Eso won books from a wonderful bookstore, and im thrilled they are featuring the book here. And im going to make some very brief remarks because i think the real people that should share their stories are the fathers that are the focus of this book. And i became part of this Extraordinary Group five years ago but it actually predated my presence here this was an Informal Group that was organized in the Watts Community by a group of men including Andre Christian to be speaking of the later on, johnny daly several other men in the communities thought it would be a good idea to try to involve some of the fathers in the community in trying to promote peace. They used to meet in picnic tables behind the jordan Downs Committee center and they would have barbecued and they would cut air and they would talk to the man about being fathers. How to be better fathers the have to be part of the family. This group grew into a more formal structure with funding from the Childrens Institute and it was really the work of a brilliant black psychologist, a man named who believed that for too long weve been talking about it the problems in black and brown families and we needed to take a focus on the strengths in families of color. And he believed that a major strength was in the fathers that this was the source of strength for families and for the community. And, finally aside from andre and the name behind the gym and Childrens Institute the Housing Authority of the seat of los angeles got into the act and they said we are redeveloping jordan downs. And we want to get people in the committee involved. And so all of these forces came together in the perfect storm to great project fatherhood. And all they needed was a social worker, or so they thought to help them with any issues. I was called in as a social worker but i serving to feel i sort of feel like a mother, you know whatever the menu, i am ready and happy to fulfill that role. I also discovered just as doctors we believed that there was tremendous strength in the committees, tremendous untapped strength in the community. The book talks about it and are incredible stories. Theres sadness, this thing. Eastman experienced death. These mint experience one of their members having to go back to prison but there was also great joy. It was the birth of a baby who is here now, baby boy, and baby boy james who we might hear a hello from a little later on. There were birds graduation, achievements and there was great, great joy. So i think what im going to do is im going to introduce one of the fathers is also going to sort of introduce himself and some other Group Members enter each, each could make a few remarks on what the group has done for them and what some of their experiences have been. Well take some questions and then we will even have a little bit of singing near the end of our program from of the Group Members. Was kind of an example of how much talent and how much thoughtfulness, and what great abilities this group demonstrates. Heres the last thing i want to say before i let you listen to the fathers voices because these are the most important voices for you to hear. This group got me something i think ive always known intrinsically, but now the evidence is in. Theres a lot of talk about what watts means and who can fulfill the needs of watts. Is a lot of talk about what marginalized communities need. People talk a lot without understand a single thing. And i would say the biggest lesson for project fatherhood is what has what watts needs . What has leadership . What has people within its community who have grown up in its Community Come to understand this community . They are the leaders we should be supporting. Watts does not need outside experts. Watts needs service. It needs people to lift up its leaders and lift up its strength i dont think watts is unusual. This is true of a lot of marginalized communities. They are not marginalized by the people within them. Their marginalized from the outside. This has got to stop and weve got to look at these leaders. Some of them are the men here today. Some of them are empty community right now. We have to look at them strengthen them, provide them with resources, and went to lift them up because they will bring about the changes we truly need. So without further ado im going to call a man on the as ksd that im going to let him introduce himself and it is one of the first Bobby Macwhinnie from. So if you give my colleague ksd the microphone, he will say a few words and it is somebody else who is talking. Thank you very much. [applause] im glad to be here to support you today. I have a friend of mine who i would like to come up. His name is will and is also a friend of mine. Easier to support ms. Lieb today. Is also an involved father said he wanted to say a few words and will give the microphone to try to come and i will have him say a few words. Spent a good afternoon everyone. Im truly touched and they will get this once i got to give on this to give on this to give on efforts to develop the coming up this morning. It to my good friend into my newfound friend, congratulations on your great book. Im so proud of this project. With my friend and all these little ones, this book has inspired me to come rent anymore and more in my kids life. I have an 11 year old and he is the it in the end just a start in my life. Im just truly blessed to be associated with the project and good friends and father. Among the of the ones that are sitting here come little man over there. I have to say through all the work the project as it has brought a lot of as a father 60 year old young man, with an 11 year old son i can just say this, this project has been such an inspiration. It has brought me a lot of inner light to me bring something semison and give him some opportunity that i didnt have is coming up in watts. I was there in the 60s, you know, and all through the rights and all that so i experienced a lot of racial bias. This project in this book im sure it is going to be one of the greatest books we were probably ever get a chance to read. I suggest everyone get this book are not just read it but study it. Again, i just want to thank my good friends for having me over here. Thank you very much. God bless you. Thank you very much. Happy fathers day. [applause] with that me im ksd. Project fatherhood. What project fatherhood has done for me is its allowed me to become a better person, not just a better father but a better person. And as a role model and a leader in the community what i do is to help the residents of jordan downs basically to speak for those who do not speak for themselves. So my job is to make sure that the police do what theyre supposed to do and not what they just want to do. And to make sure the residents have a fair stake in a whole different and thats what quasi fatherhood and others have done for me. With no further ado i will get the mic to her. [applause] thank you. Thats something i want to share. Initially project fatherhood was about these fathers and their children. But was quite striking is the fathers felt very strongly about building relationships with their children your also felt responsible for the children in the community. There are many children in the committee whose fathers are not around the fathers are the victims to be very blunt with you a new jim crow. Many of them are incarcerated. Many of them are incarcerated for long periods of time because of the mandatory minimums that were placed that unfairly targeted and affected communities of color. Michelle alexander certainly a great deal more eloquent than i am about the credit to prison pipeline, about the new jim crow, but one of the side effects of the new jim crow our children in the committee who are fatherless. And what happened with this group is a man like ksd like ronald like donald, some of the others will be meeting today, they step up. Tsd, im going to call you back. Maybe you could briefly explain just for a moment the youth impact sessions. Okay. So we do with the youth impact session is once a month we have all of the youngsters that they can gather within the Community Speaking of jordan Downs Housing project but we get all the young males in there. We have them come in then we talk to them but not only do we talk to them, we listen to them. So basically we like to find out whats going on within their lives and their household and their education standards and how they are being treated. So we actually listen to what their future entails right . So what it is that they would like to do and what type of programs that they would like to see come to the project. So we listen to them. Those that are like bad actors so to speak to we put them in like a little situation where everybody gets a turn to drill them for the bad things they have done. So we make them feel real bad while giving them good support at the same time. So that individual doesnt mess up anymore. So basically we stay on them. The fathers, we are fathers of the hood. I dont just get to be a father to your get mit. On a father to everybodys kid, right . Thats what we do with the impact session. We bring to an end. We listen to them. We scolded them if necessary, and we have a good time but thats a we do. We taken on trips and stuff like that too, but thats another service. But as far as the impact session go thats a we do at jordan downs project fatherhood for the youth. Once every month, and i will give the mic to dr. George a leap spent lets take a moment. Whos got questions . Weight. Im under strict orders. Forgive me. How were you targeted . How were you targeted as the person who would come in and work with the men in the community . Thats a great question. Or as i like to say whats a skinny middleaged white woman doing in the middle of watts with event of the community right . Its an honest question. I say this with all humility, that this is a communities that i belong to. And i belong to it not just an intellectual sense. I grew up in the westmont area of south first of all my grandparents immigrated from greece. They settled in South Los Angeles. My grandparents are all buried at inglewood cemetery. Every child in my child was born at sentinel hospital, and the adolescent i grew up in the westmont area. Even to this day my daughter who is here and shes sitting in the front row right here. She sort of been taken on the tour of where mom grew up. So part of it is i literally was born here. And i do remember the book opens with a scene where i am nine years old and were watching the watts riots a black and white tv. And michael cole was a history teacher at the time was explained to me that these were not riots. That these were about racism and economic dislocation to it wasnt even about Police Brutality, although there was plenty of that. It was about racism and that the Police Brutality was a symptom of that racism. Now, that is not the end of my store in watts. When i was working on my masters in social welfare at ucla ucla and all of their wisdom put me at a place called burbank Family Clinic in the valley where i was the darkest person there. And i was very rebellious and said no and they only had black students in watts and the land white students in burbank. And i said you were being racist. And so i got in trouble at ucla and theres a saying theres two tragedies in life. Wanting something and give me. And ucla decided they would give me what i wanted and they said okay you will put you in a year for a field placement at Martin Luther king, jr. Hospital. I think the father punishing me. I think its either going to shut me up. And what happened is i went as a very young, very green, very white msw student to Martin Luther king, jr. General hospital in 1978. Know, 1980. And it changed my life. And it changed my life for many reasons. I live in richmond. Ive rated the house with black. Not a Health Advocate a river i was a boarder border in the house with blackout because i believe in living in the community you serve. My great family went a little crazy when this happened, as you might imagine. Greek family. I fell in love with watts, with its strength the family, the people who were there. And later in my career i became engaged in studying the gang problem. That i did want to study it for my office at ucla. I wanted to study it in the community. But the way i believe you dont show up in the committee and to hide, im here to study gangs and i met a series of former gang members. One of them was a man who is not here today but the most people in the room know big mike. Michael cummings. And he was one of my guys guides. He and Andre Christian who will be here. I started to do communitybased research, and i got to know them them. And i think i stated in the book and ill say about. Com it was sort of like falling back in love with an old boyfriend, or an old girlfriend or whatever the case may be. And watts was just a place that matter to me in a profound way. So thats sort of the twisty path by which mike asked me to be the social worker. Ill be very candid with you. Cii has project fatherhood groups all over southern california. For jordan downs group is unique in several ways and one of the ways in which is unique is its the only group with a female coleader. Michael cummings and hundred and Willie Freeman to you will need in fact he becomes elementary. But thats how. Ordinarily it wouldnt happen. And i do say it with deep humility and its my deep privilege to belong to these men into this community. So so we have our cover person this is the gentleman whose wonderful face adorns the cover of the book along with his son. Because it was very important we didnt just want a standard cover. We wanted someone from our group. And by the way ever many photographs taken of many of the folk in that group. I wouldve probably had all of them on the cover or all of them in the book but my publisher made a decision about who they would put on the cover. And so congratulations mr. America. You are the cover. Weve been talking a little bit about project fatherhood im going to let you catch your breath. I will take one more question and then i will call you a. Because willie elementary freeman, but as we call them he is very integral to this book an integral to the story like the men featured meeting. And he has certainly been a teacher to me that im going to happen come up i want him to catch his breath first and want to ask who else has a question . Thank you. Quick question about the funding aspect of the it sounds like the group was organic and is already in progress and then funding was introduced at what was the funding for and to what extent did he change the group . This is a great question. So the group was organic but money ultimately came from Childrens Institute. And partial snippet and they have a federal grant. And they had a for your federal grant to fund all these different projects throughout southern california. So the money came from the federal government, im going to go on the record right now. Not just for watts but across all the project fatherhood programs. Its not nearly enough. Its not nearly enough money. Its enough money to pay a stipend to the leaders. Its enough money so that we can provide gift cards to the fathers for activities with her children, but it is run on a shoestring. There is not enough money in this program, and these are not words. I live by this. I cant believe, big mike has arrived come to i didnt think would be here. So the money can minimal amount of money has come from the federal government. However, no pun intended to im putting my money where my mouth is because all of the proceeds from the sale of this book will go to project fatherhood. And by the way, the grant runs out in october and there is no assurance that this grant will be renewed. So we are really in kind of a crunch time more than anything. Any other questions before im going to introduce a couple of folks who are critical that they take the mic to any other questions . Okay. What percentage of what was the percentage of fatherless children, children without fathers that were in prison or whatnot, when the project first started . And where is it today . How many children in jordan downs have fathers who are not with them for various reasons speak with ive been working with a couple of colleagues and ucla that have literally gone through both jordan downs, the jordan Downs Development as well as Nickerson Gardens and the imperial court, which are the two other developments at and then watts is not just a housing developer. Its surrounding community. And their estimate, this is their research is about to have done is over the past two years. And over the past two years from 2013 until 2015, twothirds of the children have fathers that are either in jail in prison or absent because of drug addiction. So is fully twothirds and is important to emphasize that it is jail and prison. Because nowadays in the state of california we have this movement where we are relocating a lot of folks are imprisoned back to the already overcrowded and brutal county jail. So i think its important to say that this is prison, this is jail. And then the other real scourge of watts which is drug addiction. It truly, truly is. And twothirds of up to twothirds of the children either way, black and brown had issued absentee fathers. Thats a great question. [inaudible] no, no. They want to take you. Thats why. Please forgive me. Whats the third Housing Project . Imperial court. And theres also hacienda spent i heard, used to work just across the street from jordan downs in southgate. Worked there for three years. Past there twice a big i heard a jordan downs is going to be torn down to is not is that a ruler or is that lack . That is at home of a rumor and effect. It is a fact that jordan downs is, an excellent question. And by the way, a really important question. Jordan sand is slated to be redeveloped. That is committed scheduled parts of it would be torn down and people would be relocated. So it wont just be completely demolished. They are already relocating the toxic soil. They determined that theres toxic soil from the factory that used to exist there. You know what that looks like. Heres the point where we have t