(upbeat music) - Hi, everyone, Steve Adubato.

We're honored to welcome Mr. Ameer Washington, CEO, the Chief Executive Officer of a great organization, the Boys and Girls Club of Newark.

Good to see you Ameer.

- Good to see you, Steve.

- Now, I joined the Boys Club when I was six, and it was the Boys Club at the time, right?

- Yeah, absolutely.

- Broadway branch in Newark.

You were six as well.

We were not six at the same time, but you were six years old when you joined.

You didn't have to say no, we already know that.

Where was your branch, same one?

- My branch?

One Avon Avenue, here where my office is.

- Really?

- Yeah.

- Let, for people who don't know the Boys and Girls Club, and again, thank God it was changed to the Boys and Girls Club.

What was it for you at the time, in terms of your life, like, why was it so important to you?

'Cause I know for me I needed to learn how to swim, so go ahead.

- It was super important.

My neighborhood was pretty rough, and my mom was a single parent of four children.

My dad unfortunately passed away at a young age, and it just had great people there who wanted the best for me, the way my mom did.

Just had tons of fun.

- So you started working at the Boys and Girls Clubs at 15, doing what?

- I was tutoring young people for homework for two hours a day, and that's where it began.

- You know what's so interesting here?

I don't think I've ever disclosed this before, but there are always connections.

Not always, but often connections.

My father's father, my late grandfather, Michael Adubato, whom I never knew, he died well before I was born, was the first Executive Director of the Boys Club.

And our family had a long history with the Boys Club.

Do you remember when you got into the Boys Club who brought you there?

Was it a parent, was it a friend?

'Cause that matters, connecting kids to the Boys and Girls Club.

- Oh, absolutely.

I mean, it was my mom, and my brother was already a member.

- They were already there?

- Yeah.

- So, I'm curious about this.

You go from being a six-year-old kid there, right, learning how to do all kinds of things, including, did you learn how to play pool there?

- I did.

- Same here.

So then you work there at 15, and now you're the CEO.

How important is it?

'Cause then all of us who run nonprofits, again, no money, no mission, you've heard me say it a million times.

How much time do you spend and how is that time spent raising money?

- I mean, probably 80% of my time is spent raising money and building relationships.

I mean, it's really about the relationship and people viewing their gift as an investment into what we're doing to help kids reach their full potential.

- Well, why don't we talk about that?

We'll put up the website.

The gift, those dollars, go where?

And also where does, is it individuals, corporations, where does your money come from?

- Individuals, corporations, foundations.

So Prudential is a huge supporter.

The MCJ Amelior Foundation, which you're familiar with, Mr. Ray Chambers, a huge supporter for over 30 years, and we just couldn't do the work that we do without those people investing their time and money into our mission.

- I also know that Horizon, a big supporter of public broadcasting, supports your work as well.

Curious, how do you believe the Boys and Girls Club has shaped you to become the man and the leader that you are today?

- Well, Steve, I view the Boys and Girls Club as my father.

I had no dad growing up.

I don't have a single memory, and I met men and women here, who filled the void of the things I needed to learn to go out into the world, to look you in the eye, other people in the eye, shake hands, to be confident in who I am, to believe in where I come from, right, and that when I have success, to come back and help to continue to strengthen this community, so that the young people who were comin' behind me can have the same or better experience than I had growin' up.

I mean, tough neighborhood, but so much treasure here.

- People think they know because they observe certain media sources, what it's like, and there's no stereotypical, there's no stereotype, if you will, of what every kid, particularly in the South Ward of Newark or the West Ward of Newark, or the Central Ward of Newark.

There are five wards in Newark in the city, and they all are challenged, but some more than others, for particularly an African-American or Latino young man or woman in Newark, describe some of the challenges they're facing.

- They're facing gang violence.

They're facing drug proliferation.

They're facing a lack of belief in who they can become, and so the greatness that's inside of them gets stymied by the belief of others who don't have confidence in what they can accomplish.

And we're here to make sure that kids continue to believe that despite the challenges they face.

I talk about my personal life and how rough my neighborhood was.

We had a police car assigned to the street, but despite that, me and my siblings and many other youth had success because of the Boys and Girls Club.

- COVID has affected, infected, impacted every aspect of our life, our lives.

How has COVID impacted the work of the Boys and Girls Club?

- We saw the challenges already be exacerbated.

We saw kids uncomfortable in an environment they were used to, not able to talk to one another, play like kids.

And we know that their mental health challenges and our staff we're just impacted.

And how we address those needs is so important, and that's why we are advancing the work of trauma-informed care and mental health in our space.

- Well, go back, trauma-informed?

- Trauma-informed care.

- Describe that.

- So that's recognizing that every person has a background.

They have baggage, they have things that they've dealt with, whether it be the loss of a parent, a car crash, their mental health, being bullied, and we meet children where they are to make sure that we can address their needs individually.

- One of the things I learned about the Boys Club or the Boys and Girls Club moving forward is that mentorship has always been at the cornerstone, other than the recreational programs, as I talked about, learning how to swim, learning how to do all kinds of things that were physical, but again, allowed us to be socially connected to others and not feel insecure because you couldn't swim.

And that's a big deal.

For growin' up in Newark, that was a big deal.

There weren't a lotta places where you could learn how to swim.

That being said, I'm curious about mentorship.

What is the role of mentorship in the work of the Boys and Girls Clubs today?

- I mean, mentorship is the central core of what we do.

It's really the relationship that you build with someone that you can trust, a caring adult, a caring peer, who takes you side by side, walks with you on your journey to the place you wanna go and what you wanna become.

I had great mentors, Cynthia Banks, Philip Tarouse and so many others, Bobby Bellsley, who just did a lotta work to make sure that I got what I needed day in and day out.

- Future of the Boys and Girls Clubs the next three years, describe it.

- It's a mental health space for everyone, youth and adults.

We've done tons of work to make sure that we can address the mental health needs of our community.

Horizon is a huge partner in that endeavor, supporting our 5K, supporting our organization.

We've got a dental clinical on site.

We wanna be not only.

- Hold it, you have a dental clinic, sorry to interrupt, you have a dental clinic on site?

Put that website up right now.

- Absolutely.

- Onsite?

- Onsite, full service, three chairs.

- And how does that happen, through what?

- It happens through support from groups like Horizon, Healthcare Foundation of New Jersey, MCJ Amelior Foundation, tons of supporters who wanna make sure that a kid can come into our program, whether they have healthcare or not, and go into that chair, get service twice a year or more, if they need to.

Just critical, just hugely critical.

- Regardless of insurance.

- Regardless.

Regardless of insurance, regardless of income.

- Do me a favor, our producers are pushing this, and they're right, STEM learning, give me a minute or less on STEM learning.

- So STEM, we implement coding, we implement robotics, we implement.

- Science, technology, engineering.

- Science, technology, engineering, math.

- I just broke my rule about no acronyms.

Go ahead, science, technology, engineering, math.

Please, go.

- Absolutely, so STEM is what's leading industry now, and it's gonna continue to lead the world.

I mean, AI is somethin' that kind of felt like it jumped on.

- I just said no acronyms, and you just went with artificial intelligence, and everybody knows that.

- Artificial intelligence.

I'm sorry.

- Even I know that.

Right, go ahead.

- But it's something that people felt like it just happened, but it's been happening for years, and what we wanna do is introduce these concepts and ideas to our members, so that they know where their career is probably gonna end up.

They're not gonna be pushed out of an industry because they don't have the experience and opportunity to do that.

And we're lucky enough to have partnership with Apple to be able to deliver those services across all of our sites.

- Well, the Boys and Girls Clubs of Newark are lucky and fortunate to have a leader like you.

Ameer Washington is the CEO, the CEO, the Chief Executive Officer of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Newark.

Cannot thank you enough, Ameer, and we will be here as a platform for you to talk about the work that you're doing, making a difference every day.

All the best to you and the folks at the Boys and Girls Clubs.

- Thank you so much.

- You got it, 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 Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey.

Valley Bank.

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Prudential Financial.

Kean University.

The Healthcare Foundation of New Jersey.

The Fidelco Group.

Newark Board of Education.

And by PSE&G, Promotional support provided by NJBIZ.

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