. good morning, everyone. i'm jim handly. welcome to viewpoint. today we're talking about an exciting partnership between comcast and boys and girls clubs of america. it could reach and inspire millions of boys and girls. our guest, cherise lily. she is president of comcast foundation. we're proud to say comcast universal is our parent company, in full disclosure, also with us, dr. damon williams from boys and girls clubs of america. welcome to you both.

let's start with the big picture and why this partnership is such a good fit for comcast nbc universal. >> the philanthropic focus is really digital literacy. but digital literacy is most important to us because we are very concerned about the digital divide and how to bridge that digital divide. this is our opportunity to work with boys and girls club which we know is very central to the communities where they work. young people who are coming in and out of those clubs. this will give them an opportunity to learn about digital literacy, to learn how to use computers, to learn how to use computers safely and open up everything that is offered for young people. we've been really contributing to boys and girls clubs for almost 15 years. so this is the continuation of a long-term relationship, but it's

huge because of our impact. millions of you p affected by t and we're really excited about the partnership. >> you mentioned technology, dr. williams, i'll ask you, too, without it, young people in today's world have to stay not up and current but ahead. >> it really is going to allow us to categorize our next generation club experience, an experience that's lived in the clubhouse, in positive relationships and positive experiences outside the clubhouse, and as we know for generation z, an experience that's lived through the internet. we see this as absolutely foundational to our act to reach our 4 million young people we serve, and importantly, to give them a strong foundation in stem, a strong foundation in creativity, and a strong foundation and purpose towards

becoming 21st century leaders. our motto is great futures start here, and this digital platform will be absolutely foundational to our ability to do that in the next generation of our work. >>q >> we have had a commitment, but you're talking about a five-year commitment. >> it's millions of dollars. it's psa time. the other thing is we just don't write a check. and we have comcast executives all over this country that are serving on boys and girls club boards. and this is a continuation of that and a huge contribution that we're making. this is a highly visible organization. but it helps to raise the visibility and also to do outreach to young people, get more of those young people into

the clubs. >> exactly. and that's what it takes. and computers and technology are a big way to do it. because they realize how important it is. and a lot of them don't have access. and this is about access. >> that's right. young people of today, they will turn to their hand held. they'll turn to their internet, they'll go to turn on the television the way my mother would turn on the radio and the way my grand more would cther w consult the newspaper. we've got to have an opportunity to create, an opportunity to lead. an opportunity to explore. and they've got to have an opportunity to share in this world. and we've got to do it in ways that are safe. for boys and girls clubs of america, everything begins with safety. if we can't keep our yuck people safe we're not doing what we need to create a positive environment. digital safety is also a

priority for us. just as creative exploration are. >> so many programs focus on young people and helping them grow and investment in them. but tell us about the foundation and the broad array of philanthropic work that comcast does. >> the broad focus that we have on youth leadership development for example, we are a national partner with city year, americorps. comcast supports teams all over the country. the city year model focuses on the after school program. we are trying to infuse digital literacy with that city year. we also have a national partnership with big brothers/big sisters. this is a program where we bring young kids into a comcast facility, the young people come

into a comcast facility every two weeks during the school year. and they are assigned by big brothers/big sisters. they are assigned, we give them a hot lunch, and it's an opportunity for our young people to get out of the neighborhood. many of the young people who are coming into the comcast facility prior to that really have not spent much time out of the neighborhood. and similar to getting them out of the boys and girls club, get them out of the neighborhood, into a comcast facility, let them learn about the world of work. so those are two of the biggest programs we have. we also have a program called comcast internet essentials. and this is an after school program for young people, and we teach them how to literally take a computer apart and put the computer back together again. they learn financial literacy, digital literacy, how to shoot

film. they actually shoot a small documentary. and we have a number of our comcast members in the boys and girls clubs. >> and we have seen the tremendous impact that internet essentials have had. we have a lot more to get to in this half hour. stay with us. as we go to break, if you'd like to learn more about the boys and girls clubs of america, here's the address. we'll be right back.

at shell, we believe the world needs a broader mix of energies, which is why we are supplying natural gas, to generate cleaner electricity, that has around 50% fewer co2 emissions than coal. and why with our partner in brazil, we are producing a biofuel made from renewable sugarcane to fuel cars. let's broaden the world's energy mix, let's go.

and welcome back to viewpoint. our focus is between comcast nbc universal and the boys and girls clubs of america. we were talking about the curriculum. and we threw out the word.

it's my.future. >> it's to assist the boys and girls club in setting up this system. we talk about internet safety, digital literacy and media. and dr. williams who is very experienced can give you information about what that curriculum is going to look like. this is going to open up a new world for these young people, and we really want to facilitate the development of the curriculum. >> thank you so much. this is going to be a game-changing opportunity for our clubs, a game-changing opportunity for the millions of outwe serve, and it's game changing in a number of ways. we actually work with a number of teens and asked them what should this new platform be called. and they said my.future. and the reason they came up with that is they wanted something

future "my." they understood this was about the future about where they needed to go and that's how you got future and the dot was digital space. we have everything that this platform is all about. it's about the person, it's about the future and technological exploraion. so when we talk about the curriculum, it's really less of a curriculum and more of an experience that's going to continue to be evolved and shaped by the interest of the user. so when a young person goes to this environment there's some things they can get involved with and learn something. once you go into that space and environment, you can be taken to a number of different spaces or a number of different tasks that you want to learn. let's say you want to learn to juggle. you could use this part of the platform to go to different spaces to learn how to juggle. or let's say you wanted to learn how to edit something in terms

of video content. you could use this to take you to various opportunities to learn things. >> and there are various things. >> more than 40. one of the things that we believe is that the club experience has got to be about, number one, finding passion, number two, living life with purpose. number three, having a focus on maximizing your potential and number four, being on a pathway and understanding pathways to success. the great thing about the 40-some-odd experiences in my.future is that they live on those passions. there's opportunity for young people to learn gaming and how to build games and coding and how to do code. there's all these different experiences that we know young people have an interest in, and they don't know how to get to this knowledge. how to get to these experiences. so often our young people are inhibited by what we refer to as an opportunity equation that

they can't overcome. they don't have the opportunity because of where their family's situated economically, perhaps where their homes are located, the neighborhoods they're in and perhaps even the schools they're a part of. the clubs are transforming the opportunity equation, and this partnership with nbc comcast universal and my.future is going to be able to do that in a world that is fast moving and requiring digital literacy in the same way that we need to read and write. >> this is the other exciting thing is that the curriculum that doctor williams is telling you about will grow and develop. and i think you also hear, when you talk about how the name my.future was created, boys and girls club really listen to their constituents. and this is also a curriculum that will grow, because the students are saying these are

the other things we want to learn. so this is going to be a living, breathing curriculum that's going to grow along with the program. and this five-year commitment we have made is going to ensure that it will grow and develop and also that we'll be able to pay attention to what the needs of the students are. >> we have to take another break. we'll be right back on viewpoint, so stick around.

and welcome back to viewpoint. today we're talking about this great new partnership between the boys and girls clubs of america and nbc comcast. you've seen the difference that internet essentials can make all over the country in your travels, not just with young people but with their entire families. >> absolutely. i have. and the comcast essentials

program just so everybody remembers, is the largest low-cost broadband program of any cable company in this country. and if your children are eligible for the free or reduced lunch program you're able to get comcast cable for $9.99 a month. we also make available a low-cost computer. you can buy a computer for less than $150. and then we've got free digital literacy training in community based centers all over this country in all 39 markets plus the district of columbia. we're very proud of that, because we are taking that digital learning to the community. we have over 350,000 families that have signed up now. this is 1.4 million americans who two years ago or three years ago did not have access to internet in their home, and they now have access to internet in their homes. we hear stories, just

anecdotally all over the country of people who used to, there's one woman who literally would drive her kids to the mcdonald's and sit in the parking lot and let her kids bosch owe the wi-fi from the mcdonald's. we hear stories of parents whose kids are doing research for their homework. and the painful thing for us is when they're doing that homework, what were they doing, how were they getting access to those computers before? we have lots of parents who say i have 30 credits left for college. now that i have the computer in the home, when i put the kids to bed i'm going to college online. it is making a huge difference for the families who are signing up for internet essentials, and we have a great devotion to make sure that continues. and we use partners like boys and girls clubs to get that information to the parents. because we are very serious

about trying to sign up every family who's actually eligible. and if the kids are eligible for that free or reduced school lunch program, we make signing up very easy. >> doctor williams, we were talking during the break about digital literacy, and that can mean a whole array of things. talk about how it has to stay current and what you're teaching young people at the boys and girls clubs when it comes to that. >> sure. and the my.future's platform is going to be absolutely foundational to our ability to do that. it centers on helping young people understand how to find content, create content, helping young people understand how to discern the goodness of sources. you have to understand the difference between a wiki site and something that was downloaded from the national science foundation. ultimately. my.futures will allow us to have

a number of national communities of young people connected in positive, learning, explore tory experiences that learn on our passion. so many young people are limited to what they can see in family, neighborhood and community. my.future will allow for a young person in washington, d.c. to be connected to a fellow club member in madison, wisconsin or in san francisco, california. and potentially, to be working together collaboratively on a new project or initiative. that is helping young people to model the types of literacies but the leadership schools they're going to need in the 21st century. the world we work in now, technology has transformed space, time, geography. and our young people have to be acclimated to that. >> wonderful. another quick break. we'll be right back to pick it up from here.

stay with us.

and welcome back to viewpoint. again, we're talking about in this exciting new program, partnership between boys and girls clubs of america and comcast nbc. we saw the great unveiling this week on benny road of this new computer lab. we also have a program called leaders and achievers. how does that work? >> the leaders and achievers program is a $1,000 scholarship we give to high school students, one from each school. young people or their parents can go online and get information about it on comcast.com. it's a $1,000 scholarship. they have to have a recommendation from their principal or counselor.

this is part of our outreach. young people who are not only good students but involved in their community. if they're volunteering or involved in their church or student government. we have a null of students that win the award and we give away about $2 million a year all across the country. i urge the young people going to college, go online, $1,000 doesn't sound like a lot of money, but it will buy you boo for your first year of college. and we're delighted to identify these young leaders and help them with their college careers. >> dr. williams, your passion is inspiring young people. what are the challenges in that in today's world? >> one of the great challenges that we have is giving young people opportunity. and it's for that reason that we launched a great futures program for impact and we're thankful to have comcast nbc universal as one of our cornerstone partners in that. i ask for your viewers to take a

look at what we're doing at greatfutures.org and understand how they can get involved. it's not just the treasure of a dollar but the treasure of time that we give to each of our young people every day in clubs that we know can be transformative to be on a pathway to purpose and potential and with understanding of what they twheneed to do to get ther. >> you've been on the board of trustees of howard university for what, ten years? >> ten years, yes. >> it has always been strong for comcast. >> just today i met several people who were former interns. there's a very strong internship program here at nbc 4. the communications students do a number of internships with local employers. there are a number of activities that we do with howard, and we're very proud of that association we have with howard. >> lot to be proud of this week, and this new lab is shining. talk about the reaction that you

get from young people and their parents, too. we've just got a little time left. but what is their reaction when they get this hands-on, new technology that they've never had access to before? >> shock and awe, shock and awe from the young people, shock and awe from parents to see these shiny testaments to what's possible, when we put together organizations that are like minded and shock and awe in understanding when you see that smile on a young person's face it's worth all the investment, all the sacrifice and hard work that it took to get you there. >> we're out of time. thanks for all the difference that you're able to do. 365 days a year. we talk about this week being a good one here, but the work goes forward all over the country. thanks for sharing all the exciting things. >> we want to thank you for having us in for viewpoint. enjoy the rest of your weekend, everybody.

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we begin with breaking news this morning t. white house says the u.s. intelligence community is working to authenticate a video that s isis militants possibly be heading american aid worker peter casey. the video came out minutes after president obama left australia for the united states. in a statement national security council spokesperson bernadette meehan says the intelligence is working as quickly as possible to determine its authenticity. if confirmed, we're appalled by the brutal murder of an innocent american aid worker. right now the clouds are coming back. let's go over to chuck bell for your forecast. >> good