>> announcer: good morning. th. >> good morning. i'm pat lawson muse. some consider the anacostia river a socioeconomic dividing line. on one side there is a scale housing, chic restaurant, boutique farmers and craft fares. on ter side of the river, neighborhoods where redevelopment is coming, but much more slowly. some of in communities where most residents dr. still renters. however, the nonprofit building bridges across the river is working to level the playing field and improve the quality of life joining us now is rasan bernard who is president of building bridges across the river. good to have you on the program.

>> thank y d. >> you'reng such exciting things. i can't wait to share this with our viewers. you're auaressing the qty of life issue on several fronts, and you have several wonderful projects in the works. tell us all, though, how bbar got start. >>well, it began with the w.c. smith company, an organization that purchased properties,es villag of parkland back in the '90s and sought a place for families to go. and because of that, they created what i consider a right now at all the ark,he t town hall recreation campus. it really was for residents to have a place to go in a difficult neighborhood. >> your programs and projects very creatively address social and economic disparities primarily in wards 7 and 8? nd yes. >> a in recent years you've expanded your footprint by leading programs and partnerships in education and

the arts and recreation campus which we know as the arc. tell us about some of these. >> let me give you our vision.so our vision is really for residents east of the river to create a community that's thriving, a community that is characterized by social, cultural and economic equity. and our mission is really to provide access to the best in place programs and partnerships with economic opportunity, arts and culture, and health and well-being. and our campus is really emblematic of that. re have 14 nonprofits with the partnerships the in five sectors, health, education, arts and recreation and work force development. and that value proposition to the community has been really -- it's like a vital piece of fabric of the community. andite've seen the benef of that. we've seen families walk on our campus and it's really changed their lives, just how easily

mobility gets multiplied by having access to all of those services. >> and you have so much on on mpus. >> that's right, that's right. it's a richness that i think over the many yea that we've been there we'll celebrate 15 years next year, that people, really, it's a hidden gem in our community. we've grown beyond those walls. we've built a bridge with the campus, but we've now built bridges expanding outside oth e walls. we've built so our economic development bridge with the work force center, we're doing wor force training. have r.b. bar farms, which is our bridge to food access. we have branded our theater. we have thest large theater east of the anacostia river. so now we've built those arts and cultural bridges with our theater. and when we ran out of metaphor i cal bridges, the 11th street bridge park, we're looking at stitching together two communities.

the navy art and historic anacostia with that bridge park an convening people. and our equity work around that bridge park that we have embarked upon has national attention by putting people first. it's great. >> where does the funding f l this come from and who are your part ers? >> great question. our funding is variated. we haveth funding from e bridge park project, we secured money there. foundations, corporations, individual p partners,ple who are really invested in our work and see and have the conviction we have about having people thrive in place and providing the best in place for a community that deserves that really, really deserves t. >> a community man feel have for too long forgotten. >> indeed. >> and that has been left out of d.c.'s, you know, magnificent elsurgence. >> absol you know, and another project that we are really proud of that notchally taken this up a is we have a- building -

building bridges for a better life program that we have partnered with the c hy tose 91 homeless families, that the last 91 fromd.c. general, we've plugged them into resources at the ark. now those families havetoccess services like the washington ballet, the lavine school of music, washington schoo for girls, d.c. central kitchen, our boys and girls clubs. a we hle tree, a charter school on campus. we have five schools on campu george washington university and trinity university are represented on our campus. so, again, 14 nonprofits really wog together to impact this community. and our programs, our theater, the bridge park -- ut to talk abo all those. >> that's great. >> i'm going to interrupt you only to take a commercial break and let you talk about those in detail. >> great, thank you. >> we're talking about building bridges .

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we are continuing our conversation about building bridges across the river. ining us now, joyce milford, who is program manager for the ark theater. and kimberly douglas is director of theater operations and programming. and rasantiernard is s with us. so, kimberly, the ark theater is home for arts and culture east of the river, and it is the recipient of a $10,000 project innovation grant from nbc4 and telemundo 44. so congratulatio to you. >> thank you. >> so tell- us how - well, it's good news, isnt? i know you can use the money. >> absolutely fantastic news. you know, we have amazing interns from ward 7, ward 8. they get a year round training to study productn arts. with the nbc universal granter we'll be able to ensure they continue working with us,ei expd

th knowledge in robotics and video and production as well as, yeah, getting those soft skill training. so thank you. >> you're going to put to good day use. >> we're going to pout it to good use. >> exciting to hear that. and you're going to runny can? >> they study heavily in technical production so it's audio, light, und, art administration, hospitality, stage management, and then they also have opportunities to study in scenic design when we have special projects. >> they do what we do, a lot of folks around here do. >> exactly. >> it makes it really exciting. at are some of your theater productions? >> so it's an excitin time for us. we've d.c. theater black festival that has taken over the campus three weeks. july 7 will end the festival time. we have over 150 artists that have represented a brought their production to the ark theater and black box and doing readings. it's>> exciting.

turasan, fornts on that side -- in that part of the city to get exposed like that. >> absolutely. i say over and over again, it's a humanitarian mall. is an oasis of opportunity. you can come there and have your hope realized. it's magical, absolutely magical. >> joyce, you mentioned video productionront of house hospitality, robotics. what else? >> so, we also studyighting design. there are many different opportunities. we're not only in the theater, but we also go to dferent oduction houses around the city where we have a few partnerships with our local high schools and theater houses as well. >> andarhese are yeong paid internships? >> exactly. students between the ages of 15 and 22 have the opportunity to earn money while learning an art, s yeah. >> kimberly, how do they get in? owe so, they so they do have t

interviews one for the initial intake and the fall program. they have to submit a resume, letter of interest, two lette of recommendation and 2.0 gpa. we set it at 2.0 so it wouldn't be a deterrent for kids that have aow gpa, but have a genuine interest in wanting to learn. >> it's competitive. >> it is. >> you're prepa them for higher education and careers. >> yes. >>do for telemun and nbc4. going to be pretty tough. >> yes, and one of the great things we do every year when we culminate our year round program, we take them on a collegetour. so that experience itself exposes them to careers behind the scenes as well as higher educationportunities. so it's an exciting period, especially for me. any time there is a youth that decides to pursuen a career tech, it's so rewarding to see how they're benefiting from the exposure. eah and that's just a great skill to have. we mentioned it's a paid

internship >> exactly, $14 this year, $14 an hour. >> that's pretty decent money. >> i'd say. >> the grant goes totally to ecis internship program? >> that's corr i'll say the programs pretty robust given that it's year round. again, we have eriods throughout the year with summer being our most intensive time, having them on the campus seven weeks, moving to the year round period in the fall they train for eit weeks, in the spring for 12, we'll definitely be making sure the funding gets spread out throughout the year. >> how many are in your -- in an average tical class? program? >> this summer we have 30 that are studying. ten of those have either graduated from high school and they're going off to college in the fall, or they are returning home and the tre onir summer break. so they still have the opportunity to return. that's generally those who have aduated 18 and up to 22. the hope is they can return as

professional contractors working with us and the city as well. >> okay. it's really fantastic. congratulations to you. the i can thnical theater internship program is wonderful, one of the things we're all about. we're happy to support that. joyce milford and kimberly douglas, thank you so much. >> thank you. >> and next we're going to talk about the s 11theet bridge .ark, really exciting. z3a66z z16fz y3a66y y16fy

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th 11th street bridge park connects communities across the anacostia river. this is such a wonrful and cool contest. joining us is jeffa, deputyth o the treet bridge park. rasan bernard is still with us. tell us about this bridge park is cross the river. >> the 11th street bridge park is going to be the nation's capital's first elevated bridge park. it's goingne to c the communities of historic anacostia and fair lawn and the navy yard.il it wl literally be a park that fitsver the anacostia river. >> what is going to be in the park? what are people going to find in

this structurever the river? >> so, we've been working with residents for the last five years on developing all the nsogramming and the pla for the park. so it will include an environmental education center, a kayak and canoe launch, there will be an amphitheater for outdoor aperformances, cafe and restaurant, lots of public arts spaces, aogether over the river. >> over the river, we're not talking about the ban rasan, we're talking about over the river. th is a first. it's very unique. it will be a huge attraction for the two communities it's designed for, but also for tourists. >> absolutely. i know we've had some studies done and we know it will drive maybe 1.2 million new people to this area. and what we're really excsed about i it's really emblematic of our mission. we are bidlding brs, and this to me, connecting those two neighborhoods together to have people from both sides convene,

share laughter, share coffee together, enjoy the eironment gether, i think it's a dream come true. we're really excited about the project. >> it's really going to be age brid not just be a bridge. it is for pedestrians only. >> it is. it's for pedestrians only. and the idea is that some of the planning and the design work has put more activated spaces on the ward 8 side which is close to acostia park. and the more passive natural spaces are closer to the navy yard side, to really help bring peop across the bridges on both sides of the river. >> now, construction hasn't started so tell us where we are with construction and funding and all that. >> sure. construction is scheduled to t in 2021. so we will break downth in 2021 earliest we'll open 2023. it is a project we're doing in collaboration with the district of columbia, so odi fun is coming from both public sources and private sources. the capital campaign for the project is about $139 million,

and 50% of that is for oure equitablevelopment plan and the implementation of this work around affordable housing, work force, small business investments, and cultural equity. of that $139 50% million capital campaign is for direct investment into the bricks and mortar for the park. >> that's really good to hear. you know, this is the kind of thing, gentrification is an issue. this kind of development will drive gentrification. so what you're describing wthh at campaign would help to mitigate some of those concerns. >> you know, the thoughtful nature of this project and the team tt's working on the bridge park project to put equity first, it's leading conversations n the nation. we've had people all over the country come and ask us questions about thequitable development plan. for that rson we've actually developed a video about this work. so you're absolutely right. doing it thoughnvully, iting without displacement is key, and this team has done a really good job of thoughtfully thinking

through that. >> so what viewers do t things along or to support you, irfana? >> this is a collaeration with hole city and particularly with residents that are living in the communities nearby. you can tell your city councilmember that you love this project that you want to see it happen. we also are raising funds for the capit of the project and we also do a whole bunch of programming. we produced the anacostia rivere ival. we've got our farm programs at the ark. and so there are opportunities but also volunteering for all of those projects. they're wonderful projects and we can't wait for this park. >> thank you. >> irfana, thank you so much. and you mentioned the farm. so next we're going to take ym. to the far

joining us now is rasan bernard who is still with us. o onethe other great projects run by building bridges across

the riverthe ark farm. and i just want to -- before we talk about the farm, talk about one other thinghe regarding t bridge itself. >> yes. >> so that bridge that we talked aboutas in the l segment across the riv y. >>es. >> will actually be located on the old pilingsrom the old 11th street bridge? >> absolutely. the old 11th street bridge, the super structure was removed. we load tested those pilings, got dproval that they're goo to go and we're going to build a new super structure on those pilings for ahi non-lar bridge so, again, we'll have people convening there and, yes, exactly. >> just wanted t to poit out. >> absolutely. >> now to the farm. it started as an organic farm on your campus. and you actlly have several farms. >> let me give you a little bit of context. we are on 16 1/2 acres on mississippi avenue which is the ark campus. we build on about 8 1 of that, so we have about 203,000 square

feet of space. housing these 14 nonprofit partners. the other eight is flood plain. in order to stuard that appropriately, we thought let's farm it. it started out as an organic farm. today it is an acre and a half, but it's one of eirmt fas. so we have seven other plots across ward 8. collectively we produce about 3,000 pounds of produce for ward 8 families. >> which you pass out to the families? >> which we pass out to the families, to ourommunity, supported agriculture program. >> who are your farmers? >> that's grea our farmers come from the community. we have a couple guys that we met. they walked across to our campus. as i mentioned before, hope gets realized at the ark. they come over, they share tir insights about what they've seen. we get them trained. they start to work in the organic garden. today they're hired farmers for building bridges across the river. >> so this is part of your work force development. >> absolutely, there it is. it's exactly that. this urban farming work force

development engine has taken off. the young man who now farms our space often says he had no idea that he would be a farmer in ward 8. but now he's pretty much evgelized others. so we see many more coming to find out about our farm. >> obviously this is a great service in wardow 8 which we kn is a foodes dt. >> we have one store for 85,000 residents. the fact we can provide the food -- and not only that, but provide the education to cook the food. we've partnered with our rtners on campus, d.c. central kitchen and chef t. to help people look inside their bags and make use of that food's in very creative way. and so we've seen a lot of traction with that. so, yeah, i think, again, it is an oasis of opportunity for residents as itelates to food access. >> are they excited about it? do they find it interesting? are they happy to have it there? >> so, we've seen a -- we have 125 families that signed up this

year for community support and agriculture. ee hive and largest just recently harvested honey on campus that local residents can not only eat, but can sell. and so excitement is palpable, absolutely. >> you've got workshops, ongoing workshops there? >> absolutely. a beg part of our work is education. we've pairedh the farm wit farmers, but also with teaching perma culture, horticulture and cooking the food. education is a big piece of our work with the farm. >> to take advantage of these, does it cost money or do the residents get it for free? >> tt's grate question. because of really good cporate partners, foundation partners and individual donors, we've been able tosi subze and provide free food for our residents. so it comes free and for those who have the ability to pay, pa.

>> again, this, again, is part of the overall mission of building bridges across the river. >> tt's exactly right. again, we exist -- to pursue and create a thriving community for east of the river residents, bounded and rooted in economic and social equity. this is how we move the needle. >> you're doing? ally exciting work. >> thank you. >> you have a lot of components there, you have the bridge, you have the farm, you've got the theater. es, yes. and as we have grown, we really have respond ed to the needs of the residents. programs projects and have come reflectively because community residents have pretty much driven our decision making for that. ut we're excited abo it. >> what a wonderful way to serve the community. you're doing a great job. thank anyou, ras bernard. >> thank you. >> and for more information about building bridges across the river, go to bbardc.org. and that's news 4 your sunday. to see any news 4 your sunday program, go to nbcwashington.com

and click on community. i'm pat lawson muse. thanks so much for joi dale's little girl is heading to college. luckily, her dorm is about 10 minutes from a hel by wyndham. ashley's meeting all her in-laws,

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>> 6:00 on this sunday morning. here's what we're following for you. breaking from overnight, president trump crossing the n.er into north korea to meet with kim jong u the latest on the historic meeting at the demilitarized zone. ic back in the distr hundreds rally against i.c.e. after two people were detained. they want officials to sanctuar more of the good time had at the first pride parade. breaking news. here is the his tore i can meetingou