Veteran's Affairs Plus W/ David L. Washington

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Dave Washington 0:42
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Dave Washington 0:49
day, Las Vegas. Great day. This is Veterans Affairs, plus on 91.5 jazz and more. I'm Dave Washington, your host, and I am pleased to be back with you this week, and we have a guest that we had on last week, Roland, where he's going to be on the show again, talking about another program that he was involved in. But prior to that, let me make a couple announcements to include inviting and introducing a dear friend, a colleague, Chief Eddie burns. He's a retired fire and police chief, and we call him chief Eb, what's up? Eddie, hey, Dave, how's everything going? Everything's Well, man, I appreciate you. Oh, by the way, I must brother, where I must let you know he was in town for the cow, cow, cow. It's hard for me to say cowboys, but considering they won last night. He's he walked out the hotel, brother, where he walked out the hotel with his chest all out, I said, Boy, I wonder what would have happened if he had, they had lost last night. But anyway, please Dave, both of you here birthdays. We always try to recognize folks who have birthdays in the various months. And of course, this is the second half of November. We have Maria Meridia, burns, Letha Allen, Keisha Thomas, English, Chris G. We call it Chris G, I can't even pronounce, but she was a long time educator as well as elected official, both in the state legislature, as well as in our county commission. We appreciate the work that Chris did over the years. Diane Walker, longtime educator, good friend, and haven't seen her in a while, but she's a wonderful lady. Maurice King, child's birthday is this month as well. Long time community member and husband who was, believe it or not, a lot of people aren't aware of this, but will in the second waves of blacks to come on to Las Vegas Fire Department is Tish Harris, wife of Otis Harris, who came on Las Vegas, Las Vegas Fire Department, along with Larry Powell, who was an ancestor, but Larry and Otis joined in 1963 and prior to them, of course, was the late Monroe Williams and the late James Walker. So we are pleased with the work that those brothers did while here on Earth. And then finally, as far as birthdays, is della Francine Coleman, so happy birthday to those folks who are enjoying and celebrating birthdays this month. Man, condolences. I must once again talk about those condolences, because this one was a hard hitter for me, my best friend, Ray Allen Feaster passed away, and his services marsh and I have been in touch with his daughters, Regina and Anita, and they're getting that set for December 13 at Palm so we'll get further information out on that. But let me tell you something what a warrior he was, and I will miss this brother tremendously, but only God knows. But again, he was my best friend. So God bless you, Ray, and we hope that God was pleased with the work that you did while here on Earth. Other announcements, before we get to our our guests, we're going to do a book signing. I had mentioned November 8 that darla's Chef Washington's restaurant, that could change based upon the fact that we're doing a tree planting ceremony at my house for my deceased sister Kathy Richardson and Uncle Freddie Watkins. So that might change. It all depends. This weather has been kind of wild lately, of course. And then Thanksgiving. Let's all be thankful for for God giving us life and health on this earth. And again, let's celebrate, and let's celebrate well, but also think about those who don't have so it says it's a tough time of the year. If, if I can state that further and then finally, with the. Uh, my co host here today, Chief burns, we're going to talk a little bit about EDI, the Carl Holmes executive development institute, which we will celebrate 35 years of existence. So with that, brother ware, give, uh, and I know you've been on the show a couple times, but still, would you give our listening audience a little bit of background on you? Once again, this is Veterans Affairs, plus on 91.5 jazz and more, with a guest who's going to talk about one of the programs that he was recently involved with. Go ahead, Brother Where.

Ronald Ware 5:29
All right. Thank you. Good afternoon, gentlemen. I've had the pleasure of working and Veterans Treatment Court for about seven years, and the Veterans Treatment Court has been around for quite a while. I myself am an Army veteran, and I did four years active duty and six years in the reserves, and we connected with the Veterans Administration in 2011 in Palo Alto, California, and that's where I found out there were so many services available for active duty and veterans that no one was talking about if the change has formed veterans and individuals

Dave Washington 6:15
lives. So please tell us more about that particular program. Again, just just for further background, mentioned the one that we talked about last week, and then we'll go into the to the one that you used to be involved with, sure.

Ronald Ware 6:31
So the one I'm involved with now is called compensated work therapy, and just it's a program within the VA that allows veterans who are unemployed, who have been unemployed for quite some time, or may even find that the skill sets that they have are outdated, and they need to get back to getting some type of training so they can be employable, maybe in A new area, or maybe even the same area, the fastest program available where you can come in, if you've been primarily these individuals, most likely have had been affected, like most of us veterans, have some type of PTSD brain trauma, mental service connection issues. You don't have to be service connected to qualify. You could be 0% or you could be 100% doesn't matter. However, we find that there's two components. You have to get back to work, find out what skills, what area you want to work in. You'll be able to train you in that area for about five to five and a half months while you're doing it at the same time, you're also meeting with mental health and you're working on whatever issues that had you homeless or maybe for your PTSD. You can also see clinical social workers who can actually help you get back on track with maybe your meds, right, or maybe and stuff like that, right?

Dave Washington 7:59
Brother, where, go ahead and give the website for that. And then we'll roll into to the program that you're currently or recently worked with, if you would

Ronald Ware 8:07
sure that that website is va.gov and you hit the drop down for compensated work therapy that are known as the WT compensated work therapy. And within that you basically, you know, make an inquiry referral of Mr. James Edmonds at 3525 Cheyenne, and get you set up for screening and screening. There's a waiting list, like I said, there's a waiting list of many individuals who are waiting to the opportunity to get back to work. You can work in housekeeping. You can work in be a greeter at the hospital. You can is department. You can be where I'm at in emergency department, I'm a sanitation tech, sanitizing throughout the whole facility. And once you completed that five and a half months, then the goal is hopefully that either you got an offer from the VA or maybe you got from a private sector company in the community. Great.

Dave Washington 9:13
That's great information. Now tell us about the program that I find. And again, you were on the show a couple years ago, if I remember correctly, tell us a little bit about that program, because I think it's one is could be very helpful to many of our veterans out there.

Ronald Ware 9:30
So this program is very special to my heart. I actually graduated from this program myself getting into some legal issues in California, and I actually in the work with veterans court in 2018 and no any of these services were available. But what I quickly found out that there's a program that's called Veterans Treatment Court, and the key of Veterans Treatment Court is the treatment component. So Jim is a veteran or. Or civilian goes to court, and in that court, usually the judge or the clerk, someone's supposed to ask, by the way, are you a veteran? Okay? And if he is the veteran, they can raise their hand, and at that point, they can opt in for specialty court, which then gets, gets them to Veterans Treatment Court. And our courts are a little different. It's based on treatment, more more than punishment. So it's an 18 month program. Now it's rigorous, and you have to, you have to be committed right in the work, right? Okay, but, but if you were willing to do the 18 month program at the end of that time, all charges would be dismissed and your record would be sealed. Now it's important because we had active who that worked at Nellis, who were flight pilots. They got grounded during covid, maybe they had gotten a battery assault or covid, the number of domestic violence cases increase rationally, right? Okay, and people were getting grounded from TSA and also, and so in order to keep their jobs active duty, they had to come to this program all across the nations, and it's all across the nation. And if they complete the program, they can have their records once again dismissed. If they do the 18 months dismissed, and it says, Though nothing ever happened, get your life back back. Families reunited. I've seen people who said my son or daughter has been out there, you know, unfortunately addicted for all these years, and it's hopeless. And I've seen at the end of completing these programs where families have come back together. Come back together with us, getting back with your kids parents,

Dave Washington 11:45
that's wonderful, yeah, because families being, you know, broken apart by something that a person needs some treatment to get themselves corrected and straight. Do you have any idea of residual recidivism in terms of,

Ronald Ware 12:01
I would say if, if you do the work, I mean, I'll be honest with you, a lot of times people come in and they think they can play the system, right? I'll be honest, it's inevitable they try to, you know, a way, to find a way to go around, but once they commit to it, I would say that it's, I would say the recidivism rate is, I would say close to somewhere between. I would say 65 to 75% if they commit, right, okay, and, and what that consists of is basically weekly, they get tested, random drug tested, and if they're doing good, they're on the right track. They will advance from phase one through phase three, which allows them to not to have to come to court weekly. They can come monthly. But they will also talk with counseling and mental health about triggers and issues like that in a group setting. They may have some vocational education component and this collaborative case management between the judge, the DJO, the veterans, Justice Outreach, the DA there's various components involved that allow a case plan for the deputy Okay, Okay, excellent.

Dave Washington 13:24
We appreciate that. So in some closing remarks, unless chief, you got any question that you may have, Mr. Mr.

Speaker 2 13:31
Where, well, Mr. Words, first thing I would just like to say, thank you for your service and what you're doing for our veterans in the community. As a former police chief, I've been inside the courtroom with officers that have been struggling with addiction and, you know, some mental health issues. And this is a great program. I've seen it work in my line of work, and so hats off to you and what you're doing and keep good work.

Dave Washington 14:03
Thank you very much. All right, brother, where would you give is there a website for this group? As we close out,

Ronald Ware 14:09
sure, there's various different divisions. There's federal court or, depending on how great the charge is that the individual may have, but in my particular it's Municipal Court, dot Las Vegas, nevada.gov, okay, and we're out of municipal court, back down Bonneville, third and Department two,

Dave Washington 14:31
all right. Well, ladies and gentlemen, we just had brother Roland. We're on to talk about a program that deals with the was it called Veterans Treatment Court. All right. Well, thank you for your time, and we'll get you back on again to talk more about the other program, return involved. Appreciate you so much.

Ronald Ware 14:52
Thank you for the opportunity. You guys have a great day and stay dry.

Dave Washington 14:56
Yes, absolutely. This is Veterans Affairs, plus on 91 point. Five jazz and more. I'm going to go out and we will come back on the other side with Chief EB. We call him chief EB. We'll be back with you on the other side. Thanks a lot Las Vegas, and look forward to you hearing from Chief burns about some of the things we're doing with the Carl Holmes executive development institute. You once again, this is Veterans Affairs, plus on 91.5 jazz and more. I'm Dave Washington, your host, and I have chief Eb, Chief Eddie, burns out of Dallas, Texas, and you know, he's sitting up here with a cowboy outfit on. You know, he was in town for the game, so I asked him if he'd come and sit with me, and we talked about some of the things that we're doing with the Carl Holmes executive development institute. In fact, last weekend we were together in Oklahoma, Oklahoma City, under the leadership of our executive director, Miss Carla Holmes. EB, how's it going? It's going. Great. Great. Thanks for having me. For sure, tell us a little bit about what you think about how our retreat went, and then we'll talk a little bit about our 35 years of existence as a Carl Holmes executive development institute.

Eddie Burns 16:10
Well, our retreat was awesome. We got a lot of work done. A lot of times we go to conferences and different training and retreats, and doesn't seem like you get anything done. We actually were able to check a lot of items off of our strategic plan and our vision process. And so yes, it was excellent and well, run lot of great comments from all the board members and invited guests. So yes, we're on the right

Dave Washington 16:37
track. All right, right, right. You know one thing, idiot people, a couple folks always get on. Yeah? Annette, commissioner of Chicago Fire Department. She's always, why are you always giving people stuff? I say it's in my DNA. I can't hear it. I'm the son of Eugenia, Washington, white. She's always doing stuff for other folks. And I can tell you that I feel that that's so important. We recognize Joy. Joy was right there with Dr Holmes and Sherman. George Jefferson, outstanding individual who do it a lot with public education in the Oklahoma City Fire Department. We recognize her. We also recognize oh my goodness, Dave Brooks, who is a sidekick to Adrian Rutledge, our photographer. So, you know, it's just time to do that. In fact, one brother who did not show up, but I'll get his, his little certificate, not certificate, but a poem that my angel, that our daughter, Angel Washington, wrote, and that's Willie Williams. He has worked with Annette for a number of years, and he's always been a very calm, cool, collected individual. So he I did have something for him, but he wasn't able to be there for some reason or another. But bottom line, I think it's important for us to recognize folks and then Cynthia, oh, my name. My her last name goes blank on me. Cynthia. Cynthia. She always has been there for us when we, particularly, we do our worship service. And she's right there with with Brother Cassie and brother Adrian. And she can, not only can she she's a great speaker, but she also can, can sing a song, not sing, I'm sorry, she can sing. She can sing Yeti,

Eddie Burns 18:27
and she has the word. She can preach. Also, I think she's a minister.

Dave Washington 18:33
Also, that's right, outstanding individual. But anyway, so we recognize some folks as a part of our retreat, and then the final in terms of recognition, we recognize and gave them certificates, as we had inducted their dad. He's an ancestor. Now that's Sherman carthon, his daughters, fedona and Diane Doty. They were there to be recognized, and it got a little emotional for all of us, because their dad, Sherman, was an integral part of the Carl Holmes executive development institute. So once again, we're getting ready to celebrate 35 years. EB, yes,

Eddie Burns 19:15
sir. It doesn't seem like it's been 35 years, but over the last three centuries, the Carl Holmes Leadership Development Institute has been putting out a lot of great leaders in the fire service community. And man, I'm so proud to be associated with this organization. I do not believe there's any other organization out there that provides what we provide. And we do it out of our heart. We do it out of caring for others and everybody knows our model, the things that we believe in, all that I am I owe. We live eternally in the red. We actually demonstrate that by volunteering. Every year we take a week out of our busy schedules and. We get some of the best trainers, instructors, people to come in and pour back into the next generation of fire service leaders. So, like I said, I'm very proud of it. I can't think of any other organization where you can go get this type of leadership training, management training, you know, we even have certain type of technical training at the end of the day, it's we're modeling the behavior we want the future to look like they can see fire chiefs, deputy chiefs, assistant chiefs, captains, lieutenants, engineers, firefighters. We don't care if you this is your first year in the department, and you want to come and get that experience. Come on, because we all in the same class together. You get a chance to see and hear some of the best leaders in our fire service community.

Dave Washington 20:54
We appreciate the chief and along with Dr Kwame Cooper, Chief EB and Kwame, they run our curriculum section, and they make sure that we have top notch instructors, so people who are out there who want to be considered to instruct at the Carl Holmes executive development institute, you can go on our website and take a shot. But like I say, we want the we want the best because we we provide the best. And as Eddie mentioned, we we don't get paid. We go out there. We go there at Dillard University every year. For the love of those who are in this profession who want to do right by not only their colleagues, but by the people that they serve, I want to swing Eddie. If you would give us some background. Eddie was on the show a couple of months ago, he and Freddie Brooks, but we talked about something that Eddie is embarking upon, and it's a monumental task, but we know that God will give him the strength and energy that he needs to fulfill something that he's working on, give a little bit of background on that Eddie that you're doing.

Eddie Burns 22:03
Thank you. Chief Washington, the Lord, gave me a vision to create a public safety leadership academy that prepares the next generation of public safety professionals. When I came up with the idea, I was being, you know, just told, you know, you know, we our kids, don't see a lot of people of color in public safety, and we're missing out on a unique opportunity to plant seeds and to watch them grow. And so through much prayer, I'm starting what we call the Public Safety Leadership Academy. And the vision is, really, is about reaching out to the next generation, young men and women that want to be in law enforcement, fire, EMS. And what we're going to do, we're going to mentor, coach, train, and show them what it takes to be a public safety professional, and so some of the core values that we we have is, first of all, integrity, professionalism, respect, teamwork and community service, that we believe that these are essential for building a culture of excellence, accountability and compassion, and we want to make sure that that's what we're we're trying to give our, I don't want to call them cadets, but our participants, and so I'm looking forward to it. We're so close, so close, to start, you know, turning dirt and seeing the vision come to fruition. And so I'll leave you with this. We have five core things, and the vision came to me about leadership is is so important. Everything rises and falls with leadership, as we can see. You know, in today's world, yeah, but leadership development, character development, some people say character doesn't matter. It matters to me. It matters to true leaders. Yes, character matters. And then, after being in the schools and right now, I'm currently a high school teacher in health and science and teaching the EMT program. But I tell them all the time, integrity matters, your character matters. And I hear stories about people being bullied. I hear stories about gangs, and I hear stories about drugs. And so my initiatives were, you know what? Let's meet that head on. And I have retired and active law enforcement that are willing to come and and mentor and pour it into these young people, and then we just want to make sure that we're putting out the next generation and they understand integrity matters, character matters, community service. Matters. And, you know, treating people the way you know you want to be treated

Dave Washington 25:05
absolutely that's great stuff. I think you need something to anchor yourself in, and that's absolutely essential to the success of any organization. So hats off to you, Chief, because I think you're going to do just well and at some point in time, and I hope it's in short order that we, the chief, will put out something that I will certainly share on this program. We can't discuss dollars specifically on a show such as this, but we can certainly say, Hey, if you want to donate, here's the website. So all this stuff will be coming forward Las Vegas, because I know that we are giving community. And when you talk about somebody taking it upon himself to build an academy that's going to be helpful, because you want the right kind of people, one thing Eddie and I both know as former fire chiefs, you look for a certain character and integrity, as he's already mentioned, those, those core values that he just talked about, these things are essential to to the success of anyone, whether they're in public safety or not, these are important y'all so take, take heed to what he was saying. And I will say that with regard, once again, to the Carl Holmes executive development institute, we're going to be in good hands as I step aside. You're going to retirement from my leadership role as the president of that Institute. We're putting in the hands of capable retired fire chief, Eugene Campbell, and current Fire Commissioner of the Chicago Fire Department as the vice president. And of course, as I mentioned, Carla Holmes is our executive director. And a lot of people know that I wasn't so keen on using Executive Director again as title, because her dad had that title, but the board were right when they they actually appointed her to to the directorship, and I am pleased, because she's doing an outstanding job Las Vegas. We're going to do all we can to help you achieve as you continue to move down the line and bring in this program and facilities. He's putting he's putting together y'all a physical plant that ain't easy to do when you talk about building something because, like, we run the Carl homes executive development institute. We've been at FAMU, Florida and him University. We've been at Clark, Atlanta University, and 25 years, this year, this year coming up at Dillard University. So my point is, having a physical plant is a whole different animal. So we, we will be seeking God's blessing for you, Eddie, to do what you're doing, because it's going to be so important to our community. So with that, Las Vegas, I see my director engineer. Wes is looking around saying, you about out of time, dude, so shut up. Thank you. Wes for keeping us on point. Once again, this is Veterans Affairs plus on 91.5 Jazz and more. Talk to you next week. You

Music 28:20
her, all the smoke in the air, till the hate when they stare, all the pain that we bear.

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