 Good evening, folks. I'm Reverend Mark Hughes. You've caught us again here and we're at juxtaposition live at 525-ish. We're here today just to talk a little bit about legacy makers and I'm hoping you're along for the ride. Again, I am so pleased right now to have in my presence one of our legacy makers, one of our community legacy makers here and it is no less than the director of the Richard Kemp Center. This is my wife Christine Hughes. How you doing, Christine? Good. Glad to be here. Thank you for joining us. The systemic racism is really what we're talking about today and I know when today we were talking about the program wanted to just get the opportunity to check in with you because all the work that y'all have been doing in the community and also obviously just get a chance to hang out because when else are we going to spend some time together? Right. So I'm glad you joined, thanks for joining us. Systemic racism, what does that mean? Systemic racism, it means there are wealth disparities, cultural disempowerment among Black folks. As a result, disparities exist in education, health services, the justice system. These disparities along with cultural erasure and appropriation directly impact, directly impact the health and wellness of Black individuals and communities across the state, across the country historically. This threatens economic development. It also threatens our social, our health and wellness of everybody. In fact, what we're seeing is even threatens our very democracy. So what we're doing here in Vermont, you know, along with the Vermont Racial Justice Alliance is we're also creating some of those programs and services. We're operating, we're figuring out ways in which we can develop and deploy policies and platforms and initiatives, cultural engagement. So one of the things that we saw probably a couple years ago was a vision of the Richard Kemp Center. The Richard Kemp Center was, it was created as a center, I should say the center, the needs of the Black community in rectifying racial equity, racial inequity by serving as a cultural broker in expanding historically ineffective, inefficient and non-existent programs and services to marginalized communities. The Richard Kemp Center is creating new systems that empower Black Vermonters, denied equal access to public or private economic and other opportunities. And also the Richard Kemp Center offers hope by being the legacy maker, if you will, at the intersection of the Black community's wellness, our culture and also our youth. So that's what we're going to talk about today. We're going to talk about our legacy makers. And we're here with Christine. Christine, tell us a little bit about some of the things that you have going on over there. Maybe you can also bring us up to speed on what's happening and moving forward. We have lots of things going on. We're really excited to be just coming back from our trip. That'll be an annual trip to the National Museum for African American History and Culture, which was a huge undertaking that went really well. That was really exciting. I think that that's something that we look at as cultural empowerment. The youth and families that traveled down there with us have given us the feedback that it was great. It was a blast and we're already starting to plan for that trip next year. On a regular basis, we have all kinds of activities that are happening in the center. I'm going to stop you right there on that trip down to DC. I think we got a slide on that too with some of the youth out by the bus. But yeah, taking the folks down to DC, that must have been a logistical nightmare. How did that work out? How many days were you down there and what did y'all see? We were there for four days. We had a day of travel on either end. We set it up so that it would coincide with the spring break that the kids had from school. I think that was pretty good planning. We went down there on a bus. I guess it was something that there could have been a whole lot of things that could have gone wrong, but they didn't. God was on our side. It was a huge success. I think all of our team members had a role to play. The youth even had a role to play in our fundraising efforts and really showed up and showed out. I think not only were the efforts that they put into it successful, but it was also another opportunity to empower them to make something happen and be part of something that they were going to actually experience. So the youth were actually a part of the planning? They were. So was that something like on the front end, before you guys went down there you had the youth engaged in something? We did. There are three parts really to this adventure that we took. There was the part before it to bring people together and to sort of form the group and make sure everybody was getting to know each other. It wasn't just a bunch of strangers hopping on a bus. Then there were activities that we conducted while we were down there. Going to that museum is a pretty intense experience. So we designed it so that we would have time and space for our own wellness and our own reflections. Now we're kind of in the phase three part. We were fortunate enough to have somebody who is a videographer working on a mini-documentary. You took a videographer to DC with you? Sure did. It was great. He's somebody that we've worked with for some of our other events and he's working on that right now. So our plan is to, as the third phase of this activity, is to share that documentary with the broader community and offer another opportunity for our youth to share the experience with the broader community. So that's the phase three part of it and then we'll just be thinking about making our plans and doing our fundraising to go again next year. Absolutely. Yeah. So I mean definitely you got my vote with the youth and I guess they're going to be a part of some post trip activities involved in various activities just following up on the trip. Right. I mean I think that one of the things that we're hoping and we're sort of in the planning stages with is that there might even be an opportunity when we have our open house at the Richard Kemp Center that will actually be on Juneteenth. Well it'll be on the Saturday before the federal Juneteenth which falls on Monday. But we're hosting an open house on that day so I hope folks will plan to come out and we're hoping to you know provide some opportunities for the youth to take part in that as well. Yeah. I mean I never thought we'd be saying words like federal Juneteenth but yeah definitely definitely. So some some of the things we're doing definitely involve the youth. I know the this trip very very powerful. What else what else is happening in the Richard Kemp Center right now. So on a regular basis we have things like the chess club that happens I believe that happened just last night that's been going really well and there's a lot of participation in that. We also will have youth movie night which is happening this Friday. That's a blast. We usually have like a really nice group of kids. A lot of a lot of them are sort of like regulars you know they look forward to that. We do that twice a month. And lots of other things. I was just reminded of the summer activities that you have coming up as well. Right. You want to speak a little bit more to to that as well. Right. So that's another thing that we'll be kicking off right around the the time of Juneteenth. We're in the process right now. We have like an open enrollment. We're hoping to enroll somewhere around 25 youth from the ages of like eight and up all the way up to you know potentially 18. And we'll be having activities during the summer in the center. We're planning some field trips. We're also leaving some room too for again for parents and youth to even be involved in designing some of those activities. Sure. Each day we'll have a theme. So it's like art and music and cultural. Each day of the week. Right. And then you'll just repeat that over the following the following week. Right. I was thinking it's a long summer. You're going to have a different theme every day of the summer. No that's that's pretty amazing. So so they'll be this is going to go out through through the going through out the duration of the summer. Right. Is that Monday through Monday through Friday. We're really excited that we're going to be able to offer free lunch every day. We're working with the Burlington School District to make that happen. Hey now you got my attention. Right. So that we're really excited about that. We are in an area where you know there's a lot of poverty and stuff. So we're really excited to be able to offer that and that will happen at the beginning of the day. And we'll have yeah we'll have a theme for each day. So it's art music education. Awesome. Cultural empowerment and celebrations and then probably some local field trips. Yeah. You know. So we're we're still working on some of that but we have the basic framework set up. Yeah I know the original plan for the Richard Kim Center involved you know very very aggressive visions you know because what are we dealing with. We're dealing with poverty. You just said a minute ago because that's that's the whole I mean that's the whole jam right there the political and economic divide along racial lines. That's that's the legacy of slavery. That's that's the you know that's our jam. That's what we're here for. But yeah I mean I know we talked a little bit about envisioning. We talked about stuff like adult basic education for example and you know we talked about basic computer skills and and maybe some workforce development opportunities might be coming out of there. You know where are we on some of those things and what are your thoughts on that's a great prompt great segue into another campaign that we're in the middle of thanks for reminding me we are in the middle we have just had a better places grant and fundraising campaign launched that is looking pretty good. I just checked it a little while ago before we got on the air and better places. Yeah we have steady donations that are coming in so it's it's it's a better places grant. We're working with patronicity and it's basically a crowdsourced funding right apparatus. And what will happen when it's successful is that our fundraising goal is somewhere around ten thousand I think it's like ten three or something once we meet that goal we the state matches that and then we'll use those funds to do some revitalization in the center which includes purchasing computers and workstations that will be available for public use. So I'm really excited about that I think that that is a huge benefit for youth and for our adult community members who are also accessing the center. So those will be available for public use but will also create some programming around that around you know maybe learning about credit scores and like you had mentioned basic ed and some other programming that we've been talking about for a while and now we're actually going to have what we need to to roll it out. So we need it we need it in community I think for for those who are watching just I think you can go over to vtracialjusticealliance.org vtracialjusticealliance.org over on the blog I think there was a press release that was released this morning if I'm not mistaken or either yesterday or today but I think it's one of the latest blogs you can find in that press release the breadcrumbs that will take you to that campaign and you can get involved so I would just ask you to just go and check that out it's not about how much you give it's about how many people give I mean obviously I'm sure you guys would like to make it to 10-3 but it's important to engage the community on this. I understand that you're also on the other side of Juneteenth it's or leading up into Juneteenth is there another block party on her rise? I mean the next block party that we'll probably do is trying to talk her into it it's probably it's probably I mean unless somebody you know changes my mind about it I think the next block party that we're probably going to do is our annual back-in-school block party right right who knows I mean between now and then we might we might pull one of those off it was a great success and the community really loved it you know we had we were able to shut the street down at a section of the street which was really fun and we had a you know we had a basketball hoop out there and we had the fire our local firefighters come over with the fire truck and that was really successful and it was really it's such a nice community building thing especially as we were still kind of coming out of the whole pandemic thing it was really nice to bring people together out there um so we will do another one of those I mean right now we're thinking that it's probably going to be more like the back-in-school time of year but I don't know Mark you could maybe convince me to to try to do one before then because who doesn't love a block party right I know everybody's talking about housing housing housing housing housing housing housing activities planned around because I I know I mean and I so it's so important to start from the beginning on this because I think a lot of folks I was talking to somebody um today and they were like yeah there there are there are plenty of activities there are plenty of organizations in the city of Burlington that say for example do things for children that that help you know black children and and they were you know they were saying you know it's uh and I was like let me help you and I named Sarah Holbrook and and uh Miller as well as King Street and Boys and Girls Club um but when we got to um when we got to the Richard Kemp Center I said you know this is you know it's it's really important to delineate the work that's happening here because you know the origin from which it it comes you know the reason why we started the work in the Richard Kemp Center is because what we have is not working because because the systems that we have in place across housing education employment health services access economic development transportation the so-called criminal justice system none of them are really working effectively for black people and they never really have and that is the definition of systemic racism so amongst all of the other things that the alliance is doing one of the things that we thought was is it be good idea to hey let's do something in community let's put something in community let's put a let's put a not just you know putting a flag down but but let's stand up a flagship that supports black and brown folks in community because what we know is is when as we said at the opening when systemic racism is working well it doesn't just hurt black folks it also hurts our economy it hurts our public safety it hurts our democracy so at the end of the day you know when we start talking about again back to housing when we start we're having these conversations it's just important to know that we're having them we're having them in the Richard Kemp Center as well um yeah talking a little bit about that sorry for being so verbose you're probably gonna later you're gonna be like what mark we get it but I'm just trying to explain it to everybody else too you know tracking yeah so with housing I mean one of the things that um you know aside from one of the functions that the racial justice alliance has had I think for a couple of years now where we have a limited amount of resources to respond to urgent basic needs in the community and that has actually been something that's been functioning across the whole state I think that that's been really good it'd be great if we had more resource resources to do that but I think one of the things that we recognize about that is that we don't want to just do the band-aid thing so we can help somebody when they're in the middle of a crisis but we also want to be able to see and have access to some of the systems that you know you've just mentioned so that we can speak into them and and work with them and improve them believing that you know the folks that are running these other systems are also interested in changing those desperate outcomes that you can see across all systems so one of one of the organization one of the local organizations that we've been partnering with and sort of just getting off the ground is Champlain Housing Trust okay and so you know there's more to come with that it's not a whole lot I can say about that right now but we secret for right now well no I mean it's I would say it's developing right and we've brought together a focus group we have another one that's coming up so that's really exciting and it's an opportunity to rather than just you and I sitting down with say Mike Monty it's a group of people and community members who are impacted by housing and issues with housing sitting down with their folks who are trying to roll these programs out and really having an opportunity to speak into those systems and tell them what's working and what's not working and even sometimes being you know having enough creative space to talk about other options or other ways to approach how do we get community involved in that process how are you getting community involved in that process I mean we're constantly doing different types of outreach you know like housing specifically housing specifically well I mean I think that's part of what the focus group is working on that we would sort of it's kind of like the each one teach one or the each one reach out to another one because we want to be able to have as many community members speak into those processes and even in some cases just to be educated about what's out there because a lot of times there are wonderful things that are out there that somehow or another just miss our community so I think that we do like that kind of concentric circle building so we have a group like a focus group that are folks that are already sort of dialed into what we're doing and then we try to expand out from that and you're doing that in in different areas whether it's like with the youth whether it's like with mental mental mental health with the the plans are is to bring in a small focus group and just have have folks kind of like sitting around in the fire throwing stuff at the wall and seeing what sticks figuring out okay what's you know what's missing with these programs and services why are they not maybe bringing the subject matter expert in you know though somebody from the cht somebody from I don't know the health I know somebody we've had somebody in from the mental health department recently as well and having those conversations and maybe um creating strategies to bring folks in and to and to bounce stuff off of folks who are from designated agencies for example and say hey this is not working to be able to make something move on those while at the same time um you're creating your own you said a mouthful though uh earlier when you when you are having a conversation about the concentric circles each one teach one more about that is how what's that look like I mean I think it's sort of an organizing model you know I think that we do that we've done it more so with our adult community members but I think that there are ways to do that with uh the youth members of the community as well but I think that one of the things that is can be easily overlooked is that we are blessed to be able to create safe spaces I don't want to do that little air quote thing because it's a real thing it really is and it's something that a lot of times is just easily overlooked like there might be organizations in town that say oh you know come on into our annual meeting or something because we really want to hear what you have to say not understanding that sometimes for a person of color for for black and brown folks even showing up in some of those spaces doesn't always feel that safe whereas in the Richard Kemp Center because it's a community building place and we already have a lot of folks that are dialed in it becomes a safe space yeah and if those if I guess you know we keep saying it over and over again but I'll say it again tonight if if it's if it was working we wouldn't be here you know it's hey everybody's pretty busy here there's a lot of stuff going on I got other things to do if it's if it was working we wouldn't be having these conversations and I think that's really the key point that we want to drive home that we want to continue to drive home with our partners with our community partners as well as those from designated agencies who are partnering in the work that you're doing is is because for you know and and sometimes the folks get stuck on intent and they get well you know we're doing the best we can we're not perfect well you know the it's it you know the service is here it's always been here I don't know why your people are missing it and so but at the end of the day what's most important is it's not working right it's not so that's I think that's your message is what I'm hearing from you more than anything is is we're going to try alternative approaches to get folks and to get folks plugged in and we're gonna and I think it it's what it sounds like is is it helps everybody it sure does at the end of the day because I mean what impact does that happen on these agencies that are delivering these services that truly want to do it better and do it in a more equitable manner right when we're able to create you know environments where you know we might be doing like a listening session or whatever and especially if they're sort of the smaller more intimate like focus groups they learn yeah they really learn yeah and one of the things that's really important to understand is that it's not necessarily like an either or we certainly don't have the capacity to deliver housing services the way that cht is that's their thing that's what they do and they're gigantic so um what we want to be able to do is speak into the into the way that those services are delivered and by having those focus groups and having a community that's kind of dialed in through us we're able to do that and I mean again it's it's really important to say that it's not necessarily an an either or it's more of and yeah we just want to throw up this last slide before we get out of here I know I really appreciate you being on with me tonight it's I always feel so much comfortable so much more comfortable in having a conversation and engage with anybody when it's you so thank you for coming I hope you keep coming back there's the first open house I see that you have coming up here on the 17th that's right around Juneteenth lots of stuff going on speak briefly to that yeah one of the things I mean I'm excited about the whole thing but one of the things that I'm really excited about is a project that we're gonna actually kick off on that day but it will be ongoing to honor local black history um and when I say local I mean throughout the whole state I feel like there's a lot of attention and it's understandable um you know in that one month that we're given for Black History Month to talk about you know the big rock stars and the big people that are getting like national attention but I don't want us to overlook all of the incredible history makers and legacy makers that are right here in Vermont and I feel like I'm not sure why nobody else has already thought of doing this but I think that in the Richard Kemp Center it's kind of the perfect place to do it that I've envisioned a wall or some space in that space that will be honoring local black history you get the last word I appreciate that I appreciate you thank you for all of the work that you're doing at the Richard Kemp Center it is honoring your father it is honoring your father and you if he was I'm sure if he was around today and I knew this guy he'd say you're doing him proud so he told you not to quit don't tell everybody that thank you so much again thank you for joining us today legacy makers it's the legacy maker at the intersection of the black community's wellness culture and their youth Christine Hughes the Richard Kemp Center have a good evening