Veteran's Affairs Plus W/ David L. Washington

Wesley Knight 0:00
This is a KU NV studios original program. You're listening to special programming sponsored by making moves, life coaching services. The content of this program does not reflect the views or opinions of 91.5 jazz and more the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, or the Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education. You

Music 0:35
you can see

Music 0:42
what's going on. Good

Dave Washington 0:49
day Las Vegas. Good day Las Vegas. This is Veterans Affairs, plus on 91.5 jazz and more. I'm Dave Washington, your host. Have a few announcements to make, and then we're going to bring on a wonderful, wonderful person, Dr Tiffany Tyler, she is a great person, very active in our community. So with that, just want to express condolences to those who have lost loved ones over the past few months and weeks and and certainly, our prayers are with you. And I want to talk about, once again, our loss of humanity, man, it's absolutely insane, and I certainly want to give special appreciation for the work and they lost their lives. Because I tell people all the time, firefighters are domestic warriors. So we had two firefighters that lose their lives, most recently up in Oregon, not Oregon. I'm sorry. Sorry, Oregon, Idaho, I can tell you that many, many years ago, when God rest his soul, I'm on one TV channel talking about and pointing at bullet holes in a fire engine, and God rest his soul once again. Doctor, well, not doctor, but Reverend Jesse Scott was on another one. Oh, people would never shoot at firefighters? Well, I'm pointing at a bullet hole, a couple of bullet holes in a fire engine. And this was over during the at the nucleus Plaza, during the unrest, during the Rodney King incident. And I can tell you that it's really sad that that people will take shots at people who are there to help. And that's unfortunate second circumstances, and once again, some way, somehow. And that's why I had on my last show last week, I had my my son in law's mom, who's from Cape Town, South Africa, Doreen armagon, to come on and just give a prayer for for our country, for our world, because we have lost our humanity. And as I mentioned several times, 20 project 2025, a couple of weeks ago, was a 40% complete in their study, moving through, making things happen, doing things that's hurting people and no one seems to care. But one thing Angela Dave said many, many years ago, not the exact quote, but if they come for me today, they'll come for you tomorrow. So as you can see, they got a lot of Mexican and other immigrants. They're moving them out. And guess who they're going after now they're going after Haitians. So we got to be careful, be watchful, and we need to be preparing for all the activities of the upcoming elections that will not only wait until the midterms, but there's some local elections that will be occurring, and we need to be looking at people who represent the interests of people. Y'all the people not go up there and just listen to lobbyists, because I, you know, I want to be a lobbyist. So when I saw what they did, I'm like, Oh, do I want to do this? But you know what, someone from our ethnic group needs to be professional lobbyists to ensure that we it's something I learned from Senator Neal. And of course, we had his daughter, Senator Neal, on Dina Neal last week, and she talked about, you know, he had taught me about the need to sometimes block bills. Bills get vetoed, but you got to always be in a fight if you're going to make things happen. And you should be representing the people, not just allowing lobbyists to come to you with a bill that they have written for you to just go rubber stamp. So we got to stay in the fight. Y'all with that. I'm going to mention a couple of birthdays real quick, and we had a number of them. This in the month of July. Deceased colleague, friend from camp, any town, Shannon, West, red wine. She's an ancestor, I said, but she was just a great young lady who did a lot for youth in our community. Terry Wheaton, birthday, my brother in law, William Jr. William JR. He's a fountain. He's named after his dad, who was an ancestor, but wanted to acknowledge that. And also Hayes Luke, his birthday this month. And then finally, Lonnie, first, her birthday was this month as well. Or so at this time, I want to invite. Again, a young lady that I spent a number of years serving on the Metropolitan multicultural committee with, and I was telling the assembly person how I watched how she'd operate. You know, I'm one of them kind of fiery guys. I go for the jugular, but she is so very diplomatic in her approach to addressing issues that have to be addressed. So with that, Dr Tyler, how you doing

Dr. Tiffany Tyler-Garner 5:26
good? Hello. I'm excited to be here.

Dave Washington 5:28
Absolutely. We're pleased to have you. Let me make one other quick announcement that I need to do, and then we're going to talk to you about who you are and how long you've been in Las Vegas. But I failed to mention that. And this attention to all firefighters. I'm gonna give you a number 86670826668667082666,

Dave Washington 5:51
and that's a Ben Crump. He's doing something, you know, we've had a lot of firefighters to include myself, to be diagnosed with various types of cancer. So Mr. Trump Crump is working on that. So you can give him a call and see if you can meet whatever criteria they have for that particular initiative. This deals with the a triple F, a triple F firefighting phone. All right, doc, tell us a little bit about yourself. Tell our listening audience, who and how long have you been in Las Vegas?

Dr. Tiffany Tyler-Garner 6:23
Awesome. Well, my name is Dr Tiffany Tyler Garner. I'm an educational psychologist by training, but a long standing committed advocate activist, according to some, but member of this community, championing the health and well being of individuals and families in our community. I originally hail from Tallulah, Louisiana, where I was born. What? Yeah, but we Yes, and relocated here in 2005 by way of California, and have now been here for two decades.

Dave Washington 7:04
Wow. Tallulah, that's where my wife, Marsha's from, and her her family to Lulu, and I'm right down the street going, going west, about 20 miles, uh, Dall high, Louisiana, yeah, yeah, yeah. Family moved out in 1954 I was three and a half. Had two other brothers. I'm in the middle. We had my older brother, Leon. We call him buddy and ancestor now, dada Clinton, Lee Washington, but yeah. And then he had four girls out here. So from Tallulah, Lord have mercy. So you know, and I mentioned you as a leader, and I know Wes who kind of helps me put everything together when this goes out to the world, little statements about folks that I had you down as a a nonprofit, excellent leader, but you do so much more in your discipline, again, in with your PhD, is what

Dr. Tiffany Tyler-Garner 7:59
my educational psychology, okay, with an emphasis on counselor education, the training of folks to be counselors, but also a focus on program evaluation. But I would say my my journey has really been about understanding myself and others so I can help and so a few degrees in either psychology or sociology along the way.

Dave Washington 8:25
Okay, excellent, excellent. So, you know, I know you worked for and I call her a good friend, and people say, oh, you know, you didn't know her like that, but I knew her well enough to say that she was a friend. And that's Elaine win. I met Elaine win back in 1984 where we both served on, I was a parent representative on the school district's Strategic Planning Committee. And one of the things that I brought up, and I used to call her landlord, because she'd come driving up in her Bentley or rose, whatever it was, but just, just a very, very regular type person. She didn't walk around, you know, because she got all this money. She just very approachable and just a very kind person. I know you did some work because I, I served on the committee too for a while for communities and schools. Talk to us a little

Dr. Tiffany Tyler-Garner 9:13
bit about Yes, see what, and a transformative leader in our community dedicated to ensuring that education was a true equalizer for all communities, not only a champion for equity, but also an accountability partner in terms of the reform needed and instrumental in bringing communities and Schools to our community. It's been around since the 70s. It is the nation's largest evidence based Dropout Prevention Program. And for me, was an opportunity, not only to pay it forward, but brought my life full circles, in some ways, being the nation's largest dropout prevention. Organization. When I moved here in 2005 it was to complete my doctorate degree, and my emphasis was actually dropout prevention is a former high school dropout. I wanted to understand the reasons why children leave school, and my reason was a result of an assault that happened in a parking lot of my summer job one year going into 11th grade, and thought, how many other children, if there were resources in schools, would be supported and so to happen upon that organization and then have the privilege of leading it as CEO, as someone who would later return to school and earn four degrees, was really an opportunity to give gratitude through service from the angels. They helped me along the way. I

Dave Washington 10:57
understand it. Excuse me. I understand and appreciate it. So very much. I got kicked out of school in my junior year, and I remember Dr cramp, Dr Brian cram, who ultimately became the superintendent. He told my mom, well, he don't want to go to school, and he has a job. I was a bus bar at Caesars Palace. They kicked me out. And, you know, my class graduated in June of 1970 I got my GED in October of 1970 because I said, Man, I got to get something. You know, I'm a black male without at least a high school equivalent. I got to get that. So I did. Got drafted, went to the army for a couple of years and and, you know, I got an associate's degree out of the community college. And believe it or not, I run a program, and this is my last year doing that down at Dillard University, and I'm going to enter a program, hopefully go ahead and finish my bachelor's, but outstanding work that you're doing and back to miss Elaine when we were up at up at Mount Charleston, in this retreat. And one of the things they said was, you know, they were debating about whether or not we should go 400% graduation of students in the Clark County School District. And I said, Wait a minute. I let them go back and forth and round and round. I'm like, I raised my hand. I said, Look, I got four children. If we don't go 400% which one of y'all gonna tell me to give up one of my children? I'm not willing to do right? I'm not willing to and as as as the old single you can hear a rat on you know what? They voted 100% and you know, we still aren't there. I think they're between 85 89% but the bottom line is, my question was, who goes to a test and say, you know, I just want to pass. No, you go in there with the idea of getting 100% if you may, fall somewhere in the middle, but I'm not giving up my children because we can't sit here and determine whether or not we should be going for 100% graduation. Yeah, that's our job as parents, as educators in this field. But anyway, you've done wonderful work, and you got such a great reputation in how you handle yourself, and I really appreciate being around you.

Dr. Tiffany Tyler-Garner 13:05
Just know that I have long admired and I'm so appreciative of your advocacy and leadership along the years, just even hearing how you frame this issue of dropout, I remember when I moved here with my sons, two young African American males in our community, and discovered that the graduation rate was as low as is 40 or 50% of folks that look like them. And I thought, God, how could you have me? And what am I to do here? So that's part of the work for me, even now we face challenging times. For a number of years now, the unemployment rate among young African American males 16 or 24 has been as high as 30% which is what it was during the Great Depression, right? And so there's much work to be done, but the fact that you would stand up and say, don't ask us to choose between our children. Let's get it right for everybody. It's so important. Absolutely.

Dave Washington 14:07
You know, I'm working on a program right now, and my daughter was been running around telling people I'm getting ready to start a school. No, not a school, but I'm going, it's going to be doing a week or weekends where I'm going to have a it's going to be a Africana Studies type of curriculum, because our boys, to me, and some girls as well, they don't know who they are, and as a result, they wind up in prison, because they only focus on having been slaves, and we're so much more. And I think that needs to be drilled and into the heads of young people in particular. And I, you know, not against any other race, because I don't, I don't believe in hating nobody. I ain't my energy is too important for me. At 74 years old, I ain't got time to be hating nobody. Shoot, I'm into loving folks and living life, living life. But doctor, so what you what are you doing right now? And I understand you got a book we need to hear about that, or I put. Public needs to hear about that while we still have time here. So

Dr. Tiffany Tyler-Garner 15:03
right now, I have the privilege of spearheading Workforce Development and Social Initiatives with the City of Las Vegas, and in my my free time if, if we could call it that, because I would say we would we pay rent to live here. So there's some work to be done, right? But in that time, I have wrote a book, particularly a book chronicling my journey last year, where instead of writing or committing to New Year's resolutions, I committed to doing a year of reflection, I have reached a place in my journey where I said, I keep my word to everybody else but myself when it comes to setting these new year's resolutions, it's time for me to figure out why and do something about it. And so you highlighted the importance of identity, and how if we're not grounded in one that accounts for our resilience and our the gifts and strengths we bring to the table, we can fall by the wayside. And so that was even one of the issues that came up in the book, the opportunity to unpack kind of who is Tiffany or Dr Tyler outside of any other hats I'm wearing, whether it's mother or or wife or community leader, who am I at my core and in ways that I define right, not what has been told to me about who I am or who my my people are. So I just, I love that you highlight the important role identity plays in our ability to have impact in our communities.

Dave Washington 16:36
Well, tell us how. How can people get a get copies of this book, because, as me and the assembly person, Tanya Flanagan, we were talking about, yeah, that's great idea to buy books as gifts. So, you know, we can't talk about the price on these airways, but we can certainly talk about where you can get that book, if you would.

Dr. Tiffany Tyler-Garner 16:59
Oh, awesome, awesome. And so there are few places. One, if you'd like an autographed copy, you can go to www, she rises studios.com that's www, she rises studios.com but if you just want to get your hands on it and get it on there quick, get your hands on it quickly, you can find it on all the major platforms, including Barnes and Noble, Walmart and Amazon.

Dave Washington 17:25
Oh, great, great. Well, that is, it's great that you did some focus, and that's something that I've got to do more of. And my family is always on me. You always thinking about and doing stuff for other people. What about yourself? Yeah, oh, my goodness. They have been riding me and they, you know, when you have family, it's such a good thing. And I go, I digress back to when I was first diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. I can tell you that when I went down to MB Anderson, I didn't want them to come. All four of the children showed up at different times, and I was so glad I had so much time to think about and appreciate them. So anyway, family is a good thing. So doc, any closing remarks?

Dr. Tiffany Tyler-Garner 18:09
One, thank you for all you have invested and done in our community, for your leadership and activism. I hope that others will heal your journey and hear the possibility for themselves. So to go from GED to leading in the powerful ways that you have and to still be putting work in is a testament to the possibilities. I also hope that others, whether it's the need to help our children identify their identity so that they can have impact, or the ways in which family is one of the first safety nets that we should be building and supporting and can be leveraged in times of challenge, or the ways in which your story affirms resilience, whether It's resilience and health or resilience through social challenges. Thank you. And I hope we can conclude by saying, next up, who is next to make sure this Work

Dave Washington 19:10
continues on. All right, great doc, once again, this is Veterans Affairs, plus on 91.5 jazz and more. Here the great Dr, Tiffany Tyler, I'm just so appreciative of your sister, and we'll get you back on the show. Thanks so much. Once

Dave Washington 19:29
again, Las Vegas, this is Veterans Affairs, plus son 91.5 jazz and more. And speaking of jazz, we got Jazzy Jeff Jones coming on the line here shortly. Once again, I want to say that it's important for us to to get back on top of our humanity. Y'all because we've lost it all the madness that's going on in the world, fighting skirmishes here, there and everywhere, and then we have some guy to shoot and kill some firefighters. Man, it's just ridiculous. We we've got to regain that. The our humanity. And I know brother Jeff Jones, outstanding young brother from our neighborhood who is doing some very fine work with an organization called core Jeff, give us a little bit of background on yourself. I know you've been on the show a couple times, particularly when we was over at 88 but tell the folks who you are, if you would.

"Jazzy" Jeff Jones 20:20
Oh yeah, yes, sir, how you doing, Chief? Thank you for having me for sure. So yeah, folks, I am Las Vegas, what I call near native. It means I'm not born here, but I was been here since I was three years old. So I think that qualifies me as near native right on. So I grew up here in the city of Las Vegas, and I'm a community guy. So I love my community, love the west side, love North Las Vegas, and I'm a person that is about about community. So my story is that I have worked with children and families for the last 35 plus years. They did a juvenile justice and also down in Grambling, Louisiana. I'm an HBCU graduate and also an Army veteran. That's something I'm very proud of. You know, after all the Army veterans out there, you

Dave Washington 21:10
know what? I forgot that you were a veteran. So yeah, what branch Did you serve in? What branch did you serve the army?

"Jazzy" Jeff Jones 21:15
The Army 76 Charlie, all right, at Fort Hood, Texas, yes, sir.

Dave Washington 21:23
I love it. Hey, I was supposed to go to Fort Hood to be trained in something called missile crewman, but they found out I had a marijuana possession just as I was turning 18. They said, No, you can't get up top secret clearance. And then, of course, when I left, top secret clearance was right in my jacket man. But you know, God worked it out that that I did get get out with an honorable discharge, even though I got court martial, and then five veterans points man helped me get on that Las Vegas Fire Department, for sure. So So Jeff, yeah, and I appreciate the words that you state with respect to community man, because our community is so important to us, and a guy with your leadership skills is important for for young people to see me, and particularly young brothers, they need to see strong brothers that are family oriented and also active within our community as you are

"Jazzy" Jeff Jones 22:13
absolutely, you know, it's a it's a blessing to be part of the community. I was a young man in this city looking for some direction and looking for some some leadership. And I didn't know where I wanted to to, what I wanted to do or what I wanted to be, but I knew that I wanted to be somebody. Back in the day, you folks used to tell you, grow up and be somebody that was that was something that was important to me, and I didn't have a pathway. And so that's why I do the work that I do with core. So core, for those that don't know, core is an after school leadership program for historically underserved youth, and we work primarily in the 89 106, and North Las Vegas. So we do everything we can possibly do to keep those scholars engaged in school, and we're right now. We're at Swansea Middle School and Findlay Middle School, and so we're doing everything we can do to impact that 38% absenteeism that we have here in the Clark County School District, because we know that education is empowerment, and we try to do everything we can do to to right that wrong, right?

Dave Washington 23:21
Well, one thing I remember, I knew of you, but and I knew you even better after me at the time, Councilman weekly, and Melvin, being an Ennis, we we had camp brotherhood, and I watch how you operate and dealt with and had gained so much respect with the youth that we had up at the camp, brother and camp sisterhood, man. So I'll never forget how you just kind of you brought them into your fold, or or they accepted you into their fold. But the bottom line is, your communication skills with them was, as they say, off the chain. I could because you could tell when, when young folks are listening and an adult has them fully engaged, and I watch you do that with great skill, young man,

"Jazzy" Jeff Jones 24:06
thank you. Thank you, Chief. I just want to make a difference. Man, you know, for me, you know, I had a hard time trying to figure it out, and so I want to make sure that I help as many people as I possibly can get on track and get figure out what their purpose is, because I found mine, and I worked at juvenile justice for almost 30 years, and what I found in doing that kind of work is it didn't feel like working till I left it looked back. That was a hard job, but it wasn't hard when I was doing it, because it was natural for me to just engage young people and their family and also educate them on resources and ways that they could actually change their lives.

Dave Washington 24:47
Yeah, that's something, man, when you when you see, don't the reason why I left the department after six years as fire chief, you know, just start to become stressful. You know, the attacks. But my wife, Marcia, would say, why? You want to rush back to work, I say, so we can make more money, we can travel, we can do this, and we can do that, but I enjoyed work. Man, I mean to me, when you're doing some things that's going to make a difference in the lives of others. I love that. And when you're doing that kind of stuff, man, it comes back to you, not just you're doing it for the purpose of getting any kind of, you know, award or what have you. And I know you've been given many, many awards for the work that you've done. And for me to you as a younger person, man, you are appreciated brother, and I appreciate your energy, because for young men, black men, men in general, but black young men in particular, to see a brother strong like you out there, living life, yet giving back, continue to work and do the things that are necessary to ensure that they see someone who's positively engaged with them in our community. Man, so I honor you, Brother, keep doing what you're doing now. Tell us about what you got going on. You got a fundraiser coming up. We can't talk about dollars on the show, but we can certainly talk about the date, time and how they can gain tickets for that particular function,

"Jazzy" Jeff Jones 26:02
absolutely. So, yeah, Chief. So I work with core, and core is having what we call a fundraiser. That means f u n, that'll be July 10. We call it jingle in July. And what we're doing is we're raising funds for the opportunity for our scholars to get ahead so all of the things that they need for their school year can be purchased, and they can get a head start on not just the school year, but also some of the fun things during the holiday season. And so we're doing that now. So we call it jingle in July, and it'll be held at the Beverly Theater, which is the only independent theater here in Las Vegas, and stated off facility, and it's owned by the Rogers Foundation. The Rogers Foundation is an anchor of core, and we are so appreciative of them and all the things that they do to keep core going. And so shout out to Rory Reid and Beverly Rogers for also sing enough, and seeing something in me, and allowing me to spearhead all the things that cord does. So that'll be July 10, at 6pm uh, it'll be a cool holiday attire, and there'll be some holiday spirits there with live quartet. And it'll be a auction for the ugly sweaters that our scholars, our scholars have have created ugly sweaters, and we're going to auction those off, but we also going to have a sudden auction of some things that are very valuable, and it's just going to be a fun night. So we're looking forward to it. And anybody that wants to To make a donation or talk to or, or get tickets. I think we just all just about sold out on the tickets. But if you want to make a donation, it is core we can.org core we can.org you just look for the donate button. Great.

Dave Washington 27:53
And let me say this about Mr. Jim Roger. I know God. I trust that God, I should say, was pleased with the work that that man did, because I remember when he had the parade of stars for historical black colleges, a fundraiser for them, and he stopped doing it. I say, Mr. Rogers, why aren't you continuing this? He said, Look, my problem, Dave Washington, is when people commit and he, you know, when people commit money and then don't give it. He said, that's, that's, that's disturbing to me. So I don't, I don't have time for this. And I said, Hey, I understand when people commit, they should follow through with their word, but yeah, he was a great guy and one who gave tremendously to our community. So Jeff man, we thank you, and we will do all we can to push what you're doing to include you, say the ticket sales about out now, but at least people can still donate to what you're doing. So we honor

"Jazzy" Jeff Jones 28:44
absolutely problem to have, because now we feel the room. Now it's time to fill the void. And so we want to fund the need, you know? So from the need is, is where we are now. We've already sold the room out just about, and so we're looking forward to cool holiday attire and a great night. All

Dave Washington 29:01
right. All right. Once again, this is Veterans Affairs, plus on 91.5 jazz and more. We just had a session with Mr. I should say, Mr. Jazzy. Jeff Jones of core, doing an outstanding job. Continue to great work, young man.

"Jazzy" Jeff Jones 29:16
Thank you, sir. Thank you for having me. For sure. You

Music 29:40
Oh, all the smoke in the air, feel the hate when they stare, all the pain that we bear.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai