WEBVTT

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>> We're going right to the
street corners to get this data.

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Right? And what are we finding?

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We're finding in our interviews, we're
finding from our surveys, that the very people

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that are dropping out, that are arguing not to
want and valuing education are the very people

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in overwhelming numbers, at least from our
research, that want to be adequately educated.

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I'm talking about guys on
the street selling drugs.

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They actually want to go to school, they want
to go to college, they want to go to a place

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where they feel that they're respected,
they want to go to a place where they feel

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that they're nurtured, where
they feel that they're loved.

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Right? Many of the children are coming from
homes that are, you know, rife with all kinds

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of issues, so they make sure if we're hungry,

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they make sure if we're wearing the same
thing a second or a third day in a row.

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I think many of the children are grappling,
particularly the boys are grappling with issues

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around school violence, or
other street activities

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that are taking place within
a school environment.

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I think, I think many of the children are
actually not being prepared to graduate,

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not only high school, but
also to enroll in college.

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And when you take home those
kinds of experiences, you know,

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it keeps me up at night,
I'll be honest with you.

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Lots of night sweats, you know, I have trouble
going to sleep at night, sometimes carrying some

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of these stories, you know, to
interview a father and talk about,

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and hear him talk about what it means to
be a father and lose your son, you know,

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and to have an older man break down in front
of you, or have a mother break down in front

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of you, you know, we've got all of this stuff.

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You know? We've heard all these stories.

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To be there with a young man, an adult,
you know, in his 20s, and for him to break

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down crying in front of you
because he doesn't have a job

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or he knows he can't support his
children in the way that he wants to.

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But when I'm actually on the ground walking
through the communities, block to block,

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really speaking with some of those guys
that's really out there doing X, Y and Z,

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one of the things they really
want me to understand and capture

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through this project is also the
community, the love that's in

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or amongst street life oriented
community, communities,

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which is inside a larger [inaudible] community.

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But oftentimes these guys are involved with
caring for loved ones, siblings, in addition to,

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you know, elders, parents, grandmothers,
uncles, aunts, oftentimes, you know,

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they play a real role with respect to
organizing these communities, you know,

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getting them out to events, you know, promoting
certain positive things throughout the scope

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of a south bridge or an east side, oftentimes,
you know, and not to say it's necessarily right

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or wrong, but we may see some of these young
men paying rent for grandma, for auntie,

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for the young lady, or the older
lady who may be, who may have two

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or three kids under her direction.

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We oftentimes see them buying
bookbags for the children.

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And at the end of the day,
very little change is created.

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Not until we're able to create a scenario
where children can be fed properly,

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where children can be housed properly, where
children can actually be educated properly,

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will we really have an opportunity to
see the change that we all want to see.

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2009, three years before we had one male from
this community that graduated from high school.

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Jeez, that's crazy.

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How did we even let it get that bad, you know?

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So, I vowed, you know, [inaudible]
to kind of reverse these conditions.

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But I vowed to be here, you know, throughout
the duration of my life doing any and everything

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to make sure that these stories
and these voices get

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out to the people that need to hear about them.

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