[INSPRATIONAL MUSIC STING] - We are now joined by our long time friend Carlos Lejnieks, who's CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Essex, Hudson, Union Counties.

Carlos, good to see you buddy.

- Good to see you, Steve.

Thanks for having me.

- You got it.

Hey, listen, website's up.

Tell everyone what Big Brothers Big Sisters is, 'cause you need mentors, I know that.

- Absolutely Steve, Big Brothers Big Sisters is the oldest youth mentoring organization in the nation over a hundred years old, based on evidence-based practices, we pair up a volunteer mentor in a one-to-one relationship with a child.

And through a thoughtful intake process, we get to know both sides of the equation and play matchmaker, and then this relationship is so critical 'cause they meet on a regular basis for at least one year.

And on average, many kids in our program stayed matched up for at least three years.

So, so the average length of match tells us that we're doing something well on the front end, that we're matching people up thoughtfully based on common interests and commonalities.

So at the end of a year, it's no longer the end of a program.

It becomes part of a life long relationship.

- Carlos, what has been the impact that you can tell from COVID, and not just in your program, but most importantly to the young people you're attempting to help?

- So, so two things are pronounced coming out of the pandemic more than ever before.

We see the depressive elements of our young people extremely challenging.

And so what we do is with the specialized eyes of our bigs, they have, they're in tune with our littles.

- The bigs are the mentors.

Sorry, Carlos.

- That's right.

- The bigs are the mentors.

- That's right, with our adult mentors, they have specialized on the needs of our children.

So they see the things that are obvious, but more importantly, they see the things that are not as obvious, the subtle cues that our kids will offer.

And coming outta the pandemic, there've been a lot of depressive elements that trusted adults, that volunteer Big Brother, Big Sister is able to see.

Now, now there are bigs are not therapists, they're not behavioral health social workers.

We make sure that that's clear.

But when they see that, they signal it to us as an organization and then the village is galvanized.

We then bring in our staff who are trained in supporting our kids as well as other more professional services like Jersey City Medical Center, for example, and RWJ Barnabas have been extremely helpful in offering us consistent, caring professionals for their behavioral health strength that they offer our communities.

They're there for our families, our kids, and frankly, to support our bigs as well through that journey.

So that, that's a big takeaway coming outta the pandemic.

And then secondly, frankly, another big issue is a lack of focus on keeping down the path of attaining your degree, graduating from high school, as well as going off to college.

And evidence is piled on.

We know what, what, what the power towards social mobility is to have that degree, that the university degree, the higher education degree, and the skills, and the network that being a college graduate offers kids.

And we know that the whole world, a global, in a global economy, people are competing for these jobs.

Our kids will be so far left behind if they don't have that degree.

And so what we're doing is ensuring that they get the supports to ensure that they get to the right schools of their choice and that they have the support network around them to make it successful.

- And Carlos I happen to know that you, your higher ed experience, very significant in your life.

Tell folks where you went to school.

- I was born and raised in the public school system in Montclair and went off to College of Brown University.

I'm now on the board of Governors of Brown University and got a master's degree at London School of Economics.

I will, I'm the first to testify to the power of what wonderful education can do to transform one's life.

My mom cleaned houses, was born in a small room apartment in Ecuador.

She scrubbed toilets to put food on the table.

She worked really hard to keep us at a wonderful public school system that then offered the opportunity for me to go off to an Ivy League college, and then the real blessing was at every turn, the reason why I stayed in school and I graduated and went off to get a master's degree was 'cause I had mentors at every corner, at every turn in my life, had someone encouraging me to stay down the right path even when I thought maybe of going astray.

And that's why 16 years ago when I became CEO, was asked to become CEO of this local chapter based here in Newark, I took a reflection.

I was like, who would I not be to pay that forward and to have that be a job, a real profession, frankly, a mission that's been a lot longer than anyone predicted 16 years and loving it.

It's a marathon race, but one that requires regular action to be done person to person every single day.

To me, if I, if you don't mind, Steve, the, you know, it's been a long journey on this, but there are these moments that really fuel the fire to this work.

So of course we all have the testimony that we have mentors.

You've had mentors in your life, Steve, but I will tell you to have a young person as one of my former students who I met 20 years ago.

He was in middle school, he was, I was an administrator of a school in Newark.

He came to that school.

I knew him, I knew his family.

Fast forward, he graduated high school on time, went off to college, is now a union organizer here in Newark.

He's fully employed.

He's really giving back to his community.

And he just signed up a month ago.

This was a 20 year relationship that I have had.

- To be a big?

Yeah and now he's a big brother in Newark to a young man in Newark.

Talk about paying it forward, to me, my friend, that is the ROI, that's the return on investment.

- You've mentioned Newark a couple of times.

We've been focused on the fact that some of our mutual friends in Newark who are involved in development, economic development have picked up on the fact have informed us, and we've been focused on this, there's a certain location in the heart of Newark downtown at 550 Broad Street.

Someone says, what does that mean?

550 Broad Street?

What is going on at 550?

And why is it significant, particularly in the world of philanthropy and nonprofits?

- This is an exciting place to be.

This is an exciting time to be in downtown Newark.

I'm proud to say that one of my advisory board members and dear friends Kerry Burse Levine was visionary on what to do with a single building and creating an opportunity for kindred spirits, people who care about our community to be in this building.

We were one of the first Big Brothers, Big Sisters was one of the first tenants as she launched into this post pandemic.

And it's across the street from Harriet Tubman Square where there's so much going on, Juneteenth, there's so many great celebrations at Harriet Tubman Square with anchor institutions investing in this part of the downtown area.

But investments are one thing, but it's person to person.

So when you see in this building, frankly, so many wonderful organizations that are- - Foundations, there are nonprofits that are working in the community every day at this one location.

- That's right, and so it's a dream manifested in the lives of people in these halls now.

And it's exciting to be here.

- Stay on the Newark thing.

Got about a minute left.

Bigs in Blue is what?

And why does it matter?

- It's an opportunity for law enforcement to be paired up in a one-to-one relationship with our kids.

We launched it in Newark.

In fact, when then Mayor Booker had, had tension in our community and we try to build a bridge between law enforcement and children.

Fast forward to today, we're launching it, re relaunching it in our communities, specifically in Jersey City with the president of the Police Union signing up his rank and file as well as in Plainfield under the support of Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman.

We've done increased programming in the greater Plainfield area and Bigs in Blue is robust there.

And it allows the relation to humanize each other.

And so the tensions that we see around the nation between law enforcement and our communities, they don't, they're not inevitable.

If we build conversation and opportunities to get to know each other, this is a way to be build better understanding and frankly build a better future between our law enforcement officers and our communities.

- And that's called Bigs in Blue.

And this is Carlos Lejnieks who's the CEO of Big Brothers, Big Sisters of Essex, Hudson, and Union Counties.

Carlos, all the best wish you and your team and the other folks down at 550, all the best doing important work in the community, in the city of Newark and the surrounding areas.

Thanks Carlos.

- Thanks Steve.

I appreciate it, thank you.

- You got it, stay with us.

We'll be right back.

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