- [Narrator] Funding for this edition of One-On-One with Steve Adubato has been provided by PSE&G, committed to providing safe, reliable energy now and in the future.

The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities, Clean Energy program.

Valley Bank.

The New Jersey Economic Development Authority.

The Russell Berrie Foundation.

Making a difference.

Choose New Jersey.

The Turrell Fund, supporting Reimagine Childcare.

Summit Health a provider of primary, specialty, and urgent care.

And by Rowan University.

Promotional support provided by NJ.Com, keeping communities informed and connected.

And by New Jersey Globe.

- This is One-On-One.

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

- The jobs of tomorrow are not the jobs of yesterday.

- Look at this.

You get this?

- Life without dance is boring.

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

- Do you enjoy talking politics?

- No.

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

- Our culture, I don't think has ever been tested in the way it's being tested right now.

- That's a good question, high five.

(upbeat music) - Hi, I'm Steve Adubato, welcome to another compelling important program where we focus on public policy.

And we kick off with the Commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, Shawn LaTourette, good to see a Commissioner.

- Good to see you.

- First of all, describe this job for people who do not know what it is.

- Immensely important and really hard.

So the commissioner of environmental protection has the responsibility to hold every natural resource of this state in trust for its people, right?

Because our air, our land, our water, our wildlife they don't belong to the government or to me, or even the people of the Department of Environmental Protection who works so hard every day to protect them.

All of our natural resources belong to the people, all of the people.

And so the commissioner oversees regulatory programs that make sure our water is clean, that we get safe drinking water, that we can fish in our streams and swimming on our oceans and that manufacturing facilities don't put too much pollution to the air and many things like that.

- And Shawn, I'm sorry for calling you Shawn because that's how we met several years ago.

Because I know of your commitment to environmental law and your background at the Gibbons law firm before that.

And let me disclose, you're a former student of mine in the Gibbons Leadership Academy, can I do that?

- By all means?

- Yeah, I wasn't that terrible doing that.

And you've accomplished great things since then.

But I've got to ask you, I was always struck every time we were in classrooms together or in seminars, your commitment to environmental law and justice, so deep, so genuine, so real.

Where does it come from?

- I think it comes from a background of seeing the disparities, that folks experience with respect to how healthy their environment is or how much access they have to it, right?

I grew up in a working family, up to, that benefited from the generosity of our fellow citizens, whose tax payer funds pay for things like food stamps and free school lunch, right?

And I didn't know what environmental laws even was until I was, I dunno, 20.

And I saw at that time, because I was introduced to some young environmental lawyers, folks in communities who are afflicted by contaminated drinking water.

Partnered with the firm of then Erin Brockovich Fame, to organize communities whose water was poisoned by petrochemicals help them to understand what was happening and raise their voices and defend their rights.

- You know, you are the first.

When there are firsts that matter, we need to recognize them.

And as part of a series we're doing called New Jersey leaders who matter.

You are in fact, the first openly LGBTQ, plus person to lead an environmental state agency not just in New Jersey, but in the nation.

What does that mean to you?

And what should it mean to all of us?

- You know, it's an interesting question.

And not one that I get infrequently but it's always hard to capture what it means.

I mean, of course it doesn't say anything about my ability or readiness to do the job, right?

I either have the background of the education or the credits to do it, or I don't.

So it doesn't say anything about that.

But it does say something about the importance of making sure that government reflects its people both in how they act in terms of the policy and the law that we're reaching the issues that are important to residents, not just important to high-minded policy folk but that our people, our leaders reflect us.

And I'm happy that the LGBTQ community sees some added representation in a role like this.

I think it's important.

- Very.

And moving forward, we need to do, we're playing catch up.

Let's just put it that way.

We're playing catch-up.

Commissioner let me ask you this.

When it comes to climate change resistance, it's out there.

But you see it from a certain perspective.

I don't know, it's not my job to offer my commentary or analysis in this venue but yours on this resistance, come on seriously.

It's not a big deal.

And I don't know why we're making such a big deal.

The whole thing, oh, we can't eat Hamburg.

The hyperbole around mocking certain policies as it relates to climate change, put it into perspective.

- Yeah (clears throat) I'm around every day, folks who think deeply about the realities of climate change how it's impacting our state now and how that impact sadly is only going to worsen into the future.

And it can be hard when you are doing work like this to put yourself in the position of not believing it.

And trying to speak to those who may not believe that this is a real issue that we must confront.

And in fact, it came up in my confirmation hearing just last week where there was a colloquy that was thick with climate denial, very thick.

And it's.. - From members of the legislature?

- Correct.

And, it was such a sobering reminder for me that there are people to reach who need to understand better, that I could do a better job of explaining that reality and helping folks to appreciate policy movement that they may feel like is sudden, right?

So to be very clear, climate change is real, right?

It's.. - I'm sorry commissioner.

Commissioner, give us for those watching right now, who are either deniers or not convinced, give one concrete example of how climate change impacts our lives in a very real, genuine, relevant way.

Sorry for interrupting, go ahead.

- I will give you an example from just this February.

We saw massive erosion along our beaches in Ocean County, parts of Monmouth, down to Cape May, from a relatively mild winter storm, a mild storm.

And now we are confronted with making sure we restore those beaches.

And this happens all the time.

And it's only going to get worse.

In New Jersey because of our unique low-lying nature and the way that the last ice age affected the land in our state, we are likely to see two feet of sea level rise by 2050, five by 2100.

We have to prepare for that.

And I think.. - How?

How?

Specifically, policy wise, action.

- And I'll tell you.

With respect to making sure that we're ready, we need to make sure that what we are building today, stands the test of time.

I live in a 100-year-old house, right?

When we put steel in the ground, construct new development in areas that we know are going to be impacted by sea level rise, we need to make sure that they're high enough, that they're flood resistant and that people can get out of them when the worst thing occurs, because it will occur.

We know that, that's what the science says.

And some folks push back against that because there's an added cost to flood-proofing.

There's an added cost if you talk about well, maybe in some areas of the state, the ground level should actually be parking and the residential just the next level up or commercial just the next level up so that everyone is safe.

There's resistance to this, but it's only smart planning.

It's smart economic, it's good economic sense.

All the primary leaders in finance around the world think that this is the way to go.

Climate is being evaluated.

Your ability to resist the impacts of climate change is being evaluated in the case of sovereign debt.

This is the future, we have to be ready.

It is economically disastrous not to be.

- By the way you talked about the cost of preparing, the cost of not much greater again.

- So, I mean, I'll give you a specific on that, Steve.

- I've got 20 seconds Commissioner, go ahead.

- Okay.

For every $1 we invest in resilience the studies show us, you save $6 in responding and in recovering.

Let's get out of this cycle of recovery and response and be smart on the front end.

- Commissioner Shawn LaTourette of the Department of Environmental Protection in New Jersey.

Commissioner, we wish you all the best and thank you for joining us.

- Thank you for having me, good to see you.

- 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.

- It took 10 years to get her back, but she's back.

She's Alfa Demmellash, who is CEO and co-founder of a really compelling and important organization called Rising Tide Capital.

She was named a CNN hero and she honors us by being with us.

Alfa it's so good to see you again.

- It's so wonderful to be with you Steve.

Thanks for having me.

- For those who do not know what Rising Tide Capital is, let them know.

- Sure, Rising Tide Capital is a nonprofit organization that's headquartered in Jersey City and serves all of New Jersey with services for entrepreneurs who are starting and growing businesses, and small businesses who are struggling, especially at this moment, to keep their doors open.

We exist to transform lives and communities through entrepreneurship, Steve.

- You know, we're taping on the 20th of May.

It'll be seen later.

These statistics are staggering.

34% of the state's small businesses have closed since the pandemic started.

40% of minority owned businesses are permanently closed.

It's disproportionate.

It's worse.

Describe it, A and B.

What do we need to do?

- Certainly I think the statistics that you've named are really, really important.

And when you take it into account that New Jersey in particular has over 50% of its employment relying on small businesses and these kinds of entrepreneurs that are creating local jobs.

So when we're talking about the issue of 40% of small businesses owned by minority and women business owners shutting down, we're talking about an impact that is multi-generational in nature.

As somebody who for the past 17 years along with a team of incredible people have been supporting entrepreneurs and small business owners can share, it's extraordinarily difficult to open a business.

But unfortunately all too easy to shut one down.

So this pandemic has really brought us to our knees.

And the reality is we do need those businesses in order to get folks off of the unemployment lines.

In order to make sure that our communities are stabilized and that we can actually create more jobs into a new future economy than we currently have.

So in terms of the A and B effect, entrepreneurs and small business owners will tell you, certainly the lifting of the quarantine policies and legislation is critical because if they're not open, they can't make any money.

But more than that, it is about making sure that they're getting the right advice around how it is that they can manage their debt.

A lot of them have had to declare bankruptcy or take on bad credit, which impacts their basic livelihood.

And so it's a lot of advice and support and technical assistance they need to get access to grants and any kind of reasonable financing opportunities for them to get back on their feet.

- So as we put up the Rising Tide Capital website and you're a nonprofit, we're a nonprofit.

And by the way, Alfa's talking about small businesses surviving, having a nonprofit surviving like us, it only happens because of the generosity of corporations, foundations, and people who care about what we do.

And that being said, my question is when they go on the website, what kind of help can they get?

- So when they go on the website, part of what they get is access to a team that's gonna let them know of different kinds of opportunities.

As Steve, you mentioned, we're a nonprofit.

We're funded by foundations, corporations, and governments.

We've been very grateful to have support from groups like the Economic Development Authority, which has been putting out a whole lot more resources for small businesses.

There are other private entities, including certainly our bank funding partners who are giving us more resources to get on a call with an entrepreneur, offer them that one-on-one advice to support them in their decision-making, and also access to cohort-based experiences where they can build out a new business model.

For many of our entrepreneurs, they've had to rethink their entire business model.

And let me tell you, Steve, we have 3000 entrepreneurs.

We surveyed them as the pandemic was hitting.

And about 1/3 of them, that's a thousand entrepreneurs, could not get onto an online device or even have an an additional device that they could work off of because so many of them are parents and are having to educate their kids on these devices.

So access to digital support, helping them understand where their next customers might be and how to meet them in an appropriate timeline is something that we're certainly leveraging every resource we know how to be able to provide in a timely way to our entrepreneurs and small business communities.

- Childcare matters.

School situation matters.

We're involved in an initiative called Reimagine Child Care connected to this conversation.

What does a quote unquote equitable recovery mean to you Alfa?

- It really is important that we're paying attention to where the most vulnerable populations are in our state.

In our case, in our specific mission, it means that women and minority business owners who've been the hardest hit both by COVID and by the pre-existing conditions around systemic racism and challenges and barriers that they faced with regards to access to opportunities and financing and markets.

It means that we hone in and focus our resources on making sure that they have equal access to both affordable loans and/or grant financing.

Really frankly, what so many of small businesses need, including nonprofits like us, is grant financing, long-term investments.

Because they have to get back up in order to be able to provide all of the sources of a thriving, local living economy.

And so when I look at the equity issue, it's really honing in specialized advisory and support services to make sure that groups that are most vulnerable have the wraparound and kind of the know-how around how to do that in a timely way for where they're at and not necessarily where we're wanting them to be.

- Alfa, next time you come back, I want to talk about the changing face, the future of the workplace itself, and how that impacts small businesses as well.

But Alfa Demmellash, who is the CEO and co-founder of Rising Tide Capital, let's not let it be 10 years between interviews because your message, your mission, the work you and your colleagues are doing is too important.

Alfa, thank you so much.

- Thank you for having me.

- My pleasure.

I'm Steve Adubato, that is Alfa Demmellash.

We'll be right back.

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

- We're now joined by Dr. Rahil Briggs, who is National Director of Healthy Steps at the great organization called Zero to Three, and also Dr. Judy Aschner, Physician and Chief at Hackensack Meridian Children's Health.

Good to see both of you.

- Thanks for having us here.

- Dr. Briggs, let me ask you, what exactly is the Healthy Steps program and why is it so important?

- Thanks, Steve.

In a nutshell, Healthy Steps takes advantage of the fact that the most important years of our lives perhaps are birth to three.

Those really critical years between birth and age three really set the foundation for later success.

Pediatric practice, if you have little children or know anyone who have little children, is almost where you are in those ages, birth to three, more often than anywhere else.

And so you bring your child to the pediatrician 12 to 13 times in the first three years of life, and what an extraordinary platform to provide the needed holistic family centered interventions that we know contributes to success.

So Healthy Steps as a new team member to the pediatric primary care team.

They're called a Healthy Steps specialist, and they cover that holistic family centered piece about social determinants of health, child development, parental mental health and wellbeing to really make sure that foundation is as good as possible for young children.

- And by the way, you'll see our website, our very important Reimagine Child Care initiative.

You'll see it up there.

We've been involved in it for several years now, talking about affordable, accessible child care.

Let me ask you Dr. Aschner, what is the connection at Hackensack Meridian Children's Health, what is the connection there?

- So I came to New Jersey and to Hackensack Meridian Children's Health about two and a half years ago from New York state where I was chair in another department of pediatrics that totally embraced the Healthy Step model.

And I was able to see the incredible impact it had on our children and families in the Bronx.

And I came to New Jersey and was very surprised to find that there were no Healthy Steps practices in New Jersey.

And as I got to know the state better and the children and families we served, I realized what a valuable model this would be to bring to the state, which is very diverse.

And although we have some excellent outcomes there are many many areas, such as childhood vaccination rates and other outcomes such as childhood obesity that I really thought the Healthy Steps model would allow us to really move the needle in this state and improve the outcomes for children.

And so I reached out to Rahil, and then we were fortunate enough to write a grant that was funded by three foundations, the Burke Foundation, the Nicholson Foundation, and the Turrell Fund.

And through that funding we were able to establish three pilot sites to model the Healthy Steps practice in New Jersey, and hopefully demonstrate to everyone what a powerful model this is for improving outcomes for our children that will last a lifetime.

- And by the way, the Turrell Fund does in fact support Reimagine Child Care, and the Nicholson folks have been very involved, and the Burke Foundation as well.

It takes so much philanthropic corporate and foundation support to do these things.

In addition to someone says, well, what about a government program?

That's fine.

It's just not going to deal with all of the issues we're talking about.

Let me ask you this Dr. Briggs.

For those who don't understand, really appreciate the zero to three period, and Matthew Melmad your great leader there, we've talked to many times, who'’s talked about this, help people understand.

If someone says, listen, okay, so you don't really do what you need to do in the first few years.

You can catch up later.

Can you?

Dr. Briggs?

- Yeah, the good news is you probably can.

- Theoretically, I'm sure it's possible, but that's not the optimal situation.

- It's gonna take a lot more resources, a lot more time, and a lot more money.

It's always better to work preventively.

I think, Steve, the best way to try to explain this to folks, I say, listen, very smart people have said that age three is about middle age when it comes to brain development.

So about half of what we expect in terms of those neural pathways really getting laid down and those specific connections being made, about half of that is pretty much been laid down by age three.

So that says to me that we've gotta do everything within our capacity to make sure that that goes as well as humanly possible for those kids during that frame.

If what you see in those first three years is fear, aggression, food insecurity- - Yeah.

- Very different than if you are read to, if you have a caregiver who's able to really moderate their own stress to help you.

And it really is the foundation.

You think of a foundation of a house.

If that foundation is built strong, that house can withstand a storm.

If not, you're in big trouble.

- Dr. Aschner, let me ask you.

And we know that the folks that Hackensack Meridian, we don't know the children's health initiative as well, but I will say this.

It seems to me that collaboration is the key to this.

I mean, you've got foundation support.

You've got the Zero to Three organization.

You've got a large healthcare system.

Is that the only way this really gets done is this level of collaboration support in addition to government public policy?

Go ahead, Dr. Aschner.

- Yes, I really do think it is the only way to get things done.

And I would be remiss not to mention how much in kind support and financial support is going into this program from Hackensack Meridian Health.

So we have this terrific grant from the three foundations, and we have at Hackensack Meridian Health also contributed significantly to be able to implement this program and these three practices.

And it takes a village.

This sounds a little bit cliche, but without all of that support, this would not have gotten off the ground.

And our partnership with Zero to Three is actually the other key piece.

The practices are doing fantastic things.

We have hired fabulous Healthy Steps specialists who are trained.

Their past training is in social work, and they've gotten an advanced training from the Healthy Steps national office, and now they're working in a collaborative model providing care coordination and touching upon all the many things that really make parenting a challenge sometimes that a primary care pediatrician actually doesn't have the skillset or the time to address.

And so this model of interprofessional care is really a thing of beauty to watch in practice.

And we are already seeing everyday stories from families where this interaction has made all the difference in the world to them.

- Dr. Briggs, Dr. Aschner, I wanna thank you both for joining us.

And I do know that you're very committed to this area.

It's obvious, and I guarantee you we'll come back and revisit this initiative that is called Healthy Steps.

And by the way, we have to make sure people could find out more about it, and we monitor its progress.

It is a program with a two-year, two-year goal?

Right, it'’s a two year program?

- Right now it's a, we are funded for two years, but we also have plans for sustainability and long-term spread of this model throughout New Jersey.

- And Healthy Steps as a program goes all the way up until age three because we can't stop at age two.

Really important things happen in that year from two to three.

- Thank you for clarifying that is zero to three.

Okay, thank you, doctors.

Thank you so much for watching.

I'm Steve Adubato.

We thank you for watching.

We'll see you next time.

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

Funding has been provided by PSE&G, The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities, Clean Energy program.

Valley Bank.

The New Jersey Economic Development Authority.

The Russell Berrie Foundation.

Choose New Jersey.

The Turrell Fund, supporting Reimagine Childcare.

Summit Health And by Rowan University.

Promotional support provided by NJ.Com, And by New Jersey Globe.

- New Jersey's early educators and childcare providers are more than twice as likely to live below the poverty line versus the general workforce.

Reimagine Childcare formed by a coalition in New Jersey is dedicated to improving accessibility, affordability and quality of childcare and re-imagining the way we support these essential providers.