Support for this program is provided by the Weldon F Osborne Foundation.

The Schillhahn-Huskey Foundation.

And viewers like you.

Thank you.

On today's show will feature two unique nonprofits.

First, we'll learn how soccer can help bring the community together.

And then we'll learn about an organization that provides services and resources for the Latino community.

So stay with us.

Welcome to Chattanooga.

Stronger together I'm Barbara Mortar.

Joining us today is Crew Brock director of Chattanooga FC Foundation.

Welcome, Krue.

I'm so happy that you're here with us today.

Tell me a little bit about that.

I know about the football club, the soccer and everything.

But what is the Chattanooga Football Club Foundation and what is its purpose and everything?

Well, great to be here and thanks for having me.

When we started the club in 2009, it really this whole idea is all wrapped together and as it's grown, we've had to kind of separate things out.

But the foundation has been in the inception of the club because we really wanted everything it did to serve the whole of Chattanooga.

And so, you know, technically we started it in 2015, but it's been really in the ethos.

And the way I think of it is like the foundation is really the word.

There's the foundation of the club.

It's what the club's built on.

and so or if you think of a like a tree, we like the roots maybe that everyone never sees, but it's what really keeps us firmly planted in the ground.

And there's four values that you use.

We do.

So these are my biggest favorite words.

Whole.

W.H.O.L.E.

So anything that's not whole, we want to be able to be, in Chattanooga.

We want to step into that space, healthy.

right.

So that idea of justice, you know, and beautiful, the whole healthy.

Right.

And beautiful.

Those are big, big words.

All of our kids know 'em, hear ‘em.

To me that the older I get, more, is how powerful those words are.

So.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And so the.

So you work with, students and what, 25 elementary schools?

Tell me how that works.

What is the purpose of that?

Yeah, that's a great question.

So we have our focus on our programing is in school.

So we're in 25 elementary schools and then in about eight different neighborhoods.

And so when you were in our school we found that it works best in fourth and fifth grade.

In elementary school.

We'll find a great mentor type teacher, I sorry mentor coach to work with a teacher in the schools.

And then after school, we'll get 30 kids that are interested in, doing some soccer run around here in a little character development thought and, do that four days a week at 25 different schools and then simultaneously, we're also doing things in neighborhoods for much broader range from eight year olds to 18 year olds, actually, and that that will happen in specific neighborhoods.

Or we also have built to kind of, spaces or places Highland Park Commons and Montague Park, that we do a lot of activity.

And so we'll, we'll go to any neighborhood.

The great thing about soccer is if there's it can be a driveway or piece of grass or anything to run around on.

You can play hit this thing toward that thing.

Okay.

So how does soccer play into the mental and physical well-being of young men and women, young boys and girls?

Great question.

well, when I was at when we used to travel a lot as a family and it was funny everywhere we go around the world, I was shocked how quickly we'd get invited to people's houses, and it was always because my kids would be playing with their kids.

And it's generally that game of soccer.

And and I started to see how what what an amazing, connector it is.

everywhere you go in the world, it's the beautiful game they call it.

And it's, it's so intuitive because, they're really not set plays.

It's very creative.

I think mentally what it does for kids is you have to figure it out on the field.

So tons of creativity, the neural net connections and all that stuff it does for kids running around, is really powerful, even if it's just, you know, working on a little footwork or move or trying to nutmeg somebody getting the ball through.

If I try and get the ball through your legs.

Yeah.

You know, that's a fun challenge.

Sometimes we'll keep score that way instead of worrying about the goal, I think.

So that general activity.

And then I think, you know, my my observation has been that play along with, let's say, music and food would be the things that help us bypass judgment centers and connect in ways that nothing else does.

And so for me, when you get a group of kids to play together and they have fun, it's kind of like they just say, let's keep doing that.

And my hope is that if we can, you know, get communities to really learn and play together at a young age all the way through.

It's really a better Chattanooga in ten, 15, 20 years because they've gotten to know each other well.

They get to play with each other.

But barriers are broken.

Exactly.

Because they don't see you don't see all of the issues that adults do or whatever.

They they just say, well, this is my friend that I, this is, you know, Juan, or David or Joe over here that I play, you know, soccer with, the analytical part of it, I could say, because like you said, you know, they're trying to figure out the strategy and stuff like that.

But the comment you had made earlier, which I really like, is that the purpose also is when these coaches are in these schools and they get the students out there, then they'll get others to come like it a game and cheer for them, because maybe the parents are not there, there's nobody there.

And then the look on their students face that there is somebody out there in the bleachers cheering me on, makes me want to work harder and makes me have more pride in myself.

I think that's a huge replication of what you're trying to do is powerful.

We've had several players, men and women, who have spent a lot of time.

They've big hearts and, and it with our kids and it's so fun.

I, I really hope I always want like a CFC game to be the biggest, most, diverse crowd of Chattanoogans coming together to cheer for something, and and everyone there belongs.

And so it's really fun with our kids.

Come and they'll see of a player on the field, recognize them, come up and say, hey, I know you and you know me, and let's let's enjoy this experience together.

And it's really it's not powerful one way.

It's both ways.

It really is significant.

So do the players coming in.

They do and get to know the kids and kind of give them some pointers and stuff like that to do our our you know, we've always focused on let's get really great men and women to play at Findlay who are also really good at soccer, but it's not the other way around.

And so it's it's, to credit our coaches and our whole staff that's happened.

But I will say it's it's it's fascinating to watch that whole the whole idea of belonging to something.

It's one of the most powerful things that we can do.

I think it's human beings to help you feel like it's fit, whether it's your family or something, you know?

So this we really use this as a way to feel like you belong.

So I know there's two programs.

There's the, what is it called?

Operation Get Active, and then the Chattanooga Sports Ministries.

What's what's those two things to the operation?

Get active is just the school program that's in the schools.

And the to the sports ministries is what we do in neighborhoods.

So if it's in the West Side or Wheeler Homes or East Lake, anywhere where there's a good space for us to go and play and, you know, we literally go around and tell kids, come play, we could start playing.

And how do you how do you get your coaches?

Well, that's a great question.

I mean, at this point, we've I think we've built a pretty good, rhythm for people to kind of come find us.

And so, you know, we're looking for people who understand, you know, different cultures, you know, so again, in Chattanooga, it's a lot of our kids.

It's important to be able to see Spanish or to understand there's a lot of refugees that we work with.

So understanding different cultures is a really big value of ours.

Understanding how to understand that kids heart and really connect at a heart level, we always talk about our coaching is whole life coaching.

So it's not just the game of soccer, but it's all about the whole person.

And so we look for people that are actually understand soccer, but really understand the whole person concept.

And so we, you know, we're looking for students sometimes in colleges we're looking for we have a lot of we have a lot of people who are maybe in their 60s or something, and they're in a different, different season of life and say, I just love working with kids.

Can I, can I do it?

So, it's a really it's a super important criteria.

Do we have the kids actually connect with the mentor or the coach and the coach with the kid?

Yeah, but the kids beautiful.

Yeah.

Did the coaches go through any kind of like, training or anything before they're allowed to get out on the field with the kids?

Okay, very extensive training, background check and all that stuff.

But we also really do a lot of we call it creative, grassroots, you know, training.

So they understand the, you know, the real basics of how to keep the game really fun.

And, so, you know, hopefully, anyway even is interested, you know, we can coach them up on on how to, to understand because sometimes we have really good hearted people who just don't know a lot about soccer.

And we can help on that.

Yeah, you can help them.

It's like sometimes the opposite is harder if, you know, soccer well, you don't know people that well.

Yeah, it's the opposite.

True.

Yeah.

That's true.

because I would think they would have to go through extensive training and they do because they're coming out of one world that they know, and now you're putting them in a world with this, mosaic of all of these students.

and so they've got to learn how they learn and how do you reach them and teach them and work with them?

Yes.

Because these kids are bringing a lot of baggage with them.

And I think soccer is a physical activity which takes their mind off of what's going on in my world and puts me in this world.

And now I can really focus and concentrate on this, but I'm also being prodded in the right way and awarded and said, oh, that's a good job.

That student.

So they're getting some acclamation that they're worthy, you know, they're doing something really good.

So then that makes them want to I want to participate in this more versus being like an a football or basketball team at school that's you know, you got a win win win.

This is we want you to have fun.

And you're going to learn as as you're having fun and everything like that.

The idea of being like this, we always pick a big theme like this.

This, semester's big thing was learn to be a learner.

And so, every, every at the end of every session, we'll have a little thought.

And what does it mean to be a learner?

How do we learn?

How do we grow?

How do we encourage?

How do I learn to look to evaluate how you learn.

So again, being on a team of learners, all the all those little things you just over the 10 or 12 kind of lessons, we will break into the into practice.

It's all connected to soccer, but it's also to me connected.

I mean, I learned as much thinking about it still it at my age.

So it's it's these are not these are timeless ideas.

I think that really, you know, benefit.

Well I think also too, it's you're building a community on the soccer field.

But now these kids are taking it out into their communities.

And 2 or 3 of them may live in the same neighborhood or the housing complex, and they can be out there playing and then other kids could come along.

So now you're growing that community we've been at for 15, 16 years now.

And it's really, we're starting to see that happen where we have like we have a couple of of young adults who are now coming back, and whether it's they meet like we have a stronger program.

It's kind of around female empowerment.

And so if it's it's a woman that's now 24 wants to come back and meet with, you know, 14 year old women just to talk about her last ten, 15 years and how much she's grown and developed.

It's really I mean, deeply heartfelt and encouraging to see that happen.

We've got some 16, 17 year olds that we've worked with for over ten years, and now they're working for us at like Highland Park Commons.

They're running a night shift.

And, you know, when we're there are the biggest thing we do is teach them.

We got to be hospitable.

Everyone who comes here has to feel like this is a safe place where they're welcome.

So get to know everybody's name.

Make sure that you know the basics.

If lights are turned on, you know the balls are inflated and refs are, you know, ready.

sometimes we just have free play where it's just playing around.

But just make sure every feels welcome.

A hospitality is powerful.

Well, not only that, but you're also instilling values.

Yes, yes.

In them and good work ethics that they can take with other future employers and stuff like that.

I hope it's their best first job.

That's what I wish.

I know when you're 16, you know this is this is this is your best first job.

You know, you learn, okay, learn how to do all that stuff.

We have a financial literacy piece we run everybody through, which, again, is just helpful.

you know, it's a ten week program, but again, just learning how to think about money.

And I was I mean, to save money and oh wow.

That's doing it.

Well.

So I like you're starting to see a lot of traction after 15 years.

Well yeah.

And what's really fun to me is even like, you know, there's too if anyone who cares for my kids, well, I like them already, so inevitably get very connected to a lot of families.

So then you get we've gotten into, like, affordable housing.

We're getting into job placement.

We got into you get into all these other dynamics that are that are core focus.

But we know people in Chattanooga that you can then connect people to and really be helpful.

So it's like a ligament.

I hope it again, it serves like a ligament to connect things to grow in that community.

All right.

Thank you so much for coming in.

So glad to be here I appreciate it.

Yeah.

up next we will have Stacy Johnson with La Paz Chattanooga.

So stay tuned.

We want to know how you serve your community.

Send us photos or videos of you or your family volunteering, and we may feature it on a future episode.

Email stronger at WTCITV dot org or use the hashtag stronger WTCI on social media.

Welcome back.

Stacy Johnson is joining us today.

Stacy is the president and CEO of La Paz Chattanooga.

This organization provides a wide variety of services and resources for the Latino community.

Welcome, Stacy.

I'm so happy to have you with us today.

I hear from a little bird that you guys are coming up on a 20th anniversary.

We are.

We will be 20 years old next year.

Next year.

Okay.

Wow.

So you started in 2004.

Are you one of the original founders of it?

I was asked to be on the board when we were officially becoming a 501c3.

So I've been with the organization since the very beginning.

That's amazing.

Yes, that's amazing.

So what is La Paz and what does it do for a community?

La Paz is the region's Hispanic and Latino organization working to empower them through advocacy, education and inclusion.

And we have a growing Hispanic population, don't we?

We do.

It has consistently grown since we started in 2003.

There were about 900 students in the Hamilton County School system, and today there it's over about 18% of the school system.

So with La Paz, how what programs do you offer that helps the Hispanic community?

Well, we we kind of divide everything up into three buckets.

So we do family stabilization.

And that's really anything that a person or family may need.

They can come to us and we provide holistic case management, bilingual, multicultural, really finding their need and connecting them with someone that if it's not us, connecting them with a trusted partner.

So really giving them the tools that they need to thrive.

We also do community education and engagement, and that is a lot of workshops, a lot of trainings going out into the community as well as staying at La Paz, providing educational opportunities for the community.

And then we do advocacy and placemaking, and that is across both of those other programs.

We advocate for individuals on a day to day basis, but we also work to help people register to vote.

We do a lot of civic engagement work.

We've just completed a community needs assessment survey so that we can inform the entire community on the demographics, the numbers, the needs, and then we can advocate for new programs and services within the community.

So capturing all that data on this growing population and then educating those who provide the services and everything.

Now, I know that you partner, you have to partner with a lot of other nonprofits and things like that.

You can't do it all.

So when you're looking at like, say, the family stabilization, what are some of the needs of these families?

It is anything and everything, honestly.

We have people coming in that need a simple they got a letter in the mail and they need us to tell them what it means.

It could have been from a a school or a doctor to they need legal advice.

They need to find their child, a pediatrician, to domestic violence and homelessness.

It is it's a huge gamut of services or needs that they have in the community now, because when you first started, was it just working with the women and children?

I think.

And then we realized, no, we have to bring the rest of the family in because you can't stabilize a family just nit picking like that.

You've got to have the whole family involved.

And so you have a ministry to the men.

So when we first started in 2004, the majority of the Latino community, they were young men coming here to work for their families.

And then it started to become, you know, a few years later, we started seeing whole family units that wanted to settle here in Chattanooga.

Then we started to see more professionals moving here or growing up and becoming professionals here in Chattanooga.

So we have continued to serve a variety of people, and then we've remained flexible to meet the needs of the community.

So in the beginning, when it was fairly just, young men come in, we were very reactive.

We served them when they walked into our doors.

Now we have we are more strategic in intention about empowerment and really giving the community the tools they need to thrive.

How are you working with students in the school system?

Well, Hamilton County schools have always been a huge partner of ours.

We come alongside the social workers and work together with them to help the whole family.

We are always in the schools with doing community events and things like that.

But we realized again, when we're thinking about the transition of the community, that now we're starting to see kids that are graduating high school.

They're going on to college.

So we've developed programs around those needs.

So we are providing FASFSA consultation and FAFSA workshops in English and Spanish.

So some of the kids, like you say, are speaking English, but a lot of the parents still need that information in Spanish.

So we are doing bilingual workshops so that the families can also be part of that process and they can be educated on that.

We just started a a program to help with college retention.

So keeping kids in school.

We've seen a lot of people that have graduated high school and then gone on to college, but a lot of times they don't end up staying because of cultural reasons, because of financial reasons.

So we're really trying to come alongside those students and help them stay in school.

Have you ever seen with the students being in college or getting a higher education, whether it's two years or four years?

Are you seeing some of the parents maybe wanting to kind of get some education, too?

We definitely see the parents wanting to learn more so that they can help their children.

And this goes across the board for even the, you know, the elementary kids.

And that's why we find it so important to work with the whole family, because if you're wanting to help your kids learn how to read, then you need to learn how to read first.

So you need to go to the English classes.

You need to go to computer classes and things like that.

So we've we've had those for a while.

And this year we also started a a parent literacy program.

So we are teaching the parents how to read to their children.

And it could be in their own language, right?

But it's just that being able to sit down and help your child is something that our parents really want to do.

So from 2019, 2020, ‘til now, are you seeing a growth in the population and a growth in the needs of services and maybe expanded services?

Yes.

After COVID, we thought, okay, covid's over, we should get back to normal.

But honestly, the needs have continued to increase.

So food insecurity, housing, homelessness, all of that that we saw during COVID has continued and increased.

So we've expanded our program around all of that.

We've once we moved into our new space, we developed an onsite food pantry, onsite food pantry.

We did a lot of food distribution during COVID and we found like that was a continued need.

So we opened our own pantry working with the Chattanooga Foodbank.

We also have a partnership with them that we do onsite to snap applications in Spanish.

We have a lot of partners within our building that that are providing those services so that we can expand our case management services beyond that as well.

So in the new facility that you have, so you also have offices there that other nonprofits supports can bring in.

And so now when you're dealing with those families, this person over here may need this, this person needs this.

And so now collectively, you can really holistically work about the whole family and the different needs that they have.

Yes, I think that is one of the best things about our new space.

We could use a whole lot more.

Honestly, we've not been there that long, but because of our amazing partners, we've been able to do so much more and we knew that would happen.

But I don't think we've really understood that the expansion, the capacity that we would have by bringing in all of our partners to provide those services so that we could focus on other things that they're not doing.

So when we talk about classes and everything, one of the things I did am I quoted this, where did the Y take the house next door and turn a daycare in it?

So if your parents are taking classes, the children can be over at daycare.

So they did the Y did secure that space?

It is a bilingual daycare.

It is a full daycare.

So it's not necessarily for people that are coming to La Paz, but they have allowed us to use the the playground when we're having classes and things like that.

So we definitely that block all of the partners on that block are really great, really great to work with.

That's great.

Do you do any financial literacy or anything else like that in classes that kind of helps them along the way?

We do.

Last year we actually started to focus more on wealth building and financial literacy, and we will continue to do that this year with credit building taxes, all of the you know, how to invest, all of that, how to buy a home for the first time.

And what you need to, you know, to get that in place to be able to do those things.

And it's amazing what you've been able to do and everything.

What do you do with Crabtree Farms?

We have partnered with them for a really long time.

We had a garden plot where some of our families would go and garden and then we've done a lot of classes and workshops with them over the years, a lot of nutrition classes, a lot of cooking classes, how to cook foods that that are coming, that we're able to plant here in Chattanooga, but also how to do that in a healthy way.

And the families love it.

We've we've done a lot of just whole family activities out there as well.

That's perfect.

Just perfect.

So as we wrap up and everything, how can our view Well, we are always looking for bilingual volunteers.

As I said, we did a survey, things like that, that we need volunteers to help help get the word out, help do those surveys for us.

We have a lot of classes and we could use child care.

Always need advocates within the community to talk about the good work that we're doing and share that with others.

And we always need people to come alongside us and do the work.

I know, and congratulations on turning 20.

Yes.

You look very young for your age.

Well, yeah, I feel like we're we took the braces off and we are where we're growing up.

So it's it's fun.

And you're providing such a wonderful service to our Hispanic community.

So I don't know what we would do without you.

So thank you so much for coming.

Appreciate it.

And thank you for joining us today.

For viewers like you who want to make a difference in our community.

We hope that Chattanooga: Stronger Together offers a fresh perspective.

So let us know what you think.

Email us at stronger@WTCITV.org or use the hashtag StrongerWTCI on social media.

I'm Barbara Marter.

We'll see you next time.

Support for this program is provided by the Weldon F Osborne Foundation.

The Schillhahn-Huskey Foundation.

And viewers like you.

Thank you.