could help you save. join kpix in helping bay area families. good morning. welcome to mosaic. it's always a privilege to host mosaic on behalf of my cohost. 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. miranda the great creator just finished there. shows sold out, great

fund raiser for many for hurricane relief. many have contributed to the relief. i had the privilege of seeing the hamilton on broadway, listen to the sound track many times, and i head video of the history. miranda said every musical has to have a signature song. i think this one has many signature songs. many musicals do. he said after working on it for a year his song would be "my shot." he talks about basically i will not throw away my shot, the opportunity to have an education, opportunity to have the doors open, to go through the doors. he says i am hungry like the country and i am young and scrappy and you need to rise. sometimes you can't rise unless you have help, unless you have parents sometimes who are supporting altocan'dohean't do it

helpgreat dehelp pot wa it'sa thri us today ofe ce fiworking in a program called okay program, robert smith. great to have you. >> yes, sir. thank you for having me. >> tell us about your background before we go into what you do as okay program. >> my name is robert smith. i was born in baltimore, maryland. i left baltimore in very early years and went to mississippi. i grew up in mississippi until high school. fast forward through a few states, i settled down in california, and here i am. >> you have been a police officer how long? >> almost six years. >> what motivated you to become a police officer? >> i was talking to a good friend of mine's mother. the

opportunity came across the internet. she said you would make a good police officer. so i decided to apply the rest is kind of hisantod ry. >> when they said you would make a good police officer, what did they see in your character that lends that? >> i love helping people. i love community. i would like to say i am very kind hearted and i like to serve. so policing, serving is a big part of policing. >> but isn't it extremely stressful? >> it is stressful in a sense. but just day to day, get through it. they have different things for officers. they have a lot of wellness -- wellness is a big thing. but they provide opportunities to destress. >> when you talk about wellness, what does that

entail? >> self care. balancing work and home, making sure you are taking care of yourself. >> okay. the okay program. tell us about that. >> it's a leadership development model that focuses on african american males 12 to 18 years old. our goal in the program is to develop leadership and critical thinking skills of the young men, promote academic excellence, reduce high rate of incarceration and homicide in african american males. >> it started in 1990? >> yes by a sacramento deputy, donald northcross. he says often when he was a sheriffs deputy he got tired of seeing african american men go to jail at such a high rate. >> right. >> so he looked for a solution to the problem and couldn't find one. so he started the program. >> great. that means he has

given many young people a shot. >> many young people. >> we all need that help. >> yes, sir. >> we are appreciative of the work you are doing. continue that. we will hear more about that in future segments and maybe even the deputy chief might be here. >> yes, sir. >> great to have you, robert. >> i appreciate you. >> please join us.

>> welcome back to mosaic. i am ron swisher. we have been talking to robert smith about ok program, our kids. when i first saw it, i thought oakland kids. but this program extends throughout the state helping the young people and young kids. tell us about that, the fact that it is in other parts of the country. >> currently, we have ok program in i believe seven states and chapters like oakland. we call them chapters. 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. they try to follow the young boys we recruit into the program from 6th grade to 12th grade too

build the relationship and stick with them through any issues they might encounter. >> do you find them open? do they feel intimidated by seeing police officers? how do you find that experience? >> at first just because of what's been going on in the news and media, young kids, especially african american boys, are concerned when you first approach them. i am officer smith and this is my program. but really when the young men, if you stay consistent and they find out you are genuine and become to trust you, they ease into the program and eventually sign up. it's a good thing. >> have you seen any become a police officer yet themselves? >> i have a few youngsters that want to be police officers. they ask questions about it and are interested. but i have only been doing the program now for four years, so none of my boys are actually old enough to become

prram, right? >> yes, i run the oakland ok program. >> that is your main responsibility as a police officer. >> correct, my full time assignment. i am off of patrol and work in the program full ogram. >> that is important. it's amazing. when i think of police officers, they're doing paperwork, are on the streets. it's so demanding in that regard but this is tremendous work too. >> correct. if you think of an officer on the street, it is after the fact. this is more of a preventive measure. trying to deal with things on the front end so officers working the street, we reduce that on the back end. >> i have a passage in scripture that will be preached on about what's most important, what god really wants. it says god wants justice and god wants

love, mercy, kindness, god wants humility, those three important things. what would you say most important qualities, characteristics needed for the youth you are teaching and mentoring? >> like i said, leadership and critical thinking piece, knowing how to handle situations, just learning how to deal with things. a lot of our young men unfortunately don't have fathers in their lives. a father is supposed to be there to help mentor and guide you and help you become a man. when that is missing, we are not trying to be their fathers, but we are trying to bring in the village if you will to help just mentor, guide, teach the young men in the program how to 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.

that can be because of history or whatever. in the ok program, we build relationships with these young men. when they do have a threat or do have an issue they know they can call their ok officer and feel comfortable doing that. >> excellent. i want to ask about the leadership. but i think you said something during the introduction or the break about a leadership conference that you have in march. >> yes, sir. >> tell us about that. >> we started in oakland. it's called black boys need black mentors with capital men. it's a luncheon. last year was our first luncheon. we had about 400 men, 200 youngsters. >> you showed pictures before we came in. >> yes, sir. this year march 23, it will be our second annual luncheon. we will make a call on black men again in the community to come and help

basically mentor black boys. >> where will it be? >> frick middle school in oakland, 2845 64th avenue. more details will come out. february 1 we'll go live with the advertising and promotion. >> in the conference, what do you do? >> at the beginning of the conference, we have basically a career day where we have the men come out in different career fields. >> okay. >> they teach the boys and have them learn about different career fields they might be interested in. the second part is the presentation on what we do in the program. our founder will be there. he will speak about the program. really we come together and eat lunch, fellowship with the boys. the men have opportunity to talk to the boys. we give away a few awards. we invite the men that attend for a training so they can become part of the ok and become part of the teammates,

mentors. >> excellent. i read about northcross. i would like to know more about him. he seems highly motivated and committed. >> yes, sir. >> quite a background of different organizations that have supported him. different politicians have come out from republicans and democrats that have recognized his skills and ability. it goes beyond any partisanship. he is involved, and he is committed to the kids. >> very passionate. >> i was impressed. i just read about him. i know you know him more. 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 have been with us.

during the break speaking to robert, he mentioned a number of persons on the board. the chairman is bishop bob jackson. tell us about the involvement of the church, involvement of the community and schools and how that works. >> basically how ok program is put together, it is a partnership between the police department, the school district of the city, and the community which is a church that the ok program looks for, a pastor that's very active in the community. they make that pastor the chairman of the board. that pastor for oakland is bishop bob jackson. basically he funds the program. he raises all the money for the program, so these boys can eat every weekend when we have saturday mentoring sessions. >> tremendous. >> when we incentivize them for their behavior, their grades, different things we have in place in the program, bishop jackson is responsible for all that in oakland. >> could you have down that

without him? >> absolutely not. it takes somebody strong and dedicated like bishop jackson to help us. the police department is big because they supply the officer. the school district is a big piece because they supply the kids. you have to have somebody that will maintain the program, make sure it goes forward, make sure of obstacles. funding is a big part of it. >> is funding strictly through the church or are there other sources? >> bishop jackson raises money through the church, through the community, through different aspects. he will put on a ski mask to get that money for the youngsters if he has to. [ laughter ] everything comes through him. whether it is through donations he asks for, letters. >> i see. like when i was in oakland, i knew bishop jackson. when i heard his name, i was

glad to know he is so involved. i know he takes it to heart, dedicated, determined, one of those mentors you talk about. that's excellent. we talk about skills. what are some of the leadership skills you teach the kids? >> on saturdays we have a session called a kick it session. we focus on anger management, money management, critical thinking skills, decision making, how to interact with the police. >> we can all use that. >> if you are pulled over, what to do, different things like that. that's our curriculum for saturdays. >> anger management. >> financial management, critical thinking skills, decision making, how to interact with police, and a slew of other things. >> that is extremely important. >> yes, sir. >> i am glad you are doing that. you have to start young. >> absolutely. >> very good. we have one more

segment. we don't know if the deputy chief will make it. he had an emergency come up. >> yes, sir. >> you handled it quite well. tell him to look at this. you will get a promotion. please join us in our last segment with robert smith and the ok program.

if you have been with us,

to have a great program like ok program, you have to have great volunteers. troy bellton made the contact with the officers. now we have joining us the deputy chief armstrong. great to have you. >> good to be here. >> your man has done a great job here. >> he has. he is a very unique officer. >> i am glad he could come. tell us about your background and experience with the program. >> i have been with the oakland police department for over 20 years. i am born and raised in oakland. >> okay. >> i grew up in west oakland. i have always had obviously a connection to the city that i work in. growing up where i grew up with some challenges in our program, , the challenges

are some i grew up with as a kid. to have officers like officer smith willing to go into our communities and work with young men of color, particularly african american young men, to give them positive role models, give them opportunities academically and socially, and also giving them a positive resource, somebody 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 really rooted in a care for my community. i grew up seeing a lot of tragic things happen in my community. my family had our own tragic experience with the loss of my brother when i was young, him being killed. i wanted to serve my community. i wanted to put a different face on law enforcement in the city of oakland. that was my passion, to be a different kind of police officer, be a part of a

cultural change in a police department that had a tremendously marred history. >> north cross is the founder. >> yes. >> tell us about his motivation. >> i call him dr. northcross because when you listen to him speak, you know, it is like he is a doctor. he really understands what is needed, what is prescribed to help improve outcomes for african american boys. so when you meet with mr. northcross, you see his passion. you understand also from his experience being a deputy in sacramento county that he understands from the law enforcement perspective what it is to work with young men. i think his grassroots sort of coming out of a place of care, him and the young men he touched when he started the program, you can see the impact because the young men still come back and support the program to this day. 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. at some point we hope to see other african american men talk about what he meant to them and how he helped change their lives. >> i asked robert earlier some of the skills and leadership skills. what do you think is the most important thing you teach the kids? >> i think the most important thing is how you have relationships with people, how you treat people, how to be respectful to one another. one of the things i appreciate is the volunteer men. i really think that to me is the most powerful part of the program. a lot of young men don't have fathers in their homes unfortunately. for other african american men to volunteer their time, to be mentors to the young men, that's vital. it's vital to our

community. it also shows that there are positive african american men doing things in the community and african american men that care about them. they're taking time out of their schedules to give back to them. i think that's powerful when you come from a broken family and don't have that role model at home. >> absolutely. you were going to mention volunteers before the deputy chief came. you mentioned bishop jackson. >> he is chairman of our board. but also like the deputy chief is talking about, we recruit, organize, train, african american men in the community to help come and help us with the boys. i am only one man. so when we have the boys on saturdays, there is between 40 and 60 young men on saturday. the men come and help us be a positive role model, talk about life experiences with the boys,

give advice on different things. >> what success have you seen, deputy chief? >> students are struggling, have very low gpa. take that young man and support that young man and watch that young man's gpa elevate to over 3.0. it really shows that when you have somebody that cares enough to listen, to support these young men, they can do great things. so 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. >> if we want to have a realistic conversation about how we can improve outcomes for african american men we have to

focus on them. this program allows us to provide the focus and attention they need. it's bringing role models, bringing people that look like them in front of them and saying you can do well. you can be successful. you can be great. >> i have seen on the website some of the seven cities, you have the grade point average, you have the people who stayed out of jail, incarceration, and all that. so you track it. >> yes, we are tracking all those things. dr. northcross is very specific about what it is he wants you to track and make sure we are getting positive outcomes that he knows the program can achieve. to bishop jackson's credit, he continues to lead our oakland program. i think he does a really good job of supporting the program both financially as well as motivating other people to be part of it. >> you both are an inspiration. i am glad you came. thank you for coming. keep up that great work. you have been with us

here on mosaic, and these police officers and the great work they're doing. i began with hamilton. let me end with hamilton. who lives, who dies, who tells the story. they're telling the story of the young people. but we have to tell our own story. god tells our story, that you count, you are somebody. god loves you. god bless you. thank you for being with us.

saturday's high winds and drenching rain are behind us. we'll have the full forecast coming up. and a political standoff in san mateo, the city is without a mayor days after deadlock inside the city council, but where does it finally end? >> i feel embarrassed for our city. >> as soon as we get that pick number, we'll select a mayor and a deputy mayor. new