Missouri Legislative Black Caucus

Transcription

[rapping] We are Nexus, Nexus, Nexus... [man speaking] My name is David Bryant and I'm the site coordinator here for our NEXUS of Excellence summer youth program. The NEXUS of Excellence is a 7-week initiative that serve teenagers from the ages of 13 to 18 years old that live within the Green Impact Zone. The NEXUS of Excellence program is built upon three major components. The first component is our curriculum. Each and every day we start with our family circle. Our family circle has become an instrumental part of our daily routine. We always start with our NEXUS affirmation and our students have the task of introducing themselves by their full name to increase their self awareness and also give them an impromptu speaking topic so that they can practice their public speaking skills. Our second component of our NEXUS program is the entrepreneurship. Hi, my name is...    The name of my Green business is Our Ways Clean Housing and Clean Opportuntities. My business is mainly about taking vacant houses in the Green Impact Zone and making them into new dream homes. My business is important to the Green Impact Zone and to me because it's taking vacant houses and putting poor people and people with low income or first home owners into the house of their dreams. I chose this business because to me I-I don't like to see people living on the streets. I think if I have a home, everybody else should have a home 'cause it's not fair. And the only reason we have those vacant houses is because people misuse their houses, set 'em on fire and everything. It's just not-it's just not what the world was meant to be. My name is Felix Maull and the name of my Green business is EcoMusic. The objective of my Green business is to educate the public on the importance of being eco-friendly. I think it's important to my community because if they don't know they're doing something wrong then how do you expect them to stop. My name is...    The name of my Green business is Chic Ecologic Boutique. The objective of my business is to provide eco-friendly products that are affordable to my community. The reason my business is significant to the community is because I would like them to realize that convenience stores aren't the only one businesses who care. The third component of our NEXUS program includes our exposure field trips. Hi, my name is...    I am a community Ombudsman with the Green Impact Zone. Today, we're at Camp Wildwood. We have been able to have a 7-week summer youth initiative in partnership with Metropolitan Community College. We have 18 youth between the ages of 13 to 18 that are housed at Pioneer College. And, this is their first time to come to a outdoor educational facility where they can learn team building and leadership skills. We have 14 youth with us. They will go on the high ropes course. They've been canoeing. They will learn about leadership, team work, communication, and strategy. And, really for us this was a excellent opportunity to talk to our kids about how to create a sustainable community. How, uh, do you need to live your life? To invest in your resources? This is what the Green Impact Zone is all about. Hey, my name is...    ...and my stay at Wildwood, so far, I have to say it's very adventurous. 'Cause me for one, I'm not big on camping and the whole forest type thing so it was something new. And it-it's fun actually, it's actually very fun. I wouldn't mind doing it two or three more times in my lifetime. But, the bugs is the biggest problem. I don't like bugs. Get bit up and everything. I got bit by almost every bug there is known to man. To me the Green Impact Zone is a great idea. If you start by seeing this one plastic bottle here and you make a difference by picking this bottle up and putting it in a blue bin, another man or woman shall see you and pick their bottles up, put it in their blue bin and so on and so forth, everybody's gonna do it. If you recycle, it helps the planet a whole lot. I mean going green is like the best thing to me. The Green Impact Zone has changed my perspective of how I think of nature and the environment like now when I'm at home and I see trash on the floor I'll pick it up. Or if my brother throws something on the ground, I make him pick it up because it's trying to teach us how to save the world and we should have started this a long time ago and we wouldn't be how we are now. What the Green Impact Zone means to me is it is an environmentally friendly program and it helps us protect the earth because now-a-days the earth is in danger and we should help the earth because, well, we're all killing it. And, the Green Impact Zone is telling us that we can amount to something and we can take better care of the earth. This is not your traditional youth program. There's so many programs that the-that are-that go on throughout the city. But, this camp is an educational camp that the young people have been, uh, learning about how to transform their community. And, we have impacted these young peoples' lives, one child at a time. It's a rewarding experience to be able to witness their transformation over a course of 7 weeks. When the young people have come to the program at first they- they-they weren't really sure about where they wanted to go in the future, how to actually transform their community. But through the help of our youth coordinators, David and Veronica, they have learned how to be change agents for their community. The NEXUS of excellence program would not have been possible without our community partners. And, first and foremost we must say thank you to MCC and their staff who have been remarkable the entire 7 weeks of this program. We have been able to house our students on the Pioneer community campus for the 7 weeks of this program and it's all because of the partnership that we have with MCC. And we must say, again, a big thank you to you all for making this possible. And in the mornings when it's time for the program they're actually calling me, "Ms. Maull can you come by and pick us up?" Or...now, we have bus passes for the students so with having bus passes for them they get on the bus and they come because they want to come because they want to learn because the NEXUS program, it's not like a traditional program. It's not like they're going to play basketball. It's not like they're going to play tennis or learn how to swim or anything like that. The NEXUS program is setting them up to be successful in the future and helping them to understand that they don't have to be a victim of their circumstances. I look at these students and I see how much they've grown, how much...they understand that, as I said before, they don't have to be a victim of their circumstances. They live in the zone. They see a lot of things that normal kids would not see. They see the prostitution. They see the vacant houses. They see the drugs. They see everything. When these students initially started, there was a couple students that didn't know which direction they wanted to go, as far as the future was concerned. But, I look at them now and I'm just so happy and I'm just so overjoyed that we were able to help them to realize and understand which direction they need to take. Uhm, these students, they're special. And, if we can do this with 16 students, can you imagine how many- how much we could do or what we could do with all the kids in the community? It goes back to the old saying, "It takes a village to raise a child". The community is the village. It's gonna take our community to make a difference in these kids lives because they are our future generation. [rapping] We are NEXUS, NEXUS, NEXUS. [instrumental music] We are NEXUS, NEXUS, NEXUS. [music playing] Next generation, we lettin' it out, power to serve with no doubt, exemplifying excellence, we don't act out. Using [inaudible] to find our route, sustaining the community because that's what it's about. Standing off point and I'm going to announce we are NEXUS and we're startin' to sprout, and we're startin' to sprout, and we're startin' to sprout. On behalf of my community I'm speaking up 'cause one voice can make a difference with a little love, just doin' what they do, everday it's not up, we all gotta pitch in to do even more stuff, think you got it now, well listen up my peers, I'm goin' to attempt to make all my points clear, this trash here is what appears to all the others that draw past and near, I wanna change that to be recognized as good, if we come together all the neighborhoods, we can revolutionize and be understood, get the zone lookin' though as the world should, we 'bout to bring up our worst from [inaudible] to be heard worldwide and not just known for these scenes from NEXUS I want to [inaudible] rehabilitate and let our earth regrow, next generation we lettin' it out, power to serve with no doubt, exemplifying excellence, we don't act out, using [inaudible] to find our route, sustaining the community 'cause that's what it's about, standing off point and I'm going to announce we are NEXUS and we're starting to sprout and we're starting to sprout and we're starting to sprout. NEXUS being started the contribution this program and the process is a resolution to stop all the waste and all the evolution, we gotta work hard no substitutions, I know we can help, what about you, better start now, you just choose to do the right thing, and you don't have to lose, after it's cleaned up it'll look brand new, into the N-E-X-U-S, we need to do something if you're tired of the mess, it doesn't make sense and this I can't stress, it's goin' be alright, well I can guess, I got the word out best I could, it's your choice to listen, I think you should, help me go farther to spread all the good, after hearing this the whole world would, next generation we lettin' it out and power to serve with no doubt, exemplifying excellence we don't act out, using [inaudible] to find our route to stay in the community 'cause that's what it's about, standing off point and I'm goin' to announce, we are NEXUS and we're startin' to sprout and we're startin' to sprout and we're startin' to sprout, take advantage of the situation, think what can I do to help the length of people doing great things in sync, it's imprinted forever like ink, you get a good feeling, you did your part, the world would be better if we all start, now don't you think that's smart. If you think that's hard let's hit it out of the ball park, well now since I gotcha all into my thoughts, I hope I got some attention caught, importance of being eco is what I taught, so are you in or are you not, start our team and build our way up 'til the earth's clean, enough's not enough, all it needs is compassion and love, the hearts of millions will be lifted above, next generation we lettin' it out, power to serve with no doubt, exemplifying excellence we don't act out, using [inaudible] to find our route to stay in the community 'cause that's what it's about, standing off point and I'm going to announce, we are NEXUS and we're startin' to sprout and we're startin' to sprout and we're startin' to sprout, we are NEXUS, we are NEXUS and we're startin' to sprout and we're startin' to sprout and we're startin' to sprout, we are...NEXUS, NEXUS, NEXUS, NEXUS.