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[♪♪♪] Good evening, and welcome to a special edition of NJ Spotlight News.

I'm Briana Vannozzi.

For the last year, we've had the incredible opportunity to introduce you to a number of people who are giving back to their communities in extraordinary ways through our digital documentary film series, 21.

The series examines the simple question of does where you live in the state affect how you live?

21 profiles one person in each of our 21 counties and looks at the social determinants that affect that person's life.

Well, tonight, we introduce you to several more New Jerseyans who, let's just say, have an independent spirit and are going above and beyond.

First, meet Fallon Davis, who redefines what it means to be a community leader in Essex County.

They would rather be looked at as a radical educator, developing tools, resources, and space for the next generation of innovators through expressive arts and science programs for all ages.

Here's Fallon.

- In a place like Essex, we are a family.

And outside of the things that couldn't be better, it's a beautiful place to be.

So I would consider myself a community leader.

You good?

Good.

If something's not going right for the community, I'm going to be the one that speaks out on it.

Because if you don't take control of your city, then who else will?

♪ ♪ So I want Essex County to be respected as a cultural hub.

I want Newark to be the Black mecca of the world.

What's going on?

How you doing?

Amazing, this is so dope.

This is where a lot of Black and Brown culture is.

We're so glad to have you.

Your vibe is excellent.

For so long, communities like Newark have been left out.

You don't realize that in this community, there are a lot of resources that are not available.

This is what I wake up every day fighting to advocate for-- free water, free food, free programming, and really providing space where Black and Brown owners can find ownership here.

You know, it's a big task we're up against.

Where you live does affect how you live, especially when you're in an area with lack of access to fresh food.

Newark is a very diverse place.

In every ward, there's five of them.

It has a different personality, a different set of resources.

All five wards are food deserts, and every public school is in poverty.

You have to change your community that you live in so that people want to wake up in the morning, so that people want to be alive, so that people want to learn.

And so I developed STEAM Urban March 2020 in the height of the pandemic.

So STEAM Urban is an expressive arts and STEM discipline education program for Black and Brown students of all ages.

And all ages because you don't ever stop learning.

- With STEAM Urban, I wanted to be different.

A lot of my programming in the beginning of my career was in the classroom, and it really wasn't connecting to the community.

If you think about a student, you have to reach their caregivers.

So if we can get out in the neighborhood, where you don't have so many restrictions, and invite the community out, that has been the success.

I'm able to see a city who has been systemically left out continue to come back to life.

(cheering) Finding my identity through community was a very hard thing.

I really didn't see myself in the world.

Ha!

Excellent!

Yes, this is so me.

Being in the fashion industry and being in New York City definitely opened up my eyes.

I feel great.

The LGBTQ community wasn't really represented, especially Black and Brown people in the fashion world.

Being non-binary, I'm a spiritual being.

I'm a peaceful being.

And that's what I like to be known as, not all these different labels.

Me being more masculine presenting started to be problematic.

It was very apparent to me that I was going to have to create my own spaces.

You know, you were going to have to create your own tribe.

Hey, guys.

And that's been a big part of my journey.

I've created a tribe in this world.

And that's what I wanted to give for other people.

I wanted to provide opportunities for them that other people weren't giving them.

And that's what I'm creating with Steam Urban, spaces that I didn't have, safe zones where you can be any identity you want, but people will respect it and people will value you.

I think what I love about us all is that we're not just speaking about it, we're doing it.

That's the real deal.

Okay, that is the deal.

Through our programs, I designed a model that empowers people.

In our first year, we did 70 programs, so we were able to reach people in all ways.

How you doing?

Welcome, welcome to STEAM Urban.

We are here doing nature print collages today.

The expressive arts has healed me.

To be able to be connected to some form of creativity, artistry, has kept me living.

So I use the arts as a healing mechanism and as a way to show people that their voice and their lives matter.

Everybody's an artist, I'm telling you.

Everyone.

Gardening can teach you everything you need to know about yourself and the world.

You can see something growing that wasn't there before.

You see things come alive.

That's what allows you to feel good about learning.

So I work with parks, gardens, farms.

I decided that I was going to create outdoor learning classrooms, creating a new educational blueprint.

This is one of our partners, the farm, so we put all this together today.

Self-sustaining communities is what it's going to take to revive urban areas.

Inside of here is a fresh salad kit and some seeds to plant.

And these are from local farms in the area.

If you start to be self-sustaining, they can't take from you what you can keep for yourself.

I want STEAM Urban to become a staple and to really be in the fabric of Essex and the fabric of Newark.

So I've created a community collective.

I have over 70 to 80 partners.

And when I'm designing a program, I can reach out to them.

And everyone's excited to be a part of what Steve Mervin does.

I wanted to ask if you wanted to be a part of the Creative Changemakers Club.

We're all in the same community.

I look at all of you as these visionaries.

And so I want to work together.

High school dropout, mom at 16, going through life and being an entrepreneur.

How do I show other Black girls how to use social media to essentially build a brand?

So Marci's giving Team Urban the platform and bringing us into the parks, which is phenomenal.

Because it's not about competition, it's about collaboration.

That's really what this is.

And so what do you guys think?

[LAUGHTER] I'm in.

[LAUGHTER] So it's brought back this community essence that, you know, I think for a while was missing from North.

It's created a beautiful community and the tribe is what I thrive on on a daily basis.

I couldn't do it without them.

This is why I have these friends.

My dream for future generations is for them to love their community and for them to really feel like they want to be a part of that community and it's going to take the help of everyone.

It is my life's dream to be in a community like this and I wouldn't want to be anywhere else.

(soft music) - Now over to Hudson County, where Shayla Cabrera started with a small business called Tia Planta.

It's rooted in community inclusion and education.

Today, her business is blossoming beyond houseplants.

She is in fact, one of the only women in the state with a license to grow cannabis.

For Shayla, representation on the recreational marijuana space is personal.

Her father remains incarcerated for selling cannabis.

Meet Shayla.

- I think back when I was a little girl and there was no one that looked like me that did anything like this.

They say the most successful business is you find a solution to something.

It's very important for me to represent as a Black woman in this space.

This is who I am.

♪ ♪ I have been in Hudson County now for 13 years.

I'm a small business owner, a serial entrepreneur.

Currently, my businesses are horticulturally based and community based.

I don't come from much.

My mother moved out to New Jersey to kind of give me the opportunity to get a better education and just improve my life.

Growing up in the suburbs, I was part of a very small minority group.

So that was a little bit difficult because I didn't really find anyone that I could identify with that looked like me.

I love punk rock and just like the New Jersey scene is really what I come from.

As a serial entrepreneur, there was a plant shop in my neighborhood that I kind of like interned at.

I just would volunteer and hang around during the pandemic when it first started.

And the guy who ran the plant shop said, "You know more about plants than me.

You should sell plants."

So I sat and I thought, "I definitely need to start this business.

What are we going to name it?"

We ended up with Tia Planta.

Everybody loved it.

So I founded my business, Juneteenth 2020, during the pandemic, and it took off beyond my wildest dreams.

McGinley Square is a less prominent part of the city.

I saw this space.

It was a former police kiosk, and I wanted to bring green to McGinley Square and bring plant life.

We were granted the space by the city council, and I joined the Department of Innovation here in Jersey City, and gave me the opportunity to rent directly from Jersey City and move into the police kiosk.

One of my customers let me know that they were discussing removing me from the space.

Broke my heart because I just love this community so much.

I couldn't understand why they would do that to me, and I had to close down my shop.

I felt bullied.

Yeah.

It's heartbreaking even now, because I just love this place so much, and it's still empty.

So I move forward and, you know, on to bigger and better things.

But this train don't stop for nobody.

After I made it public that I was having difficulty with the city and my shop, the amount of people that supported my business was absolutely incredible.

It blew my mind that thousands of people all around the state, not just Jersey City, stood up for me.

This is one of our last plant pop-ups, so yeah, but I mean, onward and upward.

It just gave me so much fuel in this jetpack to continue whatever path it may be.

Now I'm like taking all that knowledge I learned and going off on my own.

I'm a new partner and it's like really great.

I'm just so happy.

I want to do this.

I heard that legal cannabis was coming here to New Jersey.

So I decided to pursue cannabis on my own.

In the end, it was a blessing in disguise because I'm now one of the only women in the state that have a license to grow cannabis.

(upbeat music) Thank you so much.

You're all set.

I'll give you a card also.

- Great, thank you so much.

- There you go.

Thank you.

Have a good one.

We were working on this license application day and night to make sure it was perfect.

When we got back the answer and learned that we got this license, I mean, it was like the Super Bowl because I have put every ounce of energy into this, money into this, time into this, that to be validated and to get that license just felt so good.

[music] I didn't know who my father was until I was about 20.

It was not really discussed in my home at all because he was regarded as a criminal for selling cannabis.

My father's been incarcerated over 20 years.

[music] That's part of why I'm in this.

Now here I am, and I have a license to distribute cannabis, and my father is still incarcerated to this day.

It's difficult even now to know that there are so many Black people incarcerated.

It makes me angry, honestly.

With that, I use the anger as fuel to get me into this cannabis space and that I have been negatively affected by this criminalization of a plant.

Hey there.

I'm going to list each herb on the label and I'm also going to put the directions as to how you should use it.

Okay.

I've kind of just been focusing on my cannabis business so I finally have a little bit more time to just get to know my community again and come out and just do what I do, talk too much.

I want to be able to be a role model for other people that look like me to show them that you can innovate in this industry.

The people that have been the most affected by this need the opportunities first.

I believe that and I will continue to fight for that and continue to share any knowledge I have with them.

How you doing?

We currently have a conditional micro cultivation license.

It's basically the first part of the screening process.

I have passed.

In order to graduate up to an annual license, I need to find a location that is properly zoned for cannabis cultivation.

There are people that own the property there that once they find out it's cannabis businesses are coming in, they charge an insane amount of rent, and no business can survive off of that.

Prices here in Jersey City are extremely high.

I want to grow my cannabis here.

This is my city.

I want my product to say "Grown in Jersey City."

Let me go around this step over a little bit.

There's still a lot of stigma behind plant medicine, which is very unfortunate.

Education is going to be the factor that takes this plant out of the shadows and into the light.

Erica, can you please put down the, uh... -The table?

-Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

I come from houseplants, and as soon as I let my community know I was going into cannabis, nobody judged me.

I was only supported by them.

A lot of times, you know, I grew up in the suburbs, and finding that validation was very difficult, being the only minority.

And now here I am, an adult, completely supported my community in any endeavor I go into, and it just-- it really feels so great.

I say that Tia Plante is rooted in diversity, community, and education.

I feel so safe here.

I feel so cared for here.

I don't want to have to leave.

Jersey City, it's the most diverse city in the country, literally.

Every kind of person, just so respectful, so caring, such a great community, so accepting.

And I can't imagine leaving.

The opportunity is here if you're a go-getter, if you're a self-starter, if you work hard.

You can make anything happen here in Hudson County.

Where you live heavily affects how you live.

I think that your lifestyle is heavily dependent on your zip code, because that's the cost of living.

How much peace you can have, how hard you have to work to attain that, especially if it's an underrepresented group, marginalized people that don't have access to opportunity.

With the developments coming here into Jersey City, a lot of the people that have lived here for a long time cannot afford that because of the skyrocketing cost.

I continue to press on through the challenges because, well, I'm mad about it.

I'm not going anywhere.

So I will continue to advocate for people that look like me.

It's what makes me happy.

It's what brings me joy, being able to help other people.

And I'll continue to do that till the day I die.

Thank you so much, everybody.

Awesome.

Now down to Camden County, where we meet Karanveer Pannu, a young community leader and the first Sikh member of the Voorhees Township Zoning Board.

With hopes to one day have a political career, he leads by example through his faith and work as a bullying prevention specialist with a special focus on supporting diversity and tolerance.

Here is Karanveer.

(soft music) - Our differences are kind of like, they make us similar in a sense.

The Sikh faith, for example, is rooted in public service, serving others, defending yourself, and these are all values that we grew up in America with.

It's our duty to stand up for others and ourselves.

Being a turban-wearing sick kid, you're often concerned of how others perceive you.

In sixth, seventh grade, I was going to school one day, I remember passing a bus and there was an eighth grader on the bus and she just yelled out a racial slur for no reason.

Things like that kind of stuck with me.

Those small incidents like that gave me a reminder that it's my duty to do my part to make it better for other kids.

So that's why the book came about and doing the work I'm doing now.

In high school, one of the assignments was to write a report on PTSD in a certain community.

I got the idea to write a book on bullying.

I had kids coming up to me in tears, and they were expressing that it wasn't just kids picking on them, but it was teachers as well.

So I realized that the book would be a tool for educators.

I gave my first presentation to an audience of teachers, police officers, school safety officers, psychologists, psychiatrists, and everyone basically that deals with kids on a daily basis.

And they were very cooperative and gave me the opportunity to speak at all the local elementary schools in town.

Since then, I've just been trying to take the initiative to get out and speak to as many kids as possible.

How's everyone doing today?

I didn't hear you the first time.

[cheering] There we go.

Who knows what the number one form of bullying is today?

Someone said it, what was it?

Cyberbullying.

Cyberbullying, that's correct.

Bullying today takes place through cyberbullying, physical bullying, and verbal bullying.

Oftentimes, bullying goes unnoticed, and it can be in the most minor forms.

My purpose of the book is to make teachers more aware of the various forms that kids use to target other kids.

I noticed a scary trend in bullying rates, specifically amongst those in my community.

So the goal through this book is highlighting the Sikh community.

Sikhs go through bullying at twice the national average rate because we stand out.

Are you allowed to show your hair in public?

Good question.

So am I allowed to show my hair in public?

The answer is no.

So whenever I step out of my house, it has to be covered.

And it's because it's like a uniform.

So just like a police officer wouldn't step out of their department without their uniform on.

Similarly, Sikhs have to be in their uniform.

- What happens if you don't wear it?

- What happens if I don't wear it?

God's gonna come down and I'm gonna go to hell.

I'm just kidding, I'm kidding, I'm kidding, I'm kidding.

I did my master's writing a report on bullying in schools in New Jersey.

I reached out to the kids there and I asked them to go wherever they went to school and how they felt.

And I used their data to strengthen what I had written in the past in my book.

The passion kind of came from my faith.

Our main kind of tenets of our faith are to earn an honest living, to remember God at all times, and to serve others.

That's why I chose this path, is because it was one way to kind of raise awareness, and also to make an impact.

[singing] The kirpan, it's a ceremonial sword of varying lengths.

I took the initiative to raise awareness about it because I knew I was going to get confronted about carrying a weapon into these buildings.

So I reached out to the state police.

We filmed a short and informative video about the kirpan and what law enforcement officials can do when they interact with someone wearing it.

That was not only disseminated across all the law enforcement officers, but also I shared that with my local community.

And that kind of gave them an insight as to folks in uniform are there to actually help you.

I joined the zoning board in Voorhees Township towards the end of undergrad.

I'm the youngest on the board.

Being on the zoning board gives me an opportunity to see what residents are experiencing on a day-to-day basis.

It's a good opportunity to see the involvement that the public has when issues are brought up.

It was cool placing my hand on our scripture and sending that message like, "Voorhees Township is inclusive."

It was an opportunity to put everything I was learning in class into kind of practice.

When I first got into Rutgers and I was commuting there every day, I did have the usual concerns that folks have of my faith, if I would be targeted by bullying and stuff like that.

But overall Rutgers as a whole, the Camden campus is a very welcoming and open community.

You're trying to study?

Oh, because you have to do the licensing exam.

So that's like the bar exam basically.

Yeah, basically, the licensure exam.

My future career plans are to get involved in government and eventually I want to run for office and hopefully I can change up the way things are running in society.

I feel like the policies aren't doing the job that they're supposed to, so kind of just restructuring and changing the entire setup of those policies is necessary.

Now we're going to do that turpentine demonstration on Mr.

Maggs.

I love community service and activism.

We do have a large, growing, diverse community in Camden County.

The people here want to see you succeed, and the folks around you are always there to help.

Even though it may feel like you're not doing much or it feels mundane, it's necessary because you never know when someone might need your presence.

And that's why I like public service, because it gives you an opportunity to be there at the right moment.

(applause) The more people get involved, the better the outcome.

Everyone often complains about the system and how it's not beneficial for folks, but if you're just sitting on the sidelines, nothing's gonna change, so it's important to be involved in it and get active because that's how we're gonna make the change, but it's not gonna come overnight.

It's getting better slowly, but we always have to be proactive and make sure no one goes through it.

So that's kind of why I have to do it today.

A lot of times, kids in my community don't realize the importance of remembering a purpose.

Do the right work every day.

That's kind of what keeps me going.

(gentle music) - You can experience some of the other extraordinary Jersey residents profiled in the 21 film series at mynjpbs.org/21.

That's gonna do it for us tonight.

I'm Briana Vannozzi.

- New Jersey Education Association, making public schools great for every child.

And RWJBarnabas Health.

Let's be healthy together.

- Major funding for the 21 film series is in part provided by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Additional funding is provided by the PSEG Foundation.

- NJM Insurance Group has been part of New Jersey for over a century.

We support our communities through NJM's corporate giving program, supporting arts and culture related and nonprofit organizations that serve to improve the lives of children, rebuild communities, and help to create a new generation of safe drivers.

We're proud to be part of New Jersey.

NJM, we've got New Jersey covered.

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You'll have access to advanced treatments, including clinical trials, thanks to our renowned scientists and multidisciplinary teams at New Jersey's only NCI-designated comprehensive cancer center, the one world-class cancer program that's close to home.

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Let's beat cancer together.

[MUSIC]