Speaker 1: 0:00

Good morning and welcome to America's Healthiest City on ESPN Richmond 106.1, part of the Mike King Biz Media Network. Today is our last show of the year and it's a special show because this is also a farewell episode. After this episode, we will be going off of ESPN and, while we have not revealed the news yet, please stay tuned to our socials and where you get your podcasts so that you can find out more about what we're planning for 2025. We've had a great run here on ESPN and we've loved working with Mike King and on the mic with Mike, but we are in the midst of reformatting our show. We're going to be more out in the community. You're going to see some new faces and hear new voices, some important perspectives that we want to make sure that we include in this program so that we can continue to move in the direction toward becoming the healthiest city in America by 2033. That's all of RVA and we're excited to bring that new programming to you. But in our departure, I just wanted to express a really heartfelt thank you to Mike King. Mike has been truly instrumental in the foundation of America's Healthiest City and the platform that we're creating, had it not been for our last two years and 86 episodes on ESPN. We may not have had the platform to be able to tell these stories, to interview these key individuals in our community and bring these shows to you. So I'm really grateful. And if you represent a business out there that is looking to get a message to the community, mike King is your man. This guy is the partnership guru. He is always connecting to businesses, small businesses as well as nonprofits. So, as a way to give back to the community the dollars that businesses invest in Mike King and on the Mike with Mike, those go into giving away free airtime and lots of other promotions to nonprofits who are making a big difference here in the community. So I highly recommend that if you represent a business or a nonprofit and you're looking for that visibility, talk to Mike and he's going to hook you up with some really great opportunities to plug in here in Richmond.

Speaker 1: 2:10

Now, what I'm going to do today is a little different from most shows. As you can tell, I'm not in the studio, I'm on the road, and so what we're going to do is play some clips from throughout the year that were instrumental things that we saw come up in the headlines quite a bit, and then some stories from key individuals in the region who we really just couldn't stop listening to and we need to hear more from. So before I get into it, I want to hit a couple of highlights and we'll talk about some different episodes that we can't air in today's episode because we're limited to the time, but we did start out the year in 2024 with an interview with Rob Ucrop from the Kickers ahead of the launch of the Richmond Ivy, the new women's soccer team. So go check out that interview. If you didn't get a chance to listen. We're not going to play clips from that interview today, but after the season ended, to cap things off, we also had Kimmy Cummings on the air, so that she's the head coach of the Richmond Ivy, so we got to hear things from her perspective after their season wrapped. So check out that episode as well so that you can get the full picture and the full story about Richmond Ivy. We're big fans and we're just really excited about things to come in Richmond as a result of that new team and all the excitement that comes with it.

Speaker 1: 3:27

Now, on a more somber note, we did see a lot of headlines around youth violence in 2024 and dating before that too.

Speaker 1: 3:37

So, as a community, we've been talking about ways that we can intervene and minimize youth violence, and so the very first interview that we're going to play a clip from today is with Traymanisha Lame and I'm probably saying that wrong Traymanisha Lame.

Speaker 1: 3:53

She is the CEO of NextUpRVA, an organization that is instrumental in delivering out-of-school programming to youth in our region, which we have seen the data on and we talk about in this interview is absolutely critical that we keep children engaged when they're not in school, because 80% of their time is spent outside of the classroom. So, without further ado, let's roll the clip. I was excited to talk to you. As we know, there have been some challenges in the community and certainly recently, some challenges with youth violence. We know that there are some remedies to those problems and we know we need to act fast. So I enjoyed our conversation and I look forward to our conversation today. Um, maybe, um, just you know, kind of continuing with your background, um, you can share a little bit about, uh, what motivated your interest in the area of youth development and and you know how you arrived at the next step.

Speaker 2: 4:48

Wow, I've actually been doing youth development now for like 20 years. I started off as like a college mentor myself and then just went into various different levels of the of the field, really like mentoring young people, tutoring young people and engaging in programs myself. I think one of the things that stood out for me was actually when I was in middle school we had like the peer leadership program. We had the gear up program and all of a sudden, like that, the programs were gone because of funding and you know. You then had to kind of like try to search and find out where to go. And at that time, when I was growing up too, one of the things that I noticed a lot of sports I was really active in. Like basketball I was I can't play for the record I was active in basketball. I went on to play like softball. I was a cheerleader for like nine years, but at the beginning of the year you had all these kids try out out for the team and then you had the folks that were selected for the team and then it came time to do things like buy uniforms and then all of a sudden so many people kind of couldn't no longer afford to be on the team and I think that was like the first exposure I had as far as like the limitations of access, you know, to after school and summer programs, and how important and significant it was. It helped to shape me to where I am today.

Speaker 2: 6:10

I started off actually in my church. There was a mentoring program and my mentor took me to work with her and she worked for one of the largest community fellow organizations in the country at the time and they had a youth program and so I got to work in that youth program and I literally just never left. So like I've always been really, really gravitated just to work with all the young people and learning from their stories, because I think that they have a story to tell. A lot of times it's told for them and it's told about them, but no one's really talking directly to them and understanding, um, what's going on and um. So I really enjoy just kind of. Just all the young people that I've kind of met throughout the years have helped to get me to this point and that's why I do the work, just the youth. I love you so passionate about young people well, uh, just a small story about me.

Speaker 1: 7:04

When I I was in middle school, I also had the opportunity to participate in a peer mentorship program and, coming from a house of modest resources, it was one of the things that I could do that the school paid for and I didn't have to worry about. And thinking back on it, I mean it definitely shaped who I was then and who I became. I mean it definitely shaped who I was then and who I became so earlier in the program and not to bring up a tough subject, but we were talking about sort of the string of recent youth violence incidents that we've seen. We've lost some young people, people have lost family members. It's been really tragic, quite simply put. You know, does putting kids in after-school programs affect the data? Does?

Speaker 2: 7:49

it bring those numbers down? I think it does. I think it does because one of the things that we were able to do is we were able to show where the positive development programs are and where the high crime areas are. We were very intentional about making sure that there were programs in areas where there's high crime. So I think that that is really important to make sure the programs are there.

Speaker 2: 8:11

Before the recent string of killings of our young people, one of the things that we noticed was that there was a 75% reduction in youth homicides and that was prior to this span of time. The thing that happened that we feel and we're looking at the data still, because there were some recent deaths as well, but the first wave of deaths that happened were between the Easter weekend and the week after spring break. And what's happening there? Well, actually there's not that many programs operating right there Spring break. Some programs actually end the week before spring break. And what's happening there? Well, actually there's not that many programs operating right there spring break, some programs actually in the week before spring break. So there is a lot of time that is idle time within that space.

Speaker 2: 8:52

So what we're proposing is that we really begin to support, acknowledge and fund alternative spring break opportunities. Parks and recreations has an alternative spring break program. Parks and Recreation also has a safe space. They're going to be extending their hours over the summer for open gyms, which is I would really encourage people to kind of definitely check that out, because a lot of the killings happen during either after after, our traditional out of school time hours, which is like the evening hours 11 o'clock, or on the weekend, right. And so we need to make sure that we have we expand out-of-school time offerings so that we're creating more safe spaces, that we're creating alternative spring breaks when needed and that we're creating like a summer gap programming for that week in between school ending and OST program starting or after school summer program starting. So I think that's kind of where we need to head right now is kind of making sure that we're providing quality programming during that span of time where that peak hit, got to fill the gaps.

Speaker 1: 9:58

Got to fill the gaps. Also in this interview is a mention of a new tool on nextuprvaorg, a youth program locator tool. It's a GIS map that shows you where programs are located near you. I tested out the locator. It's extremely functional. It found places and programs that were near to me, that were within walking distance, so please check that out. We're within walking distance, so please check that out. Also, after our interview aired, nextup, rva announced that $328,000 was allocated from Richmond City Funds to be distributed to 20 different organizations that provide after school and out of school programming for youth in our region. So that's great news and certainly we need more of that, as you will hear in the full interview. So please have a listen to that as well.

Speaker 1: 10:45

Now, the conversation didn't end there, unfortunately. Youth violence was a topic that was in the headlines throughout the year, so later in today's show I will also play a clip from Ram Magat from Drums, no Guns really important programming and really impactful stories. But before we get into that, I want to talk a little bit about another interview that we did with Duran Chavis. Duran is an activist, a farmer, an organizer, and he is the person behind Happily Natural Day and he's incredible. He's been instrumental in our community for a really long time but as a part of a special program we did with Richmond Water called the Ripple Effect, we went out to Sankofa Community, orchard and interviewed Duran for that interview and you can hear more from him in this next clip. Let's kind of get into Happily Natural Day. Yeah, that's a nonprofit organization that is responsible for the work that you do. Yeah, yeah, you're a community builder. You're an activist. Yep, you are. You do, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, you're a community builder. You're an activist. Yep, you are a farmer.

Speaker 3: 11:49

Mm-hmm, I am all those things. So, yeah, Happily Natural Day is our nonprofit organization. I'm the founder and director of it. Happily Natural Day actually is 21 years old this year. We started out as simply a festival that happened annually every summer and it evolved into this organization that takes spaces and transform them into farms and gardens and green space. But that came from, you know, just iterating around what works and what smelled like the right way to go in order to get to root causes of a lot of the issues. Our organization came out really just focusing on holistic health right in the black community and, as a result, we started working with black farmers because how you talk about health and you're not talking about food right and those farmers, you know, took me under the wing, so to speak.

Speaker 3: 13:08

I started out not really building gardens. I started out selling their produce in the hood and did that for a bunch of years. Man, Probably like six years before I started an actual garden, probably like six years before I started an actual garden. And when I started the garden, I felt like flower bells started going off. Oh, this is, this is something special. This is, this is feeding me in a different way. I mean we talk a lot about social issues, talk about social inequity, but like finding a space where you can actually do a thing and then see you know the change.

Speaker 1: 13:52

That was really important for me and I found that doing urban farming across the city so that coincides a little bit, I think, with your tenure at Leadership Metro Richmond and kind of design thinking.

Speaker 3: 14:07

Yeah, well, back up I had Happily Natural Day as my side work, like my passion work. When we first started, I was working at the black history museum. When we started happening yesterday, um, after I left the black history museum, I ended up working for a bunch of different organizations. Disability I worked for the department of disability, department of rehab services. I was a disability claim analyst. Disability department, rehab services I was a disability claim analyst and then I left there and worked for Department of Social Services as an intake worker or basically, I was the food stamp guy. So all the while that's like almost 10 years I was doing happily and naturally at the same time. I mean, while I was at the city, I really got deep into kind of like policy change. Right, because here I am, I'm doing happily natural day. I'm also doing food stamps and Medicaid and TANF. I got people I'm interviewing every day of the week at Marshall Plaza and I'm like yo, there's broken pieces of the system. So how do I get involved? That started with like the local food policy task force and evolved into the anti-poverty task force, and I was involved with initiatives of changes, unpacking the 2020 census work, and so I was in this space where I'm working for the city of that. I got community activism work and I'm involved in like these policy task forces and kind of community work.

Speaker 3: 15:58

I ended up going over to leadership metro Richmond in Metro Richmond and the city paid for me to participate in that and I came from that realizing that a lot of the people that are in those spaces have no clue as to what's really going on in the community. They got data spreadsheets. You know people that brief on what's going on, they're worlds apart. You know people that brief on what's going on, they're their worlds apart, you know, and so I respect the need for relationship building more than anything. So being in those spaces and having relationships with people that are making decisions is really critical. But Leadership Metro Richmond just it wasn't my particular, it wasn't the space for me in the sense of like there's a lot of people that are in those type of spaces and they're like clamoring, they want to make a difference, but they, more so, want to get their career up. And I was keeping it real. I don't really mesh well with the people. That's like yo, I'm just trying to get this resume, bullet point.

Speaker 3: 17:26

And so I spent time over there. I did that in 2011. I met some really good people Tyrone Nelson was one of the homies that was over there when I was there and I mean, I was young doing that I think I was 31 in Metro Richmond and so a lot of my mentors, people like Ron Bogat he had been through it. People like Matthew Freeman he was through there. Yeah, there's a lot of good people that I have lifelong relationships with, but I recognize that we, you know, we got grassroots community work that we got to do. That has to be married with policy change. But in our system, our community, our ecosystem, a lot of folks put so much emphasis on policy change that they forget that there's a hand that has to actually touch the things. You know what I mean, and so I live on that side of the world more comfortably.

Speaker 1: 18:30

After our interview, Duran was very public about the fallout of the Bensley Agri-Hood that was slated for Chesterfield County. He also resigned from the Maggie Walker Community Land Trust in a public letter earlier this month. So visit DuranChaviscom to learn more about the depths of that story, what happened and what is likely to happen next. On a related note, we also had two other interviews this year that can give you some additional context. There we had Myra Goodman-Smith, the CEO of Leadership Metro Richmond on to talk about the work of that organization, which Duran mentioned, as well as Lark Washington, the COO of Maggie Walker Community Land Trust, important organization in our community. Again, go listen to those interviews to get the depths of that story.

Speaker 5: 19:17

When we asked ourselves what could we do to stop the tide of plastic bottled water. We never thought we'd start a water brand, but an idea grew and Richmond Water was born. Now we're replacing single-use plastic on the shelf with collectible, refillable aluminum bottles of water and we're installing refill stations throughout RVA, launching a movement to refill. It's your turn to make a splash. Find your bottle of Richmond Water or add refill stations to your next event at drinkrichmondwatercom. That's kind of cool.

Speaker 1: 19:47

The next guest that we had on that we'll play a clip for is Ram Bhagat of Drums, no Guns. Ram was introduced to us by Nicole Jones of Art 180, 9th District City Councilwoman, as well as Daron Chavis, so again, a key, influential individual in our community. My interview with Ron was really wonderful. I enjoy listening to him I think you will as well as well as the message of what he brings to our community. So tell me about drums. Why drums? What is it about rhythm that brings us together? You know we were talking earlier about how it seems like people feel alone in the world. Yeah, but we're not alone. We're surrounded by other folks. What does drumming and rhythm do for us?

Speaker 4: 20:34

I think what drumming and rhythm does for us is it connects us because, like, if you think about the drum that all of us have in our bodies, our heart, and that heart beats from the time of like, during embryonic development, that heart starts to beat and it's a constant pulse. It's a constant beat. It's a constant beat. I saw this National Geographic special one time where it was about the incredible human machine and how the body works. It was showing all of these blood cells. Each one of them had their own little pulse, but when they got close, they were in close proximity, some kind of chemical was released and they all started with kind of pulsating at the same rate, right. So what I've noticed about drumming through the years is that there's something about how the beat and the rhythm connects us, and I mean like, even if you can't hear, you can feel the vibration. So it's the oldest and most widespread of all the instruments. It's used in all types of ceremonies, like birth, marriage celebrations, even to honor the dead, and I just feel like it's a language that transcends our differences. It just helps us to connect on deeper levels and it's a remedy for something I call social arrhythmia, like society's out of balance.

Speaker 4: 22:10

One of the symptoms or characteristics is disconnection. That you brought up and it's like a lot of people are disconnected and they feel alienated. They feel like where do I belong? You brought up and it's like a lot of people are disconnected and they feel alienated. They feel like where do I belong? Or, um, they're told that they don't belong and that develops a mistrust. So those are those.

Speaker 1: 22:28

I think drumming addresses disconnection, alienation and mistrust so, um, you work, have worked with and work with young people. What do you think is from their perspective? You know what's the experience that they're going through. You know why do they need our focus today.

Speaker 4: 22:49

I mean, like being a teacher for over 30 years all different types of schools, mostly working with adolescents between the age of like 14 and 18. But now and I never thought I would be working with a middle school because of my first experience with, like, substituting in New Haven with middle school students but I'm working with middle school students at MLK, where I'm working on trying to create this national model for mindfulness-based restorative practices, and I think that what they're asking for is someone who cares, someone they can trust, someone who's going to be there, someone who is going to expose them to something that expands their worldview and something that, like relates to their culture, you know, and something that, like relates to their culture, you know. And again, like we just did this edgy concert called Generation Dream. It's actually the Generation Dream 15. We did 14 up until COVID and so we reactivated it, and so what I find is that they they love being challenged, like they had. Like there they might be kind of stage fright or they might not, um, want to show their excellence, because maybe it's been suppressed, especially like we were talking about the education system earlier. And like that whole banking model where, like, the teacher is the expert and they're just depositing knowledge into the empty vessel. So we do more of a pedagogy, of the oppressed approach that, like Freire, where it's how do you connect with people in a way where it validates their experience in the universe, and that you honor it and you're working with them, rather than doing things to them or just for them.

Speaker 4: 24:44

So I think young people are inspired by the work that comes from the heart, and it just reminds me of this question. I ask people Whose shoulders do you stand on? So like, how did you get here? How did I get here? Who in our lives are our role models, or even more than just role models, whose shoulders do we stand on? And then I start asking this other question and who stands on our shoulders?

Speaker 4: 25:15

It's the whole idea of seven generations, and I learned a different way to interpret that. Rather than it's like, oh, we're gonna, we're doing, we're planting trees for seven generations behind us, that the seven generation means more or less that we are in the center and that there are three generations that stand on our shoulders, and there's three generations whose shoulders we stand on, which makes the impact of the work that we're doing with young people even more relevant, because what I'm doing, what you're doing for them, they can then do for their children and then their children can do for their children. So it's kind of it's visible, almost it's a visible cord where we can see that this is going to have an impact on our great-grandchildren.

Speaker 1: 25:56

Rahm's work was influenced by the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr and a poem that he wrote subsequent to that, as well as the killing of his brother. This was a very sensitive interview and always a sensitive subject, so please listen to that interview, but be thinking about that through the lens of solutions for Richmond. We need to keep working on this problem because if they don't grow up, they're not going to have the opportunity to stay healthy. Such a critical conversation. Now a couple of other honorable mentions to take us out. Today we had let's see. Alex and Sam Nordheimer came into the studio to talk about something new that they're building in Richmond called Padel Plant. I'm sure you have heard of all the craze about Pickleball, but they are doing something new. They're going to have a combination of Pickleball and Padel in that facility, which is actually on the canal at the Haxel Power Plant that has been long abandoned, so that project is slated to come online in early 2025. So check out padelplantcom to learn more about what they're doing. Going to be a new recreation opportunity for us here in the region to stay fit and healthy, as well as to build community. Alex and Sam spoke a lot about building community, so go have a listen to that interview.

Speaker 1: 27:15

In another interview we conducted was ahead of the launch of AI Ready RVA, a new organization in Richmond that is working to introduce AI literacy. Before they incorporated and became a nonprofit, we had members of that group in. So check out AIReadyRVAcom. Aireadyrvacom to learn more about what they're doing. Lots of exciting things coming along with their launch party in February. New cohorts spinning up around different topics and communities in the region so that everybody can come along. We are a leading employer of AI jobs here in the region, so we want to keep it that way and we want to build on that strength.

Speaker 1: 27:56

Other interviews that we conducted this year we had Todd Waldo in. Everybody knows Todd, but he is the vice president of the Chaco Institute down at the old train shed. They're going to transform that space into a center. That I want to get this right is a collective project. No, I'm going to get that wrong. It's a center dedicated to revealing the enduring impact of American slavery on the shared American experience. They're going to be taking on this project over the next couple of years. So listen to that interview if you want to learn more about what's happening there in the studio.

Speaker 1: 28:41

Sparkle is a Gilpin Court resident who has tried to make it in Richmond over the last 10 years and has decided that she will be moving out of the region in 2025 because she was not able to get the traction that she had hoped to get here. That's a really critical interview, because most of the stories we tell are from sort of the leadership perspective, and Sparkle's perspective is one that is similar to what we heard from Duran that on the ground, boots on the ground. What are people actually experiencing? We need to hear these stories so that we can really understand the impact of the systems that we're all upholding, contributing to working to break down and really drive that kind of progress that's going to make everybody have a better lived experience in the region. Drive that kind of progress that's going to make everybody have a better lived experience in the region.

Speaker 1: 29:21

So we had one other thing I wanted to bring up, which is a common theme that we had throughout the year of coaches and guides.

Speaker 1: 29:29

In this sort of tumultuous time, we were able to hear from folks who were focused on spirituality and mental health, and so we spoke to, including others Dave Robinson, andreas Addison, ashley Williams, steve Perkins, casey Jordan, rachel Cook, rob Mazzanti and Michelle Mercurio all coaches and guides in one respect or another. Those were inspirational interviews that we hope you get a chance to listen to, and you know really just some wonderful messages that we can live by with their guidance. Now, that is a wrap for today. I wish I could keep going on and I'm probably already over, but this is our show. Thanks for tuning in, thanks for being a part of this journey, and please visit americashealthiestcitycom so that you can follow us on Instagram, linkedin, youtube or wherever you get your podcast, so that you can find out what's next for us in 2025. Thank you again, and I hope you have a wonderful year, and I hope you have a wonderful new year as well.