Veteran's Affairs Plus W/ David L. Washington

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Dave Washington 0:48
day Las Vegas. Good day Las Vegas. This is Veterans Affairs, plus on 91.5 jazz and more. I'm Dave Washington, your host, and I am pleased to have a the president of an organization that I've been a member for a number of years. We'll have him on shortly as Mr. Arcee Hodges, hold on, sir. We'll be with you in just a sec. Once again, Las Vegas, I mentioned last week, and I want to do it again, and that's just to express condolences. We had quite a few lives lost in the last couple of weeks due to some tragic incidents in our country. So again, to those families, just want to say condolences to you. And also, of course, always try to remember and acknowledge birthdays. And certainly want to acknowledge our first born, April, Washington, her birthday is this month. I should put it that way. Also Sue Garner Lawson, who was again the wife of my budget officer at the time that I served with Las Vegas Fire and Rescue. Mr. Roy Lawson, with that I'm going to invite to the show. This is Mr. Aki Hodges with the black achievement fund. A key How you doing?

Arkee Hodges 2:01
I am doing great, brother Washington yourself,

Dave Washington 2:04
I'm hanging tough as I can, hanging tough as I can, give our listening audience. And I know you've been on the show several times, but give a little background on the organization again, and then we'll ask you about some of the projects that you got going on.

Arkee Hodges 2:19
Of course, I am the president of the Black achievement fund. The Black achievement Fund is a non profit, 501, c3, economic and community development corporation with a simple mission of financing the grand development of black America and beyond through an even simpler system of collective economics. And our model is 10 million black people and our allies, plus $9 a month, equals 90 million a month and over a billion dollars a year for us to do just what our mission says, and that's financing our own development. The Black achievement fund is open to anyone who believes in our mission and our guiding principles, regardless of race, religion, political preference or sexual orientation. We've been around for approximately five years now, collecting contributions, and we have members in all 50 states, and we have about five or six dozen members internationally. So that's what the organization is about, in a nutshell,

Dave Washington 3:21
what's the current membership? Approximately,

Arkee Hodges 3:26
we're around almost 3500 members to date. But I want to point out the fact that the black achievement fund, although our model is 10 million of us, we're not waiting until we get to 10 million people. We've already started launching numerous programs as soon as we started, since we've started collecting contributions, we've recycled over 500,000 in capital back into black communities. We have also given out nearly 40,000 in scholarships to black achievement fund members, grants to black achievement fund nonprofit organizations. We've launched our very own cultural community center for our members in Atlanta, our Kemet Club, which has been in operation going on three years. At this point, we purchased our first piece of land collectively. We bought six acres in tombsboro, Georgia, and we paid all cash for the land, and now we're seeking to build our very first collectively owned house on the land. So we've been doing a ton of work to show and prove that this model is a viable model in the 21st Century. And once again, I just want to point out that all the things that we've accomplished so far hasn't been with 10 million people, hasn't been with a million people. Hasn't even been with 10,000 people, but it's been less than 5000 people.

Dave Washington 4:46
Well, let me say this, brother, that is, that is, to me, just a plus to your leadership, because I'm gonna tell you something, you can't wait, you can't wait. You can't wait. And you have taken dollars that have been contributed. It to the organization and did good work with that. So I'm excited that that you're leading us, and that you're doing the kinds of things and not waiting on, yeah, that will be, that will be the number that we'd like to get to one day. But we're not there yet, so we can't wait. So I appreciate as I trust others do what you're doing to get things rolling. So tell us about some more of those projects that you got going on.

Arkee Hodges 5:24
Oh, I'm super excited. So our signature project at the moment is our 112 acres. That's right, 112 acre new Kim, it retreat, residential community, and we recently added glamping village. So we collectively and individually, we hold 112 acres. We are actively selling one acre lots of that nine of that 112 acres, we've only allocated 45 out of 112 acres for residential development. All the rest of that land is open space, gardens, farmland. We're raising chickens, we're raising bees and giving the land a real retreat field. It's going to be a farm to table restaurant, world class clubhouse with spa and resort style pool and a place for our community to come and have conferences, to have festivals, to have retreats, to have summer camps, a place that is our own, that is operated by our people, and we can come and just really relax so far out of those 45 one acre lots, we've sold nine, and we recently did our groundbreaking ceremony on Friday, July 18, for the first two houses that were building. And these houses aren't just any type of houses. These are all pyramid style, a frame houses, because we're inspired by the grandeur and the greatness of our people from ancient Kemet. So once again, we're, you know, we're not waiting around, and we're developing this community in an unincorporated part of Wilkinson County, and we're using this as a model to show all of our people all around the world what we can achieve through this simple model of collective economics. One of the things that drives the black achievement fund is the fact that we have a history of black municipalities that we created ourselves during the time of segregation, and we talk about them all time. We talk about the rosewood and the Black Wall Streets and the Wilmington North Carolina's and the idle wows and the sag harbors. And I'm saying to our community right now today, if we care so much about those communities and believe that that was a solution, why aren't we rebuilding these communities better, bigger, better than ever. Right now today, exactly. That's the question that the black achievement fund is answering. And we're saying that the only people that are going to do it us, and that's what we're doing, no government money, no foundation money, no corporate sponsorship. Everything that we've accomplished. We've accomplished strictly through this $9 a month per person, model,

Dave Washington 8:26
excellent, excellent. We got about two minutes. Why don't you how far is it from Atlanta?

Arkee Hodges 8:33
It is a short two hour drive from Atlanta. We are 30 minutes from Macon and 30 minutes from Milledgeville, which used to be the capital of Georgia.

Dave Washington 8:44
Okay, why don't you, in the short time that's left, why don't you give your website for those who may want to become members and or want to make a donation to what you're doing, because I think it's outstanding, awesome.

Arkee Hodges 8:56
We are very easy to find. Our website is da F dot solutions. There's no.com no.org or anything like that. Because when you come and research us, we want you to only think about solutions, because that's what we're all about. B, A, F dot solutions. That's how you reach us. If you want to know more about our new Kim, it community, if you're interested in investing, if you're interested in buying a lot, building a home, you can go to da F dot solutions slash new Kim it and that's spelled n, u, k, e, m, e, t, but all of our information is online, as well as live info sessions on our YouTube channel, the black achievement fund, and you'll see me running my mouth about how great this organization. Dozens and dozens of videos,

Dave Washington 9:50
excellent. We appreciate you coming back on the show to give some further indication of the movement of the black achievement fund. And it's exciting to hear. The things that are done by you, as I will, as you said, we're all working together because you can do nothing alone. So Mr. Aki Hodges, he is our president of the Black achievement fund. Thank you for your time. This is Veterans Affairs, plus on 91.5 jazz and more. Thanks a key.

Arkee Hodges 10:18
Thank you, Brother Washington. Anytime you Dave,

Dave Washington 10:26
once again, this is Veterans Affairs, plus on 91.5 jazz and more. I'm Dave Washington, your host, and we had Mr. Freddie Brooks and chief EB Eddie burns, two of my colleagues, Fire Service colleagues, also colleagues with the Carl Holmes executive development institute. They were on earlier. Now we have Miss Yolanda, pronounce your last name, darling Marion and her son, Kingston is a special guest on the show. So we're going to get started. And I thank Nathan armagon, my son in law, for the introduction, he told me, it'll be great for you to have a young lady that I'm aware of that kind of do a lot of stuff and kind of runs programming for the Boys and Girls Club. So Miss Yolanda, tell us our listening audience, if you will, a little bit about you. Where you from, how long and that kind

Yolanda Mationg 11:20
of thing, initially, from Southern California this I'm coming up on my 14th year here in Las Vegas. Kingston has been here since he was three months old. I am the Chief Development Officer at the Boys and Girls Clubs of Southern Nevada. So all things fundraising, grants, marketing. PR, I'm your girl. All right,

Dave Washington 11:40
cool. So where are you from, and how long here in Las Vegas again, coming up on 14 years, 14 years. And how long with the Boys and Girls Club, three years, three years, Chief Development Officer. So tell us a little bit about what that role is for them, sure.

Yolanda Mationg 11:57
So as a nonprofit, we get our funds through fundraising and grants, both which my department pulls in and works on. And so we have our sneaker ball gala coming up in September. We do three big fundraisers a year. And then in between that, it's, you know, reaching out grants that will support art, programming, education, programming, sports, really anything youth related. Okay,

Dave Washington 12:25
all right. So give us the main mission of the organization,

Yolanda Mationg 12:32
to enable all young people, especially those who need us most, reach their full potential in becoming productive, caring and responsible citizens? Oh, excellent.

Dave Washington 12:41
You know, there's a number of people, and I just don't recall off the top of my head, but there's been a number of people who are, now, you know, real popular folks that came through Boys and Girls Club. You remember any of them by chance? Mr.

Yolanda Mationg 12:54
Shaquille O'Neal himself, yes. Denzel Washington. Jennifer Lopez, Miss Sandra Douglas Morgan worked at Boys and Girls Club. Yes, we've had, we've had a lot of celebrities come through

Dave Washington 13:10
Excellent. So here I am thinking about it, but couldn't bring up a name Wes, but she had them all. So that's great. So I know I thought I saw something with Shaquille O'Neal doing something most recently with the club,

Yolanda Mationg 13:27
yes, so we are in the process of opening our 14th location, which you probably saw recently was we did the groundbreaking, and that location will be really special. So our traditional club service ages five to 18. That site is also going to have our traditional club space. It's going to have a full early childhood education, which will then be 24 months to pre K. And then we're also partnering with communities and schools, and they will handle programming 18 to 25 so when I think about that site, it's going to be 24 months all the way through 25 years old.

Dave Washington 14:08
Wow, that is excellent. In fact, I used to work with, I know, Miss Elaine, when God rest her soul and hope that he would be pleased with the work that she did here while on earth, she recruited me to be a member of that organization many, many years ago, just a good person and just so unassuming in terms of, you know, she don't walk around like, you know, I'm a millionaire, I'm a billionaire, and can you kiss my ring? No, very, very cool, calm, collected person and and just her humanity is will not be forgotten, not by Dave Washington and many others like her dear friend Poonam. Poonam and herb were really, really tight for sure. So tell me, or tell our listening audience again you're embarking upon where you say 18 to 25 will be to. Communities and school will run that park, correct? So at all locations, or how will

Yolanda Mationg 15:06
that be, the Shaquille O'Neal clubhouse will be our first site that will have communities and schools involved. All of our other locations is just, they stop at 18,

Dave Washington 15:18
okay, so I would imagine this may be a pilot that, if you do other that it could possibly depending upon, I would imagine success, that it could branch out,

Yolanda Mationg 15:29
yeah, what I would say about our organization is we're always, you know, there's 300,000 kids in Nevada, and I genuinely feel that not any one nonprofit can get all of the work done. I definitely believe in a village, and so if we all come together and we all, you know, put our expertise hats on, we're just able to service more kids and help the community in a bigger way. Absolutely.

Dave Washington 15:53
Kingston, hi, Kingston. Is her son. Kingston, tell us our listening audience a little bit about you. Where you go to school, what grade you're in.

Kingston 16:02
So I go to Christian private school, wlca, word of life, Christian Academy. And so it's kind of strange before I was in public, right? And my mom heard about, what if life, Christian Academy, right? Mom and you met Miss Elise. And I mean, I like my school, but at the same time, when I first went into it, they had, let me just say, the cafeteria was great all. That's all I pretty much. That's my favorite thing. They have great food and stuff. But, yeah, it was, it's a, it was a great first year. But I'm now, I'm going to be in seventh grade, going back into the school. Okay,

Yolanda Mationg 16:47
great. Spoken like a true boy that's turning 14. Oh yeah.

Dave Washington 16:52
Gotta have the food. Gotta have the absolutely, yeah, my daughter, uh, Angel. Well, all of our children have had boys and men. I'm telling you who the boys can they can grow and I'm talking about when, when, particularly Angel, our middle daughter, when the boys have friends over, she says she has to cook a lot of food because they can't eat. So what's your favorite subject in school? Probably

Kingston 17:17
history or science. Because last year in sixth grade, like towards the end, probably in the middle end, we did a dissection. I think it was between high school, they did a cult thing where they had sharks and we just had crawfish. But history, we do more stuff, more active stuff. We go to the field trips, and that's it, pretty much.

Dave Washington 17:46
Okay, great. Sounds like you got your head on right? So, Yolanda, what was it that? And I'm assuming you have some background in, you know, in growing an organization.

Yolanda Mationg 18:01
So my background is interesting. I my undergrads in business management. When I first moved out to Vegas, I was in private education, and then I got into hospitality as a front desk manager. Loved hospitality, but half the time thought I was on prank being at the front desk, and so started shadowing other departments, ended up in HR, and I did HR for seven to eight years. That's initially how I got into the Boys and Girls Clubs as their director of HR. And within the past year, a transition to the development role. And you know, it definitely I didn't think that I would end up in this role. It's been a really good time. I feel like before my mindset was in any business, if your employees are happy, your customer will be happy, right? So in our case, if the parents are if the kids are happy, parents will be happy. Everyone's happy. And so that was my focus from an HR perspective. Now, in my role, I'm all about building partnerships and getting those opportunities for our kids, you know, is it the Shaquille O'Neals that are coming in to spend time with the kids? Is it a metro officer? Is it, you know? I mean, there's so many different positions and partnerships that are out there, so I just love seeing kids when we take them places and they experience something for the first time, we just did fantasy football camp with Boyd, and they selected us as a participating organization. Ago, super cool. They closed it was they closed down the entire stadium. It was just our kids, our group 50 kids, get a private tour behind the house. They got to go into the press room. They got to see the actual Super Bowls be on the field. You know, while we were there, I just said most adults won't even have this experience, but when you see the spark and they're like, oh, there's this other job and this other thing. And so, yes, my, my getting into development was not a traditional path.

Dave Washington 20:07
So what has been the greatest challenge for you

Yolanda Mationg 20:10
during these times? You know, grant funding has been cut, and so really getting creative and and looking at funding and what's out there, and planning fundraisers businesses, right, are holding on to money kind of till the end of the year, and so trying to figure out, how do we not end up in the red, and how do we, you know, support the 1100 kids that we have a day and the families and not take anything away.

Dave Washington 20:39
Well, sounds like you got the right idea. So do you have a number of people within your area of responsibility? Or is it Yes? You

Yolanda Mationg 20:46
I have a yes. I have two directors, one over grants, one on the development side, two resource development assistants, and then a Grants assistant. So it's a team for sure.

Dave Washington 21:03
Nothing like we talked about that with the previous part of our show. These two fire service folks said, Hey, you get nowhere alone. And that's true. You gotta have a team,

Yolanda Mationg 21:16
absolutely. And I'm really thankful in our organization, I just say, especially here in Vegas, right? People can go down to the strip and, you know, definitely make more money, probably just in tips alone. And, you know, I'm really proud to say that our staff that are there, you know, our our children, yes, can be angels, but they can also bring challenges, and they can be trying. And so our staff show up every single day, right? They're the ones in the clubhouses. They're the ones that are spending 40 hours a week with with children, but to see their patients and to see their genuine care, and, you know, their excitement when a kid gets an A on a project, or, you know, a kid gets a scholarship. I mean, we're like, everyone's in tears,

Dave Washington 22:00
wonderful. Yeah. You know, when you see the success of young people, it does warm your heart. In fact, I've been involved with a number of programs that deal with young people, and it's always exciting to see that growth. You know, Kingston, we can't talk about price, but why don't you take advantage of this opportunity to tell people how they can get a holy I assume you have some means of people getting older. I know you got a fundraiser working. So if you want to talk about that a little bit without mentioning I know

Kingston 22:32
so me and some other people been talking about, let's say, a website, but we haven't been able to do a website because they won't let us right now, right? And we're taking the advantage of the Boys and Girls Clubs, page for you, page saying we have pictures, we have different stuff, so that way people know. But the thing is, it hasn't really been hard. It's more of the people that work with you, and it's the first day I've been there with everybody. It's just so fun. And you get to meet new people, meet people that you've already seen and just hang out, but everything that we sold, it's based on hard work and what you could do in your dream. So that's all I have to say. But thank you.

Dave Washington 23:33
Great, excellent. So Miss Yolanda, please tell our listening audience about what you guys have planned for future, because I imagine even in development, you have some kind of strategic plan overall to for growth purposes, even if it's not just necessarily another physical structure, but at least to grow the number of students that you take

Yolanda Mationg 23:56
care Sure. So through a grant about a year ago, we were able to bring on a position that focuses on recruitment and in just getting the word out. So you know, we're an over 60 year organization in Nevada, but I still feel like we have a lot of opportunity and sharing exactly what we do. And so we're before school, after school programming. When kids are out for winter break, we're open. When they're out for summer break, we're open. And it's about getting that message out there, and so the recruitment manager now is able to assist with that messaging. But we also recently just had our ribbon cutting ceremony. We've expanded into early childhood education, so our John C Kish clubhouse. Now I have early childhood there as well. And so we have our first two cohorts of early pre K that are there currently looking at expanding for a second and a third. And then we just completed our MOU with CCSD, which now will. Allow us to start providing services in middle school sites. And so while we own our own current 13, and that's how we started again, there's 300,000 kids that we need to get out to service. And so we're looking at, how do we utilize current space to do that, in the structure that's already there, where kids are, are there? Transportation is a is an issue, but if we're able to be there on site, it makes things a lot easier,

Dave Washington 25:26
absolutely. So tell our listening audience, you say that you have a means of dealing with early childhood development. I remember when I was on the United Way board of directors, that was one of the ones, one of the committees I selected to be on, because I thought, and still believe, it's very, very important to get young folks indoctrinated, to use that word, into learning and just being good people, being good stewards and the whole nine yards. So what is how many physical locations are they? Is that particular program at now the

Yolanda Mationg 26:04
early childhood. We just started at the John C kitsch clubhouse, and so that's our first early childhood. We're looking for a second location, but like I said, the shack site will definitely have full early childhood, because we also know that if you can get a child to fully like read by third grade, and they successfully graduate high school. They now have just broke out of their safety net, and we know that they will be successful and be able to get their first job and become productive citizens in society. And so what I love about all of our programming, and it starts, you know, with the little pre KERS, we believe youth development is done well, when the kids are running it, and the staff are just there to, you know, guardrail it. But an example I'll use is, you know, in the beginning of the day, they might say, Okay, guys, in the next hour, we're going to play, you know, a sports game, a physical game. I'm going to, I'm going to give you two options, and they'll say, You guys have five minutes pick the two options, pick who the team captains are, and pick what your tie breaker is going to be. And so very early, they're learning how to Team Build, how to be a leader in one area, follow in another area, and how to solve their own you know, issues, if they happen to arrive, which in Boys and Girls Club land usually, is rock paper scissors is how most issues are solved, but it works.

Dave Washington 27:22
Okay, excellent. We got about two and a half minutes. Got anything you want to say in closing,

Kingston 27:28
no, but I really think that the Boys and Girls Clubs really helped a lot of people. For example, when they went to DC, Brittany,

Yolanda Mationg 27:39
and I think three other people right? Yes, they just got back.

Kingston 27:43
They showed them how to organize for sure and do better as a leader, like you guys said. But what I really think that sparks about every single Boys and Girls Club is that an adult is there to help you when you need it, and they provide good services. So thank you.

Dave Washington 28:04
Great once again. This is Veterans Affairs, plus on 91.5 jazz and more. Miss Yolanda and her son, Kingston. Miss Yolanda, why don't you give some closing remarks? Please?

Yolanda Mationg 28:15
Thank you so much for having us and giving the opportunity just to share what Boys and Girls Clubs as Southern Nevada currently is, and what we're growing into, I would say that we I hear all the time how we've just never turned families away. And so I say, if you have kids and you're looking for that out of school time provider, I wish I would have known about it when he was younger, but happy I do now, because he's there all the time.

Dave Washington 28:41
So early childhood development, that's a new thing that you're embarking upon. And then the 18 to 25 also something you'll determine. Well, congratulations to you guys for seeking out the future and growing into the future, and I think it's going to be a great help to our students around this community. So with that, once again, this is Veterans Affairs, plus on 91.5 jazz and more. And I appreciate Miss Yolanda and her son Kingston coming in today. Thanks, Las Vegas, and we'll talk to you next week. Oh.

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All the smoke in the air till they hate when they stare all the pain that we bear.

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