[INSPRATIONAL MUSIC STING] - Hi, everyone.

Steve Adubato.

Welcome, everyone.

We kick off the program with our good friend Ameer Washington, the Chief Executive Officer of the Boys and Girls Club of Newark.

Ameer, good to see you, as always.

- Likewise, Steve.

Good to see you.

- Let's talk about, I know it sounds like this, you know, what does youth mental health mean?

Youth mental health is a massive issue.

How bad is it with the young people you're dealing with?

A and B, talk about what the Boys and Girls Clubs of Newark are doing to help those young people.

- Absolutely.

I think it's really bad.

I think social media, I think the lack of direct interaction with people oftentimes is difficult.

There's a life that people lead on social media that looks better than it quite often is and kids get bullied a lot online and what we've tried to do is address the value of social media, where you can use it as a tool for business, as a way to show the great things you're doing, but to also recognize that there are people there, predators, other kids who want to do things to hurt you and use your words against you, so we have a mental health clinic here, along with a mental health center, that support kids' behavioral health, how they perceive the world and put them in front of people who can help them work through some of their challenges.

- Let's talk about specifically what the Boys and Girls Clubs are doing.

Meaning, I know you have licensed social workers there, but how many and I don't wanna get too deep into the weeds, but how could you ever have enough to deal with the young people who are facing serious mental health challenges?

- That's the challenge is having enough.

You know, we have four.

We're fortunate and that means that we could have folks here at our main clubhouse and also deploy them to the five schools that we serve within New Jersey, and so with that one-on-one direct engagement, you know, inside of a space where kids are comfortable, they feel comfortable with the team member, they're willing to share their truths that are happening in their lives, the difficulties.

I mean, I talked about this one young lady.

Her name's Aaliyah and she came up in foster care.

You know, she was torn away from her family and she had a rough time in those experiences.

She didn't feel loved.

She didn't feel wanted.

She didn't feel important and through engagement in our teen center, but also that one-on-one support with a mental health professional has allowed her to come out of her shell.

She was a runner-up for our Youth of the Year program this year.

She's worked in Dunkin' Donuts.

She's getting ready to get certified as a lifeguard for Shallow Water Garden, so, I mean, just in the last two years, a complete turnaround.

- Ameer, you and I have known each other a while and we talk about the connection that, for me, and I've said this many times with you in forums and public forums on the air and off that for me, the Boys Club on Broadway, and I mentioned this, we were in Camden for a public forum on nonprofit leadership with you and a whole range of other, not-for-profit leaders and I said it was the Boys Club.

Before it was the Boys and Girls Club of Newark and it was the Broadway branch, which doesn't even exist anymore, that taught me to swim.

That taught me to be with other kids, you know, from all over the neighborhood that we lived in in Newark and here's the thing I'm curious about.

The Boys and Girls Clubs, it's not just in Newark, but across the country, to what degree do you think people, and I've seen Denzel Washington talk about his experience up in Yonkers, you know, to what degree are there enough Boys and Girls Clubs across this country, particularly in urban areas, to help the young people that need help.

A and B, talk about the money part of it 'cause it's not cheap.

- Sure, yeah.

There's 5,000, over 5,000 clubs now.

- 5,000 across the country?

- That's right.

Across the country, on military bases, in Japan and Europe, so the Boys and Girls Club, you know, in a lot of ways is a global organization looking to serve children.

There're never enough services, but there are over 5,000 clubs, right, and they range from sizes that serve 25 kids in a small room to large expansive clubs that are, you know, a hundred thousand square feet.

They're needed because a lot of times the first thing that goes in schools and other places are the community centers, the after school programs, the extracurriculars get cut out to save, but there's no amount of money that's enough to make sure that our kids have everything they need to be successful and whatever endeavors they're gonna pursue to make sure that 10, 20, 30, 40 years from now they can take care of our country, take care of their families and their communities and so we need more.

I think there's a mission in our organization to continue to build as many clubs to serve every underserved or unserved youth.

- You know, Ameer, one of the things about the Boys and Girls Clubs that it's been described as a safe place and it is.

Talk about the fear and concern of violence in urban communities like Newark and its connection to mental health challenges, anxiety, et cetera.

Talk about the correlation, violence and fear and anxiety.

- Absolutely.

I think part of that is drugs, gang violence.

I think the engagement of youth with individuals who are not positive, who are not their family members and the things that they see that traumatize them that are outside of their home, but also inside and so if you look at a young person who's coming up and their parent's involved in drugs, whether it be use or selling, the things that are gonna happen that that kids are gonna experience is just gonna be traumatizing to the point where they may be fearful of expressing themselves fully, of knowing where to go and get help and so the mental health of youths is critical because by the time a kid's 14, about 50% of them have a mental health challenge and so if we don't need address those concerns as early as possible, then we know how that exacerbates over time.

Incarceration, right?

Underemployment, unemployment and that has a direct effect on the quality of our societies and why communities like Newark have struggled for so long to have the challenges addressed appropriately where there isn't crime, where there isn't a concern of walking down this particular street or through this neighborhood because we've cleaned up the real, deep, systematic issues that really exacerbate what happens here on the ground that make (indistinct).

- Talk about parents, the role of parents in all this and how the fact that so many of the young people you deal with, I mean, listen, every family has challenges, but there are unique challenges or challenges that are exacerbated in urban communities where there are social determinants of health, where there's more violence, where there's more crime and the family structure matters more than ever.

Talk about how you engage parents.

- We engage parents right at the beginning and so when we enroll, we do that by appointment and we sit with parents face-to-face or over the phone to talk to 'em about exactly what it is we do, what the experience is gonna be day-to-day and how we're gonna do our best to serve and help your child.

The parent is so important and you need that engagement.

You need the buy-in.

You need them to understand what you're trying to accomplish because how they raise their children may not be the way Boys and Girls Club is gonna approach things and that's okay.

We don't tell parents how to raise their children.

We tell parents, "Here are some of the things you can do better to help your child where they are at a developmental curve", but what I stress the most is how can we effectively engage parents, bring them into the clubhouse, bring them into programming, bring them into events and see what's happening with their kids so that they engage because when parents are involved in their kids' lives, they do so much better.

In a two-parent household, the statistics show it's even better, so if there's a mom and a dad or a grandmom and a granddad, whatever it is, aunt, uncle, helping that young person and we always say that (indistinct), it takes a village.

I know now, being a parent, I can't do it all alone, but I gotta be there.

I gotta show up.

- You know, it's interesting and we're taping this right after Father's Day late in June and so belated Happy Father's Day to you and to all the dads out there, but also, Ameer, as we wrap up this segment, there are parents who are dealing with mental health issues as well and so if you're watching right now and you or someone close to you is dealing with a mental health issue, a challenge, it's easy for me to say this, but you gotta try to reach out.

No, there are not enough professionals out there in the field, but do everything you can to get as much help as you can get as early as possible.

To Ameer Washington and all of his colleagues at the Boys and Girls Clubs of Newark and the Boys and Girls Clubs throughout the state and the nation doing important work, thank you, my friend.

All the best, Ameer.

- Thank you.

Thanks for having me.

- You got it.

Stay with us, we'll be right back.

- [Narrator] State of Affairs with Steve Adubato is a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

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