(inspirational piano music) - Transforming mistakes into dreams, and poverty into success.

How AMIkids is changing lives, on this edition of inStudio.

(driving news theme music) We all make mistakes, but how we correct those mistakes can be life-changing, in a good or bad way.

As a young person, it can be especially challenging to make the right choice after getting into an unwanted predicament.

Poverty can exacerbate the situation, and you can find yourself with no or few good options.

AMIkids is an organization that has been working to break a vicious cycle of failure and turn mistakes into opportunity.

On this program, we'll learn more about how they are bringing about change and making a difference in the lives of young people.

Michael Thornton is president and CEO of AMIkids.

Mike has been involved with AMIkids for over two decades.

He began as a remedial education instructor, and has held numerous roles in the organization before becoming CEO.

Jesse Rigby is an accomplished and well-respected attorney, but his passion is helping young people turn their lives around.

Rigby is on the AMI executive committee, and serves as treasurer for AMIkids Pensacola Board of Trustees.

Ronnie Rivera does community relations for the Escambia County Sheriff's Department.

Over the years, he has made a name for himself with his ability to bring elected officials and community partners together to enhance and improve our neighborhoods here in Escambia County.

Commissioner Lumon May has served on the Escambia County Commission since 2012.

He is also active and engaged in the community through organizations like the Southern Youth Sports Association, Community Action Program, Juvenile Justice Council, and the Council on Aging.

Commissioner May was instrumental in helping AMIkids secure a partnership with Escambia County's Block by Block program.

Thank you all so very much for being here.

Happy new year, and welcome.

Michael, let me begin with you.

Tell me, how did AMIkids come about?

- It came about with a idea from a judge.

Judge Frank Orlando was our founder.

He had the concept that he kept seeing kids come through his court, and said, "Man, they keep, it's a cycle."

And he said, "I wanna do something different about, "I'ma do something about this," and so he had a friend, Mr. Rosof, Bob Rosof, who was running a marine research company and doing some work, and he asked him, "Could you take some of these kids," so he gave him four kids, and he worked with 'em.

And it got the kids active, they were engaged, so he went down to see what they were doing and he was like, man, these kids are really engaged and really excited about what they're doing, and from there, started AMIkids.

- Jesse, when did AMIkids come to Pensacola?

- In 1991.

So we were 15 or 20 years after the original startup of the organization, but we've operated continuously since 1991.

- [Jeff] Now some people may remember, I think it was the Escambia Marine Institute, and it's a little bit of an offshoot there, could you kinda explain that?

- It was Escambia Bay Marine Institute in its initial years, and in the entire organization, which was, before that time was really a group of loosely connected local organizations with local boards, local governance, but with a direct relationship with the home office, and then in about 2009 or '10 and Mike could correct me if I'm wrong, but about that time, the organization was rebranded and there was a much tighter fit between AMIkids Pensacola, the local organization, and AMIkids Inc. - And how did you first get involved?

- A kind of an interesting story, and I think it's important.

I had a law partner who wanted me to get involved, and it's kinda hard to say no when you're an associate in a law firm, (all laugh) but actually, they asked me to help with some land use.

They were moving to what was the old Coast Guard station.

You may remember, Mr. Shirley Brown owned it, out on the Intracoastal Waterway, and there were neighbors who were very upset about those bad kids, the juvenile delinquents coming into the neighborhood, and so I represented the organization, and through the Escambia County zoning, and convinced everybody we were a school which we were, and authorized to be in that area.

The interesting thing is within two months, the nextdoor neighbor asked to join the Board of Trustees, (all laugh) and we never, and since I've been involved, and that was in the mid-'90s, we have never had a problem with neighbors at any of our locations.

- Commissioner Lumon May, why are you so engaged in helping this organization?

- Well I mean, when Jesse comes and is not petitioning you for a land usage, and says come do something, I mean you wanna do it, but when Jesse reached out about working with children, I'd worked with Ronnie for years and I was very familiar with the work that they've done, but I believe the greatest investment is in human capital, and we look at juvenile delinquency, we look at youth development, look at opportunity, I realize that this program provides hope, hope for children who may not get a PhD or a master's degree or maybe not even a bachelor's or associate, but they can go through the workforce development and learn a trade, and I had the opportunity not only as an elected, but in my personal capacity, to have hands on and working with building a shop there, and I saw the desire of the children and those who wanted to do better, and so I thought that if you could a public-private partnership with an established organization that was well-respected across the country, we could do that locally, I thought that we should take our local resources and put that in to try to make a difference in our community.

- And I wanna get to the specifics of that in just a moment, but I do wanna bring something up because I think it kinda sets the tone of where all this is going.

I saw something kind of interesting on your bio last night on the Escambia County Commission website and I thought it was kind of interesting, and I believe you were quoting your mom and dad, about your mom and dad told you, you know what I'm talking about?

- I know exactly what you're saying.

- Tell our audience.

- I mean, so when I was a young person, I said I wanted to change the world, I wanted to go into Peace Corps, AmeriCorps, and my dad said, "You can't change the world "'til you change the neighborhood that you grew up in," and so that was the motto that I grew up saying, that, I grew up in Morris Court, the oldest housing project, grew up at Ferguson and Salvation Army, and I recognize that the urban inner city where I grew up was plagued with drugs, crime, poverty, lack of health, we had many issues, and so my life passion and my life ministry has been about trying to change the neighborhood that I grew up in, block by block, street by street, neighborhood by neighborhood and community by community, and so those are just the founding principles of why I ran for office, because I wanna make a difference in the life of a child.

- Ronnie Rivera, why is Escambia County Sheriff's Department involved?

- Well, that's a great question, thanks for having us today, Jeff.

- My pleasure.

- The Sheriff ran on a platform of enforcement engagement, and, like we've never seen before, and I think the Sheriff is very committed to the engagement portion, and what better way to engage with individuals than to meet them where they are?

The Sheriff has kind of a saying, "Bright futures begin with successful partnerships," and this partnership between the Sheriff's Office and AMIkids is one of the best in the community, because of what they do.

They meet people at where they're at.

Sometimes you have an individual that needs those workforce development skills from these neighborhoods like the Commissioner was talking about that are so pivotal, and the Sheriff believes in that.

He fundamentally believes in that, and he, so much so that he tasks us with making sure that we believe in that and doing these things for individuals, but I've been committed to this project for a number of years like the Commissioner said, we've been out there doing stuff with AMIkids for a long time.

It's one of the best organizations that provides that future, that hope for individuals moving forward, so the Sheriff's Office is committed to those sort of holistic programs that help out individuals.

- Give me some examples of how the Sheriff's Office would interact.

- Well, we do things on a level where we've never seen it, sometimes we bring people in-house and teach young men how to tie ties.

We have our own program called the Blazer Academy, but it's more than what we do inside of our building, it's about getting out in the community and engaging and reaching individuals, like I said, where they're at.

We bring programs to communities and neighborhoods.

We bring programs to parks where kids are kinda there and we're showing movies and we're cooking out and we're doing these things.

It's never happened before in Escambia County, from the Sheriff's Office perspective, I'm happy that it's moving this way, but what better partnership between us and AMIkids?

This is one of the programs that's beneficial here in Escambia County.

- [Jesse] Can I add one little comment there?

- Please, please, yeah.

- Because I think this is very important, it plays into what's a national effort by AMIkids, and that's breaking barriers, is, but basically it's helping the youth that we serve, which by requirement or eligibility have involvement with the juvenile justice system and are not high school graduates, so those, that's the population we serve, and many times they're fearful of police.

Police don't understand them like they should, and so we've had the sheriff's department, the police department, and federal agencies into the program working with the kids on a daily basis, and the last I recall was fantastic because from the beginning of that when the engagement, there were two separate groups if you will, three or four hours later, people were talking to each other.

Kids, and there was a learning process on both sides.

We need to do more of that, and I think we've pledged in the sheriff's department and the Pensacola Police Department to work with us doing that on into this year.

- And that's an important, that's important talking point there Jesse, 'cause to make sure that we're breaking these barriers.

A lot of times, when you go into a community, the past has been, well, we don't trust this person or maybe this person doesn't trust this person, and you're not gonna arrest your way out of problems.

You're never gonna be able to arrest your way out of problems, and so by engaging in communities, that gives them an opportunity to see us, and we get an opportunity to see them in a sit-down manner, like I said, sometimes we provide dinner, sometimes we provide lunches, we do these things so that we can engage and learn who this community is, and so they can learn who we are.

I think that's important for them to see who we are as well.

- I know Mike, you were wanting to jump in.

- Yeah, it's important.

We started this about four years ago, and we had 30 of our programs, we have about 50 programs across nine states, get involved with the project.

But this year, we expanded it, and not only talked about breaking barriers with the law enforcement, but breaking barriers with the community, and how do we get our kids engaged in their community so they understand what people like Mr. May do, what the state attorney, and how do we break barriers for the community so they can be productive citizens in their communities?

And the kids that responded really really well, we started in Tampa, we're expanding it in Orlando in the next couple of months, and the kids were excited, and they said, man, I wanna be a part of my community.

I wanna make changes in my community, and the adults were giving them really good feedback and listening, and they really appreciated the adults listening to 'em.

And so we really wanna take this thing to the next level, and really develop a national curriculum that we can share with other agencies because we think it's that important.

- Commissioner May, when you meet one of these kids, what typically is their first impression of you and the idea that you are trying to make a difference in their life?

- I think that they, the first impression is that they know that they can identify with me because I mostly will have on my work boots and my jeans, and I meet them where they are.

I think in many instances, those of us who are older or maybe have excelled in whatever our career or profession is, we try to bring them to us instead of us going to them, and so I think that's, it's very important for them to understand that I'm just a product of the inner city Morris Court.

I'm you just a few years earlier.

I understand the struggles, and it's just by the grace of God that I didn't end up in the same condition, and so you have an opportunity to jump on an elevator with me and we can mash the first floor, second floor, third floor, but we have an elevator out of your situation by hard work, and so I think they, in the words of young people, I'm not known as Commissioner May, I'm known as Coach Lumon, and Coach Lumon keeps it real.

And so I believe that we tell children the truth.

I think we tell 'em that, you know what, you gotta pull up your pants, you gotta be respectful, you gotta be hard-working, you have to shake a man's hand and look him in the eyes, and you have those real hard conversations and so when I've been invited by Jesse to come out and speak, I don't sugarcoat it, I don't give them some speech that was written out, I just give 'em from heart to heart, and quite frankly, they receive it.

I mean, and I believe that if you're genuine and if you tell children the truth, they will accept the truth.

I mean, you can discipline children when you give 'em love, and that's what I've seen through Jesse and Mike and Ronnie in all the things that they do, that they give children love, and I think that once we give them love, and they trust us and believe in us, then we can develop all the other skills that will make them successful in life.

- What do you learn?

What do you personally learn from them, because I'm a big believer in you learn something from everyone.

- That's a really, by the grace of God, it was not me who got in a fight, who got expelled from school and got sent off to a program.

It was by the grace and the good will of others that didn't allow for me to get in that situation.

I think that I've learned from some of those young people that everybody needs a second chance, and that, I'm a big believer, I mean Christ gave us all a second chance, and it's about forgiveness and a second chance, but with that second chance, you have a responsibility to improve, and once you have gone through AMI and once you've learned to be a carpenter, a mason, and once someone has imparted those skills, I think the thing that I've been able to communicate with those young people is that you owe it back, and what I like is that they work as a team, and they wanna give it back, and everybody around wants everybody else to be successful, and that makes a great community when everybody wants everybody to succeed.

- When AMI looks at behavior modification, and again, we're an older program, we're serving 16 to 24-year-olds in the vocational program.

- I thought you'd say you're a older guy.

(all laugh) - I'm older.

I don't know what juvenile justice was in 1964, but if it had been like today, I would've been a part of the juvenile justice system, okay?

- Exactly, I'm there.

- And back in those days, if you were caught doing something, you were likely to be taken home to your parents as a first choice, and over years, that changed.

But I was starting to say something else and now I can't remember (all laughing) what it was.

No, but one of the things that makes AMI successful and all age groups is a family atmosphere, and I have had the opportunity with AMI at the national level to visit a lot of programs, and when you go into those programs and you see, in those cases, many times 14 to 16 or 18-year-olds, and you see them energetic and happy to be there, and some of our residential programs, not really wanting to go back home, 'cause home was where the problem, not necessarily the parents, but I mean their home community, that was where the problems were, and you see that.

I've been in a lot of programs, and again, these are people, these are young men and women who're gonna be called the bad kids in our community.

I have never felt danger.

I have never felt uncomfortable, and the kids will tell you, many times, it's that family atmosphere, they treated me like a person at AMI.

- Right.

- Respect.

- Respect.

- When, respect the values that we have, but the question about, what have you learned from them, they just want an opportunity.

They want to change.

They want the things, the same things that we wanted when we were kids.

Sometimes they don't know how to get those things or do those things because they haven't had good role models, they've been put in bad situations, they come from a situation that's more disadvantaged than a lot of people, but they want to change, and if you give them the opportunity to change, they will change.

And if you give them love, unconditional love that we're gonna stay with you, we're gonna hold you accountable, but this is what we need you to do, they learn from that.

They take those values, we have values like, we talk about honesty, integrity, respect and how you talk to people, look people in the eye, the same things the Commissioner was talking 'bout, those things are important, foundational things for us as far as our model.

Our model talks about treatment, talks about education, it talks about behavior mod, but the key part of that is in the middle, it talks about bonding and forming relationships with young people, and encouraging them and giving them the ability to change and encouraging them to change, and being there for them to help them change, and they can do it, and a lot of times, we give up on kids.

They're kids.

We've all made mistakes, and we can't give up on our kids.

- I think, and just to kind of piggyback and follow up on that a little bit, that that student-centered model creates dignity.

Workforce development teaches dignity in a young person, which they probably never had.

They've never learned how to shake a person's hand or to look 'em in the eye or say how are you doing, have a good day, yes and please, those kind of simple things that we all take for granted, right?

For the first time they come to the program, they've been taught these skills, I call it workforce development 'cause that's really what it is, it's getting 'em into those employers and saying, hey, how can I make a difference in my own life?

Now you've taught me how to make a difference in my own life, and that's pivotal.

That's so very pivotal.

- And it builds their confidence.

And you see those kids, they got the shirt and tie on and they're standing up straight, and they say man, I feel good, and you want to replicate that feeling, and they want, you want them to talk to their peers and their family.

You know what breaks your heart is the parent.

The parents have, a lot of times, are so frustrated with the kids, they've given up, but when you see that young person get themself together, they're so proud.

They're so proud, because they still love them, they just, the kid has just let them down so many times, and you see that parent so proud of 'em, and that's the part of the job that's really, really cool, when you see the kid gets that first job or you see the parent who's so proud of them, and they didn't have a good relationship because of things that have happened in the past, you're able to work with them on those things, he gets that first job and he's, gets that first paycheck, and he feels good about himself or herself.

- Is there any coaching or discussion with the parents after the child goes through the program to say, hey, here's what's happened, and maybe, and I know you walk a fine line of trying to tell somebody how to be a parent, but is there any way, I don't know, lack of, for a better term, coaching or words of encouragement that you provide?

- We try to be, we try to stand with the parents and try to reunify the family.

We have several models that work specifically with the parents.

We have a family-centric model that goes in the home and teaches coaching skills for the parents.

We have a functional family therapy model that goes in and works on that whole family unit, so there's a lot of things that we do with the family, but the most important thing is that, to say, listen, we're gonna take your son, trust us with your son or daughter, and we're gonna give 'em encouragement, and we try to get them to say, look what he's done or look what she's done, so they can believe again in that child, 'cause when that's broken, that's really tough to come back from.

So we have some curriculums that we definitely work with families and some of our other programs a lot more.

- I think, what I've seen is so many of the kids, and I don't know what percentage, have never succeeded in anything.

They have always been failures, or been branded as failures, I'm not sure whether actual failure, but they haven't succeeded, and when they start succeeding, when they pass the first of, I believe it's five segments of the GED leading to their high school diploma, that's a big deal, and that bleeds over I think to the parents.

They see their son or their daughter succeeding in something for the first time, and once they succeed once or twice, they want to continue to succeed.

Now that's what I've seen as a board member who just, in the program itself, on an occasional basis, not every day.

- Success breeds success, right?

- Amen.

- I'm curious, how much does it flow over into other parts of the, like siblings?

If someone is coming up in a challenged situation or a troubled family scenario, have you found that it bleeds over to siblings?

- If you were to talk to people who involved in the criminal justice system in general, juvenile or adult, it's a cycle.

This kid and then the brother and then the sister.

Why, we've had the whole family, I've heard people say that.

So yeah, so when you have a young person and they are, and we explaining them that you're a role model for your younger sibling, they're looking up to you, and it does bleed over.

- [Jeff] Commissioner May, tell me about the Block by Block program.

- A Block by Block program is a program that I started when I got first elected, based on what my parents taught me, that you can't change your neighborhood until you change the block that you live on, and so the Block by Block program is a program that we want to take young people from the neighborhood to work in the neighborhood, and the same time, teaching them the workforce skills, the construction skills that they need, and so I thought, what better way than to reward someone for building up their own neighborhood, and so the program runs through our CRA, our Block by Block, we're partnering now with AMI, we've held, in Brownsville, the most historic neighborhood in Pensacola that was once one of the most prominent neighborhoods, that has fallen to blight, high in poverty, low in educational attainment, that we have the old Masonic Lodge and we also have a house that we're refurbishing, remodeling to put it back on, one, the tax rolls, two, to put it back into use, but at the same time, teaching other construction skills that young people have, and so we're launching that in February with AMI, and to me, it's, as a builder, as a person who grew up in construction, I ride by buildings that my dad restored, and I say, "Dad restored that," or houses that I built, it gives you a certain sense of pride, and so I say, if we could take young people from the neighborhood that can rebuild their neighborhood, value their neighborhood, and learn that you don't have to move out of your neighborhood to find success, and so let's clean up your own neighborhood, and so that's the model, that's the method, that's the reason for the Block by Block, that we're just gonna clean it up block by block, recognizing that we didn't get into this despair or poverty or detriment overnight.

It took multiple years, and it's gon' take us multiple years to get out, but so many times, people like to create these massive programs and say we're gonna save the world.

I said, let's create one HVAC, one framer, one plumber, one electrician, and those four or five people can change their neighborhood, and so you can't change the world until you change your block, and so that's the reason for the Block by Block, and so we're exciting and my colleagues help funded it.

Each year, we put more and more money, and when Jesse reached out and say, we're doing what you are preaching about, every Thursday Commissioner, I said, well, let's give it a try and let's partner, because I think we're all in this together.

Whether it's a city, whether it's a county, whether it's AMI, I mean as Mike said, our children want the same thing we want, the American dream.

They wanna be able to take care of their families, they wanna go home to a safe environment that's clean, they want their children to be successful, and so whether you're from North Hill, Gulf Breeze or whether you're from Brownsville or Morris Court, we all want the same thing, and so if we can share that vision, share that dream, I mean, I think that we all create a better community, and so that's what the Block by Block, and so certainly we won't achieve every block in my tenure of service, but certainly we started, and every great journey starts with the first step, and the Block by Block is just the first step of what I hope will be a program that will be around as long as Mike and Jesse's been around with AMI, that we're changing blocks, we're changing neighborhoods, and we're changing hearts, and I really believe that's what it's about when we work with these young people.

If we don't change their minds and their hearts, the skill doesn't matter, and you have to give them a heart of service, a heart of caring, and as you said, respect your neighborhood, respect your parents, respect yourself, and care for others, and the greatest gift is the gift of giving.

And so I think that's what happens at AMI when you allow for children to become gainfully employed.

They no longer stand in the Christmas line waiting for toys, they no longer stand in the Thanksgiving line for food, they no longer have to take a handout, they got a help up, not a handout, and now they're able to pay it forward, and that's really what it's about.

- I am totally convinced that the real, ultimate good is for the young man or woman that is successful, it is down to their children and their grandchildren, and if the cycle is broken at that level, that cycle doesn't even have to exist for the children and grandchildren.

Now I don't have any statistics, I just believe that.

- Well anecdotally speaking, it makes a lot of sense, Jesse.

- That makes a lot of sense.

- [Jesse] It just, that's right.

- Ronnie, when you interact with one of the AMI students, what is the, kinda the initial response?

I know we talked about it a little bit early on, but before we go to break, I just, what is the initial response once they come in and maybe interact with your or sheriff's deputies or Sheriff Simmons, or, what's the initial response typically?

- You know, I have found it in my life that kids will respond in kind to who you may be, and so sometimes, you hear people say, well this is a troubled kid, and this kid's got a troubled past.

I think they kind of feel that immediately if you have that heart about yourself, but if you come into the project and you say, you know what, this is a valued human being, and the Sheriff's Office understands that this is a valued human young person, and we wanna make this young person better, then a lot of times, young people will act in kind to you in that manner.

So Mike was saying earlier, they're looking for love, and a lot of times, that's just all it takes is just a little bit of love and a little bit of hope and you change a person's life kind of easily, I mean, and this is the million-dollar question, right?

We, there're a million programs across the nation trying to cure these problems, but it's about your heart, and when you go into the project, if you have a heart of service, you can turn that young person over pretty easily and create a heart of service in them as well, like Commissioner said a minute ago, so that's what it takes.

It just takes a little bit of love, a little bit of caring, and you can move 'em forward, hopefully pretty quickly, but normally, they come in and you get a young person, they're kinda timid and shy, but they, it takes some time and they get success pretty quickly after that, but that's about it really.

- And I love when you say, people talk about children with a troubled past, and I give the rhetorical question, what if someone put a mirror on your past?

We all have a past, and so it's all about forgiveness and moving forward, and so when people start to say that they have a troubled past, they have a record, I say that if the past had had justice, many of us would've fallen in a worse situation than the kids that we're working with.

- Absolutely, for sure.

I know Commissioner May and Ronnie, you're gonna leave here after this first break and we're getting close to that, so let me just get you to kinda summarize what's important to you, and what you would like our viewer to take away from this program, and how you believe that people in our community can continue to help and move this program forward.

- I like what Ronnie said, Ronnie said there are probably thousands and millions of programs of well-intentioned good ideas of people who really wanna help, but I think that it's, as I often say, it's block by block, it's person by person.

You can make a difference, and so whether you're donating or whether you're volunteering your time, we can do it, we can reach within our circle of influence, whether it be our nieces, our nephews, whether it be our neighbors or our friends or whether it be a student in a school, you too can make a difference, and if it's just, maybe you can't teach a skillset, but you can talk to a child and give them motivation.

I think that we all have the ability, as Dr. King said, to be great, because we can all serve, and so if there was one word I've leave, I'd say that each of us have a God-given responsibility to serve our community.

- [Jeff] Ronnie?

- I would say that the Sheriff's Office is fully committed to helping young people and to making sure that young people have a path forward to be successful, and I think that's the most important thing to understand that these, the young people are gonna be the future of course, and to look out for one another.

I think that's important for us all moving forward.

- Maybe be a little more forgiving, a little more understanding.

- Amen.

- That's right.

(laughs) No, I keep forgiving Jesse for all the things he's done to me.

(all laugh) - [Jeff] All those late night Commission hearings, right?

- All those late night Commission, all those land use things he does to me.

- I will hold my voice, just like I did (all laughing) in Commission meeting and just bite my tongue and live with it.

- We'll give you three extra minutes.

(all laugh) But I do commend these gentlemen, and Mike, thank you for coming from Tampa, because I don't, I think that Pensacola's a microcosm of America.

The urban core, the inner city, those problems that plague our community are not unique to just us.

They happen across this country, but thank God we have a loving and a caring community with people like Jesse and like Ronnie and Mike that care enough to give their time, and I think the true heroes are those who volunteer and give their time, who care enough to give the very best.

- And that's gonna be more and more important as we grow, and we're rapidly growing, Northwest Florida especially.

- Rapidly growing, yeah.

- We are, we are growing.

And it's called growing pains.

I mean, people say we're growing, you're gonna grow with crime, you're gonna grow with problems, you're gonna grow with all type of things, and so, but as we grow, we learn.

- Yeah, yeah, very good, very good.

Thank you Commissioner May, great to see you.

- Jeff, thanks for having, I mean as a kid, I grew up watching you on channel 3, I mean I tell you, Sue Straughn, Dan Shugart and Jeff Weeks, you've never aged.

(all laugh) And so if there're children watching today, I'm gonna get your autograph.

- That's right, take some pointers for sure.

Take some pointers.

- Take a point, I've grayed up, I look, (all chatting) all the bald hair and you look (indistinct speaking) - Looks like he's in his 20s, he looks amazing.

- I started very, very young.

(all laugh) - Thanks for having me today, Jeff.

I appreciate, absolutely.

- Thank you, thank you, thank you very much.

Commissioner Lumon May, Ronnie Rivera, thank you so much.

We are gonna ask Jesse to stick around, we're gonna ask Mike to stick around, we're also gonna come back with Cheri Williams who is the executive director of the local AMI Pensacola, and we're also got a surprise guest, Teontaye Thomas who's actually a student with AMIkids, so you're gonna get a firsthand look at what it's all about.

You're watching inStudio on WSRE Television, PBS for the Gulf Coast, back in just a moment.

(driving news theme music) - [Narrator] You are watching viewer-supported WSRE TV, a service of Pensacola State College.

(energetic string music) (driving news theme music) - Welcome back to inStudio on WSRE Television, PBS for the Gulf Coast.

We are discussing the various programs and opportunities provided by the organization, AMIkids.

We're now joined by Cheri Williams, the executive director of AMIkids, and Teontaye Thomas who is an AMIkids Pensacola - Nice to be here, nice to be here.

- workforce and development student.

Mike Thornton and Jesse Rigby remain with us as well.

Thank you all for joining us, and Cheri, let me begin with you.

How does a person become a student of AMI?

- Well, we have many ways, we have a participant recruiter that goes out and speaks with all of our schools, we speak with the graduation coaches, we speak with juvenile probation officers, and we just ask for a referral.

What they have to have is they can have a criminal background, either juvenile or adult, because the ages being 16 to 24 at beginning is very important, but also live below the poverty level, live in that with two people in the family below $36,000, living in a situation where they're either homeless or they have special needs or, and they definitely need to need a GED, so that's, and then once we establish that, we have what's called Mental Toughness, which is two weeks of the youth coming in and doing all kinds of different activities and working through to make sure that they're dedicated to the program, because this is a program that they participate not because somebody told them to do it, because they wanna be there, so it's a little bit different than what we've done in the past.

- So once they get through that two weeks, then what does the process look like?

- Then they go through intake and they get all kinds of assessments from the TABE's test to Star testing which tells us where they are academically and through life skills, so once we look at that, we tailor, we have, so we have a bigger picture but we also tailor individually to each student to kinda meet them where they are.

- Teontaye, how did you get into the program?

- I got into the program, what'd you say, a, what was it?

- The graduation coach.

- Yeah, graduation coach, yeah.

- It was a graduation coach.

- So he introduced me to AMI, and I was liking it because of the building program really 'cause I like to build, I'm really creative with building, but yeah, that's how I got to know AMI, and then when I went up there for my first day of Mental Toughness, I started liking it more and more.

- [Jeff] And why was that?

- The hands-on activities, all of it.

But, when was that?

- [Jeff] No, I said why was that, why, what'd you like - Why was that?

- [Jeff] about it I guess is my question?

- I liked everything.

I like the teachers there, the way they do stuff.

It's way better than public school if you ask me.

The way they do stuff, the way they work is way better, just hands-on.

They make sure you know what you understand and what you learning, and that's what I like, that's what I like.

That's why I keep going back every day.

- When did you first start getting interested in building and creating things?

- Okay, so they used to have this game out, I think I started playing it like 2013 or way back, called Minecraft, and I just loved to build, just, I don't know, just let you go crazy with your mind, just.

(all laugh) Underground houses, in the water houses, tree houses, I really love tree houses.

I could, I made a house on the game, in the tree house, and it's just a big, it's kinda like a big mess, but it was just a big tree house, I had fun.

- But it put you in a situation to inspire you to wanna do it in real life, in other words.

- Yeah, to wanna do more, yeah.

- So there's a big focus on the trades.

Talk a little bit more about that.

- So what they're gonna get, we're gonna start out and they're gonna get certified in OSHA 10, so that's the safety, the basics of getting through the beginning of construction, and then what we have is we have, we are licensed for NCCER Core and Carpentry, so the Core classes are nine modules that they go through, like chapters, where they learn safety, they actually practice safety, they do, put on harnesses, they go through the construction math, and, right away, and that's something that Teontaye has said our teacher is, nobody can beat him on teaching that math.

Being, yeah.

- Let me jump in, I wanna say, 'cause that's really important.

So many students get pushed away because of math or something like that.

I like what you're saying, and I want you to elaborate, all of you if you will, a little bit about that, but what you're doing is, I think, is you're taking and you're saying, the reason you need to learn math is because it works over here when you build a project or when you build a home or, take that and-- - Absolutely, so what they do with the construction math, and we do take a little part of that from Mental Toughness just to make sure that they're interested in it, 'cause math is huge in construction, people don't realize.

And the first day, I think they had you measuring things and learning - Measurements.

- the different measurements and fractions, 'cause fractions scare people, and so just being able to break that down.

- The math, just math in just real school just, like public school, I don't know, I think it's the way they teach it.

I think the way AMI teach it is way better, and it's more understandable.

It's broken down to where you can understand it, and if you don't understand it, they'll wait for you and tell you how they know it, or how, a better way.

How do I explain it?

A better route to learning the way to do this math problem or the equation.

- [Jeff] Yeah, and where it makes sense, and where it's not - Yeah, where it makes sense, yeah.

- just abstract so to speak.

- [Cheri] Absolutely, and then they take that math and then they go to the next step where they learn how to cut wood and put that together, and how everything goes and gels and meshes, and we went, did a project with the Independence for the Blind, where we used, - Ooh, fun, fun.

- oh, so we used exactly that math and the cutting and were helping build their float, so on top of the math and doing all of that, also doing community service and putting the importance of that with our students.

- So you concentrate not just on construction but also other trades like air conditioning and things of that nature, is that correct?

- Eventually, yes, so that'll be part of the Block by Block in the house that we're working on.

They're gonna let us see mentors with each section of that, and they're gonna put the kids with different people, different contractors, and we've gotten a lot of response from those contractors excited to work with the kids.

- That's more of a local incentive.

That's really not part of the YouthBuild program, and we're one of two, three, - Three, yeah, this'll be the third.

- three in AMI, YouthBuild programs, and so this is our first year with YouthBuild, but YouthBuild is concentrating on carpentry skills, what they call the NCCER, and please don't ask me to tell you what it all stands for.

(all laugh) Go to the website.

It's nationwide, it's associated with the University of Florida, but it's nationwide, but what it does is give graduates a certification, good anywhere in the country, that they can walk into a job and show what they have completed, including all their test results, gives them a leg up on employment.

So we're concentrating on the carpentry, and also food service and various things in that nature, and then we'll also have an option, and you would have to tell us about this in detail, but the medical option for young men and women who can option in that direction.

- So that's the Plus part of YouthBuild.

So we elected to do Construction Plus, so once they finish, we've asked that they finish the Core and the Carpentry, 'cause a lot of them are young, and they have to meet the requirements still to come to Pensacola State and they've agreed to partner with us, to get either they can choose CNA, phlebotomy, or EKG tech.

- Mm-hm, okay.

- And so that's part of the local aspect, and we will also, Teontaye is not quite old enough, but let's say the 18 or older, there's a huge need for CDL drivers in the community, and we have agreed that if the student completes the NCCER curriculum, we will come up with the money to put him or her into a class to get their CDL license.

And we'll do that.

We want them to complete the YouthBuild first, but if they wanna go on and be a truck driver, a great job, we will ensure locally that we can do that.

- So a lot of opportunities, and then the other thing that's important to realize is that they are going to be high school graduates, GED grad, that's, talk a little more about that.

- So the stigma that goes with the GED is a little scary, and a lot of the kids will shy away because it's the GED, so we take them through and daily, they will go through the GED classes to earn their GED, but in Florida, their diploma will not say GED, it will say diploma, so that'll be on there, and we make sure that we show that and highlight that with the young people and their families, and then we have a graduation for them, so they get a cap and gown and they get all the high school experience, just on a very small level, and those, that GED, that high school diploma does transfer to college.

So it doesn't stop you just because you're getting a GED, so if you wanna go to college after you get the trade, that is absolutely available.

- Yeah, and somebody can visit our program.

We'd be happy to have them, on Malden Road, but there was a wall with lots of, and every one of 'em, the only difference in the high school diploma that Teontaye will get when he earns it, is that it's signed by the Florida Secretary of Education as opposed to the local school superintendent.

That's the only difference.

It is a high school diploma in every sense.

- Mike, did you wanna add?

- Yeah, sometimes there's a stigma, a young person who's really too old to go to high school, and they still hold on and say, no, I wanna stay and graduate from high school, but you're 17 years old and you're in the ninth grade.

That's not gonna be a formula, they're not gonna have a 21-year-old young person in a high school, and so we have to break down that stigma and let them know that, listen, if you can get your GED, you can get on with your life.

You can go to community college, you can get a job, and that type of thing, and that's, and sometimes that's tough.

- Part of the eligibility for YouthBuild requires, and there's a couple of minor exceptions, that they be a high school dropout, so Teontaye, I just assume you're a high school dropout, in that sense, or you haven't completed high school.

That's an eligibility required by the Department of Labor, US Department of Labor.

- So when it's said and done, just for me to summarize a little bit, they're gonna come out with essentially a high school diploma, like you say, the only difference is who signed the piece of paper, and also you're going to come out with some marketable skills.

- Mm-hm, yeah.

- Absolutely.

- [Teontaye] And knowledge.

- Knowledge.

And because you have your high school diploma, you, if you choose, can go onto a community college or university or further your skills, - The options are limitless.

- and trades.

- After AMI, the options are limitless.

- What do you wanna do?

Where do you see yourself 10 years?

- Me, I wanna become a welder, but I also wanna become a lot of things too.

Like right now, (all laugh) the reason why I'm in AMI is so I could get all these knowledgeable learning skills, 'cause I'm not gon' lie, I kinda picture myself as a survivor.

I'd like to probably go to the mountains.

I might start a TV show or something.

(all laugh) Teach people how to survive in the mountains, I don't know.

That's just one option.

- Well, it's a big business right now, doing TV shows and remodeling homes and buildings and stuff like that, so there you go, and this's your first time on television, right?

- Yeah, yes.

- How you like it so far?

(laughs) - Right now I'm having fun.

(all laugh) I had a couple thoughts but I lost some of 'em, but yeah, right now I'm just having fun.

- Okay, so you get this, you become one of these, what's her name, Joanna and all these-- - Oh yes, Joanna and Chip Gaines, absolutely.

- Yeah, remember where it started, all right?

(laughs) I get a cut of it, right?

- All right.

- (laughing) Anyway.

Now, Mike, clearly we're talking a little bit about the local issues right now, but talk about kinda the national umbrella, and are things very similar on a national basis of what we're doing here in Pensacola?

- It is.

I mean we run a lot of different types of programs, but what we realize is that vocational and workforce development for young people is a game-changer.

We work with a lot of kids that are deeper into the system or just now getting into the system, but when that young person gets a job, they realize that, man, I can do something productive, and so we see this all over, and this is our third YouthBuild program.

The other two, one is in Louisiana and one is in South Carolina, and both of those programs are doing really well.

We like working with the younger population similar to our normal day treatment programs.

Most of our kids are, I would say a average of about 16 years old, 15 1/2, and so this population, you're looking to translate to that, you started with the younger kids and you can still work with the older, but we're seeing a trend where young people sometimes are not motivated and they need that motivation.

They're kinda lost, like we all were when we were 17 years old, 18, what am I gonna do, except for Jeff.

Jeff knew what he wanted to do.

(all laugh) But we all kinda go through that, and we're helping these young people kinda find their, a direction in life.

- How many students are in the program in Pensacola?

- Right now in our YouthBuild program, we have 26 kids.

- 26, and I keep saying Pensacola, but what are the boundaries of where a child can enter, or a student can enter?

- Pensacola.

So it is Pensacola.

- Okay it is Pensacola, or Escambia County or just, - Escambia County.

- Escambia County, right.

- Escambia County, okay.

So what would the option be for someone, since our viewing audience is outside, are there options outside of Escambia County at this time, or?

- Not in YouthBuild, our, and there's nothing, there are no other programs that I'm aware of anywhere along the, let's say the four western counties.

I don't know about farther east, as far as YouthBuild, so that's, there's not a similar program that I'm aware of anywhere in this area.

- Describe exactly what YouthBuild is.

Let me get you to give a good definition of that.

- Let's see if I can, well YouthBuild is run by the US Department of Labor, and I may have the numbers a little wrong, but let's say about 75 or 80 programs, I believe, nationwide, and they're three, or actually 40-month grants.

Our grant runs, ran from last first of July.

It requires a four-month period of planning, recognizing that some organizations don't already have a vocational program.

We did, we were just finishing another federal grant, different grant.

Two years then of instruction in four separate cohorts of a minimum of 21 students in each as I recall, so 84 students we're required to serve, and then a year of follow-up, and we have an employee, his responsibility is to follow up to be sure, hey Teontaye, why didn't you show up for work yesterday?

How are things going with your employer?

Those sorts of questions and follow-up.

And then every time it comes up for renewal, it appears that about half the programs turn over every three-year cycle.

The ones that perform well seem to be getting renewed, but it's an older, I don't know how many years, it's not a new federal program.

It's been around a long time, just not in this area.

- And how can folks in the area help that wanna volunteer or?

- Well volunteering, I'd have to pass that to Cheri, but the federal government requires, they want some financial skin in the game locally, and just, tell ya, our grant is a million, $1.5 million over 40 months.

That's a lot of money in this community.

About I'd say 85% of that goes directly into this community.

The home office provides a whole lot of support, financial, accounting, that we don't have to duplicate, so there's a portion that covers that.

But let's say 1.2 or three million dollars will stay in this community.

It primarily pays for the staffing that are required, the minimum staffing required by YouthBuild.

We have to keep the lights on.

We have to pay electricity, ECUA, like anybody else.

Our board had to sign a commitment to raise over 40 months, $333,500, which was a percentage base of the grant, and so that's what we have to work to raise, so yes, financial, and we hope as the first group start to graduate and we get them out into the community working, we hope that contractors in the community will step up and get more bonded with us, and look to us for support.

I know there's a shortage of construction workers, there's no question about that, so, - A lot of 'em.

- direct contributions, we want people to see our program, we're not fly by night, we've been here a long time in this community, and our doors are always open.

COVID, COVID was not helpful to us.

Okay, it is very hard to teach one-on-one carpenter skills to use tools during COVID, and especially before vaccination, so our other federal grant had serious issues with that.

But everybody in the country did.

- Right, right, it's been a real challenge.

So essentially what you're hoping too, I'm assuming, is that local contractors and builders will help absorb the young people coming out of this program and realize the value of essentially you training them, and hopefully maybe feed that back into your program and-- - And teach them how, and the importance of showing up to work.

Commissioner May mentioned it earlier, importance of doing hard work.

I'm a firm believer that, I don't care what your skill level is and I go back over my life, if you work hard, if you give good service to whoever you're working for or with at that point in time, you will be rewarded.

It may not be immediate, it might not be the next month, but it will, over your lifetime, you will be rewarded.

Hard work is something anybody can do, if physically able to do it.

- Right.

And Jesse referred to you about the volunteers, so if someone wants to volunteer, what are you looking for, what would they do, that type of thing?

- There's a lot of things we're looking for.

Number one, we'd love mentors, people to come in if they want to come in and do tutoring, but also people from the construction fields that wanna come in and talk to the kids and really give them a real-life, this is what it's gonna look like, and the limit, the possibilities are limitless for you.

That, we've had people come in from the county and talk to them, and it went really well.

They talked about jobs and what kind of things they can do.

Those are the kinda things that get the buy-in from the kids and into the community, 'cause once you work with our kids, you're not gonna be able to walk away.

I'm gonna be very honest, that's why I'm here this many years later.

Just that relationship, 'cause relationships is what builds our community and what keeps us all as one, and when they meet our kids, I promise you they're gonna wanna hire 'em, and they're gonna see the value in that.

- I will share with you kind of what, just to be real up front with all the financial issues.

It's a struggle, okay, we, to pay, like I say, to keep the lights on and all those things in the building, it's not unique to AMIkids.

But we have to raise probably 20% of our money locally.

That just, it's just a fact.

We have a grant from Triumph Gulf Coast that helps us and is based upon performance only, so we receive a stipend from Triumph Gulf Coast when students complete the Carpentry requirement, when they obtain their OSHA 10 and certain others, and that's critically important, 'cause they recognize, Triumph Gulf Coast organization recognized that this is critical to the community.

They required us to hire a participant recruiter, a student recruiter, because one of the hardest things is for the community to know we're there, and that we can benefit their sons, their daughters, their cousins, whoever it might be.

Our students will receive, once they get a little farther in the program, a financial incentive, and the money that came to us as a grant from the county, $50,000 about two years ago, is earmarked for incentives to student.

We recognize that especially some of the older ones, they may have a kid of their own, and that they have to put food on the table.

It's not enough, it's not a regular job, but it helps put food on the table, and most of the money we raise locally, well more than half of it will go to incentives to the students.

- I have less than two minutes, I wanna just get each one of you, just a real quick final word.

Teontaye, what would you say if someone asked you, hey, what's the best thing about this, what would you say?

- AMIkids, the best things about it, oh my god, I don't know, it's just, it's too much to say.

They got good teachers, good hours, what else?

It's just benefit a lot from it.

Let's see, good, there's plenty of things, but what should I-- - Well it really allows you to get a sense of accomplishment too, I'm sure.

- That too, but what is, I don't know what to tell you about it.

(all laugh) (all chatting) - When you finish the program, (indistinct speaking) - Which one should I, I don't know which good thing I should tell you about.

- Well, you're over, thank you so much for coming on, you're overwhelmed because, and that's good, it shows the excitement, so that's great, thank you so much.

I wish you all the best of luck.

- Thank you for having me.

- My pleasure, my pleasure.

Michael, real quick?

- Yeah, real fast, I would say, employers, take advantage of this opportunity to not only mentor but get employees.

- Yeah, yeah.

And Jesse?

- We need to work with the community, we provide a service, like Commissioner May said, we need more community involvement, both financially and helping out when mentoring and things of that nature.

- Cheri?

- The best thing about AMIkids is the kids.

That's, I mean that's it.

Being part of separating that troubled past from the bright future, and getting that email 10 years from now that says we did it and you were a part of it.

- Wonderful.

Thank you all so very much.

Pleasure meeting you, pleasure meeting you, and of course, Jesse and Cheri, thank you so much and for all the great work you guys are doing here in the Pensacola area, and hopefully this program will help folks learn a little bit more about what's going on and they'll reach out to you and continue, because again, like we talked about earlier and Commissioner May talked about, it's just important to kinda build our neighborhoods up block by block and continue to make this the world-class community that it is and that we want it to continue to be.

We've been talking about changing the lives of young people and the role the organization AMIkids is playing in making our community a place to turn mistakes into dreams.

Our guests have been Michael Thornton, president and chief executive officer of AMIkids, Jesse Rigby, treasurer for the AMIkids Pensacola Board of Trustees, Cheri Williams, executive director of AMIkids Pensacola, and Teontaye Thomas, an AMIkids Pensacola workforce development student, and potentially a television star in the future building houses in the mountains, so we're looking forward to that.

And also in the first block of program, we were joined by Escambia County Commissioner Lumon May and also Ronnie Rivera from the Escambia County Sheriff's Office.

Also wanna shout out a very special thanks to Laura Branch who helped us get this program together and produced.

Laura is also on the board of AMIkids Pensacola.

Thank you all so very much for watching this program.

Please feel free to stream and also share this program.

You can find it online using the PBS video app.

I'm Jeff Weeks wishing you all the very best.

Thank you so much for watching.

We'll see you soon.

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