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The driving mission of many community organizations is to enhance our lives by inspiring youth in families to thrive in every life situation.

Tonight, we meet two community organizations and learn how they are working to achieve this mission with the people they serve.

I'm so happy you're joining us.

From Los Angeles.

This is KLCS PBS.

Welcome to Everybody with Angela Williamson, an innovation arts, education and public affairs program.

Everybody with Angela Williamson is made possible by viewers like you.

Thank you.

And now your host, Dr. Angela Williamson.

Alyssa Barron is our guest.

Lisa, thank you so much for being here.

Thank you for having me.

It's my pleasure.

You're here because we want to hear about your amazing community organization and how you're involved with it.

So please just tell us everything.

Well, I'm involved with Miracle League Los Angeles, and it's baseball for children with special needs.

And how did you.

I mean, this is such a unique organization, doing so many wonderful things.

I mean, you literally a story I heard was that you came up with this idea with two other people sitting at a kitchen table.

Well, I can take no credit for this whatsoever.

Yes.

So the history of it, of Miracle League, L.A. specifically, it was born from Jeremy McGovern.

And he's a dear friend of mine.

We go back about 20 years, and he was working for Oprah, doing a show called Love Town, USA and Georgia.

And on one of the episodes, they did a Miracle League special.

And he called me up that very day and he said, I've just had the best day of my entire life and I'm going to change your life with this, too.

And he came back to Los Angeles and called Miracle League because there's miracle leagues all over the United States.

There's hundreds of them.

So we're, you know, serving thousands upon thousands of families and children.

And he called the Miracle League and said, I want to join the L.A. branch.

And they said, it doesn't exist.

And they said, why don't you create it?

And he said, okay, I will not knowing at all what he was getting himself into.

And that's how it always starts.

So you think, oh, I'm going to call and find out how I can help on this side.

And they tell you, well, there's nothing there but go for it.

Right, Exactly.

And and he's just he's one of my favorite people in this world.

He's got so much gumption and heart and generosity.

And so from the ground up, he built this and he literally did call me and say, you're involved.

Okay.

By and I had no say in the matter.

And it was really the best decision that I never made that he made for me.

And yeah, we sat around his kitchen table and brainstormed about who, you know, who can we tell about this?

We he did really the groundwork of finding the right place, because that was really the hard part about finding the best land plot of land that was going to be accessible for this and accommodate everything.

And it was just, yeah, really a passion project of love from his own generous heart.

And we were able to partner partner with the Dodgers Foundation, and they helped build the give us some funding and whatnot in order to build this amazing Astroturf field.

So it's a smaller field.

It's downsized on purpose.

It's all great fake Astroturf.

So it looks like real grass.

The bases are flat, the dugouts are flat.

So it's wheelchair accessible, it's crutches accessible, accessible to the blind and the deaf.

And really, the whole purpose is for every child, no matter the mental or physical special need to be able to play baseball if they want to.

And baseball is it's supposed to be the American pastime.

Yeah, but sometimes we forget there are so many people that love it and can't play it.

So then that's where Miracle League comes in.

Correct?

Exactly.

How how would a person get involved with Miracle League so they can be part of this experience?

So they can go to Miracle League L.A. dot org and they can sign up?

We've got volunteers.

So one of the best things about this is that you've got the buddy system, so every child is paired with a buddy and so we've got a whole group of volunteers.

Sometimes we've got kids from local high schools or Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts.

We've had theater leagues come up and join us.

It's kind of differs from season to season and everybody pairs with a child's and you can help that child's bat.

You can help them run around the bases.

It's just the camaraderie, the fellowship, the bond that we create with these kids is just so beautiful and that they're creating with each other as well.

Well, and I what I find so interesting about these phenomenal community is organizations that we have here is that a lot of times they're right in our backyard and people don't even know that.

And so so my question to you is, when this started, so tell me the year again when this started.

We were founded in 20.

12, 2012.

So now we're 2023.

So when you were back in 2012 year old don't.

Say that.

We don't talk about aging.

Oh, less.

But no, but no, not at all.

This obviously, this organization is helping to keep you young.

So that's what we're going to go with.

Honestly, you say that, but it really does.

It does.

It does.

And that's what I want to talk about, because since 2012, I mean, not only has your organization expanded, but you're now able to reach more people.

And so why do you think that's so important for every community to have a miracle league in their community?

That's such a great question.

Thank you.

Yeah, because it it engender a sense of compassion, of community, of it takes these buddies, you know, from Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, high schools, and it introduces them to an entire group of people that they might not have otherwise ever been exposed to.

And it just makes it fun and natural and generous.

I mean, it's just such a beautiful way of bridging the gap between different sectors of the community.

Right.

And so, yeah, everybody that gets involved, I mean, it really does change over all of our lives.

It's I'm greedy about it.

It's my favorite day of the week.

We've got a fall and a spring season, so it's depending on like COVID protocols and things like that.

It's six or eight weeks.

But yeah, it's my favorite time of year and it is it's so incredibly important for the community to just build in this way.

And yeah, so you can go online.

Miracle League, L.A. dot org.

And I mentioned you can volunteer, but you can sign up your child's.

And what's lovely about this is that, as you know, despite funding or lack of funding, we will make sure that you have a space with us.

We've got financial aid.

It doesn't matter what age you are.

It doesn't matter what special need, as long as you're within L.A. County.

We've got a space for you.

If you want to play baseball, come play with us.

And that's so wonderful to hear, because, you know, when an organization like yourself has been around for a little bit and people start to hear about the wonderful things that you do.

Everyone wants to be a part of it, but sometimes there's limitations.

And I love that you will take people.

It doesn't matter if you can't fully be funded or if it turns out that instead of we have 20 kids, we end up having 25.

You make room for everybody.

Absolutely.

And that's so important, especially when we talk about equity.

And and so how does your organization really promote equity across every gender, across every ethnicity?

How do you think your organization does that?

Because I see it that I want you to tell us.

That's a great way of looking at it.

Yeah, I'm really proud of our organization for this because it doesn't matter.

Gender, age, special need, financial background, anything like that.

We have an open space for you no matter what.

I don't know if it's my place to say this of I'm talking out of turn.

But.

But Jeremy McGovern and his husband have helped found this, right?

So to say that.

You can say, you know, it's just a very open, inclusive environment.

We want everybody to feel like they belong no matter what.

And I think that is so important.

So we have a few minutes left, so I want you to answer two questions.

So my first question is, because you talked about volunteers, and a lot of times volunteers love to hear personal stories.

So how do you think that this has changed Alicia's life since you've been doing this for well over a decade?

I mean, I've been mentioned before.

It's it's my favorite day of the week.

I look forward to the seasons each each year.

What's the most beautiful thing to me about it is seeing these children's lives changed.

Lives changed.

They some of them have been with us since the beginning.

And to see them grow from like little wee things to near adults that are way taller than me.

I'm small, so that doesn't say much, but.

But they're taller than me now.

And it's not just growing in physical stature.

It's.

It's the way that they've opened up.

Some of them have been, from the beginning, very introverted and quiet and shy.

And to see them run up under the field and run and give me a hug as soon as they see me.

I mean, it just touches my heart.

You have no idea.

And to see them graduate from using a T to being able to be pitched to to have the bravery to run around the bases on their own, if they're capable of that.

It's just it's one of the most joyful experiences of my life.

It's enriched my life in so many different ways.

I can't even begin to explain it.

And I love how you say enriching.

And then also to we talked about the importance of volunteers and what it can do for that.

Because when I look at your organization, the entire community can get involved.

Yeah, I mean, there's so many different things.

So you've been doing this for a while.

If there was one big dream or goal that you have for Miracle League of Los Angeles, and I'm sure Jeremy will be okay with it, what would that be?

As I mentioned, we're partnered with the Dodgers.

Yes.

If we could maybe play a game at Dodger Stadium, that would be amazing.

An All-Star Game with all of the miracle.

So we've got Miracle in L.A., Los Angeles.

But there's also South Bay.

There's Northern California.

If we could maybe do a game where we're all together and I was going to say competing, but it's not even that.

Another thing about this is that there's no score system.

Nobody like everybody wins.

And at the end of the season, everybody gets a trophy.

So it's literally just coming together for the love of it, for the joy on these kids faces, for the pride in their parents eyes, and to just, yeah, if we could bring this all together and play on Dodger Stadium on the fields with maybe a pitch from one of the Dodgers coming out, they actually did.

And one of our first games, one of the Dodgers, came out and pitched for us.

So I feel like if we could kind of full circle it and play at Dodger Stadium, that would be amazing.

Oh, I think I think that's a wonderful goal.

And that's why I always like to ask community organizations, because I think I think what you put it on television, then it's out there.

Yes.

Manifested.

Yes.

Yes.

And it's it's been so wonderful.

Last but not least, you've told us the website and you've told us how we can get involved.

I always like to hear because there's always that one story you sort of alluded a little bit about watching some of your participants grow, not just in how they play the game, but in the confidence of it.

Can you think of one story?

You don't even have to tell us a name that's made the impact, and it's the reason why you and Jeremy and I forgot Jeremy's husband's name.

Read Fred.

You, Jeremy and Fred do this twice a year.

Yeah, there are so many, But there is one that comes to mind immediately.

There was a boy who was a little boy when he first started playing with us.

And he is nonverbal and he would go to the far side of the field and just kind of face away with his back to everything.

And it took a little while, but eventually, years on down the line.

But even then, that one season, he started playing a little bit with us.

But the growth from a couple of years ago to now, he is coming up to bat.

He's running around the bases.

He's coming up in high fiving.

Just the the way that he has come out of his shell is just one of the most beautiful things I've been honored to witness.

And how do you think that changes our community when we're able to pour into that person and they're able to just to change their entire outlook?

I think it's a beautiful example of how we are all the same.

You know, we're all just here.

We've all got our own struggles, our own challenges that we're trying to overcome.

And when we all come together and have a singular goal of baseball, something as simple as the love of baseball, right?

It just shows how unified we can all be and how we can come together and in pretty much the essence of pure joy and play.

That is the perfect way to end our conversation.

And you really do fulfill the mission of the community organization, not just what you're doing in Los Angeles, but what you're organizations doing all around California.

Alyssa, thank you so much for taking the time out and also to to our audience.

You are a singer, so support her out there on YouTube.

But thank you so much for being here and sharing this story with us.

Thank you so much.

Thank you for the individual plug, but especially thank you for having me be here as representing Miracle League.

It's an honor.

Both of us.

Thank you.

And come back as we continue our conversation with the Breezy Foundation.

In a typical year, Rosie serves approximately 3000 youth and family members.

During this past year, amidst the pandemic, Rosie assisted over 9000 youth and families three times our annual average to meet our community's basic needs.

Our parking lot became a makeshift vaccine clinic where we mobilized with our partners to vaccinate over 2500 community members.

Our multipurpose room became a food storage base where teams of volunteers helped us organize large scale food distributions for thousands.

Challenged with food security, our computer lab became an emergency rental assistance hub, where our staff assisted hundreds upon hundreds, pay down their rental arrears in full so their families wouldn't be evicted.

We thank you for your partnership and continuing to invest in L.A. future.

Welcome back.

The Bracy Foundation empowers youth and families with the skills, resources and relationships necessary to thrive.

Please welcome Andy Rodriguez, Youth Development director.

Andy, thank you so much for being here.

Thank you for allowing me to be here and talk about the wonderful work we do.

Well, you do incredible work.

Give me a little bit of background about exactly what you're doing with the gangs in the communities.

And so the way that I would define the work is we do a lot of prevention work.

And so we're working with youth between the ages of 10 to 15 who are at risk of potentially joining gangs.

And so that's what we do.

And I mean, for you, I mean, to go in and do this prevention work, I mean, what do you do to change their direction of going with the gangs?

Because that's a lot of pressure to doing something different.

I mean, you have a lot going on.

Yeah, we actually do.

And so a lot of it really is.

You know, I'm a big believer that people make programs, that programs make people.

And so I'm a firm believer in that.

And so when you have a team composed that actually lives in the community, has lived experience and can relate very much well with kids and families, that's how you start.

You start building relationships first with the youth and families, and then you can go into and talk about what exactly is going on.

And so the way that we go about doing that work is we actually partner up with a variety of high schools and middle schools who actually meet their criteria, not just within the age, but also within the area that we serve, which is one of the most densest areas of Los Angeles.

We have about 44,000 people per square mile that live in the area of Koreatown.

That's the area that we serve.

Wow.

And so how do you take a population that's so dense and they have so many things against them and go in there and turn it around?

Because the way that you turn it around is through relationships.

How do you meet them right where they're at?

Because that's important.

Yeah.

I mean, I can I can you just recently I know we had some of our staff, they actually go on to the schools themselves and they actually talk with the kids and they speak with them.

They play sports with them.

They out a way to basically meet them and talk with them because the kids are going to be like, No, this is our house.

What are you doing?

And so you try to go in there with with the best of intentions and trying to be as patient as possible, because the type of population we're dealing with is is usually going to be guarded as far as who is this adult.

I don't know who this person is.

And so really meeting them where they're at is very critical to doing that work.

And I love how you're talking about the students that they are guarded.

And because a lot of times people don't realize that they're guarded because of certain reasons.

And so when you go into a community like that, you need to be able to meet them where they're at.

And so my question to you is, how can us, as a larger community, help the Breezy Foundation accomplish that?

That's a great question.

I love that.

There's a great saying that my executive director, Seth Eklund, he always he would always tell me 90% of youth development is being consistent and being present.

And that always stuck with me.

Even when I first started this program.

You know, as a kid, I myself was a former youth at risk.

And so I got referred by LAPD and I got diverted from the jail system into this wonderful program called Breezy.

And so to really speak about it in terms of what that meant to me, I was a beneficiary of excellent, excellent counseling and mentorship.

And so all those skill sets, you sort of learn to be able to do that, not just with kids as a me now as a career of mine, but also as a director, allowing other staff to do the same.

And so you start off by it by building those those bridges and by talking with them, by listening, by being patient and really not taking things personal, because every single youth, every single kid is on their own journey.

And so being able to be a partner, I think makes a big difference so that they know you're also walking with them.

And because you have that personal experience, then you're able to really see the big picture.

But I love how you talk about it's really a partnership.

And so how is how does your foundation build those partnerships not only with the at risk youth but other community organizations in the area to bring everybody together so that we can give these youth just a positive outlook on life.

Right?

So the partnerships that that that are included in this comprehensive strategy really is getting connected with the counselors and the principals at school, teaching them about the nine risk factors associated to gang joining.

And so that is one of the key areas that we actually teach, which some of the risk factors include.

Yeah, when you're talking about the nine.

Okay.

Okay.

Absolutely.

I can definitely talk about the risk factors.

One of the risk factors that we see often is critical life events.

We see negative peer influence.

We see antisocial tendencies, family, gang influence, youth not taking responsibility for their actions, peer delinquency.

Those are some of the risk factors that we see.

And so we began talking with with the school administrators, teaching them about what they should look out for and if a youth is seen to have far more risk factors, that's more than likely a kid that you want to refer to our program.

And so it goes beyond the schools.

We really do have a partnership with LAPD talking with their officers, frontline officers, and having them also be be taught the nine risk factors so that when they are on the ground patrolling, they also know that they can refer to us.

And so they're they're also seeing it from a different lens because they're seen as crime is obviously being a as it's going.

And so it's very important that we partner with LAPD, with community based organizations to really talk about those those risk factors and helping our community members also understand.

We also talk with parents as well.

And so our community members and so about 80% of our referrals actually do come from parents word of mouth.

That's a wonderful strategy to have.

What is an excellent strategy.

And I love that you're talking about the parents.

And in this case, how do we educate the parents so that they can look at these risk factors?

So get the youth help right away with your organization so that they don't always see the negative side of their relationship with the LAPD.

I mean, that you also that relationship with the LAPD, that's that says a lot about your organization as well.

Yeah.

So I'm going to I'm going to give you the youth perspective, because oftentimes when we do get a referral from LAPD or just even from a school in general, we we ensure that when we talk about youth and families or when we talking with them directly, we let them know that we're in partnership power.

We don't work.

We don't work for them.

They just happen to be one of our partners referring them to us.

And so really we try to hear them out and their story since we were talking about youth being guarded, we also have families whom may not be available right away to speak to about what's happening because of perhaps their document status.

They may be immigrant, they may have had some sort of trauma in the past.

And so we're very sensitive when it comes to that process.

And we really try to establish that relationship, that trust, and really getting to hear their story, which is number one.

And secondly, I would say that parents getting informed about the program, and I believe that when we provide a high quality of service to families, families, parents become ambassadors of our program.

So they become the the voice of our community and their and they're able to refer to us.

And so that's that's the strategy that I believe in.

Well, and I love your strategy because you've said several times in our conversation the importance of listening.

And I think when you are dealing with at risk families that they do want to be heard and a lot of times they probably feel that they're not being heard.

And so if you're changing the perspective that way.

Yeah, I'm a firm believer that if you're going to listen, you try to listen to understand rather than listen to respond.

And so oftentimes people fall under the category of I'm going to respond back to you.

And so that that automatically creates some sort of barrier or some sort of automatic response, rather than if you take the approach of listening to understand really where they're coming from.

That's going to give you a lot of clues about their background, their history, their culture, and you allow them to basically guide that conversation.

You just become a facilitator.

I love that you had so many wonderful words.

I mean, empowering words like listening and partnership and being part of that conversation before we end our time together, can you just tell us in the audience how we can be a partner with the Bracy Foundation so that you can continue to do this phenomenal work right here in our backyard?

Absolutely.

In fact, this year we're celebrating 40 years of service to our community as a beacon of hope.

And we are so excited to be able to announce that to our community.

We're going to be having a dinner gala celebrating the wonderful years that we've done, the beacon of hope that we have always talked about.

And so you can follow us at www.bresee.org if you want to get involved there's volunteer opportunities there's different ways to basically support and so we're just looking forward to having a wonderful wonderful evening at our dinner gala celebrating 40 years.

That is so wonderful.

Well, Andy, thank you so much.

I mean, just to hear a little bit of your personal story.

Thank you for sharing that with us, but also to what this organization has done for 40 years inside the city of Los Angeles.

Thank you for all the work that you do, your organization does, and will continue to do because we will support it.

So thank you.

Thank you so much.

And thank you for joining us on, everybody with Angela Williamson.

Viewers like you make this show possible, join us on social media to continue this conversation.

Good night and stay well.