- [Narrator] Funding for this edition of One-On-One with Steve Adubato has been provided by Community FoodBank of New Jersey.

Newark Board of Education.

New Jersey Institute of Technology.

NJIT makes industry ready professionals in all STEM fields.

PSE&G.

Powering progress.

The Fidelco Group.

Hackensack Meridian Health.

Keep getting better.

The Russell Berrie Foundation.

Making a difference.

The North Ward Center.

And by The Adler Aphasia Center.

Promotional support provided by Meadowlands Chamber.

Building connections, driving business growth.

And by NJ.Com.

Keeping communities informed and connected.

- This is One-On-One.

- I'm an equal American just like you are.

- The way we change Presidents in this country is by voting.

- A quartet is already a jawn, it’s just The New Jawn.

- January 6th was not some sort of violent, crazy outlier.

- I don't care how good you are or how good you think you are, there is always something to learn.

- I mean what other country sends comedians over to embedded military to make them feel better.

- People call me 'cause they feel nobody's paying attention.

_ It’s not all about memorizing and getting information, it’s what you do with that information.

- (slowly) Start talking right now.

- That's a good question, high five.

(upbeat music) - Hi everyone, Steve Adubato.

We kick off the program with an in-depth interview I did with two leaders in the field of media.

Gerald D'Ambra and Lisa Marie Falbo, who's a former producer with the Caucus Educational Corporation, our production company.

We're talking about media leadership.

Gerald and Lisa Marie started an entity called Media First Group.

They own and operate something called On New Jersey.

We discuss the media, digital media, traditional media, the future of the media, media leadership.

Check it out.

- Lisa Marie and Gerald, good to see both of you.

- Great to be here Steve.

- Good to see you, Steve.

- Now where are you right now, what set is this?

- This is our Nutley TV studio.

So this is where we do a lot of the productions on our streaming channel On New Jersey.

- Lisa Marie, tell everyone what On New Jersey is because it's an important streaming service that people should know more about, go ahead.

- Yeah, so On New Jersey, we are the world's only New Jersey dedicated streaming channel, all Garden state news talk, sports and entertainment.

- And Gerald, let me ask you something.

We're part of Legacy Media on one level.

We're partners with public broadcasting, as Lisa Marie knows well, we're partners with them.

We produce our independent programming, but we stream it everywhere we can.

Is it fair to say, Gerald, that we don't have the luxury to be on any or in any one place in media, Gerald?

- I mean, you have to be everywhere today.

And that's what we aim to do.

You know, we look at every platform that we could possibly get on and we put our content there.

It's when you limit or you try to, you know, put your content behind the firewall, it really, really hurts you.

So like, you know, we see social media as good of a platform as a website or a fast channel or an app.

And we put our content out in as many places as we can because the eyeballs are there, so why not?

- So Lisa Marie, in light of Gerald saying that, the paywall, right?

You wanna see our content, you sign up and we'll get your credit card.

Okay, now, that's not the way we operate either.

And thank God for our underwriters and sponsors who allow us to do what we do.

You mentioned the business side before, Lisa Marie, for you who loves media, has always wanted to be a part of media.

How challenging is it for you, paywall is what it is, but we need to get paid and we need that money.

How challenging is it for you to juggle journalism and business?

- As you know, it's 24/7, and then throw in a husband, two kids a house, I mean, the kids are on my lap as I'm doing calls, as Gerald knows, right.

And thank God for COVID, honestly, because that allowed, I think, normalcy in that situation.

'cause I don't think I would be able to juggle all that I do if work from home wasn't a thing.

It's tough because you have to wear multiple hats at the same time.

But it's such a rush, it's so much fun.

And again, Steve, I learned from the best because I saw you do that all the time.

- Yeah, we had no choice.

Because if you don't have that money, you're not able to do what you do.

- Exactly.

- Joe, to Lisa Marie's point, I know she didn't mean, thank God for the horrific parts of COVID.

Thank God that it has allowed us to do this, because I'm convinced, 'cause we were in studios everywhere in Lincoln Center at the Tisch WNET Studio, in downtown Newark at our NJPBS studio.

And we love those studios.

But logistically, for us to do this, you're in Nutley.

I'm in another location.

and our other producers in Pennsylvania, Connecticut, all over the place.

It's a long-winded way of getting to this.

To what degree has this remote reality, Gerald, allowed us to do things and have guests on that are logistically a lot easier.

- It allowed us to launch our entire channel because, you know, without having in-person guests, you know, in-person guests are difficult.

It takes a lot of time, it takes staff, there's costs.

I have to turn the lights on in the studio.

But when you are remote, it keeps all of the costs down.

And what we've done and how we've built our business is we built our own custom control room.

We have kept the cost down.

So we don't have the costs that Legacy Media has.

We don't have necessarily the real estate costs.

We don't have the equipment costs that they have.

And we're able to do shows with a lot less staff than you would see at a traditional television station.

So we're very light, very nimble in terms of how we can produce TV shows, even live TV shows.

I think a lot of people would be shocked with how few people are actually behind a live TV show.

Because the technology takes the place.

Like, I'll give you an example, we do live call-ins.

We don't have a call screener anymore.

We have an automated system that looks up callers that automatically screens the calls and then our hosts or our director can put the calls to air, drop calls.

They could both have the ability to do it.

So it puts controls in the hands of the talent, the producers, the technical directors, anyone on your staff can log in and take control if they really need to.

And that's how we built our system to really help us keep our costs down.

- You know, and keeping costs down.

Obviously this keeps our costs down as well.

But Lisa Marie, I'm gonna follow up on what Gerald said.

You were with me, I believe when I was teaching at different universities and trying to teach about communication and media.

And there's where I'm going with this.

Do you believe if I were teaching a course or anyone else teaching a course in journalism or media today, that the teaching, the training and the coaching of future people in media would be dramatically different today than it was just 10 years ago?

- I think technically speaking, yes.

But you weren't teaching that, right?

- The production side.

On the production side, ahead.

- No, because look, to be a good producer, it's about connecting the dots.

It's about building up the story.

It's about understanding the moment and what's going on.

And that's timeless - Even though it's timeless, to what degree Lisa Marie, are you concerned that the trust of those of us in media, President Trump and it's not political at all, has called us the enemy of the people.

We're not sure who exactly he's talking about and when, but for those of us in legacy media, we have to deal with the reality, there are more and more folks who may not trust us, even though PBS, one of the most trusted media platforms ever.

However, there are more questions than ever.

How concerned are you, Lisa Marie with people not trusting us?

- It is very concerning.

And I think that's why with On New Jersey, we make such an effort to make sure that we're telling the whole story.

We are totally non-partisan.

If we have a Democrat on, like for example, on our New Jersey politics with Laura Jones and we have a Democrat on.

- Laura's terrific, Laura's terrific and Laura is the best.

We also have a Republican on we every side to be heard.

And I think that wins back trust.

I think when you turn on the TV and you see someone have an angle, that's where trust gets lost.

But with us, we really make sure that people are getting the whole story.

- Lisa Marie has it right.

And I've said this many times before, we don't have a horse in any race.

We don't pick sides.

And if you think you know where we're coming from, you don't, because we don't have a position.

We just have folks with different points of view.

And that's why media leadership is so important.

And I want to thank Lisa Marie and Gerald for joining us, On NJ is the streaming service.

We wish you both success because those of us in the media business need to stick together.

Well done team.

- Thank you Steve.

Thank you Steve.

- You got it.

Stay with us, we’ll be right back.

- [Narrator] To watch more One on One with Steve Adubato find us online and follow us on Social media.

- Recently folks, my colleague, Mary Gamba, on our sister series "Lessons in Leadership" had a one-on-one interview with Mary Beth Cooney, executive director of Creature Comfort Pet Therapy.

The conversation between Mary Beth and Mary was all about how pets can help bring comfort and healing to improve the wellbeing of their owners and other folks who need help when it comes to their struggles.

Pets make a difference.

Let's check it out.

- Hello and welcome to Lessons in Leadership.

I am Mary Gamba.

Right now I'm happy to be joined by Mary Beth Cooney, who is Executive Director of Creature Comfort Pet Therapy.

Mary Beth, thank you so much for joining us.

- Thank you, Mary.

I'm pleased to be here.

- Absolutely.

Before we even start talking about anything at all, who is that adorable pooch on your lap?

- This is Coby.

This is our family dog.

And Coby was certified with myself, my daughter, my grandson, to do pet therapy.

Unfortunately, he had a health incident, so he's now retired, but he went to hospitals, nursing homes, he'd go to presentations with me to recruit more volunteers, and he's such a calm and sweet boy.

He's a wonderful dog.

- That's so great.

Well, let's get right into it.

Let's talk a little bit about Creature Comfort Pet Therapy.

And I have to, full disclosure, I found out about your organization on Facebook and I am now a volunteer, as with my partner Harley, we are a partner therapy team.

But just tell us a little bit, what is Creature Comfort Pet Therapy?

We're gonna put the website up, so if people wanna get involved, if they wanna donate, if they wanna volunteer with their pet, tell us a little bit more about what you do.

- So Creature Comfort is a pet therapy organization started in 2011 by two women, Joan Baer and Annie Murphy, and they just recognized from their own experience that there was a need for pet therapy in this part of New Jersey.

And so they started very small, they had three facilities.

Basically we certify these animals to go into facilities to bring healing comfort.

And normally a dog can not just walk into a facility, so these are scheduled visits that we contract with the facilities to have so that everybody's prepared for the visits.

So Joan and Annie started this with Morristown Medical Center, and a nursing home, and Greystone Psychiatric Hospital.

And that was just three facilities and we now have approximately 300 facilities in nine counties.

- That's amazing.

And what are those, and you don't have to list all the counties, but I just know, because I'm in Westfield myself, you're primarily in Northern New Jersey, correct?

Southern, Northern.

- Right.

- Right, if you kind of take, we started in Morristown, so if you sort of pinpoint Morristown and take a circle around Morristown, about an hour outside of Morristown, we hit nine counties.

We may not go to the very edge of Bergen or the very bottom of Somerset, but we are west, north, east, south of Morristown and touching nine counties.

- That's amazing.

And one thing that I was fascinated to find out about, and I would love for you to talk about is the fact that we're not just talking about dogs here.

I have my therapy dog now, Harley, she went through the rigorous test.

I was so proud of her.

I was more nervous.

It was like going for a test at college and everything from having to walk by a treat and not take the treat and loud crowds and walk up to someone in a wheelchair and a walker.

But I was surprised to find out that there are other type of creatures, if you will, that go into these facilities.

Talk a little bit about that.

- And that, of course, is more the evaluation for dogs because these other animals couldn't do everything you just named.

(Mary laughing) The rest of the animals are cats, rabbits, Guinea pigs, ferrets, mini goats, and mini horses.

So, and we have had them all at different times.

We don't have any ferrets right now, but the percentage is really 90% dogs, as you can imagine.

And we have about 260 active teams, but maybe there's five to seven cats at a time and three to five rabbits and couple of ferrets and one mini goat right now named Lucy.

She's precious.

- I can't wait to meet Lucy.

(laughs) - She's just precious.

And so it varies according to how, again, these animals, how long they can last.

And that is one of our concerns that we always need more volunteers because these sweethearts don't live long enough, and unfortunately we do lose animals every year.

- Absolutely, and I would love for you to talk a little bit about the distinction from many people watching and we hear about it on the news, people say, "I have this comfort animal and I need to bring them on an airplane."

I remember it was like a comfort peacock.

What is the difference between a service dog and a therapy dog, like the one that you're holding right now?

- Absolutely.

A service dog you can identify usually they'll wear some kind of a vest to identify them and they are performing a service for the person who has a disability of some kind, could be seen or unseen, but they are with the animal for them to have this service by this animal, which was trained for this particular person.

Therefore, which most of us know, when you see a service dog, you do not go near them.

They are working and you do not wanna disturb the work that they are doing.

They are also legally allowed to go into places as long as the questions are, "Is this a service dog?

And what service are they performing?"

And then they can go into places legally.

A therapy dog is not allowed to just go into any place.

They are actually there with their owner because they're all privately owned to help other people.

So their service is to help their other people with their owner and they can go into places that we schedule as an organization.

So they are certified and they have a right to go in once we schedule with these organizations, we actually contract with them so that they're prepared.

We have dates on a calendar, everything is known ahead of time, that they are invited into that facility for that particular time and place.

- And if you are a facility watching, we talked a little bit, if you have a dog right now that you think number one is able to be a therapy dog, I know I talked about that, you go on the website, I know from personal experience, you put in the application, then you go in for the test.

But what if you're a school, a nursing home, and you find out more information?

How does that work?

Do you decide where these therapy dogs are going to go?

Or if I have a nonprofit I could say, "Hey, Mary Beth, I'm interested."

How does that work?

- That's actually a very good question.

We are known now through word of mouth, through social media, through just having it been experienced by people.

And so we have facilities who come to us.

We literally do not market for facilities, mainly because we are in such high demand that we get 30-50 new requests a month.

And we cannot take them all on because of course we don't have enough volunteers to fill every single one because we want the visits to be secure.

We want them to be filled when they're on that calendar.

So they go onto our website, they also put in an application like you did as a volunteer, and that gives us all the information we need.

And then our scheduling coordinator, Nancy, will call them and check with them as to what their needs are.

Some facilities don't fully understand what the value or what the best use of pet therapy is.

So if they're a high school and they say, "Oh, can the animals just sort of stand in the hall and the kids will walk past them?"

It's not, that wouldn't be the best use of the animal.

Instead we say, "Do you have a special needs classroom?

Do you have a guidance office where maybe they can come in and help with the children who are under stress that day?"

And so we explain and teach to the facilities what is the best use of the animals, and then we help to figure out which animals are best for different types of facilities.

Libraries with children, it is a quiet place, but they're children so it takes a little bit of energy.

A nursing home would definitely be a calmer, quieter animal.

And so there's different settings that fit best.

And the animal is actually who dictates which are the best facilities for the owner to go to.

- Absolutely, I was just gonna say that I recently visited a location and it was a site for individuals with special needs.

And it was just amazing watching Harley walk up to the different individuals and just greet them in different ways in the way that they wanted to be greeted, so that was really, really neat to see.

and I just wanna say it doesn't take much time.

I mean, it's literally you could do one hour a month, and I know I sound like an infomercial for Creature Comfort, but it's just been so rewarding to me and to Harley.

And people say, "Well, how do you know if your dog wants to do it?"

Trust me, your dog enjoys it and wants to do it.

You can tell if they do.

So I just wanna say on behalf of Steve Adubato and our entire team, thank you so much for the great work that you do.

And again, we'll put up the website if you're interested in volunteering and getting more information for Creature Comfort, log on today and learn some more.

And thank you so much, Mary Beth, for joining us.

- Thank you so much, this was a pleasure, and thank you for being a team.

- Oh, it's so exciting, yes.

And thanks so much.

And everyone stay with us, we'll be right back after this.

- [Narrator] To watch more One on One with Steve Adubato find us online and follow us on Social media.

- We're now joined by Joanna Carroll, Executive Director of Horizons Newark.

Joanna, good to see you.

- Good to see you.

Thanks for having me.

- You know, we do this ongoing series called Making a Difference, people and nonprofits who make a difference.

It's also part of our Stand and Deliver, Powering Equity, and Social Justice initiative.

Describe Horizons Newark.

- Horizons Newark, we're a nonprofit.

We obviously work in Newark, says the name.

And what we do is we provide after-school and summer programming, both child programming, to students from low-income homes in the city.

We provide them with opportunities they wouldn't have otherwise.

And so, over the summer, it's really targeted towards the learning loss that can happen over the summer in math and reading.

So, we do academics, but we also do things that, outside of that, like swimming.

We teach them to swim for free.

We do golf lessons, we do financial literacy, and we keep that year-round during the school year as well.

- Yeah.

Jump into the, I'm fascinated because I've often said this on the air, I would not have ever learned how to swim if it were not for the Boys and Girls Clubs, doesn't even exist on Broadway in Newark.

And the YMCA is big on that as well.

But one of the things that you're doing beyond swim lessons, which is awesome, is the golf piece.

- Yes.

- I'm fascinated by this.

Are you working with First Tee?

- We are, we are.

I know.

It's- - Tell everyone what that partnership is, 'cause First Tee is awesome.

- First Tee is awesome and we're really, really excited about this partnership.

So, it came about this past summer.

I've been trying to do it for some time as a golfer myself.

My family is all golfers.

Yeah.

(chuckles) And I know the benefits that it can have for students, both just in terms of getting into college and career, but also you gotta be very mentally strong.

You have to have focus, resilient.

- Oh, is that my problem?

(both laughing) - I know, I know.

It's really, it's hard.

- Hold on one second.

Before we go any further.

- Yeah.

- You hit the ball and it's going into the trap, in the bunker.

- Yeah.

- Do you say to yourself, it's in the bunker, I'm fine, I'll get out.

Or do you say, please, God, don't let the ball go in the bunker?

Which one?

- The latter.

(laughs) - I just wanna make sure.

- I don't think I'll ever get out of it.

- Okay.

That you mentioned mentally strong, that's all.

Go ahead, pick up your point.

- Yes, it's true.

Right, I'm not there.

- It's not about my struggling golf game or you not wanting to be in the bunker.

Go back to First Tee and these kids.

- Yes.

So, First Tee, we partnered, we partnered over the summer for the first time this last summer.

And we started with our middle schoolers teaching them to golf.

We really brought it on to compliment our focus on social emotional learning.

As I said, the mental toughness, resilience, confidence, pushing forward with something when it seems hard.

And it was such a success that with funding from the Little Family Foundations, we brought it over into the school year.

And we do weekly tutoring in math and reading, along with a weekly golf lesson, which can cost how much money if we didn't do it with First Tee and providing opportunities for kids who otherwise, they wouldn't be enrolled in something like this.

- Is it tuition?

Hold on.

Is the program free?

- The program is free.

We're funded entirely- - How the heck is it- - by donors.

- You get grants like we, you're a nonprofit that gets grants?

- We're a nonprofit that gets grants and individual donations.

And so, that's how we're able to do it.

So, as I mentioned, the Wilf Family Foundation does the tutoring portion, and then we partner with First Tee and provide this to our students weekly during the school year.

- Do you have a relationship with schools at all?

- Yes, yes.

We partner with 38 different schools in Newark.

We partner with their teachers and principals to recruit them into our program, which we'll say, do you see they have a need for some extra academic support, social emotional support?

'Cause we have a dedicated social worker.

And we do it that way.

And also just through the community and parents, that's how we get our students from the program.

- How do people, particularly the children and the parents of those children that you want to help, how the heck do they find out about Horizons Newark?

- So, there's a couple ways.

One, their principals should shoot something out.

We'll send a message.

It should be in the next couple weeks, so January, February to, say enrollment is open.

They can also visit our website where there is a link, you go to apply, it's in both English and Spanish.

You click through, you fill it out, and then you have to meet the eligibility requirements, which is that you either qualify for free and reduced lunch or demonstrate a financial need for our program, meaning you wouldn't be able to do something like this otherwise.

And so, then we go through and we accept into our program.

We have small class sizes, much, it's only 15 students per class with three teachers.

And really, it's a lot of fun, but also really impactful.

- Let me ask you this, as a not-for-profit leader, other than fundraising, which is always the number one challenge, what's the most challenging aspect of your work?

- Transportation.

Getting people to where we need, and I think that's a challenge for a lot of nonprofits.

So, we operate out of one location.

And in order to get our families, our families have to be able to get their child there.

It's similar to food banks, right?

We're having food distribution, but if I'm in the Central Ward and I live in the South Ward, how am I gonna get, to get the food?

- And you work with the Community Food Bank of New Jersey?

- We do work with the Community Food Bank of New Jersey.

- One of our partners as well.

Go ahead.

So, it's there.

- Yeah.

- You've got to go, they got to get there.

- You have to get there.

And that's something that we are actively working on.

We're raising money for transportation to get students at least who live the farthest from where we are to our program most easily.

Also, we have more students who wanna participate in our program than we have spots.

We need to- - Really?

- Yes, we have a wait list typically of 30 to 40 students each year, but we don't physically have the space.

So, we wanna grow.

We want people interested in having us at their locations, partnering with us, like we're ready to go.

We wanna serve as many kids as we can.

- 1 to 10, I love my job, how much 1 to 10?

- I can't even put a number on that.

And I mean that.

I, as I mentioned, I'm a mom of two little kids, and that's challenging.

And I wouldn't give this up when things get hard for anything.

I love my job.

You are making a difference every day, Joanna.

- Thank you so much.

- Well done.

Looking forward to having you back.

- Thank you.

Appreciate it.

- I'm Steve Adubato, that's Joanna Carroll doing good work.

We'll see you next time.

- [Narrator] One-On-One with Steve Adubato is a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

Funding has been provided by Community FoodBank of New Jersey.

Newark Board of Education.

New Jersey Institute of Technology.

PSE&G.

The Fidelco Group.

Hackensack Meridian Health.

The Russell Berrie Foundation.

The North Ward Center.

And by The Adler Aphasia Center.

Promotional support provided by Meadowlands Chamber.

And by NJ.Com.

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