:12:12.799 - 00:12:29.010

that come to NCNE for technical assistance, they have a need. The goal is to be able to not have to continue. The need has nothing to do with their ability to serve the community. Most of the organizations started just with a passion and a desire and

00:12:29.010 - 00:12:44.619

a drive to fill a need that was missing in the lives of people in their own neighborhoods. And so they started those organizations out of the passion that they have for serving others. A lot of them didn't realize that they have to also run a business

00:12:44.619 - 00:13:00.270

when they become a nonprofit and wanna serve and so what we do is we help them build that part of their organization, the business aspect of it we help them with their financial management getting financial accounting. System set up so they can be accountable and good

00:13:00.270 - 00:13:20.859

stewards of funds that they receive. NCE also provides technical assistance to us, uh, in reference to board development, um, the, uh, accounting things of that nature that has, uh, shored up our organization that we, uh, just recently got our first federal grant and um a lot

00:13:20.859 - 00:13:44.159

of the capacity infrastructure. Uh, building took place through our technical assistance through NCNE, so, uh, we're very grateful for that. If you have high self-esteem, which way, think of a way you carry yourself with high self-esteem. Another very important program is youth violence reduction. The National

00:13:44.159 - 00:14:12.239

Center supports a major demonstration as to strategies to dramatically reduce youth violence by putting into our neighborhoods and into our schools. Individuals that have earned the trust and confidence of young people to the point where they can transform criminal predators into ambassadors of peace so that

00:14:12.239 - 00:14:33.309

children can come and live and learn in a safe environment. And live productive lives. The in school program was um uh birthed out of an idea that we could uh change the whole. The environment within the school and the culture that exists in the school when

00:14:33.309 - 00:14:48.190

the teachers are not able to teach but allowing them to teach and then we maintain the social behavior through the youth advisors who share the same zip code as some of the kids that are attending that school so for us it was a continuum of what.

00:14:48.320 - 00:15:03.669

We were doing an after school effort complementing what we could do in the in school effort. There are a lot of times when students may not open up to teachers, but they will open up to the life starts personnel, and they provide us that access and

00:15:03.669 - 00:15:17.750

um I've seen a lot of students, uh, several that I have in mind that have turned around but now coming to school like they're supposed to, uh, getting here on time, uh, doing their homework and really excelling in the way that we always knew that they

00:15:17.750 - 00:15:44.929

could. Another program is our rule initiative. For the past 40 years in rural Alabama, civil rights marches reenact the Selma to Montgomery march. That resulted in the Voting Rights Act being signed into law by the US Congress, and each year they walked past. People who are

00:15:44.929 - 00:16:07.840

left behind by the civil rights movement. 43 miles of the summer to Montgomery March comes right through Lowndes County. Many of the residents in Lowndes County risked their lives and their jobs and their livelihood accommodating these marchers. But they were left behind. With over 2,000+ without

00:16:07.840 - 00:16:25.409

indoor plumbing, no septic systems. Three years ago, a civic leader from Lowndes County, Alabama came to my office accompanied by about 18 community and civic leaders, and they asked for help for people who are in crisis being evicted from their homes because they could not afford

00:16:25.409 - 00:16:43.169

septic systems. In this is Stephanie. How may I help you? So the National Center mobilized the national task force, and we have been down there and we've raised money and we have as a consequence, saved people from being evicted, but we've also raised $4 million to

00:16:43.169 - 00:17:00.729

put in two industrial parks. We opened a community resource center so people can receive training and also financial literacy training, and we have put a process in place so we can document for the nation. How we were successful, why we were successful, and what are the

00:17:00.729 - 00:17:21.020

lessons learned that can be applied elsewhere and throughout the nation. Another major program with at the National Center is our adult financial literacy education program. This is a program that we have partnered with HSBC to work in low income communities to help members of that community

00:17:21.390 - 00:17:41.020

to become banked, to uh clean up their credit, to steer them to making better credit decisions. And to use the education that is given in these workshops to perhaps purchase a home or uh uh start to save for a young one's college and so forth. What

00:17:41.020 - 00:18:02.189

we've learned about addressing poverty hopefully as a nation. Is that to observe a hypocritical oath. And that is, let's not do any harm. Secondly, I think we need to look to the right places for the remedies, and the kind of grassroots leaders that are able to

00:18:02.189 - 00:18:29.239

connect and help transform people are not motivated because they're getting paid. It is the spirit of God operating through these grassroots leaders that causes them to risk their lives. To save another, I'm very optimistic about the future because. I think the national summit has demonstrated over

00:18:29.239 - 00:18:49.750

its lifetime that in fact grassroots people do. Have the ability and the knowledge and experience to fashion their own remedies. And they have passed the ultimate market test those suffering the problem have their lives been improved, and the answer is yes, a resounding yes. I believe

00:18:49.750 - 00:19:12.439

that these remedies. That were fashioned in a crucible of poverty and crime and violence. Have application not just to low income people, but to upper income communities as well. Someone wants to find insanity is doing the same thing the same way and expecting different results. In

00:19:12.439 - 00:19:26.689

other words, if we want to go someplace we haven't been, it's important to do something that we haven't done. Or as my grassroots folks say, if you keep doing what you do, you keep getting what you got. And so it's most important for us to examine

00:19:26.689 - 00:19:46.209

assumptions and the other biggest problem that we face is assuming that because someone or some policy is of noble intentions, that it always produces noble outcomes. And so therefore, if somebody is a good heart and and has a stellar record of, of human rights and they

00:19:46.209 - 00:20:06.339

propose some approach to some policy, we assume that because they are good people, that good people will produce good policies and therefore we should implement them without question. And this is what we have done, ignoring certain facts and certain assumptions, and that is if, if poverty,

00:20:06.420 - 00:20:26.989

if racism. And if a lack of political participation. Could explain urban unrest and the moral and spiritual decline, the breakup of the families that we're witnessing in black communities today. Then I challenge you in your studies to ask yourself then why during the 10 years of

00:20:26.989 - 00:20:49.880

the Depression between 1930 and 1940, the black family formation rate was higher than whites, even though our unemployment rate was twice the white community was. That up until 1962. When we had no political representation, nothing. But yet 82% of all black households had a man and

00:20:49.880 - 00:21:12.589

a woman raising children. The black on black crime rate was not what it was today. And so the policy makers who invented the poverty programs made a significant misjudgment when they got together in the 8th floor of the Justice Department and put together the poverty program

00:21:12.869 - 00:21:33.060

based upon certain unexamined assumptions, and they were 3 unexamined assumptions. One that people were poor because they lacked money and the government was the principal source of it. Secondly, that we needed the civil rights laws and we passed them and then voting rights. And so now

00:21:33.060 - 00:21:53.040

we've had 40 years of $9 trillion on government programs that was parachuted into these low income communities, but a major paradigm shift occurred from what happened under Roosevelt in the 30s and when Lyndon Johnson in the 60s. You see, under uh uh uh Roosevelt, monies went

00:21:53.040 - 00:22:17.709

directly to individuals and left in place the social structures and the institutions in these communities. But in the 60s, government money was translated into services for the poor. And so as a consequence, the service provider industry flourished schools of social work, psychology, and so these folks,

00:22:17.750 - 00:22:37.810

80% of all of the money spent on the poor did not go to the poor. It went to those who serve the poor. They ask not which problems are solvable, but which ones are fundable. And our research that supported this were failure studies. You can learn

00:22:37.810 - 00:23:05.479

nothing from studying failure except uh poverty, except how to create it. It's like somebody losing something on 50th Street and searching for it on 60th Street because there's more light there. So the research community embraced studies that were consistent with their ability to conduct studies. And

00:23:05.479 - 00:23:23.109

then it's so that if racial discrimination were the culprit, then explain to me why all of the problems that you see are present in cities run by people of color. See, it's not enough to change the sex or race of the ruler and expect the rules

00:23:23.109 - 00:23:46.109

to change. If I wanted to to make women stars in the National Basketball League, I would not do that by appointing a woman commissioner. I would change the rules. And I would change the rules by saying you gotta play the game in heels. You gotta lower

00:23:46.109 - 00:24:10.329

the baskets by 2 ft. And you gotta play the game in a skirt. Now there's some folks who can qualify. Now I got one last rule in Woodson's basketball league. I'm going to require everybody playing in this league to be capable of bearing a child. And

00:24:10.329 - 00:24:31.079

once I have changed the rules like that, I can send all my recruiters out to male campuses and say I can't find anybody qualified. Don't understand it. Why? Because the rules are changed. Success and failure are always measured against the rules of the game. And what

00:24:31.079 - 00:24:50.160

black politicians and brown politicians did was merely take over corrupt and bankrupt institutions run by their white predecessors. That's like changing the driver of a car that's pointed the wrong way with 4 flat tires. It doesn't matter what the sex of the race of the driver

00:24:50.160 - 00:25:07.160

is, the car ain't going no place, and that's what we did with policies. And so we took over institutions and left the, the game in place. Another issue that that caused a decline was the uh was this was this is a third rail of public policy

00:25:07.160 - 00:25:22.630

is a race issue. I am a, was a veteran and am a veteran of the civil rights movement, but the the movement in order to get the civil rights laws of the of the twenties to apply to blacks, the first thing that black America had to

00:25:22.630 - 00:25:45.410

do was to convince the American public and policy makers that racial discrimination and bigotry were harmful to us, so we discontinued publishing anything about our strengths. Our, our, uh, the black uh universities used to chronicle the success of black businesses. So we had to stop all

00:25:45.410 - 00:26:12.140

those publications in order to hold ourselves out as victims of discrimination and that's why we made this case. Another fundamental policy error in that discussion was we argued before the Supreme Court that uh uh that discrimination segregation was inherently. Unequal instead of strategically unequal. When we

00:26:12.140 - 00:26:33.849

argued it was inherently unequal, we said anything, it is all black, it's all bad, and therefore the issue is to get away from it. That became a very self-destructive policy. So what we had is almost a perfect storm brewing of bankrupt policies, uh, of poverty programs,

00:26:34.550 - 00:26:55.969

political race programs, all of that. And the final blow was the moral and spiritual decline that occurred in the 60s when we denigrated the traditional institutions and walked away from our God. It created the perfect storm. And as a consequence, we have seen a dramatic turn.

00:26:56.500 - 00:27:17.199

If if all of those strategies were effective, then Washington DC should be a mecca. Of social progress and social reform. We lead the nation in 21 separate categories of poverty expenditures. We have the highest black median income of any place in the country. And we spend

00:27:17.199 - 00:27:39.119

the highest per capita on our kids in school and we're 48th in outcomes for kids. And a black child born in Washington today has a lower life expectancy than a child born anywhere in the Western Hemisphere second only to Haiti. Because of the self-destructive violence. And

00:27:39.119 - 00:28:05.579

so again, we must examine that and look beyond, but the problems that we associate with the inner city poor. are now finding expressions in upper income white communities like Columbine, Jonesboro, Springfield, Arlington, Virginia, where 15 upper income white kids were convicted of felony theft. When their

00:28:05.579 - 00:28:25.469

parents were going, uh, they were shoplifting, a friend who worked for the store gave them sales certificates, sales slips, when all of their parents could have purchased the store. So it's obviously so that if, if, if race, if uh if race, poverty, and money does not

00:28:25.469 - 00:28:43.560

work for upper income white kids, it sure ain't gonna work for inner city black kids. There is something else wrong in America. When we look at in my book, I chronicle all of the celebrities. George McGovern, 55 year old daughter, died a hopeless drunk, frozen to

00:28:43.560 - 00:29:04.239

death outside of a bar in Alaska. Gloria Vanderbilts, 23 year old Princeton graduate son, had breakfast with his mother and then within 1 hour jumped out of a 14 story building to his death. Paul Newman, John Belushi, I can name a whole list. Carol O'Connor. So

00:29:04.239 - 00:29:25.489

obviously the the the challenges that we face. Goes beyond just material poverty. There is a moral and spiritual freefall that we this nation is in that takes expression in low income minority communities by drive-by shootings and the kind of drug addictions and out of wedlock births,

00:29:25.609 - 00:29:46.959

but the issue therefore is moral and spiritual. It is not one of, of, of money. When, when Cain slew Abel. God sentenced them to something that is worse than death, and that is to wander the earth without content or meaning to your life. A moral and

00:29:46.959 - 00:30:05.949

existential vacuum is occurring in the lives of these people. And therefore it is an irrational phenomenon and therefore it requires an irrational response and belief in Jesus Christ and God is an irrational remedy to an irrational problem and therefore we must look elsewhere then to social

00:30:05.949 - 00:30:22.099

science and elsewhere we must find a remedy. Where should we look for the solutions? Because I don't like folks who come before you and tell you how bad it often we are to leave because you can't learn anything from studying failure and you can't do anything

00:30:22.099 - 00:30:42.579

bad. And so I want to offer you an alternative that goes beyond the political left and right. And that is you must understand that the answers lie by looking into the body of the problem the the body experiencing the problem. In other words, God has oriented

00:30:42.579 - 00:31:02.500

the human body towards health, right? The moment there's injury, healing begins. If a blood vessel is, is severed, the body will find a corollary path around it because the body is oriented to its health. Well, I believe that's why AIDS is so devastating because it attacks

00:31:02.500 - 00:31:23.900

the body's own immune system. Well, I believe that my neighborhood Josephs, those who are indigenous in in these communities, represent the bodies, the, the community's healing agents. They are antibodies. How do we cure a snake bite? We take some of the venom from the snake. And

00:31:23.900 - 00:31:42.579

we create the anti-venom. Well, what we have concluded at the National Center is that the answers to most of these problems are, are found indigenous leaders. And so what we do is like a Geiger counter and go throughout the nation and we ask questions that traditional

00:31:42.579 - 00:31:56.219

social science do not ask. See, our social scientists left or right are hung up on pathology. If you want to learn how to play the piano and be a virtuoso, would you go to 5 people who failed to play and say, let me study your failure.

00:31:58.510 - 00:32:12.800

If you want to play the flute, would you go to 6 people who failed and say, let me study what you did wrong, so I know what to do right? That's why the the the principles of the market economy must apply to the social economy, but

00:32:12.800 - 00:32:31.849

in our, in our market economy, we look for outcomes, not credentials. In our social economy, we don't care whether something works, that you can waste millions of dollars in our social economy if it's well managed. But you can't risk a dollar on something new and innovative.

00:32:32.979 - 00:32:54.719

In every other field of endeavor. 60% of our medicines come not from our laboratories, but they go into Tibet and other places and study what native people have have uh developed as cures, and we study them and refine them and bring them into our laboratories. For

00:32:54.719 - 00:33:15.979

example, racer pine. In the 1950s, people were in, we had a medical, we had a um uh institutions, mental mental institutions running over. Our scientists in Vina, New Jersey went into Tibet. And studied how these people were going through this ritual and they danced themselves into

00:33:15.979 - 00:33:33.430

a frenzy and these uh medicine men administered, these monks administered some herbs that called everybody to cool out. Well, they studied them, brought it back and and it's the foundation Racer pine is the foundation of our sedatives. So we've taken these untutored people, refined what they

00:33:33.430 - 00:33:49.430

have done in their native land, brought it back into our country and applied it and now we don't think, well they, they don't have PhDs or MDs. Why should we, but in our society, we have the moral equivalent of race or pine indigenous to low income

00:33:49.430 - 00:34:14.489

communities. But we are not equipped to find solutions there for a very simple reason. One, it is not racism. It is fundamental elitism. In our market economy, we don't care whether Bill Gates has a degree in computer science, whether he's a graduate. In fact, in our

00:34:14.489 - 00:34:39.539

market economy, you will find 80% of the new jobs are generated by entrepreneurs who tend to be C students. See, A students come back to these universities and teach C students in Dallas. Check out your trustees sometime. Ask them what grades they made. I've done this

00:34:39.539 - 00:35:02.108

in endless times. I'm telling you, because grassroots leaders. Entrepreneurs, they don't wanna know what the 401K plan is. They wanna know what the deal is. Mhm. And in our market economy we reward people who produce outcomes for people. In our social economy, we don't care whether

00:35:02.108 - 00:35:21.949

you produce outcomes as long as you're certified because we assume in our social economy that certification is synonymous with qualification. And whether or not it produces outcomes or not. And therefore I believe that what we must do for solutions, what I have done is look in

00:35:21.949 - 00:35:44.510

those communities suffering the problems for the remedies. These are the qualifications of Joseph's A, they tend to share the same zip codes with those experiencing the problems. Like any entrepreneur, their program predates funding. They didn't start as a consequence of money. Three, like Rita Jackson and

00:35:44.510 - 00:36:00.570

the people here, they have made a lifetime commitment to the kids they serve. If money isn't there, they reach it to their own pockets. And kids will know that when they start with him at 3, when they're 33, Miss Rita will still be there. So they

00:36:00.570 - 00:36:19.879

are constant source of motivation. Sec the the fourth characteristic is that they are doulas. They are really slaves of Christ in that they sacrifice their own lives and risk it to go in and save others. I'll give you some examples of what a Joseph does, what

00:36:19.879 - 00:36:42.360

a doulas does. And that is About 8 years ago. In Washington DC's Benning Terrace. The police were afraid to go in there 55 murders in the 2 square block area because of warring factions between the avenue and the circle. And they wouldn't go in. They ran

00:36:42.360 - 00:36:59.090

the community. And so I had trained some Josephs in gang intervention that I knew how I knew something about it. And so I was, these are uh five men in their fifties. One is on on parole probation to the year 2012. He was a bank robber,

00:36:59.419 - 00:37:14.179

but Christ touched his heart and sent him back into the same community that he used to mess up. And but he was volunteering. He had the trust and confidence of the boys and the in the prisons and all over. But I said you're all over the

00:37:14.179 - 00:37:29.620

city, but you gotta concentrate your effort in one community so someone can measure your results. Y'all like that. And they said, where should we go? And then a 12 year old Darrell Hall was killed and because he was the youngest person to die, it was front

00:37:29.620 - 00:37:44.159

page news lead story in all television, the FBI, the ATF, everybody said we're going to serve every tale I want and wipe everybody out in there. I said, wait a minute. I said to these Josephs, God has made the choice. Go up and then and bring

00:37:44.159 - 00:37:59.639

those gang members, find out who they are, bring them to my office. So they went up in there through a neighborhood contact and identified 8 fellows on either side. And after some doing, they came to my office and we had a meal waiting for them because

00:37:59.639 - 00:38:26.219

I've learned that kids will fight when they're drinking together but not when they're eating. And when they came in, separate vans, we searched them cause we spirit filled but we ain't crazy. Yeah. And we began with prayer, put our arms around. They wouldn't touch one another.

00:38:26.639 - 00:38:41.600

But you know they told us, and I'm gonna ratchet ahead. No one ever asked us to be peaceful. No one ever asked us. And when we sat them down and they saw that that we were there and we brought them back a 2nd and a 3rd

00:38:41.600 - 00:38:59.379

time and then they shook hands and then we had a press conference to announce this truce. And then the police, we called them because they were gonna raid, we said no. Well then they went back to the same community. Because we said as peacekeepers. But it's

00:38:59.379 - 00:39:12.939

not enough to tell young people what not to do. You gotta tell them what they can do. So what we did is a, a gang mediation session turned into a work session. So the leader of the avenue became the foreman making 8:50 an hour. The leader

00:39:12.939 - 00:39:29.780

of the circle became a foreman. Members from the circle worked under the leadership of somebody from the album and vice versa, and they went back out to those communities and people who used to run from them ran to them. Because the housing authority provide work. And

00:39:29.780 - 00:39:51.780

they, they destroyed all the myths about these kids. They, they started by removing the graffiti, cleaning up the grass. If you go there now 8 years now, just January, we have not had a single gang-related murder in that community. And what we have done is export

00:39:51.780 - 00:40:15.379

that model, Curtis Watkins, who I'm gonna ask to come up, and Omar. In Dallas These men are the ones who made those kind of interventions possible. And what we have done, like any good business, we have taken the social entrepreneurs. Curtis was working for a company,

00:40:15.469 - 00:40:35.149

uh, sales, uh, uh purchasing agents for the National Board of Realtors. Did I get it right? That's close enough. And, and Omar was working for gang intervention inside Gainesville Prison. And this is what I'm talking about the characteristics of adults. He was inside mediating gang disputes

00:40:35.149 - 00:40:51.040

between black and Hispanic gangs and black on black. And when the Mexican mafia young man got released to go back to San Antonio, Texas, a condition of that release was that he could no longer be a gang member, but a condition of his coming back is

00:40:51.040 - 00:41:06.929

he rejoined the gang. Omar got on the plane with this young man. Never been San Antonio. And and came before the Mexican mafia. And as he was sitting around the table, they were smiling and talking in Spanish, and they were trying to decide which one was

00:41:06.929 - 00:41:23.929

gonna kill him. No I didn't know it at the time. But a man who risked his life for a Mexican. persevered and they admired his strength and God was with him and he said if you got enough courage to get on the plane and come here

00:41:24.270 - 00:41:42.959

for this Mexican's life, we're gonna give you this Mexican. This is what these young men do everyday. Omar and Curtis Watkins in Washington has led a group of young men just like that who now go into some of the most violent schools in the city and

00:41:42.959 - 00:42:01.020

within weeks because of their presence, their healing presence on these kids, they were able to bring about peace in these schools and it is a model that we are taking throughout this country. And so when your researchers, I hope that that Grove City will not just

00:42:01.020 - 00:42:25.840

become another academic think tank. That I hope Grove City will link itself to these practical Josephs and try, we need people academics who can come and do studies not about failure but of our success, and someone talked about something being anecdotal somehow, uh, I was testifying

00:42:25.840 - 00:42:54.840

before the judiciary Committee. And I was testifying with 3 psychiatrists about the efficacy of faith-based drug and alcohol interventions versus the secular therapeutic interventionist. Who charge $600 a day. My faith-based groups charge $65 a day. That's what it costs them. They don't charge the folks anything.

00:42:55.639 - 00:43:09.129

And so we were discussing this, the, the, the effectiveness and how do we know they work. So I turned to them in the hearing room with Henry Hyde and I said, let me just give you tell you a little story. And Jamal, my son came in

00:43:09.129 - 00:43:28.169

with my granddaughter. Hey Jay. Hi Syenne. Anyway, Jamal remembered as he was 16 and Tanya was 13 and we spent, of course they didn't want to go with me. But we were in spending a week with Pastor Freddie Garcia at Victory Temple in San Antonio, Texas.

00:43:28.250 - 00:43:47.070

A man and his wife who were ex-drug addicts, Joseph, who 38 years ago came to Christ and now has transformed 13,500 hardcore drug addicts. People that everybody else steps over and steps around. And midway through that trip, my 13 year old daughter, my only daughter. Nefa,

00:43:47.250 - 00:43:58.449

his wife says, uh, to these two women, I want you to take Bob's daughter and my 3 granddaughters, take the keys to the van, take them to dinner and take them to the amusement park, have them back by 10 tonight. As they were walking out the

00:43:58.449 - 00:44:23.260

door, Neer turned to me and said, Bob, relax. They're ex-prostitutes and ex-heroin addicts. The kids will be just fine. But Yeah. And so I turned to these psychiatrists. I said, how many of you would take the keys to your car and turn them over to two

00:44:23.260 - 00:44:43.080

women who you had announced was cured and let them take your daughter? I said, Pastor Freddie and Nefa could point to any one of 200 men with tattoos all over their bodies with track marks on there and said, go with them. Mm. And the reason that

00:44:43.080 - 00:45:08.739

I have such confidence is not just that they're godly people, because they can tell who's hustling and who isn't. Because the criminal lifestyle makes you very discerning. And so I ask you, and I ask, I ask them. In our ability to evaluate, shouldn't these empirical, practical,

00:45:08.750 - 00:45:41.000

anecdotal experience count for something when we're trying to determine the efficacy of something? Shouldn't account for something. And so that's why when, when Andre now and The Catholic Thinker and and and priest said, go among. The broken And you will be healed. I do this, my

00:45:41.000 - 00:46:06.290

passion for what I do. is because they have healed me. And when I lost my blessed son 2 years ago to an accident. I called Pastor Freddie and I called Leon Watkins. And I say, what do I do? He says, be still, let the Holy Spirit

00:46:06.290 - 00:46:27.300

speak to you. And you'll get your answer. And we did, and Christ answered and held us up. I call two grassroots leaders. And in that church, There were senators and members of Congress, but 22 gang members, and one of them, Vernon Wise, came all the way

00:46:27.300 - 00:46:45.459

around and looked at me and he said, Bob, you've been counseling us to hold, hold up when we lose people. Now God has given you the test, and God was testing me, he said. Do you have what it takes? To hold up So all of us,

00:46:45.540 - 00:47:04.120

so God doesn't use any big shots. Anywhere in the Bible, he uses broken people. People who can pass the test. And right now, before questions and answers, I'd like to ask Omar and then Curtis to come up because these are the young people. Who represent the

00:47:04.120 - 00:47:24.219

future, not only of the National Center, but the future of this nation, because if they can heal people, if they themselves had undergone transformation and then using their experience to heal others. They can heal your sons and your daughters. Because if people can perform these miracles.

00:47:26.469 - 00:47:49.449

Of God's grace in the midst. Of drug infested, crime-ridden neighborhoods. Boy, what they could do in places that are more comfortable. So I asked Omar, what he come up and just. First, let me say, um, I appreciate the opportunity and I appreciate Bob Woodson who is

00:47:49.449 - 00:48:06.879

a mentor and a friend and uh he has truly crystallized this message. Um, I've never Every time I hear Bob it's like I heard him for the first time and it's been 7 or 8 years and I'm, I enjoyed just as much and the truth is,

00:48:07.330 - 00:48:25.129

um, his conversation doesn't change much. If you call him at 10 at night, he's talking about this. You call him at 8 in the morning tell him about this. It's the same conversation. But that's why we love him because he is the most brilliant, um, social

00:48:25.129 - 00:48:43.320

thinker that I have ever come across, and my father has told him to adopt me. I don't know if that's a good thing or bad thing, but that's that's my daddy gave me away, so but I wanna say. That uh The the the proof of this

00:48:43.320 - 00:48:59.669

method that Bob has been speaking on is not, I, I don't, I, I think it's more intrinsic in how we treat each other. I'll never forget when Bob, when I met Bob, this was, I just want to share this story and then we can ask some

00:48:59.669 - 00:49:14.350

questions about what I do because right now, let me just give you a brief synopsis. I have 15 ex-gang members and ex-criminals who are in the some of the toughest schools in Dallas. They're working full time. We have a contract with this district school district, and

00:49:14.350 - 00:49:30.992

we basically ask those young men and young ladies to create civil. Order in those areas and once they create the civil civil order then all the programs that help bring civility to an area comes to pass, but you cannot have products without peace and after you

00:49:30.992 - 00:49:45.075

get peace in products you need a place where that peace can happen all the time because peace can't just be a word, it has to be an experience and we have I also have a Christian club called Club 369. It's based on Ezekiel 3. 69 it

00:49:45.075 - 00:49:58.275

says, behold, I am for you and you shall be built and the waste shall be rebuilt so we put it in an area where there's a lot of waste and I don't have time to talk about this, but in the entertainment world where the conversations of

00:49:58.275 - 00:50:14.239

our young people are prevalent, you see much waste. And so we use that vein to give our young people a way to express themselves and God has blessed us that we attract some of the Some of the some unusual Josephs, you know, we got Snoop Dogg's

00:50:14.239 - 00:50:27.469

musician. He is our head musician also, so when he ain't on the road dropping it like it's hot, he with us, you know, and we're cool with that, and we have Erykah Badu's head musician, and we have, you know, we have this God is blessed as

00:50:27.469 - 00:50:35.030

Destiny's Child, uh, bass player, these guys because they say, oh my, we wanna, we wanna give back, we wanna make a living. So our next link is.