the new 7pm news. good morning, and welcome to mosaic. i'm ron, and i'm hosting -- many of you know that the musical hamilton has taken the world by storm, and taken the country by storm for a number of years now. randomly the great creator finished 26 programs there, shows in puerto rico, sold out, fundraiser, great fundraiser for many, the hurricane relief there, and many of our communities and churches have contributed to that relief. i had the privilege

of seeing the hamilton on broadway, i've listened to the sound track many times and i read some of the history, and every musical has to have a signature song, and i think this has many signature songs and many musicals do, and he said after working on it for a year, he said it's my shot and he talks about throwing away my shot. the opportunity to have an education, the opportunity to have the doors open, to go through those doors. he says i'm hungry like the country, and i'm young, i'm scrappy. and you need to rise, but sometimes you can't rise unless you have help. unless you have parents, sometimes who are supporting you, and teachers can't do it all and mentors can't do it all, but they help you get that shot, that opportunity, and you can't waste it. it's a thrill to have with us today,

one of the police officers who is working on a program called -- robert smith. >> thank you for having me. >> tell us a little bit about your background before we go into what you do with the "okay program." >> my name is rob robert smith and i was born in baltimore, maryland. i left baltimore in the early years and went to mississippi, grew up in mississippi until high school, and fast forward through a few states, i settled down in california. >> okay. >> and here i am. >> you've been a police officer for how long? >> almost six years. >> six years? >> yes, sir. >> what motivated you to become a police officer. >> i was talking to a good friend of mine's mother and the opportunity came across the internet, and she said you'll make a good police officer, so i decided to apply, and the rest is history.

>> when they said you'd make a good police officer, what did they see in your character that lend to that? >> i just love helping people. i love community. i'm -- i would like to say i'm kind-hearted and i like to serve, to policing is a big -- serving is a big part of policing -- >> right. but isn't it extremely stressful? >> it's stressful in a sense, but you just day-to-day, get through it. they have different things for officers. they have a lot of wellness, you know, wellness is a big thing, but they provide a lot of opportunities to distress, if you will. >> when you talk about wellness, what does that entail? >> self-care and balancing work and home and making sure you're taking care of yourself. >> okay, okay. the okay program, tell us t the okay

program, it's a leadership and -- it's ahi developmen model thatocus on males 12 to 17. our goal in the "okay program" is to develop leadership and critical thinking skills and promote academic success and decrease homicides of african males. >> it started in 1990. >> it was started by donald northcross. he says often when he was a sheriff's deputy, he got tired of seeing african-american men go to jail at a high rate. so he looked around for solutions and a problem, and he said he couldn't find one, so he started the "okay program." >> that means he's giving many young people a shot. >> many young people a shot. >> we all need that

help. >> yes, sir. >> we're appreciative of that work, and continue that. and we'll hear about that in the future segments and maybe the deputy chief might be here. >> yes, sir. >> great to have you here, robert. please join us, robert smith. the "okay program." our kids, our kid s -- our kids, our kids.

welcome back to mosaic. i'm ron shrisher. we have been talking to robert smith about a program called "okay program" our kids. when i first saw it, i thought it was oakland kids, but this extends throughout the states, so helping the young people and young kids. tell us more about that, that the fact it's in other parts of the country. >> yes, so currently we have "okay program" in i believe 7 states

and chapters just like oakland. we call them chapters, and a chapter is a middle school that we start in, that feeds into a high school. so all the chapters are ran by african-american police officers, and at the try to follow those young boys we recruit into the program from 6th grade to 12th grade build that relationship and stick with them to get through issues they might encounter. >> do you find them open or do they feel intimidated by seeing the police officers, and how do you find that experience? >> at first you know, just because of what has been going on in the news and the media, the young kids especially african-american boys are concerned when they first, you know, when you first approach them. i'm officer smith, and thi progm. en thehen you, consistent and they find out you're genuine and they trust you, they sign up, it's

a good thing. >> have you seen any become a police officer yet? >> i have a few youngsters that want to become an officer. they ask questions and are interested, but i have been doing the program for four years so none of my boys are actually old enough yet to become police officers. >> you're in charge of the program? >> yes, i run the oakland "okay program." >> that's your main responsibility as a police officer now. >> that's my full-time assignment. i'm off patrol and i work in the program full-time dealing with the youngsters and running this program. >> it's important and it's amazing you're -- when i think of police officers, they're doing a lot of paperwork and they're on the street. it's so demanding in that regard, but this has worked too. >> correct. we have -- if you think of, you know, an officer on the street, it's all after the fact taken. this is more of a

preventive measure, so you know, just trying to deal with some things on the front end so officers working the streets, we introduce that work on the back end. >> we have a passage coming up in scripture that's going to be preached on about what's most important and what does god want from us and it says god wants justice, and god wants love, and kind and humility. what would you say the most important qualities and characteristics are needed for the use you're teaching, and mentoring? >> just really, like i said, the leadership and critical thinking piece, and knowing how to handle situations, and learning how to deal with things. a lot of our young men unfortunately don't have fathers in their lives so a father is supposed to be there to help mentor and guide you and help you become a man, so when that's missing in your life, we're not trying to be their fathers, but we're trying to bring in this village, if you

will, to help just mentor, guide and teach the young men in the program how to just handle certain situations. it's always said especially african-american boys, if they have a legitimate threat on their life, they're less likely to call the police and more likely to put a gun in their pocket and that could be because of history or you know, whatever, but in the "okay program" we build relationships with these young men and when they have a threat or they have an issue, they know they can call their "okay program" officer to handle any situation and they feel comfortable doing that. >> that's excellent. i want to ask more about the leadership. but i think you said something hering the brabout a leadership conference you have in march. >> yes, sir. >> tell us about that. >> we started in oakland. it's called black boys need black mentors in capital

m-e-n and it's a luncheon we put on. last year was our first annual luncheon and we had 400 men show up and 200 youngsters. march 23rd, we're doing the same thing. it's our second annual luncheon and we're going to make a call on black men again in the community to come out and help basically mentor black boys. >> okay. >> it will be at frick middle school and more details will be february 1st and we'll go live with advertising and promotion. >> in the conference what do you do? >> at the beginning of the conference, we have a, basically a career day where we have the men come out in different career fields and teach the boys, and have them learn about different career fields they might be interested in. and the second part of the conference is just a presentation on what we do in the program, you know,

our founder, donald northcross will be there, and speak about the program. we come together. we eat lunch and fellowship with the boys and the men have an opportunity to talk to the boys and we giveaway a few awards and we'll invite the men who attend the luncheon, we invite them to be teammates. >> that's excellent. i read will northcross and i like to hear more about him, the founder. he seems to be highly motivated and committed, it has quite a background of support of different organizations and support of him -- different politicians have come out from both republicans and democrats have recognized his skills and ability. so it goes beyond any political partisanship. he's involved. and he's committed to these kids. >> very passionate. >> i was impressed. i judge you have the read about him, so i kw you know him more, but we'll be coming back and talking more. thank you very much. >> yes, sir. >> please join us

with robert smith.

welcome back to mosaic. i hope you've been with us during the break. speaking to robert, he mentioned a number of person that's on the board and the chairman on the board is bishop bob jackson. tell us about the involvement of the church, the involvement of the community and the school and how it works. >> it's a partnership between the police department, the school district, vast city and the community which is a church that the "okay program" looks for pastor that's very active in the community, and they make that pastor the chairman of the board, and that pastor, for oakland is bishop bob jackson. and basically he

funds the program. he raises all the money for the program, so these boys can eat every weekend when we have our saturday mentoring sessions with them. when we innocent advise them for their grades and different things we have in place. bishop jackson is responsible for all that in oakland. >> could you have done that without him? >> absolutely not. it takes somebody strong and dedicated like bishop jackson to be able to help us go forward and move forward. the police department is big because they supply the officer and the school district is a big piece of that because they supply the kids and you have to have someone to maintain the program and make sure it continues to go forward and make sure of any obstacles and funding is a big part of it. >> is the funding strictly through the church? or are there other sources? >> bishop jackson raises money through the church, through the

community and different aspects. he -- put on a ski mask to get that money for the youngsters if he has to, but everything comes through him. so whether it's through donations he ask for or letters or different people. >> i see. like when i was here -- in here in oakland, i knew of bishop jackson. so when i heard his name i was glad he was involved because i know he takes it to heart, dedicated and determined and one of those mentors you're talking about. >> absolutely. >> that's excellent. when we talk about skills, what are the leadership skills you think you teach them, the kids? >> so, on saturdays we have a -- we have a session called a "kick it" session and we focus on anger management, money management, critical thinking skills, decision make being, how to interact with the police. if you're pulled over and what to do, and things like

that. and that's our curriculum for saturdays. >> anger management, financial. >> financial management, critical thinking skills, decision making, how to interact with the police, and other things. >> that's extremely important. >> yes, sir. >> i'm glad you're doing that because you have to start young. >> absolutely. >> very good, very. good we have one more segment and we don't know if the deputy chief will make it. he had an emergency come up. >> yes, sir. >> but you handled it well. >> i appreciate that. >> tell him to look at this. you'll get a promotion. >> yes, sir. >> please join us in our last segment, robert smith in the "okay program." [ cell phone rings ]

>> yeah, i'm watching it too. i see them every day. >> the curtains, they're always drawn in this place. >> i know. >> that guy, it seems like he's in charge of them. i don't know, i don't feel very good about this. >> we have to report this. >> yes, absolutely.

to have great

programs like okay -- >> hold on. >> bring it down. right there. >> okay. say a few words. >> mike. mike. >> just say -- >> okay. could you start over.

if you've been with us to have a great program like the "okay program", you have to have many volunteers and i need to shout-out to troy of great media. he made the contact with these officers and we have deputy chief, la rome armstrong. your man has done a great job here. >> he's a unique officer. >> i'm glad he could come. >> tell us about your background and ex peer experienceit -- >> he group up in west oakland. i've always had a connection to the

city i work in. in growing up, where i grew up with challenges in our community, a program like our kids, the "okay program" was one i wish was there when i was a kid. as a leader in the oakland police department to have officers like officer smith who are willing to go into our communities and work with young men of color, particularly african-american young men to give them positive role models and give them opportunities academically and socially, and also giving them a positive resource. somebody that they can talk to as you sort of navigate your experiences in the city of oakland. >> with that long history, what motivated you to become a police officer. >> my motivation for becoming a police officer is rooted in a care for my community. that i grew up seeing a lot of tragic things m mmunity, my ly own tragic experience with the loss of my

own brother when i was young, him being killed. i wanted to serve my community. and i wanted to put a different face on law enforcement in the city of oakland, so that was my passion to be a different police officer, to be apart of a cultural change within a police department that had a marred history. >> north cross is the founder, right. >> yes. >> tell us about his motivation? >> i think -- i call him dr. north cross because when i listen to him speak, it's like he's a doctor and he really understands what's needed, what's prescribed to help improve outcomes for african-american boys, and so when you meet with mr. north cross you see his passion, and you understand from his own experience being a deputy in sacramento county that he understands from the law enforcement perspective what it is to work with young men, and so i

think his grass roots comes out of a place of care. he and the young men he touched when he started the program, you can see the impact because these young men come back and support the program to this day. and so, him being a positive role model to them and them coming back to show the success they've had in their lives is showing us the important role that people like officer smith play, that at some point we hope to see other young men, other african-american men come back and say how he changed their lives. >> i asked officer smith, leadership skills. what do you think is the most important thing? >> it's how you have relationships with people, and how you treat people. how to be respectful to one another, and one of th thi appreciate is that, t me, is the most powerful part of the program. a lot of young men

don't have fathers in their homes unfortunately. and for other african-american men to volunteer their time, to come in and be mentors to these young men, that's vital. it's vital to our community. but it shows them that there are positive african-american men doing things in the community and african-american men that care about them and taking timeout of their schedule to give back to them and that's powerful when sometimes you come from a broken family and you don't have the role model at home. >> you're going to mention volunteers before the deputy chief came and do you want to mention other volunteers, you mentioned bishop jackson. >> bishop jackson is the chairman of our board, but we recruit, organize and train african-americ in tp with the boys. i'm only one man. so when we have the boys come on saturdays, there's anywhere between 40 and 60 young men on saturday, and the men come out and

they help us just be a positive role model, you know, talk about life experiences with the boys. and give advice on different -- just different things. >> what success have you seen deputy chief? >> i have seen students that were struggling. that had low gpa's in school. one young man had a 1.0 and was struggling and suffering academically. but then i've seen one of our former officers -- "okay officers" wrap his arms around that young man and watch that young man's gpleva t over a 3.0. when you have somebody who care enough to listen, to support these young men, that they can do great things, and so i do -- i do understand that some people ask why so much

focus on african-american men? because the reality is that african-american men face the greatest risk. >> amen. >> so if we want to have a realistic conversation about how we can improve outcomes for african-american men, we have to focus on them, so this program allows them the focus and attention they need and it's bringing in role models and bringing in people that look like them in front of them and saying you can do well. you can be successful. and you can be great. >> i have seen on the website some of the 7 cities and the -- they had the grade point average. the new 7pm news

weeknights on kpix 5 now on kpix5 news, a deadly plunge into mount diablo and investigators questioning what caused the single engine to crash. >> plus the same storm system bringing rain to the bay area is hammering the sierra with snow it would be madness to shutdown the government. >> we join -- they're discussing border security and what needs to happen to prevent another government shutdown. it's sunday, february 10th. i'm devon feeling. >> i'm -- l go to julie watts. >> i love these mornings and we have snow this