(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) - Good evening and welcome to "Generation Rising."

I'm your host, Anaridis Rodriguez.

Central Falls, the smallest, most densely populated city in the smallest state, was hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Not only did it devastate families, but housing prices surged and domestic violence reached an all-time high, but two women stepped up to the task and were a shining beacon during this time.

Mayor Maria Rivera and Dr. Beata Nelken joined forces and not only provided vaccines, but were able to register more than a thousand uninsured children for health insurance coverage, and they continue to serve the community with the recent opening of Jenks Park Residence, a housing clinic for women and children who are at risk of homelessness.

They join us here tonight.

Mayor and Dr. Nelken, welcome.

- Thank you for having us.

- Thank you.

- Thank you so much for being here.

It's been a long time coming.

I've been looking forward to having this conversation with the both of you.

You're celebrating a lot.

I know there are a lot of challenges, but let's talk about Jenks Park Residence.

You recently had a soft opening.

How's it going so far?

- It's great.

We love the mission of it and there's always logistics, but we're full steam ahead.

Everything's in check.

We have our people lined up, our managers, our staff.

Our kitchen got cleared, fire coded, accepted, everything.

The Department of Health has been through, I mean, it's a million little parts that come together, but it's a beautiful picture, and we're all so motivated by the mission and can't wait to get those women in.

- What do you envision, mayor, this residence being for your community?

- Well, there's so many different things I could say, but I think, you know, what I envision and my purpose is to see these women become self-sustainable, and in two years, for them to be able to walk out of this residence and say, "I'm able to hold down a job.

I'm able to pay for an apartment.

I'm able to take care of my kids.

Like, I'm able to do what I have to do for myself."

You know, as two women, I think it's really important for us to work with so many women and empower them and really make them understand that they're able to accomplish whatever they can.

They just need a little support, and this is what we're doing with this.

- Give us the highlights of Jenks Park Residence.

I know that more than two dozen beds for women and children, but there's much more than just providing housing.

You are the first medical clinic to address this in the state of Rhode Island.

- In the state.

In the state, yes.

First primary care office to address housing.

So it's not just housing.

It's really rent-controlled, fully-furnished housing for these 28 to 30 women and their kids.

Everything's furnished.

They get a hot meal per day.

They have all the support services of behavioral health clinicians and community health workers that will work with them and plan out their lives through a generous grant through Papitto Opportunity Connection.

We've been honored to provide each woman with $10,000 in grants for doing workforce development, helping with childcare, transportation, whatever the needs are.

So the community health workers meet with these women and plan out their dreams and help them with the logistics, getting into those classes, making sure they study every night.

They get laptops.

They get all the Wi-Fi and utilities included, everything, and all the support services so that they have a community where they can kind of focus and grow, and it's a bit of an incubator where they can really be sheltered from some of the elements of life that can get ugly and throw people to the side and stall those dreams for years or decades or forever, and so we wanna keep them on those tracks and give them all those supports included in the facility.

It's really amazing.

- That's beautiful, and just full disclosure for our viewers, Papitto Opportunity Connection is a funder of this program.

And the next question is for the both of you, and I wanna start with you, mayor.

How did serving the Central Falls community through the pandemic work turn into Jenks Park Residence?

- Dr. Nelken was a hero of the community.

Obviously, the pandemic started before I became mayor, so I started working, you know, before I became mayor, I was working with the community, making sure that we were vaccinating them, supporting them as much as we could, and Dr. Nelken became my best friend with this work, making sure that she could take anyone and everyone in the community.

For those who don't know, Jenks Pediatric just opened their office a month before the pandemic, and she took it upon herself to see anybody in the community.

As a pediatrician, she was seeing anybody, all ages, not just kids.

We really saw the need right through the pandemic of what was happening in the community and being the hardest hit community.

We were the hardest hit community, obviously, because of the housing crisis, because we have a lot of families living in one apartment.

When we were asking residents to isolate, they couldn't isolate.

When you have 10 people living in one apartment, how could they isolate?

So we knew we had a crisis.

Domestic violence was our number one phone call through the pandemic.

This is how this transitioned into this work.

Housing has been one of my priorities since I came into office, and I made a commitment.

My first time as mayor, I was gonna have over 200 housing units, and we are well over 200 housing units.

So we have affordable housing units.

We have market-ready housing units.

We have transitional housing.

This is what the pandemic has done to Central Falls.

- And Dr. Nelken, so the mayor just alluded to the families who are coming into your practice, and they're telling you what they're going through and you're identifying different, this is what I'm thinking.

You're identifying all these risk factors and realizing that housing is a need.

Is that how it came about?

And then you went to the mayor and said, "We need to do something about this"?

- I wish I could say I was that organized and planned, right?

(group chuckles) - No.

It happened really quick.

- It wasn't years.

- It was like a porch meeting.

- It was months, right?

- When, yeah, so.

At Jenks Park Pediatrics, we've always addressed the need of the day.

Before Cover All Kids passed, we were giving kids free care for pediatrics.

That was the first clinic that I know of, and the only one that was providing free care for pediatrics.

Then we moved.

A month later, COVID hit.

Then we moved to the testing and then vaccinations and enrollment for insurance for kids once Cover All Kids passed.

So all of those kids, 600 that have been getting free care for three years, all of a sudden could qualify for insurance, but the pandemic was so hard on people, and we were already one of the densest communities in the United States.

People living on top of each other, not having enough space.

Domestic violence calls were up.

There were more and more people coming to my office.

We have this little casita.

It's a garage made into an office at our place that has become a resource center for the whole city, and I'm so grateful because we have a beautiful relationship with Family Services Rhode Island, and they have community health workers working there, enrolling kids in the insurance programs and answering their every question.

If you get mail you don't understand, or if you can't get your insurance card, or you don't know what your referral means or anything, like, they just bring all their mail in and sit down with our staff and figure their life out.

It's beautiful, but more and more families were coming in and saying, "We need housing assistance."

You know, one of our community leaders, Denise DeBarros, was posting on Facebook.

"There's 168 kids from Central Falls who are at risk or already homeless in this community."

And I said, "Whoa, how can that be?

Those are my kids.

I can't.

You know, this is personal now."

It's like anytime I would see the mayor, I was like, "What are we doing?

What are you doing?

I know you have housing.

What do we?

There's this place down the street.

What do you?

Let's do something.

Okay."

It was just really like an instant brainstorm, and all the green lights turned on, and we had all the elements to pull together, and Carol Ventura from Rhode Island Housing was instrumental in that as well, and Papitto Opportunity Connections.

So everything came together in this whirlwind tornado of quick.

Like, it was incredible.

- Yeah, I think it took us like six to eight months to have the press conference and open the space, which is pretty, pretty quick, right?

- From the first meeting?

- From the first meeting.

So she presented me with a plan and I said, "Perfect.

There's the space available.

Let's try to figure out how we can get funding."

A few days later, I received a phone call from the Papitto Opportunity Connection, saying, "We wanna help with housing.

We know you're focused with housing.

How can we support?"

And we had one meeting.

We presented to them and they were very impressed.

I contacted Rhode Island Housing, had a conversation with the director, spoke to her, presented the plan, and I think within a week or a week and a half, we had the funds to purchase the building.

We purchased the building, and then Papitto Opportunity Connection committed to helping with these families, and it took like six or seven months, and here we are.

- Yeah, just as reference, the fine print of that contract from Rhode Island Housing said you had to start contractual work in nine months.

So we started stop to finish, you know, like top to bottom, we- - That is remarkable.

What was it like working together to achieve this?

Have you had time to reflect on that?

Because I don't think, as a journalist, I've seen very few projects go from concept to reality this quickly when it involves the government.

(Maria chuckles) - Goodness.

- Oh, I didn't wanna make you cry.

- Well, politics isn't easy, right?

- So the relationship was there before.

We've worked together through a pandemic.

We're kind of like war heroes together in the front for all things Central Falls.

The mayor, more than I, but anything I need, I can always call her, and any concept I have or ideas, she's got my back, and we know we have the same heart and the same mission for Central Falls.

So the relationship was always there, and then Papitto was also involved with Jenks Park Pediatrics, and Central Falls Children's Foundation are a nonprofit for two years prior to this.

So having all that base foundation of that work relationship together and that understanding of how each works and having trust and confidence and just that factor of reliability, it's, like, okay, we know these teams can work together and we know we can work effectively, and when we say we're gonna do something, it's gonna happen.

- Yeah.

I think we're a powerhouse, right?

And people have seen that we can get things done.

It's not that hard, right?

When you wanna get something done, because there's a need in the community, people believe in you, and I think this is how we've been able to accomplish this, right?

- Amazing.

- Because people have believed in us.

People have believed in how much we wanna help this community and how much we wanna help the residents of the city because people have believed in us.

This is why we've been able to accomplish what we've been able to accomplish.

I don't know if we would've been able to do this if we didn't have each other, right?

We have the vision of what we want for the residents of the city.

We're focused.

We've been focused since we both started.

Like, we've been working on the same thing, right?

We started with the pandemic.

We're working with housing.

We know what the needs are in the community, and if we wanna see the community progress, we have to work together.

I can't do my job alone.

There's no way I can do my job alone.

This is a team, and when your team believes in you and the people believe in us, this is how you accomplish things.

- Is that what drives you, that conviction and that motivation?

Is it your people?

Is it the children that you see in your office and the moms every day?

What drives the both of you to continue to do this work?

Because, as you said, it is not easy.

- No.

The community, right?

- It's the community.

- As the mayor of the city, I'm responsible for the wellbeing, the safety of the residents of the City of Central Falls, and as someone who lives in the city, you know, I have to continue working for the people who live here.

That's what continues to drive me.

You know, if it was because I wanted to be an elected official, I would say absolutely not.

Absolutely not.

- It wouldn't have worked and I wouldn't have resonated with that.

- If I didn't have to have the title, I wouldn't have the title.

This is about helping the people of this community.

Like, I wanna see Central Falls progress.

I wanna see the residents of this city, you know, continue to have pride in the City of Central Falls and truly understand that we're here to support them and guide them.

- Would you say the same thing, Dr. Nelken?

It's the people?

- So it's the community, of course.

I fell in love with Central Falls.

I've worked in three major cities in Rhode Island, always an urban setting and mostly in community health centers, but Central Falls just had my heart because of the community and because of the people on the ground, the leaders who are so committed and have that same vision.

It was instant love, you could say, and the families, the amount of trust that they've provided me, it takes my breath away, and I'm so honored, and I give it back as much as I can, a hundred fold, and they motivate me every day.

I would've quit a long time ago had it been just for the material things of life, but these families motivate me.

I don't need to be paid.

They fill my heart on a daily basis and they motivate me to do more.

- I think representation is super important, right?

In a community that's 70% Latino, it's important to have somebody who's representative of what this community is and who truly understands the needs, but at the same time, this is how your community trusts you.

Like, the trust that the residents of the City of Central Falls have in us, it's because they feel comfortable with us, right?

As women who speak their language.

It makes a huge difference.

- It's also remarkable that you're two women getting this work done.

The fact that you're the only female mayor in the state, I mean, that speaks volumes, and you also have a young staff of women, and they're watching all of this unfold before them.

I can't even imagine how powerful of an experience that must be for them and how empowered they will be to, you know, enact their own change in their journey.

- Yes.

- How has that been like?

Tell us about your staff.

- Yes.

It's been amazing.

You know, I've made it a priority to make sure that I have more women working on my team, and I don't call them staff.

This is a team, right?

Because we do this work together.

I've made it a priority to make sure that we have young women from the City of Central Falls who have graduated from the schools in Central Falls to work with me and give them opportunities, because I didn't have that opportunity when I was young.

When I graduated from high school, no one was talking to me about college.

No one was talking to me about what my next steps were gonna be.

So, you know, my deputy chief of staff, she's 22 years old.

I have the director of community engagement, she's 21 years old, but these are bright young girls that are super bright that I have to continue empowering, and I have other young women who work with us too, but I have to continue empowering them so that they know they could be the next one that could be leading the city, that they could be the next one that's continuing to do the work that I'm doing.

It's taken far too long for there to be the first woman Latina mayor in the state of Rhode Island.

So I think it's my responsibility to continue empowering these young women to understand that they could be the next mayor.

- You do.

You inspire all of us.

- And giving them the titles.

Like, they're more than capable.

My deputy chief of staff is 22 years old.

Like, she's more than capable.

- She's a firestorm, yeah.

- Yeah, I mean at 22 years old, I was not.

I couldn't even imagine being a chief of staff of anything, nevermind a city government.

- Yeah.

It's about giving them opportunities, right?

Giving them opportunities, because they're more than qualified to be in these positions, and I think the work that we're doing speaks for itself.

- Yeah, it is.

Dr. Nelken, you are also surrounded by a lot of young professional women.

As your team has expanded, you started in a clinic of one.

You were the only provider, and now is your entire team women?

- We have an exceptional male that we've allowed in and he helps us a great deal.

Actually, he was the primary COVID swabber for most of the pandemic, Dr. Navarro.

He's phenomenal, but aside from him and a couple others that were kind of seasonal, but it's been all women and all from the community, intentionally, and all you have to speak Spanish.

I don't care if you speak English, honestly, when I'm hiring you, but if they're from the community, some of them are my moms and some of them didn't know how to type or answer a phone, but, you know, when they get trained up, now they're running my labs, and you better believe they're great at it, and it's phenomenal, and to see that growth and to have kind of that medical incubator for professionals from the community that are Latino or are Cape Verdean in origin come from the community, grow up through their profession, and we give scholarships, and so they can continue that growth, and two people have gone to medical school already, and, you know, we see them through their progression and assist them.

It's a medical professional incubator as well.

So that is another great reward, coming to have that circuit be alive and thriving.

- Yeah.

What I find also very interesting is how you are tackling the most pressing challenges for our communities, right?

You talked about vaccinating and ensuring a large part of your community, your coordinated effort was able to achieve a lot for the City of Central Falls, and outpacing other cities and towns as far as the number of people vaccinated, right?

- [Beata] Absolutely.

- And the number of families insured, and now you told me off camera that now you wanna tackle obesity, because that's another challenge for children in Central Falls, and you recently hired a specialist dedicated to that, which through my speaking with you and learning more about it, it doesn't seem like there's much of a focus in medicine when it comes to obesity.

- It's barely even a boarded medicine specialty.

It was kind of considered an extra credit, a side show if you want.

So Dr. Carla Martin is joining us.

She's got 25 years of experience.

She's worked in the community before.

She's very dedicated to Central Falls, loves the community, speaks Spanish, is a first generation Honduran herself, extremely smart, skilled, talented.

You know, wins teaching awards at Brown University every year.

So her third professional certificate, besides pediatrics and adult medicine, is obesity medicine.

So she's creating our lifestyle medicine clinic for kids first.

Central Falls has the highest rate of childhood obesity in the whole state at 51%.

So we have a food desert.

There's no green vegetables to be bought anywhere, except four times marked up, and maybe four days late at the little bodegas or the little tienditas that are on the corner, and that's not enough.

They're too expensive by that time and the quality, and, you know, the community is doing what they can, but it's how do you eat healthy in a community that makes it really hard if you don't have transportation and access and green food that make you thrive?

Like, it's really challenging.

So she's gonna run culturally-competent cooking classes in our commercial kitchen, and we have a nutritionist that speaks Spanish and a behavioral health specialist.

Latina, grew up in Central Falls.

You know, Central Falls High school grad, everything that will help with, because there's so much depression and anxiety associated with food.

We eat our feelings, and we cure ourselves of those feelings with food, and so it's such a tangled knot that we have to work with families through.

It's quite a challenge, but it has to be addressed because this is affecting our community more than anything now that the pandemic is quieted, and we have some housing, of course, but it's this undercurrent of, and there's not enough medical access either, even though we're doing our best, but we're just waiting for a lot of these families to get diabetes, honest.

- Yeah.

- And that's not okay.

- That's not the way.

- It's not okay.

- That's not the way to treat it.

We only have a few minutes left.

I told you that 27 minutes would go by really fast, and I feel like I could sit here and talk to you for days.

What's your goal?

What are you looking forward to?

You're opening the housing clinic.

Can you share with us how, if people are watching, they can apply if they know someone who's in need?

- Right, so I would say come to our casita, which is the little garage in the middle of our parking lot between our two main buildings at 577 Broad Street.

From there, we do a common entry application, but we have our own circuit of interviews and credentials that are needed.

So, from there, we can answer questions and begin the process for anybody who's interested, and they have to be from Central Falls.

It's a woman facility.

Only women, you know, at least 21 years of age.

They can be either single or single with a child under 10 years old.

- Now, mayor, what about you?

What is your goal?

I know I asked you earlier to touch on the vision of Jenks Park Residence.

What is your goal as you continue on with your partnership with Dr. Nelken on the things that you have left to achieve?

- Yeah, so- - A vacation for you.

(group laughs) - That's not even on my list.

You know, just continuing to work together.

One of the first things I did when I came into office was start the Office of Constituent Services and Health so that the residents of the City of Central Falls had a space that they could go to so that we can connect them with whatever resource they were looking for.

From that idea, we're looking to open up a community center that's gonna be called El Centro.

The idea of this center is to address all of the needs that have increased through the pandemic that we know we have to pay attention to, starting with mental health.

So the residents can also come into City Hall at 580 Broad Street, come into Constituent Services.

They can also inquire about Jenks Residence, but they can also come for whatever other resource that they're looking for.

We're hoping to have the groundbreaking for El Centro at the end of this year, and I think it's gonna be a model.

Like, the first floor, right?

We're gonna be addressing all of these needs.

So we're working with different non-profits who are gonna be staffing their people there, and then second and third floor, we're gonna be having after-school programming, tutoring, art programs.

We're also gonna have senior services.

- That's amazing, and where is that gonna be located?

- This is gonna be on Broad Street in Central Falls.

- On Broad Street.

- A few doors down, yes.

- A few doors down, so the residents from Jenks Park will be able to cross the street going to El Centro.

You know, there's gonna be a lot of connection.

- We'll just have a Broad Street trolley that takes you from one location to the other.

- That's what I love about Broad Street.

It's like nothing is out of reach.

- Yes.

- Everything is right there.

Thank you so much for what you do and for being an example to professionals, to women out there in the world.

Keep saving the world.

- [Maria] Thank you.

- And we will be there to support you.

Thank you so much for being with us here tonight.

- I appreciate it.

- Thank you for having us.

Thank you.

- Thank you so much.

- We have run out of time.

I would like to thank tonight's guests, Mayor Rivera and Dr. Nelken.

You can watch this episode and all our past episodes anytime at watch.ripbs.org, and be sure to follow us on these social platforms for the latest updates.

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