d the scenes, i'm charles davis. we'll see you next time on "sports stars of tomorrow." (upbeat music)

>> good morning and welcome to mosaic. i'm ron swisher. it's a privilege to host mosaic. i'm especially excited today, because we're speaking about youth. we always talk about youth as our future. but youth is our present. youth with all of its possibilities, all of its potentially can become real with us in the present. i know that as a pastor for nearly 50 years, i'm excited when there's youth involved in the church and involved in the community. but i think that's true of all institutions and organizations from education to the government to you name it. to politics. when you have youth. i'm excited for my guest this morning. regina jackson the director of the east oakland youth development center and jay da white, who is also an active

person in that organization. i always like to start with telling a little bit of your background, regina. your history and your involvement. >> oh, that's a long story. let me see, let's wrap it up. i have been in oakland for 50 years. so oakland is my home. i found my way to the work at east oakland youth development center after graduating from uc berkeley in 1984 and joining the board in 1986. at the time, i didn't know that you could have a career in that work. so i was very, very excited. started in 1994. i'm celebrating my 24th year in the work. >> congratulations. >> it has been, you know, they call it a peace core, the toughest job you'll ever love. it's been the toughest job i am in love with. young people like jada i get to help mold and mentor and plant seeds. i have

an extraordinarily capable staff. 58% of which are alums that came through the program. and so continuing to teach this cascading mentoring throughout all of our leadership programs. our buckets of programming, our education, arts, career and wellness. and it's nice to say that so many of our graduates actually go on to do service oriented careers. maybe because of what we showed them. >> back up a minute. i think you said you're originally from new york. >> no, i spent some time in new york when i was married many years ago. i started out, i was born in southern california. >> oh, okay. >> my father was a retired major and marine core. when he decided to retire he moved to oakland. hey, daddy. >> okay. i got the impression you love new york, though. >> oh, absolutely. i am a global traveler. i love travel, period. anywhere there's a lot of culture, you can find me very,

very happy. >> that's great. jada, tell us a little bit about your background. >> i'm a 13-year-old at edison middle school. i've been based in east oakland all my life. my father is from east oakland. my mother is from east oakland. i got involved from a mutual friend. i fell in love with the programs and the book clubs. they're politically involved, which i consider myself an activist, which is what drew me in there. i was inspired. >> i was going to save this for later but you went on the march. >> yes, i did. it was a delegation of youth that we got the opportunity from congresswoman barbara lee to attend the march for our lives and we affected all of us. we're from an urban community and it was a golden opportunity for a bunch of youth to go on the journey. >> what inspired you to go? >> my personal background with gun violence. i've been

affected firsthand by it. i lived in a community where there would be bullet holes on the walls. my father died when i was one by gun violence. this affects me. not much light is being brought into the situation. i wanted to kind of shed light on that. you're not the only ones being affected by this. we e have to go to school in this neighborhood. i just, it was a golden opportunity, like i said. >> well, my introduction i talked about the possibilities you bring as a young person. you are activating that right now. >> thank you. >> very impressive. thank you for being with us. we'll hear more from you and thank you regina, for all the work you're doing. you've been called to do this. in my profession we talk about calling. and you have a calling. >> thank you. >> so thank you for all that you do, and we're going to hear more about the program in the next segment. >> thank you very much. >> please join us here with regina jackson and jada white of the east oakland youth

development center.

>> welcome back to mosaic. i'm ron swisher. i mentioned to regina earlier that my first ministry began in 1972 at elmhurst united methodist church down the street from the east

oakland development center. when i read the history to see they're till around going around way back, i was excited to see that. she's been the director since 1994. tell us a little bit more about the program, regina. >> well, we're really building leadership capacities of young people. as young as kindergarteners through adulthood. one of the things we try to do is to teach them an appreciation for education and taking risks. these days, learning to read is taking a risk. literacy defines our lives. you're seeing prisons built based upon who can read at the third grade level. we're really trying to put the odds in their favor to succeed. when you get to see 13-year-olds like jada who demonstrate real energy and passion for life, we want to help them protect that. we're located in a challenged area. but we keep trying to teach them

through opportunity and exposure to put the odds in their favor and prepare them for success. so we're getting ready to start another summer program. it's entirely youth led. young people like jada are in leadership positions. our young people are learning to write curriculum and teach classes and supervise young people. and because you give them the opportunity to lead and the training, then they understand the responsibility. and that puts them ahead of the class every time. >> let's go back to reading for a moment. i'm an avid reader. i've read a hundred books a year for many years. it's a passion. why do you think it's so important? >> well, reading starts everything. i mean, you're able to speak more fluently, more thoughtfully when you can read. you're able to write in that way as well. and it's really, really important that young people know how to think. that they are thoughtful in their

thinking. it helps them to resolve conflict and problem solve and these are not the kinds of curriculum that are being shared in schools these days. when they walk out their day, they got to solve some problems. when they get to school, they've got to resolve some conflict. so literacy really provides the foundation for that. the other stuff is that they can learn about themselves and about the world and they can travel through reading. and often times when our young people might not get out of their zip code, reading unlocks the world for them. >> okay. >> it teaches them their own history. it's just amazing. you know, jada has been involved in one of the book clubs that's been supported by the alameda contra costa chapter. for young people, in middle school, sometimes they tend to drop off the more disciplined activities.

to get them reengaged as they get ready for high school, it puts the odds of college and just being a lifelong learner in their favor. >> i know i love reading. i never could say it quite like that. jada, i understand you might want to be a journalist. where does that passion come from? >> i've always loved writing. i've always loved reading. i've always been literariy based. i love reading and writing. the passion for journalism is bringing real news to real people to real communities to bringing like a taste of culture to like somebody that doesn't have that culture or somebody that doesn't have that news or trust that. i want to bring trustworthy news to some people. journalism does that. >> and what is your hopes in terms of school about that? >> i wish to go to a four year college right out of high school. preferably in new york,

but l.a., too. maybe in the bay but right now next year i'm going to be a freshman at the oakland school for arts and major in journalism or english literacy. nyc, columbia, ucla. >> are these some soft the better school this is field? >> yes, they are. >> you've done some homework. >> yes, i have. >> it's exciting to be young and a vision. >> a goal without a plan is just a dream. >> this is 13. >> 13. can you imagine at 13? >> i love what 13 looks like. >> right. you told me you just came back from someone graduating from the program who just got their phd. >> yes, sir. >> tell us a little bit about that. >> sure. back in 2003, i created the pathway to college and career. what we recognized is we have in terms of education after school programs. we had a ged

program, but we didn't have anything that allowed people to access how to get into college. how to prep for it. so that was really, really important. a young woman by the name of dr. laniqua howard was on the first college tour in 2005. and so as an oakland high school student, i remember that we used to race to the post office to beat the midnight deadline to apply for colleges. and she got in but she decided to go to uc berkeley, still the number one public institute. at the time, nobody in her family graduated from high school. this was a big leap. we had gone to look at columbia where she also got in. she decided i might want to stay closer to home. after that, she did domestic exchange at cal and study abroad and decided to shift her goal from being a

pediatric doctor to a phd focused in social welfare. >> you put a lot of emphasis on service. >> yes, she's exactly what we try to do. she graduated from a top five school, university of wisconsin madison. by the way, she took two years off to work at the obama administration. she's a fantastic young woman and working in alameda county as the director of innovation. >> thank you for that. >> thank you. >> we're going to come back to hear some more great stories from both of you. >> outstanding. >> please join us with mosaic.

>> welcome back to mosaic. during the break, i mentioned

that well, before the break, jada mentioned a number of schools, and i mentioned that i went to usf, which is a pretty good school. regina jackson mentioned she just received an honorary doctorate from the school. >> yes, i did. >> tell us about that. >> that was a phenomenal opportunity. some folks at usf, one of the professors, met with me and said i think you've had an extraordinary body of work. and i would like for us to try and put your name in. and i said okay. so i put together a binder of all the kinds of things i've done over the last 20 years, and i was told around february of 2016 that i would receive the honorary doctorate and i would be able to deliver the commencement address. >> oh, wow. >> i was so excited and so honored. it turns out that one of my own kids was going to be

in that graduating class. >> how about that? >> so that gave me all i needed. right? dr. joseph marshall who is on the board of trustees is a respected colleague and so he was also very excited for me. it was one of the top ten experiences of my life. to have my parents and my children there. supporters from the community. it's been amazing. and we have had kids, historically go to usf. so it was just a turning point in my life. >> do you remember what you focused on in the commencement address? >> service. i talked about taking risks. i talked about following my path, the calling. i talked about some of the success stories and many of the responsibilities. because usf says that they are building the future from there. i may be, you

know, misdirecting the theme, but the whole point is you have to get ready for what it is you're going to do and who it is you're going to be. and so i wanted to talk to them about real life examples and how in which they can make change. i didn't know that i could actually go into in field when i was in college. it has been the most incredible sustaining and impassioned work i could imagine. it's the only reason i've been in it as long as. i usually would leave after two and a half years. it speaks for itself. >> someone said you have to have fire, and you have to have some glue. you seem to bring that. >> yeah. i'm a little stick of dynamite. >> that's fantastic. >> thank you. >> and jada, tell us more about the march. i understand that you spoke. >> i wrote a speech about my experience with gun violence,

and i wrote kind of a reflection and blog about the march. i remember including how crowd and had how cold it was. i remember the feeling of empowerment and involvement, especially because we were like the only group of black teenagers we saw at the march. although. >> there was thousands of people there. >> there were thousands of people but the only people, i saw you when you were black we say hello. it's so rare to see that in that crowd. we were the only big group of black teenagers that i saw during the march. which i felt was, in a way, empowering. but i wish we were more involved and more, you know, driven to end this gun violence. we bring that brotherhood that we lack in urban communities. i feel like that alone can bring it. >> how many were in your delegation? >> i think nine. >> nine, that's pretty good. i understand that you introduced everyone to michelle obama.

>> yes, one of my biggest accomplishments. we were invited by congresswoman barbara lee to go to a moderated conversation with michelle obama. we were a big group of people and women that was talking to michelle obama, and i just cut in and i said we are the east oakland youth development center and recently a delegation was taken on to march for our lives and she said tell me more, tell me more and i said okay. i kind of just went off of that. i had to include i was the youngest one because, you know. yeah, it was a really powerful moment for me. >> that's great. >> thank you. >> you put a lot of emphasis on leadership development. >> yes. >> how does that develop? how does that go? >> well, i remember that a young person told me that because i expected her to succeed, she did. nobody had ever

communicated that to her. so we seed plant early and often. we provide exposure so they can see a world outside of what they know. and then give them opportunities that make them both thirsty and hungry for the empowering experiences. we give them the community to write what they like. draw what they like. do whatever they like so they can feel empowered. >> and you travel? >> we travel. that, in my opinion, is the best way to learn about yourself as well as others. so when we talk about colleges, which one is going to be the right one for you? i often times want our young people to come outside of their comfort zone. because that's where i feel the biggest growth is. so i kind of dare them to go outside of their geographic area. across the country. to the south. to the east. to the north. so that they can understand how to navigate and how to make new friends. our

young people are busy on their phones texting and instagram, they don't talk to each other. >> and i understand you might be going to mexico. >> we are leading a serve mission to august thanks to southwest airlines. i thought it was important in the midst of the challenges we're having today and the lack of support for mexico and for immigrants, for young people, particularly young people of color to go to mexico. to learn of the landscape and also to do some service. they're still deciding what it is they want to do. whether it's a mural or dances or whether it's making food. >> dance and drama and cooking. >> everything we do at the center we like to lift up. they'll be designing t-shirts. the roof is the limit. >> we have last segment you have

with us. i want to come back to where you're located and exactly some of that background. >> thank you. the sky is the limit. >> fantastic. please join us in the last segment with regina and jada.

(upbeat music) - this is the new pix+ with the only 8:00 and 9:00 pm news, the primetime edition: weeknights on the new pix+. 44 cable 12. (bell chiming) >> east oakland youth development center is celebrating their 40th

anniversary. and we've been bless today have the director here in regina jackson and one of the students, jada white. tell us where you are located, and your website. >> sure. sure. our website is www.eoydc.org. we're located at 8200 international boulevard in oakland, california. 94621. our phone number is 510-569-8088. >> and you live pretty close to it, don't you, jada? >> always in east oakland. >> all the time. that's fantastic. and our conversations you mentioned not only are you a warriors' fan. >> yes, sir. >> what has steph curry done for you? >> steph curry has done so many things for the organization and the family. when he got the first mvp award in 2015, he gave us his nba kia. we use that car to drive around to meetings and

invited our familyes to his thanksgiving and christmas celebrations. most recently, last month we opened up to do a media satellite day. he was shooting around with the kids. >> how did you manage to touch base with him or he touched base with you guys? >> yes. well, we have been fortunately receiving donation ifs the warriors for many years. i believe that he learned about our work because of our character building curriculum. our entire organization. every curriculum we have is really about building character. and we know that steph aligns with that. both from a religious base as well as a personal base. and so i think that's how we made it to the top of the list, and he was able to select from that list. >> do you have a last word for us, jada? >> east oakland youth development center is the best center.

>> i'll pay you later. >> that's fantastic. >> thank you. >> both of you have been just great to be on the program. i want to thank troy belton for making the contact. >> appreciate the opportunity. >> thank you for joining us this morning. i know you've been inspired and enlightened by these two young women for all the work that they do. continue to keep the work and keep the faith as we always say. i'm ron swisher. we'll see you next month. thank you for being with us on mosaic.

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