- This month on the SPARK our theme is "Transforming Lives and Smiles."

We'll learn more about a nonprofit that recently launched a Final Escape Program to help non-violent ex-offenders transition back into their families and society.

An organization mentoring and educating new moms to parent well so children thrive.

And a dental insurance provider focused on community impact and changing lives one smile at a time.

We'll also share a special moment from our SPARK Awards 2020.

- Lipscomb and Pitts Insurance   is honored to serve the Memphis   community for over 60 years.

We've always focused on   supporting our community   and believe in   promoting the positives,   encouraging engagement   and leading by example.

Lipscomb and Pitts Insurance is proud to be a presenting sponsor of the SPARK.

- (male announcer)   Additional funding for   the SPARK   is provided by:   Meritan, United Way   of the Mid-South   My Town Movers, My Town   Roofing, My Town Miracles   snd by SRVS.

- Ever been excited   by a new idea?

Inspired by watching   someone lead by example?

When we talk about   creating change,   we start by sharing the   stories of everyday heroes   who are making a   difference in their own way   so we can learn   and do the same.

I'm Jeremy Park, and   this is the SPARK.

They're focused on community transformation and they just launched a new program.

The Final Escape Program.

We're here with Bishop David Allen Hall, Sr., Executive Director of Life Together, Inc. And Bishop, let's start out, give us a little background on Life Together, Inc. Before we talk all about the Final Escape Program.

- Thank you, Jeremy.

It's great to be here and thank you so much for the question about Life Together Inc., which is of course the 501(c)(3), the nonprofit of the Temple Church of God in Christ, where I serve as pastor.

It is independent of the church we do serve the entire community and have been instrumental over more than 25 years of reaching youth through our sports leagues, a 12-step alcohol and drug programming, and we've done other things in terms of impacting social life, trying to prepare people for a Renaissance, both personal and systematic in our whole urban community.

We try to touch people where they are.

- And the thing that I love is getting outside the church walls, as you mentioned, being independent, but focused on all the challenges that you see in the neighborhoods around you, whether that's drug and alcoholism, gangs, violence.

Talk about that approach of being proactive and getting out into the community to create that transformation.

- Well, we've done it all.

And I go back to when the crack epidemic, our church is located in the, what was the Foote and Cleaborn Homes housing project area near the near downtown, south Memphis.

And when that epidemic was just raging, I said to the church offices one night, if we don't get out into this neighborhood and confront these gangs, the only way that we can, and that's through the power of life connectivity with people, reaching people, you're going to have to watch me run to my car and I'll have to watch you run to your car.

So ever since that time, we cut a portion of our church budget for community outreach and to just lay it out in the community to spend it, whether we get a return so to speak, as you say, or not, we spent the money and that's how we created Life Together.

Of course comes from Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a book that he wrote in the last days of his life.

And I'm just proud to wear that title and that name because he was a tremendous person and we're trying to bring life together in our communities.

- So what led you to start the Final Escape Program?

- You know, we started Final Escape because we have a functioning prison ministry at the church, but it became apparent to us that we needed to do something as people reentered society.

So therefore we set up a curriculum through our 501(c)(3) that would approach people while they are incarcerated, or newly released.

We understand that one of the most difficult things is to   make the connectivity back   to family, back to society,   and then to obtain   a meaningful job.

So financial stability,   personal relationships,   and that type of thing   become paramount.

That's where Final   Escape came into play.

And we select   the text material that spoke to the mind of the ex-offender, male and female.

You're getting out, don't go back.

So the book that we use by Mr. Demico Boothe   out and never   going back out,   never going back in again,   that particular book   serves us very well.

And there's another one called Taking My Life Back.

And so we have done that to   constructively engage family,   which goes through   a discipline, the ex-offender that goes through a discipline, and then we've promoted the program to employers in the community.

And I'm glad to say that some pretty outstanding companies in Memphis have stepped up and said, if they're in the program, they're in the program for a year, you monitor them and help us, we'll help you.

We're looking for people who want to make the commitment and that's what Final Escape is about.

- So you do have a new location, talk about the location and how we can help.

- Oh, thank you.

Thank you.

Yeah.

We have a new location, we're at Freedom House, which is the traditional site of the NAACP.

We have the suite upstairs, Suite 200.

And it's from that ground where Vasco and Maxine Smith and even Dr. Martin Luther King and other notable persons planned the civil rights activities and that area became vacant and available.

And we had a subsequent to   that, went in and renovated it.

And now we run the   program from it at   588 Vance Avenue,   Suite 200, upstairs.

And I invite the public to come   in and sit down with us and   look at the facilities and   talk with us about our program.

- Wrap up with where we can go to learn more.

So website, phone number, where do we go?

- lifetogethermemphis.org I believe it is.

And you can see from Life Together, the linkage leading to the program Final Escape.

I'd like to say this, if I might that in the near future, September the 25th, we're going to be hosting our first ever fundraising event for the Final Escape, it's going to be a golf tournament.

And we've got a beautiful program.

We're going to be honoring some of the African-American golfers of the past, who had not the opportunity to go pro.

They were extremely good.

There is a great golf culture among African-Americans in this town.

And we want to share it with whomever will listen.

And that's going to be one of the drawing cards for our golf tournament.

And we're trying now to get a good tournament together.

We're going to be honoring one of the great golfers in this city, and we're going to be honoring him with a medallion named after Mr. Greg Odom, Sr., whose son, Greg Odom, Jr. was taught by Senior, and Greg Odom, Jr. just recently won the collegiate PGA national title.

Memphis--a young man from Memphis.

He attends Howard University.

And so we're naming this medallion in honor of Greg Sr., and we want to present it annually to a great golfer.

Or someone who was contributed to the game of golf for the entire Memphis community.

So it's not relegated to just simply blacks.

It is obviously for everybody, that is a part of the program.

We serve everybody and we recognize those people who live and work in collaboration Life Together.

One with the other.

[laughs] - Well Bishop David Allen Hall, Sr., thank you for all you and your amazing team do.

Thank you for coming on the show.

- Jeremy, it's always good to be with you all.

You all really make a difference and I'm glad to be here.

Thank you so much.

[gentle music] - They're an organization working with new mothers to mentor and educate them so that children and families can thrive.

We're here with the executive director of One By One Ministries, Heather McCaskill.

Heather, let's start with some background.

Give us a little bit of background and history for the organization.

- Sure.

Thanks, Jeremy.

Well, One By One Ministries is actually about 25 years old now.

We were started in San Antonio, Texas, and really have been around to support families ever since.

- And so talk about the efforts here locally in Memphis, and even expanding beyond that now.

- For, you know, One By One Ministries was brought to Memphis about 12 years ago because Memphis was identified as a city that needs help.

We actually have one of the highest infant mortality rates in the nation.

Sixty percent of moms who give birth in Shelby County are single moms and 80% of children living in poverty in our area live with single moms.

So while One By One doesn't only support the single mom that is the majority of the mom that we serve.

And so we want it to be here to offer support, hope, and parenting education to moms at a critical time in their lives.

And you asked about other areas.

We are actually operating right now in West Tennessee, North Mississippi, and several different places in the state of Texas.

- So let's go ahead and unpack how the magic is created.

So give us a little bit of the programs and how everything works.

- Sure.

So we have one main program at One By One Ministries, and that is to mentor and educate new moms to parent well, so children thrive.

And what that looks   like for us is we   work through the   faith community.

We are recruiting women who   have a heart to serve moms.

We are training   those volunteers.

We give them   everything they need   to do the mentoring program   with a mom for about 18 months   Because when a mom is   matched with a mentor,   we'd like to get them together   as soon as that mom   finds out she's pregnant.

Then we continue working   with that mom month by month   meeting individually with   weekly contact in between.

And then we stay with that mom, at least until the child's first birthday.

And you know, when our mentors go, Jeremy, and make visits, they're doing several things.

They're building relationship, they're answering questions.

They are sharing lots of great parenting materials about health and safety, developmental milestones, simple activities that a mom can do with her child to promote development.

And all along the way, we were there to support her, encourage her, let her know she's not alone and help her to be the best parent possible.

- You yourself have been a mentor.

So you've seen all of this firsthand above and beyond being the executive director.

Give us from your firsthand experience, that personal relationship and how that evolves and how it maintains over time.

- You know, the relationship has been such a sweet thing for me as a mentor.

I think I had been on staff with One By One for three months when I became a mentor the first time.

I have now had the privilege of working with five different moms.

I actually met with my current mom yesterday.

And she was so excited because not only of the relationship and the support she gets, but the way that One By One connects her to resources.

And, you know, we had found out at One By One about a rental assistance program, and we're able to share that information with all of our moms, and my mom was thrilled because she had been one of the recipients of that to the tune of several thousand dollars.

It's really helped her during the pandemic and a loss of job with COVID.

So our mentors are, you know, doing lots of things.

We're supporting, we're matching with resources, and we're building lifelong friendships along the way.

The first mom that I ever mentored, her child is now five years old.

And we have maintained that friendship ever since then.

So it doesn't stop.

We actually have a second year program and a discipleship program that moms can continue with their moms, if they would like to.

- Share how the volunteers can go through training and step in and start getting involved.

- Sure.

The training program is something that we do here at One By One.

We actually offer those in-person.

We did that prior to the pandemic, and now we're offering lots of online training programs.

But if a woman would like to volunteer with us, she can go on our website, the application, all the information is there.

We ask all of our volunteers to submit that application consent to a background check.

And after they've done those things, they are enrolled in our training.

It's a one day training.

And then we set about the business of matching them with a mom.

We actually have moms right now who have applied and we are in need of more mentors to serve with us.

- As you mentioned, it's the mentorship, the relationship, the education, but there's also the physical resource ability as well in terms of bringing in items that are needed.

And that's an easy opportunity for the public to help to carry that forward.

- Sure.

So we have many churches right now.

In the city of Memphis we have about 14 churches that serve with us as sponsoring churches.

They are always putting the word out when we have a mom who needs a crib, or maybe we have a young lady, who's had children and she wants to pass off her gently used clothes to a mom.

We love to connect our moms with those resources.

In fact, this past year at Christmas, one of our churches opened up their doors and allowed us to have this great mom blessing day.

All of our moms were able to come and shop for gently used items.

They all got new Christmas gifts.

They got food donations.

Everybody just had a great time shopping that day.

And it was wonderful for One By One to be the connector.

People were wanting to bless our moms, sometimes with monetary things, but also physical things, and we were able to pass those on to the moms that were needing them.

- So the last question is the easy one.

Where do we go to learn more and to share all of the amazing work you're doing?

So what's your website, social media, where do we go?

- Yes.

So our website is www.onebyoneusa.org And on our website, you can find out the information about volunteering, a little bit more about our ministry, how to make a donation, all of those great things.

We are also on Facebook and Instagram, and we just released an app for our ministry.

That is for not only moms but mentors, whether they're enrolled in our program or not.

And that can be found by the app store as well.

- Well, Heather, thank you for all you and your team do greatly appreciate it.

Thank you for show.

- Thanks, Jeremy.

I appreciate the opportunity.

[gentle music] - The SPARK Awards annually recognize and celebrate individuals or organizations that have made outstanding contributions to the community.

The 2020 recipient of the   Education School Award   is Frederick Douglass   High Optional School.

- Well, Frederick Douglass High Optional School is located in north Memphis.

Our students are   the best students   that I've ever encountered.

I've been in education   for over 20 years.

The students Douglass   High community,   they understand the support   that's put behind them and they try their best to make   their families and   the community proud.

We just make sure that we   recognize every student.

We want the students to know that they have a voice in this world,   and that this world is going   to be great because of them.

And that's the message that we   try to send to our students.

We also reward the students   for perfect attendance,   for making good decisions,   for being respectful to   each other and to adults.

When they're walking in the halls, we reward them for just, you know, no cell phones being out, anything that they're doing positive.

We try to recognize them for doing that.

So the students wanted a   pre-professional organization.

So Leadership Memphis,   one of our adopters,   they sent people from   all walks of professions   into the building so   that students could   get an opportunity to find   out what it is that they do   in order for them to   move into those fields.

We had pre-med,   lawyers, engineers.

It was just a plethora of   professionals that came in.

Out of the   principal advisory,   my students talked about   the things that they   didn't have in   their community.

These community organizations   help to teach them   what they needed to do in   order to create the type of   community that they   wanted to be a part of.

We try to just let our students know that we support them and that we love them,   and that anything that   they aspire to do in life   that they can because we're   working extremely hard to try to give them the tools to go out into the world and create the type of society and communities that they want to be a part of.

So if you wanted to   change your society,   you can become the   elected official.

You can help open the grocery   store that you so desire.

You can change the   living conditions   that you're experiencing now.

I want everyone to know that Frederick Douglass High Optional School is the best school in Shelby County Schools, that our students are number one.

And that our parents and our community, the support that we receive is second to none.

Our students receive   the best education.

They receive nurturing.

They received support,   and our students are   prepared and confident   when they leave high school   to go out into the world.

Wherever they want to go in life, they can be successful.

[gentle music] - They're a dental benefits carrier focused on making a difference in our community.

We're here with the president and CEO of Delta Dental of Tennessee, Dr. Phil Wenk, and let's start out, give us a little bit of context for Delta Dental of Tennessee.

- Okay.

We'll do the business thing first, you know, we sell, as you said, dental insurance.

We sell it to individuals.

We sell it to groups.

We sell it to anybody that wants to buy insurance of that type, but we've also gone into vision.

So we sell Delta--we call it Delta Vision.

It's a VSP is our backup.

So besides having the largest dental network in the country and in the state, we now have the largest optometric and ophthalmological network in the state and in the country.

- And so let's talk about health, because when you talk about dental and vision, obviously that's a big part of maintaining health and wellbeing.

So talk about why, especially with teeth, it's so important for our health.

- Well, let's talk about the mouth in general if you don't mind.

You know, interestingly people are finally connecting the fact that the mouth and the body are connected together instead of being separate parts.

You know, if you've ever been to your physician and they do a cursory exam of your mouth, cursory is a good way to explain that.

But interestingly, a number of the cancers that arise in the body, whether it's oral cancer, or it could be things like leukemia or other cancers of that type, that you can spot those.

And, you know, that's a situation that, you know,   if the dentist who your--or   your dental hygiene visit,   you get those spotted   every six months,   your chances of survival   go up dramatically.

Versus going to see   your doctor every year   or every two or three years.

You know, if you had a significant oral cancer and you didn't see it for three years, you may either die or lose a substantial part of your mouth before that's ever eradicated.

- The other thing too, is a smile.

All the studies show smiles increase opportunities and self-confidence, so talk about kind of that effect, that ripple effect in your life, in any career.

- Oh, absolutely.

That's a tremendous point 'cause you have a great smile.

So we'll use that.

You know, imagine trying to do your job if you're missing two of your front teeth.

Imagine even thinking that you would have the opportunity, it wouldn't exist.

You know, you would have the opportunity if you're interviewing a hockey player post-hockey game, but I mean, in the normal community, your opportunity to be successful without those, what they call the front six without that is almost non-existent.

And interestingly too, when you think about people who go in for an interview and they're looking for that next level of job, and let's say they're doing an hourly job and they want to move up, they interview like this.

How many people hire a person that interviews like that?

I can tell you the answer is very few.

And the very few is an incredibly, very few.

So I think it's a situation.

Imagine that the psychological effect that has on your health, if you have to hide your face, everywhere you go.

We even had examples of some of the people who've gone to clinic saying their children were ashamed of them and wouldn't let them go to school with them.

Now, can you imagine that if you couldn't go with your children to school because they were embarrassed?

Well, I'll be honest with you.

You've got teenagers they're embarrassed of you, but I mean, you know, first graders and second graders, not so much, you know.

- So let's talk about the foundation.

Let's talk about your philanthropic efforts because this ties into everything that we're talking about between dentures and supportive universities and charitable dental clinics.

So talk about the Smile 180 Foundation and your philanthropic efforts.

- It's a real honor to do that.

And, we started this about eight years ago with the intent of trying to create a foundation that could become self-sustained.

Well, at that time, we thought maybe there were two or three, maybe four dental clinics across the state   that were doing a little bit.

So maybe we would   spend some money,   maybe big year, half   a million dollars   or something like that.

Come to find out.

There are a lot, fortunately,   working poor dental clinics.

And I say, fortunately because   there's a huge gap in   dentists in this state   and it's getting worse.

Jeremy, as an example,   of the year I graduated   from dental school   there were 160 people who   graduated as a dentist,   now there's 80 that   will be Tennesseeans.

Now imagine all of us,   all the guys, my age,   we're all ready to retire.

Who's going to replace those?

You don't replace them   at a rate like that.

So when we got   into this program,   what we found was not only   did they not have the support that they needed to really provide the services, but we also found out they didn't have the equipment that they need.

You know, a lot of this is voluntary work.

The dentists go in and volunteer.

They go in there and the chair doesn't go up and down, or the chair won't lean back or the air water syringe won't work, or they can't get the drill to work or whatever.

They're not going to come back.

So in every clinic that we work with right now, they have equipment that's probably been put in, in their location in the last five years up to us spending anywhere it's about 25,000 to $30,000 every chair and unit that you put in.

As an example at Church Health, we've put in 34, just to give you an example.

Now that's an exception to the rule, but in any given year, we do operational funding and we also do capital funding and it's absolutely necessary.

- Go ahead and wrap up with a couple of recommendations and tips when it comes to good oral health and your vision as well.

Talk about how it's safe to return to the dentist and then wrap up with contact information where we can go to learn more about Delta Dental of Tennessee and also to the Smile 180 Foundation.

- Well, you know, those basics, of brush and floss are still in existence.

There's no question about that.

I think the--but the   most critical thing   is see the professionals.

They're the ones that   can spot problems   and most dental problems   and vision problems.

By the time they become   something that you recognize,   they become   something very bad.

And so grabbing dental insurance and grabbing vision insurance certainly improves your opportunities to do that at a better price.

So how do you reach us?

You reach us by seeing deltadentaltn.com www.deltadentaltn.com - So Dr. Phil Wenk, thank you for all you do.

You and your amazing team.

Thank you so much for coming on the show.

- It's my pleasure, Jeremy, thank you for what you do my friend.

[gentle music] - Sometimes it's easy to get caught up looking for big numbers, but as we saw in this month's episode, transforming lives and smiles happens one person at a time.

It takes a singular, focused approach to mentor and educate a new mother to help her pair it well.

So her children and family can thrive.

Like we saw with One By One Ministries.

Addressing drugs, gangs, and poverty and helping ex-offenders transition back into families and society takes an organized effort, but it also takes a personal approach and relationships to provide the support necessary to keep individuals on the right path with positive reinforcement, life skills, and education like Life Together, Inc., is providing in our community.

Then with each smile restored, it leads to further transformation with improved health and self-confidence.

increased opportunities for advancement and so much more.

When companies like Delta Dental of Tennessee, make it a priority to invest in the community.

Like with their Smile 180 Foundation and their support of charitable dental clinics.

It's a powerful way to create big change, one person and one smile at a time.

So thank you for your smile and for watching the SPARK.

To learn more about each of the guests, to watch past episodes, and to share your stories of others leading by example, visit wkno.org and click on the link for the SPARK.

We look forward to seeing you next month, and we hope that you'll continue joining with us to create a spark for the Mid-South.

- Lipscomb and Pitts   insurance is honored   to serve the Memphis   community for over 60 years.

We've always focused on   supporting our community   and believe in   promoting the positives,   encouraging engagement   and leading by example.

Lipscomb and Pitts Insurance is proud to be a presenting sponsor of the SPARK.

[gentle music] [acoustic guitar chords]