(upbeat music) - Hi everyone, Steve Adubato.

We're honored to kick off the program with Mr. Altorice Frazier, who is co-founder of an organization called Parents Engaging Parents, otherwise known as PEP.

The website will be up.

Mr. Frazier, thank you so much for joining.

It's great to have you.

- Thank you, thank you for having me, Mr. Adubato.

How's everything?

- Everything's great.

Tell us about Parents Engaging Parents, the work you do.

- Thank you, thank you for having that.

Parents Engaging Parents, our mission and vision is to promote civic and proactive interests for the parents and community leaders in New Jersey, really focusing on authorizing and building leadership cohorts around our pillars of education, economics, social justice, and health to really give the parents a understanding and a practice of how to engage this space and really become productive citizens.

- Your story matters, your experience matters.

Please share with us, sir.

- Thank you.

Well, I'm blessed to then have the opportunity to really have a story that started with me at two years old, coming out of the foster care system out of Newark, New Jersey, and my mom at the time, in '78, unfortunately, didn't have the resources at her disposal to really take in the three children that she had, so I was taken in '78 and brought to Elizabeth and adopted.

And when I came to Elizabeth, even though I was blessed with the opportunity to be adopted and start a new life, unfortunately, in the '80s, a lot of things happened, and one of 'em was the the war on drugs, the crack epidemic, and the young lady that brought me into her home unfortunately was a victim of that struggle, and I'm blessed that she did have recovery over 13 years and came out of that.

Yet unfortunately, that was a part of the beginning.

So I went from foster care to a world of addiction and crime that I actually became a part of.

And after servicing 13 years' sentence with a five mandatory after dropping outta high school, after really not being able to really move in the space of, in my head space based on a lot of the trauma that I experienced, I wasn't able to make certain decisions that I believe necessary as a young man coming up or a young boy.

- So you served how long in prison?

- I served five years.

- How did it change you?

- It changed me.

It helped me shift my thinking and helped me ground myself on the choices that I wanted to make going forward.

Yes, my situation started as it started, yet what was more important was gonna be the outcome.

So my focus was mostly always what I was going to do to come out, not what, excuse me, what I was gonna do to stay out, not come out.

And that was my focus, to really put a plan together that had like any great chess players, four or five, six moves ahead to reenter back in society.

That's what incarceration did to me.

Physically and mentally, it settled me.

- And creating this organization, co-founding Parents Engaging Parents, how much of that, Altorice, is, if I can call you Altorice?

- Yes.

- How much of starting this organization, co-founding it is a product of what you did and did not have growing up?

- Oh, a huge part of it.

Being a part of the community of parents and community leaders, it allowed me to see what was really taking place even during the times where I was lost in a whole 'nother world.

It gave me a respect to what was really taking place then.

And I wanted to be a part of making sure with going forward, it was gonna be strong.

And because I came from a world that, to be honest, didn't have a lot of rules that society did have, it gave me a skillset to move outside of the norm and traditions to move things forward.

And now I just transferred those skills on a legal, moral, ethical way of behaving and moving, and formulated a movement that parents and community leaders can move productively based on the laws, based on the policies, based on our community, and seeing how that can be a way of living and behaving going forward.

- Let me push a little bit, give me an example, give us an example, Altorice, of a rule if you will, that you didn't have, that you believe deeply is needed for young people, particularly in our communities, in our urban communities.

What kind of rule are we talking about?

- Well, to be honest, I'm gonna start with the grass root rule, and that grass root rule, unfortunately, in a lot of our communities, that our voice didn't matter, that our voice didn't have any leverage.

And that's what I wanted us to see, that as parents, we were the first teachers, that we were the drive of what our children can receive.

Now, how do we do that was to show us how policies are made, how, you know, networking with community leaders and public sector, private sector, and civic sector, making sure that is a synergy there.

And I knew that was possible 'cause I was a part of it, and I wanted to bring that back to the parents.

I currently sit on the board of KIPP New Jersey where I know and see what's going on, so behind you- - You mean the charter school?

- Yes.

- You're talking about the charter school, the KIPP Charter Schools?

- Yes, yes.

- Why do you do that?

Why are you involved with them?

- Because my children go to the school for one, and because my children go to the school, that's my most important investment, especially after the decisions I've made in my life.

So I wanted to be there.

I never met my father in my life, so I wanted to be there.

But in there, I seen what was going on in education, and as far once again, where we sat as parents in this community, excuse me.

- Talk about your, how old are your children?

- So I have two twin boys who are 14 year olds, and then I have a 10 year old who's a sixth grader, and I actually have two older daughters, but they're not school age, yet the three school aged children are 14 and 10 year olds.

- Dare I ask you, father to father, what's it like for you being a dad?

- Oh, man, start with the first thing, Steve.

I didn't have a guide, I didn't have a rule book, I didn't have a model, I didn't have an example, so start with that.

Then when you add to the fact that, like you said, our natural parent instincts does kick in, and it kicked in for me to put me right where I'm at with Parents Engaging Parents, being able to stand on the shoulder of parents across the state to be a leader, 'cause if it wasn't for them, I wouldn't be here.

So that's really where it was important that my children get to see other parents, other community leaders, other children, and building this community where we've seen examples of success.

We've seen examples of stick-to-it-ness in our community that we're building, 'cause unfortunately, we don't get to see this a lot around the state because we are locked into our four block radiuses or the community that we're we're involved in.

I wanna open that up, and that's why Parents Engaging Parents was so important.

- Altorice, could you do this for us real quick?

What are a couple of things parents really need to be the best parents we need to be?

- We need the resources of information, we need to be included, and we need have the public and the private sector understand the diversity of including parents in the discussion that happens in all levels from education to economics, to health, mental or physical, and spiritually, I mean, excuse me, and social justice wise to be able to really move accordingly, 'cause to be honest, Steve, there's a lot of things that even myself as a parent struggle through on a daily basis that, you know, Martin Luther King said there's two Americas, and we really have to respect grassroots and what we have to do to make it be productive and stop struggling, and start striving.

And that's the direction we wanna move as parents in our communities.

- And you know, you mentioned Dr. King, Dr. King's model of the beloved community, a big part of how Parents Engaging Parents started and why it does what it does.

Altorice Frazier, I wanna thank you so much, not just for being with us, but for doing the work you're doing.

Thank you, sir.

- Thank you so much.

Definitely thank you so much.

And I really look forward to anyone who can really bring support to Parents Engaging Parents.

So thank you for this platform, Steve, and I really appreciate it.

- We're doing the easy part.

You're doing the hard part.

Stay with us, we'll be right back.

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

Funding has been provided by The Turrell Fund, supporting Reimagine Childcare.

The Healthcare Foundation of New Jersey.

PSE&G, NJM Insurance Group.

Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey.

Rowan University.

The New Jersey Economic Development Authority.

The New Jersey Education Association.

And by PSC.

Promotional support provided by NJ.Com.

And by NJBIZ.

- At the Turrell Fund, We know childcare creates transformative early learning experiences for young children, and helps families succeed.

Childcare is essential for the economy, driving financial growth and sustainability across all sectors.

The Turrell Fund envisions a New Jersey in which every infant and toddler has access to high quality, affordable childcare In order to grow, develop and thrive.

Our children are our future.

For more information, visit TurrellFund.org.