WHAT WILL THE AUDIENCE LEARN?
People will learn how they can help to transform lives, families and communities
EPISODE SUMMARY:
About SJI: We know education is core to rehabilitation and ultimately to individual, family and community restoration. As educators and community leaders we have firsthand seen the transformative power of education. And we are transforming lives and the way things can be done.
About Kerry: Dr. Kerry Spooner is a professor, writer, founder and President of Sound Justice Initiative a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit that provides liberal arts courses in county jails and, through SJI’s Education Pathway Program, help court-involved people into post-secondary educational programs and high-skills vocational training. Dr. Spooner worked for the Suffolk County Department of Labor helping clients become financially self-sufficient. Before teaching in the jails, Dr. Spooner has years of experience assessing the barriers of those who are in conditions that put them at risk of poverty and incarceration and creating a pathway out.
Website: https://sound-justice.org/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/sound-justice-initiative/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SoundJustice
Tune in for this sensible conversation at TalkRadio.nyc or watch the Facebook Livestream by Clicking Here.
00:00:26.940 --> 00:00:33.050 Tommy DiMisa: I like to always start to show with saying, Little world, Your boy, the nonprofit sector
00:00:33.410 --> 00:00:38.610 Tommy DiMisa: connector, coming at you from the top of my house, you know, just below the roof,
00:00:39.150 --> 00:00:50.659 Tommy DiMisa: two flights up from the kitchen, as I like to say in the attic each every Friday strike out really, because each and every day i'm in the attic. But each and every Friday we do this specific show
00:00:50.820 --> 00:01:01.240 Tommy DiMisa: called Philanthropy, and focused for me. It's a mission. It's my mission. I am not a nonprofit organization, but my mission is to drive home
00:01:01.330 --> 00:01:08.399 Tommy DiMisa: the fact that nonprofits change our world in each every day each and every second of every minute of every hour, et cetera, et cetera,
00:01:08.980 --> 00:01:24.900 Tommy DiMisa: until there's some other solution for the perils and the challenges and the needs of this world until somebody else is stepping in. It's, my friends. It's my world. It's the non profit sector that is taking care of the work that needs to be done, whether it be
00:01:25.080 --> 00:01:29.409 Tommy DiMisa: feeding folks who need to be fed, the the the food pantry
00:01:29.490 --> 00:01:40.440 Tommy DiMisa: erez agmoni, whether it be working with into like individuals, with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Whether it be an education, which is it's really going to? We're at a kind of a crossroads where our conversation is going to go today one hundred and fifty,
00:01:40.580 --> 00:01:45.200 Tommy DiMisa: whether it's folks in the education space. But whether it's social justice,
00:01:45.630 --> 00:02:05.660 Tommy DiMisa: there is so many conversations that need to be had, and I just don't. I'll tell you doing the show once a week. Gang is really not going to work. It's not wink, Wank Hint, and there will be more to come on. What is this guy going to do next? That should be a show. What's he going to do next? Gang! What's he going to do? Look, i'm the nonprofit sector connector. This is my passion. This is my mission.
00:02:05.710 --> 00:02:10.919 Tommy DiMisa: I will even even just kind of Riff a little bit to get it started. I don't need
00:02:11.640 --> 00:02:26.540 Tommy DiMisa: my guest, Dr. Kerry Spooner. I don't meet Dr. Spooner if it wasn't for playing nonprofit sector connector ha How does that work? Well, let me tell you. How's that work to do? Hold on, Tommy, do you? Let me tell you. Here's how it works, because i'm not just talking to me. I'm talking to you all, too.
00:02:27.060 --> 00:02:37.929 Tommy DiMisa: About three weeks ago we did an event. You're on Long Island at Horse Ability campus. Soon you'll Westbury Very special organization to me. I'm a board member there. But before I was a board member
00:02:38.160 --> 00:02:55.690 Tommy DiMisa: my family, our family foundation. I shouldn't say my I mean my cousin Linda had passed away a number of years ago, when they had special needs, and the Lindy Loo foundation supports, organizations working in the special needs or the Id community, intellectual and developmental, disabled to the developmentally disabled for everybody.
00:02:56.710 --> 00:03:03.409 Tommy DiMisa: Horseability is a special place, but we found in an organization called a nonprofit resource, help, and at horse ability.
00:03:03.420 --> 00:03:20.760 Tommy DiMisa: Two three weeks ago we did an event, and that's how I meet Dr. Kerry Spooner from sound just this initiative. So that's the thing it's about getting out? It's about getting into the community. It's How do we collaborate? How do we work best together? How do we get to know each other? How do we get to see, hey?
00:03:20.860 --> 00:03:26.489 Tommy DiMisa: I'm having this challenge? How about a best practice? Where have you seen this challenge. Have you been up against this challenge?
00:03:26.800 --> 00:03:56.240 Tommy DiMisa: So i'm pretty hyped up today. I just came out of something. One of my children was uh given an award just this morning. So i'm running from the school, and like just the principal who's become a friend of mine, totally hooked me up because um he was like he knew I had I. I had this commitment to be here to do the show with Kerry, and we're with you all. And uh, my daughter got the award ahead of like at the beginning of the beginning of the ceremony, so I could be here in the attitude of the live Show you all, anyway. I tell you that to say this because we're going to be talking about education,
00:03:56.260 --> 00:04:00.050 Tommy DiMisa: but that award was for teamwork, and it was an award, and and
00:04:00.280 --> 00:04:02.200 Tommy DiMisa: the principal read a book
00:04:02.300 --> 00:04:08.630 Tommy DiMisa: about friendship that I recorded it on my phone like. Of course we do, but it because I want to go back and watch it.
00:04:09.930 --> 00:04:25.090 Tommy DiMisa: But the fact that these schools are building these tenets in in place they have these, these guide posts to to train these young people to really teach these young people, I think, is really going to set up where we're with some of what we're going to do today. So Dr. Sponer.
00:04:25.260 --> 00:04:26.960 Tommy DiMisa: Welcome to the show.
00:04:27.150 --> 00:04:45.010 Tommy DiMisa: Welcome virtually to my attic, You know I I find it's funny. I say this because I know people are watching, and know you're not really my attic, and then I realize some people are only listening, and they might think like everybody shows up in my eye. So I just. I got a kick out of that just when I was thinking about that the other night. But listen,
00:04:45.020 --> 00:04:55.870 Tommy DiMisa: i'm glad we connected I I don't know how you found out about the event and horse ability. I don't know if you're connected through us through the nonprofit resource. Hub. But just how are you this morning. Good morning.
00:04:55.910 --> 00:05:23.939 Dr. Kerry Spooner: Hi. I'm: Wonderful! How are you and I'm in my own kind of attic, are you? You have a lot of books around you. Yeah, yeah, I do. I like that. I like that. So I I Just how were you hooked into us initially? Was it? Did Did somebody reach out to you from the nonprofit resource. Hub, tell me a little bit about that. Yeah, Sound justice. Initiative is a partner, a nonprofit partner of the nonprofit resource hub and the nonprofit resource. Hub has been
00:05:23.950 --> 00:05:26.030 Dr. Kerry Spooner: very important to us.
00:05:26.070 --> 00:05:56.019 Tommy DiMisa: That's great news we love that I I mean. Let me just give a little plug, since it's not anything I'm really selling It's really something we're adding value. My firm, The Vanguard Insurance Agency, now rebranded as vanguard benefits uh and four of the firms founded the nonprofit resource. Hub. Yes, it's what's better than having the actual explanation in the name right? Like the nonprofit sector connector right? That kind of tells you what it's about. The nonprofit resource of it is just that is a resource with Webinars white papers uh, uh, uh, meet and greet networking type events. But it's really,
00:05:56.050 --> 00:06:23.849 Tommy DiMisa: but it's most. And and David Goldstein, one of our founders, who's Mr. Tilman Ball, and will always tell me, you know. Tell me. We're a trade organization, you know, less than networking organization, more a trade organization for the sector to really drive home value and the need for the sector. So we do have some somewhere over two hundred and twenty-five, or two hundred and fifty. Non-profit partners. So i'm glad you part of that. I'm glad you were at. What do you think of horseability before we get into? How Just tell me about horse ability. What do you think
00:06:23.880 --> 00:06:38.839 Dr. Kerry Spooner: it's a remarkable place uh the um, the the the possibilities for for our seem endless. Um! I I love that building uh that. They're they're working on on on redoing it. It looks. It looks
00:06:39.140 --> 00:06:54.060 Dr. Kerry Spooner: like um. It's been around for hundreds of years,
00:06:54.070 --> 00:07:18.449 Tommy DiMisa: and, as I understand it, it's the singer sewing Machine family estate is, I believe, the former state of that family. So you know, if you watch your your Tv, you'll see not that all West, we're necessarily on the north shore, but you'll see, like a lot of the old mansions, a lot of the robber barons of Long Island and stuff like that. You know your your great gas fee types, right? Which I I I would definitely that was a definitely in
00:07:18.520 --> 00:07:38.419 Tommy DiMisa: in history. That was where I should have been. Honestly, I do like all the technology we have right now, but that seems like a fun part of history to be in like the twenties, and maybe not depression stuff. But, like, you know the other side of it. Uh, but yeah, that that building you're referring to with the old stables for the family, and I will tell you the first time I met Katie Mcgowan out there. Adversability.
00:07:38.620 --> 00:07:57.810 Tommy DiMisa: I was the executive director and founder. You're about to celebrate your thirtieth anniversary of an organization where a young woman lent her her horse to a friend who was a therapist who had a client with cerebral palsy, and the rest is history, and that created an entire change. The trajectory of Katie Mcgowan's life
00:07:57.820 --> 00:08:27.810 Tommy DiMisa: and created horseability because she saw how this young person who Cp. Was able to positively react and interact with his horse, and how that person's life was changed and now countless thousands and thousands of lives have been affected by that and that's my people. That's non-profit right? That's that's the whole thing. What you're referring to. I just want to make one last. Put one last pin in it is that building when I first M. Katie she gave me a tour. We, Katy and I hang around, and it's one of these funny things, because it was like a half hour meeting that lasted three and a half hours. It was like the the meeting ended,
00:08:27.820 --> 00:08:43.579 Tommy DiMisa: and we're on the stoop saying goodbye, and we're still talking. You know those relationships. You know those ones. I know them. So that was so. That last thing i'll say they used to do a haunted house in the in the stables. I don't like being scared,
00:08:43.590 --> 00:08:50.090 Tommy DiMisa: so I didn't like I never. It was before my time, but I could you imagine that place because you walk through there and those
00:08:50.960 --> 00:09:06.750 Tommy DiMisa: There's a lot of potential for horror, yes, and potential for other things the possibility to not just not just to hold it out. So look, I want to. I want to dive into. If we could sort of your background, you know why,
00:09:07.130 --> 00:09:16.850 Tommy DiMisa: you know, I I think, in life, and i'm looking away. So I want to grab my notes. But I think in life there's these catalysts. There's these moments in time that happen to us. There's these things that
00:09:17.110 --> 00:09:25.190 Tommy DiMisa: that certainly either create an opportunity or present an opportunity for us to do something. You know I I was just um,
00:09:25.700 --> 00:09:43.649 Tommy DiMisa: you know I was I I was. So. We have an event on Tuesday night for for another show. I do here in the network all the professionals and animal lovers show, and I was doing a press release this morning, and for the compassion order which you have on Tuesday night here in Long Island, and I was doing a press release, and this woman, Regina Mendoza, who is one of our uh Honorees at night,
00:09:43.660 --> 00:09:59.130 Tommy DiMisa: learned about the tragedy of a kill shelter for dogs and out, and then subsequently she runs a nonprofit that she created because she sort of problem or challenge and wanted to address it. So i'd like to ask you a that question, Dr. Spooner.
00:09:59.140 --> 00:10:22.250 Tommy DiMisa: Take me through that. What was it for you? And And if you could list, weave in your background and things. But what was it for you that you know sound Just this initiative? I'm reading behind you education for transformation, reversing the pipeline which look, let's before you do this, let's break. Let's put some context here. Okay, this is for everybody. This is not a program that um,
00:10:22.260 --> 00:10:26.589 Tommy DiMisa: you know, assumes people know things. But this is one thing I'm going to just put out there for you.
00:10:27.670 --> 00:10:32.269 Tommy DiMisa: Strategic racism, like strategic um. Structural racism exists
00:10:33.510 --> 00:10:44.860 Tommy DiMisa: The way the prison system is set up is set up purposely on purpose, and if you'd want to debate me, I don't. I don't know. Call me, I guess, but this is like we have to have, like these certain fundamental things. Certain communities
00:10:44.870 --> 00:11:05.460 Tommy DiMisa: end up in the prison system more than other communities. Certain communities, Don't, have, let's say, the advantages, the education, the knowledge to to avoid certain situations and certain communities are targeted. I'm just going to say That's i'm going to put that out there, Dr. Spinner, if you have any disagreement with that, please school me on it, because that's what we're going to do. We are going to talk about school. But
00:11:06.340 --> 00:11:14.190 Tommy DiMisa: let's I'll just leave that out there for everybody to kind of settle with, and if that's if we could, if we could go from there. Dr.
00:11:14.270 --> 00:11:15.980 Dr. Kerry Spooner: Okay? Oh,
00:11:16.150 --> 00:11:21.990 Dr. Kerry Spooner: Tommy, you can call me Kerry, please.
00:11:22.830 --> 00:11:26.059 Dr. Kerry Spooner: You know, he, By the time
00:11:26.090 --> 00:11:33.319 Dr. Kerry Spooner: by the time somebody makes it to an adult correctional facility, right? A lot of things have already gone wrong,
00:11:33.390 --> 00:11:35.139 Dr. Kerry Spooner: right? We're at the other end
00:11:35.680 --> 00:11:43.320 Dr. Kerry Spooner: in in here is a an interesting statistic just for suffolk county. Is that
00:11:43.530 --> 00:11:46.280 Dr. Kerry Spooner: forty-six percent in March
00:11:46.400 --> 00:12:03.240 Dr. Kerry Spooner: of those who are incarcerated or African American.
00:12:03.390 --> 00:12:23.239 Tommy DiMisa: Hold on, Hold on, Let's play numbers. Yeah, Let's play numbers. Hold on everybody. What Kerry just said to me was eight point. Nine of the society is made up by African Americans. Forty-six percent of the people incarcerated as of March of two thousand and two, and Suffolk County are African American people,
00:12:23.250 --> 00:12:26.959 Tommy DiMisa: right? I'm. And should I assume large amount of African American men
00:12:33.450 --> 00:12:41.840 Dr. Kerry Spooner: that we have poor allocation of resources to schools is um the lack of equity uh in education,
00:12:42.270 --> 00:12:47.409 Dr. Kerry Spooner: and that's a a large part of the story.
00:12:47.420 --> 00:13:09.479 Tommy DiMisa: So yeah, so we we do. We'll take a break in a second here, because I don't want to set it up, because I just want you to go kind of full at it and tell us the story and things like that, because you know, as an educator as a professor, you know you have. You know this is not to education. Is your world right? So this is. This is, you know where you are, and coming from. I I would just kind of book in my morning the way it started
00:13:09.830 --> 00:13:36.950 Tommy DiMisa: where I live here in Nasa County to to go to the school to see the focus of of these these basic fundamental tenants. And maybe they're not so basic. But these fundamental ten is about teamwork and the new thing. Now, what it what the principals explaining in the book you read was about friendship like these. I'll just be real folks. Is that this stuff doesn't go on in in all communities, and it needs to be addressed, shout out to my friends at the book fairies. They're coming to me right now from the universe, and I feel like I might just hit my brain, and I gotta say it,
00:13:36.960 --> 00:13:56.009 Tommy DiMisa: Amy's as Lansky your vision, Eileen, to know your vision and leadership of that organization. I know, Carrie. You've met with them, and you've had some stuff going on with them in the past super special organization. I put three million books. Literacy against statistics. Literacy is critically important to growth, and and when you think of
00:13:56.170 --> 00:14:09.780 Tommy DiMisa: illiterate people, that's a lot of where the same things you seem. Challenges happen, but that goes to lower resource schools, lower resource communities, and on and on. I will tell you this. I I wasn't going to say this, but um
00:14:10.200 --> 00:14:13.450 Tommy DiMisa: i'm going to put this out there. I want to start a fund
00:14:13.540 --> 00:14:16.510 Tommy DiMisa: on Long Island around social justice.
00:14:16.520 --> 00:14:46.040 Tommy DiMisa: I haven't told really many people about it. Um, but I just did just now. So um! We don't have to talk about it today, Carrie, but I would love to talk about it over several cups of coffee one day. Absolutely good. Exactly. Very curious. What you want to do. I'm super curious what I want to do, too, but it's something I've been thinking about. I've been doing it for about six months and flesh and out. It's to me it's about having the right people in the room not to say that i'm necessarily have all the answers, because I have none of the answers, probably,
00:14:46.050 --> 00:15:09.480 Tommy DiMisa: but I know how to put people together who have the answers, and I want to be a part of that. So um, Anyway, we can. Maybe we'll talk about that during the show. Maybe we won't. I want. When we come back. I want you to take me through. You know your creation of this organization What you saw as a need. You know we I've thrown so many ideas at you already. It's probably at three hours show, and we only have another forty-five minutes. So when we come back, if we can go, there is that sound good care,
00:15:10.390 --> 00:15:11.860 Tommy DiMisa: All right. Let's do it.
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00:16:49.570 --> 00:17:00.850 www.TalkRadio.nyc: You're listening to talk radio, Nyc: uplift, educate and power.
00:17:00.910 --> 00:17:02.100 You
00:17:03.270 --> 00:17:04.440 You
00:17:23.410 --> 00:17:37.620 Tommy DiMisa: go through all this that I think so, everybody. I'm going to take singing lessons. I met a guy last week, maybe two weeks ago. They actually uh um! This is actually probably an organization. You should know, Kerry, but the organization is called post-war processing uh they
00:17:37.840 --> 00:18:07.829 Tommy DiMisa: awarded me last week not to be home all I appreciate the award, but I to I utilize that opportunity to bring a bunch of other nonprofit folks together uh in the room that night over at Russell's on the Bay. Uh my friend Bobby Brown, from young New Yorkers, Uh. Which is an incredible organization, I think you should know about, uh, where they do a restorative Arts diversion programs. I brought my friend Gamal Lewis, who's a court advocate with an organization called Avenue for Justice at the lower East side of New York City, and
00:18:07.840 --> 00:18:10.400 Tommy DiMisa: they also do work up in Harlem
00:18:10.410 --> 00:18:32.410 Tommy DiMisa: again, working with young people and advocating on behalf of these young people, and they have gotten into problems, and they have gotten into trouble. So you heard when you want to? When we went to Commercial i'm sure Carrier wasn't lost on you, uplift, educate, and in power. That is what this whole radio station is about. Shout out to Sam, Leave us in his vision on what we're doing here. Talk radio, dot Nyc: Alright, So here's what I want to do. So
00:18:32.590 --> 00:18:43.929 Tommy DiMisa: Dr. Schooner worked for some of the county department of labor helping clients come financially sufficient before teaching in the jails. Currently still a profession, a professor right at at Suffolk.
00:18:43.940 --> 00:19:02.490 Tommy DiMisa: So take us through that background. Take us through through that, and then let's get to. I've I've asked a question nine minutes ago, and the only reason you haven't been able to answer is because I got in the way the whole time, but they take that your your background stuff, and take that into what was in front of you, and and what you had to solve for.
00:19:03.490 --> 00:19:09.140 Dr. Kerry Spooner: Oh, thank you. So my background has everything to do with sound justice.
00:19:09.280 --> 00:19:27.110 Dr. Kerry Spooner: I started teaching um at two thousand and three at the local university in college. Um, and um designing courses that I think would speak to my students in the classroom working with text um that that they can identify with
00:19:27.120 --> 00:19:41.909 Dr. Kerry Spooner: um to offer you give them a chance to to build or or home critical thinking skills with it, so that they can confront um the problems that they face. One of that's personal, uh
00:19:41.990 --> 00:19:49.979 Dr. Kerry Spooner: or um. We problems in the communities, our communities, whether it's local um
00:19:50.190 --> 00:19:53.630 Dr. Kerry Spooner: um state national
00:19:53.660 --> 00:19:54.740 Dr. Kerry Spooner: um,
00:19:54.950 --> 00:20:05.370 Dr. Kerry Spooner: so that we can um have a chance to to to to work, to build a society that we want to build together. Um,
00:20:06.280 --> 00:20:15.799 Dr. Kerry Spooner: I I teach writing, and I teach literature. My background is pretty uh interdisciplinary. Um, my Phd. Is in English, but my background.
00:20:15.810 --> 00:20:31.349 Dr. Kerry Spooner: Um, I have a a double major in political science and and philosophy. Uh, is social theory. Uh um and um gender studies I um, And as an underground I was taking graduate courses in um
00:20:31.940 --> 00:20:46.790 Dr. Kerry Spooner: um political. You can economic um and um political economics and um. And then I went to Nyu and I studied it in just into disciplinary core um program. There. I was an interdisciplinary program there.
00:20:46.800 --> 00:21:10.449 Dr. Kerry Spooner: Um. And there I I I touched on literature really in any significant way for the first time. Uh and um studied psychoanalysis. You You might wonder what psychoanalysis has to do with literature. I I think it has to do everything with everything psychoanalysis, right? I mean It's it. I look. You know we have to figure out what we're thinking. I I look we
00:21:10.460 --> 00:21:27.850 Tommy DiMisa: I know we really don't know what this whole thing is inside this great matter, and how it works, you know. So certainly the rank and file don't know it. Maybe neuroscience is no more, but certainly no more. But I don't know that we figured this whole thing out. I feel like It's always evolving what we know about the brain and what we know, and and how then go in and analyze it? Right?
00:21:29.490 --> 00:21:40.610 Dr. Kerry Spooner: It is so. The the way the way I worked, or what I was looking at in psychoanalysis was specifically trauma. So trauma theory, and
00:21:40.640 --> 00:21:54.779 Dr. Kerry Spooner: in trauma, when one experience is trauma, it becomes, it's nearly impossible, very difficult to tell a story in a sequential narrative, right, but the beginning of middle and end. There are gaps in memory. There's confusion in time,
00:21:55.110 --> 00:22:10.469 Dr. Kerry Spooner: right? So when we're applying that to a storytelling, whether that's fictional or non fictional. Uh it. It uh is um significant in how we come to interpret the stories that are being told no stories. When you think in stories. I'm not just thinking about
00:22:10.680 --> 00:22:20.709 Dr. Kerry Spooner: yeah stories that you read in a book, right? But also also history. How it's history told right? Who's telling history? What is being missed, What's not being told?
00:22:20.830 --> 00:22:26.099 Dr. Kerry Spooner: Um. So all of this is a central part of my work. Um
00:22:26.310 --> 00:22:32.240 Dr. Kerry Spooner: culminating into really my dissertation uh which looked at Um,
00:22:40.880 --> 00:22:53.579 Tommy DiMisa: yeah, I mean No, I I mean, listen. You know, like isn't, that the search, though in in all honestly like we're which constantly I I mean, I find myself,
00:22:53.640 --> 00:23:12.550 Tommy DiMisa: you know I don't know if I put this out there on on here yet i'm really open today. Apparently. Um. You know I recently I found out that I have adhd which Um! It was one of these things like I was the last to know kind of situation, although I knew you know I knew. But now I've got this kind of you know this diagnosis that is sort of where
00:23:12.560 --> 00:23:40.309 Tommy DiMisa: little bit as badge of honor. And um, you know, because uh, it's true situation. It's real, and I say that because I bring it up because you talk about the search and the I, and the whole thing, and the meaning of all this, and it's I find myself constantly trying to search Youtube for me is a is a great place, I mean. There you go to the wrong places on Youtube. Certainly, you know, and and get caught up in other bad, you know um theory and whatnot. But there's so much things to learn there and like
00:23:40.710 --> 00:23:50.249 Tommy DiMisa: I find myself, if it's, you know. Dr. Joe Dispenser is a guy I like a lot, you know, neuroscientist, but it was, you know it was a chiropractor, basically meditated
00:23:50.260 --> 00:24:08.719 Tommy DiMisa: and was able to. We have his body get out of the way and let his body repair his spine. He was going to have to house uh his spinal fusion when he was hit by a car in a bicycle race, and he, you know the the brain. The mind has so much power, and the body can do so many things if we can,
00:24:08.730 --> 00:24:38.029 Tommy DiMisa: you know, get out of our own way, so to speak. You know there's so much there, and I mean, you know, recently went back to um Napoleon Hill, and thinking, grow rich, and and you know certainly there's so many of the classics that you can go back to is when we talk, and when I think in terms of like the mind and creating and things of that nature. But I tell you this the eighty-eight thing, because it's searching it's a constant i'm always looking and there's more things. And how many tabs can you actually have open on Google All i'm trying to find out how many
00:24:38.040 --> 00:24:51.099 Tommy DiMisa: tabs you could actually have open on Google because I think i'm close. But I don't know I don't know what the vital number is, but you know you just open another one, and then you open up a whole other like you put them in the tray the whole there's
00:24:51.230 --> 00:24:58.579 Tommy DiMisa: that's what's exciting to me, Carrie, about life is that there's so much opportunity to learn and find out about things so
00:24:58.910 --> 00:25:17.450 Tommy DiMisa: found out. You have a superpower then. Right? I think it's a superpower. I've been told it's a I've been told. I I work with the coach, and she says I have It's a beautiful brain. I have a beautiful brain, you know, and it's certainly. I think it is a superpower, I mean, and you know i'll sitting with a friend yesterday, and I was explaining to her, uh, you know, and I kind of.
00:25:17.460 --> 00:25:26.389 Tommy DiMisa: I give myself this opportunity. Now I have no credentials to to say what i'm about to say. I just want to say that So here's I have no credentials to say what i'm about to say.
00:25:26.400 --> 00:25:39.730 Tommy DiMisa: But when I, when I found out when I when I found out when somebody said, This is actually what you got. I was like. Well, now I get to say you got it, and you got it, and you got it. It's kind of like Oprah, once you get out and you get a car and you get a car. Now i'm like dude
00:25:40.010 --> 00:26:08.740 Tommy DiMisa: you got adhd man. Just that's what it is so like. I get it. It's not like a stamp of approval like there's no assessment. It's just me going. I see it. You got it, and that's the deal. But that is so, and it again. I have no clinical right to do that. Gay. It's just what I want to do, and that's I guess that's the freedom I get to just me how to do. But it is a beautiful brain, and it lets us be super creative. But there's certainly some challenges and and gaps out of it. I want to know, though, from when from the work you've done. Sorry I cut you off, please.
00:26:09.460 --> 00:26:10.890 No, I was just a
00:26:11.170 --> 00:26:19.010 Tommy DiMisa: yeah. Um. So when I when when you were, you know you talk about storytelling, which and and you talk about
00:26:19.590 --> 00:26:34.860 Tommy DiMisa: the community that you now serve. What was the I? I assume there was no like. I assume it was a process like anything else where you started to become more and more aware of the need for this. But it was there some. Aha moment. Um! When
00:26:34.870 --> 00:26:40.190 Tommy DiMisa: when you go. Oh, I actually have to get involved here like, What were you exposed to? What did you learn about?
00:26:40.880 --> 00:26:41.880 Dr. Kerry Spooner: Um?
00:26:43.650 --> 00:26:50.339 Dr. Kerry Spooner: So if I can back up for just a moment, and and and and and ping back off of your your
00:26:58.050 --> 00:26:59.510 Dr. Kerry Spooner: um. You,
00:26:59.560 --> 00:27:06.060 Dr. Kerry Spooner: you know one of the things I like to work with. Students on. Are their goals right?
00:27:06.160 --> 00:27:07.190 Dr. Kerry Spooner: Um
00:27:07.410 --> 00:27:08.740 Dr. Kerry Spooner: in in
00:27:08.860 --> 00:27:14.019 Dr. Kerry Spooner: and more I like working on on their goals is not because um!
00:27:14.070 --> 00:27:29.029 Dr. Kerry Spooner: There's this definite goal that they may know that they're going to achieve. We don't really know where we have goals. Sometimes they're chief. Sometimes they're not doesn't matter right if you have a goal. Sometimes what ends up happening is we think there's only one path to that Right right
00:27:29.040 --> 00:27:34.280 Dr. Kerry Spooner: is one path, and we've identified that path as one that many people have taken before.
00:27:34.470 --> 00:27:43.069 Dr. Kerry Spooner: Then we start. We start walking on that same path, and we realize there are barriers. Why, there are the barriers there. There hurdles for us for some right,
00:27:43.370 --> 00:27:57.979 Dr. Kerry Spooner: and and sometimes. Then, if you only believe there's that path, Then you think, okay, then, that that goal is not for me, right when it really is right, it really is, it just means. And and this is what I try to um
00:27:57.990 --> 00:28:09.330 Dr. Kerry Spooner: to to share with my students whether it is at the Community college, or whether it's my students who are incarcerated right? I try to share with them that there are multiple ways of achieving what you want to achieve
00:28:09.680 --> 00:28:18.450 Dr. Kerry Spooner: multiple ways. And you're gonna bump into a barrier. You're gonna bump into a barrier and You' to be creative. Huh? And be patient right um
00:28:18.690 --> 00:28:29.470 Dr. Kerry Spooner: and try to find a ways around that Sometimes, in order to get around that you need to get help to do that, most of us need help.
00:28:30.830 --> 00:28:36.420 Tommy DiMisa: Edison created the incandescent ball right. That's I just want to make sure I got that right. Um,
00:28:36.430 --> 00:28:55.350 Tommy DiMisa: I don't know if he really did, though I I just recently heard that maybe he didn't It was. He just was the first to patent it. I It's very possible. I'm not going to say I I can't. Well, for for for the anecdote. Let's just assume he did right ultimately. The the punchline is
00:28:55.390 --> 00:28:58.719 Tommy DiMisa: when he he tried ten thousand different ways. It didn't work,
00:28:58.930 --> 00:29:08.780 Tommy DiMisa: and those he just said, Well, those are just those weren't failures. He just found ten thousand ways that didn't work right? So let's just like the idea is, and
00:29:09.090 --> 00:29:20.120 Tommy DiMisa: you know there's so many things that we say like success leaves clues, or, you know, just follow someone else's shoes and things like that. But to your point it doesn't it's not always set up the same way.
00:29:20.750 --> 00:29:39.379 Dr. Kerry Spooner: No, it's not it's not. And then, when it doesn't work, then you you feel dejected right. You don't you don't feel that you you're worthy of that same achievement when when, in fact, when you stick with it and you get there in a different way. I would argue that the barriers that you had to go over
00:29:39.390 --> 00:29:58.690 Tommy DiMisa: make it you one, have achieved much, much more than that goal that um they did they secured.
00:29:58.830 --> 00:30:16.489 Tommy DiMisa: There's a guy called Gary v. Gary Vaynerchuk. I don't know if you're familiar with Gary V. Very popular in the media world, very popular social media, and some of the folks listen, probably know who he is, you know, and he he, uh and his family when he was very young. Um immigrated here from former Soviet Union. And
00:30:16.760 --> 00:30:23.850 Tommy DiMisa: you know I I just think there's certainly something not to say that every every immigrant that came to this country,
00:30:24.320 --> 00:30:39.539 Tommy DiMisa: you know, had had the grit and was super successful. But there's something about people who came to this country and versus those of us who were born in this country, and a different dynamic goes on right. You, you know. Have you seen that in your own work?
00:30:39.650 --> 00:30:44.439 Dr. Kerry Spooner: I have? Yes,
00:30:44.580 --> 00:30:47.289 and it. And it actually is enriching right.
00:30:48.590 --> 00:31:08.389 Tommy DiMisa: I think it is. I think it is enriching. I think it's inspiring. I think it's a but I I think it goes to the fact that to your point, like we're going to run into some roadblocks. We're going to need some support. We're going to need help to get through things, and it goes to a place where um I want we. We will take a quick break. I was going to push the break. Let's take a quick one, and then we come back. I Just so.
00:31:08.550 --> 00:31:26.459 Tommy DiMisa: You've established that there are multiple ways to get to a goal, and in working with your students, whether they be students who are matriculating, who are attending classes, or your students who are currently in in Suffolk County jails. Um! I want to talk that I want to, really. So we like to know about
00:31:26.640 --> 00:31:43.309 Tommy DiMisa: you the organization. And then really, let's get into programming what it looks like, too. So let's come back. Let's do that. Let's jump right in. I will do my best to be quiet and let you We'll be right back, philanthropy and focus Tommy D. And Dr. Kerry Spooner. The organization is sound justice, initiative, deal, and take us a break.
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00:33:42.280 --> 00:33:49.520 Tommy DiMisa: back philanthropy in focus. We're back. So the organization is sound justice, initiative, and the leader
00:33:49.530 --> 00:34:07.979 Tommy DiMisa: is Dr. Kerry spooner background in education. So I I was texting you to chat. I want to shout out Mick Collins, and shout out Marilyn ankles for checking in on Facebook Marilyn. I had an ankles on the show. I'm guessing that's the connection right there, Allen, from Stony Book from the theatre out there. So hello, Marilyn. Hello, Mick! Um
00:34:07.990 --> 00:34:18.969 Tommy DiMisa: Kerry T. Let's take us right back where we're. I I want to hear about what was the thing that really stood out for you that made this a thing that you had to do this, and then what it looks like each and every day the work you're doing
00:34:21.760 --> 00:34:34.259 Dr. Kerry Spooner: so in just in it. In addition to the educational background that you, you pointed out that I also worked with the Department of Labor, and what I did there is I I also assessed employability. What are the barriers, Um.
00:34:34.580 --> 00:34:41.610 Dr. Kerry Spooner: And it was difficult when when I I noticed that when we had people who are formally incarcerated to find employment
00:34:41.780 --> 00:34:42.879 Dr. Kerry Spooner: Um,
00:34:43.320 --> 00:34:51.660 Dr. Kerry Spooner: you know oftentimes that that that we weren't very, or I I may not have been successful. Um! And uh
00:34:51.889 --> 00:35:08.929 Dr. Kerry Spooner: and and while doing all of this, I had ended up starting my own company, called Iv. Writing scholar. It was an online tutoring company, and I, I, my clients, were came from everywhere, anywhere from Israel to Chicago, but I I I
00:35:08.940 --> 00:35:12.089 Dr. Kerry Spooner: but it. I wasn't passionate about it right? Um.
00:35:12.140 --> 00:35:14.000 Dr. Kerry Spooner: I wanted to. I wanted to help,
00:35:14.380 --> 00:35:20.190 Dr. Kerry Spooner: so when I finished my phd, I um. I started looking into maybe working
00:35:20.250 --> 00:35:40.659 Tommy DiMisa: in the in the jails at the time. I didn't know what the difference between a jail and a prison was. I don't know that everybody does. It's funny, because when I spoke to our friend Kelly and Sarini about having you on the show, you know, I think I may use word prison because she corrected me on that call and said, You know Kerry works in the jails, so can you do find that for people? Because I don't know that people know the difference
00:35:40.670 --> 00:35:51.099 Dr. Kerry Spooner: absolutely. So on on Long Island we don't have prisons we have. We have jails, county jails. Um, we have a, and we have a couple in um Suffolk
00:35:51.150 --> 00:35:58.980 Dr. Kerry Spooner: um. And so there's temporary facilities. That means people who are there are not there for usually longer than a year.
00:35:59.140 --> 00:36:01.770 Dr. Kerry Spooner: Um, and and usually much shorter
00:36:02.010 --> 00:36:13.479 Dr. Kerry Spooner: uh for prisons There they there for for many years. Um! And so when I started looking into working and in teaching um people who are incarcerated.
00:36:13.490 --> 00:36:32.769 Dr. Kerry Spooner: Um! I was looking to see what was going on in Suffolk County, and and I didn't qualify for teaching for both these, You know I, you know right um. I didn't have a a masters in education. Um, and I was trying to figure out a way to to maybe work in there, but I couldn't it wouldn't work. I just didn't. I didn't. I didn't have the qualification for it.
00:36:32.780 --> 00:36:49.719 Dr. Kerry Spooner: Um! And so I was trying to figure out Why, there must be some college in there, right? But I didn't. I didn't really find a college in there. Um! I had found that there were I Occasionally a a professor or two might come in and teach some classes um from another college. Um,
00:36:49.900 --> 00:37:04.169 Dr. Kerry Spooner: and i'm not sure where they are today. Um! But It's difficult to to, you know, to do this kind of work without institutional support. Um, you know, both from the the sheriff's office, which we enjoy his support
00:37:04.320 --> 00:37:17.739 Dr. Kerry Spooner: um, but also an institution that you're a part of right. So so what I couldn't so when I couldn't find anything, I I started preparing my own plan. Um. But before doing that I had to figure out,
00:37:18.260 --> 00:37:23.819 Dr. Kerry Spooner: you know what was the difference in? Why, aren't there um educational institutions
00:37:24.650 --> 00:37:42.509 Dr. Kerry Spooner: overall, you know, by and large in the jails you might find some here and there across the country. Um, but there's a reason right, because you what what makes us different from others is that but for universities and colleges that work in the prisons, they can teach a full semester
00:37:42.530 --> 00:38:03.110 Tommy DiMisa: right? And and the students that they have there can finish a degree often right so just to to just let me get it, because so I could see where, if I go now, we're going in a prison system. These folks are there going to be there for a longer time at least years, you know. People in a jail might be awaiting trial. So they're more
00:38:03.120 --> 00:38:10.790 Tommy DiMisa: transient. They may not be there. So to have a curriculum with like finite beginning and end becomes more challenging.
00:38:10.940 --> 00:38:30.710 Dr. Kerry Spooner: Yeah, absolutely absolutely. And so right. So for a a temporary correctional facility that would be much more challenging. And you don't know if somebody is going to be there for a month or two or three or four months. Um, and sometimes they don't know. Then there are people who are also in the county jails who are doing county time. So then they do know a release date, and that can be really helpful,
00:38:30.720 --> 00:38:38.020 Dr. Kerry Spooner: for for it's on a calendar again. It can fit into a calendar and a curriculum, and it makes sense, and there's a beginning and an end.
00:38:39.760 --> 00:38:49.390 Dr. Kerry Spooner: Um! And so. But even even though I it was a challenge, or or I when I first started uh writing the plan of um
00:38:49.430 --> 00:39:00.880 Dr. Kerry Spooner: um! I was studying what they were doing in the prisons, and I realized it's not going to work. Um, I can't do the same thing. So how do I take? You know what works there, and and apply it to sound justice?
00:39:01.370 --> 00:39:04.869 Dr. Kerry Spooner: And if some of it does right, some of it does but
00:39:04.890 --> 00:39:08.929 Dr. Kerry Spooner: overall you really have to start from scratch.
00:39:08.940 --> 00:39:28.840 Dr. Kerry Spooner: And so I I found in my research because I was trying to figure out What is this being done somewhere else? What has, what what are they doing? If it has been? What was the success, or what are they doing differently? So I found a a study by the Us. Department of Education, and then they were curious about it. It looks like It's same reason looking to get educational institutions into jail
00:39:28.850 --> 00:39:34.490 Dr. Kerry Spooner: and um they did a a kind of pilot Um, they give a a grant, and and and and those the
00:39:34.690 --> 00:39:49.069 Dr. Kerry Spooner: the challenges were pretty expected. Right? Um, they couldn't. It was an easy to have a full semester. Students will come in and going. Um. But also remember these: these is students who lives have just been upended right?
00:39:49.080 --> 00:39:58.129 Dr. Kerry Spooner: Right? They haven't been in prison for a few years. They they they just have gotten in there two months ago, Right? Their lives are offended. Um!
00:39:58.540 --> 00:40:08.529 Dr. Kerry Spooner: I um, maybe also um coming off of a drugs and alcohol. Um, maybe for the first time getting some um mental health. Um
00:40:08.560 --> 00:40:23.299 Dr. Kerry Spooner: uh help. Um! So there's a a lot going on there, so there are a couple of things we had to do differently, right, you know, in a classroom. Maybe a professor can be a little bit more dry, I guess. Right. Um, You're just teaching. That's what your job is. Um,
00:40:23.310 --> 00:40:31.539 Dr. Kerry Spooner: But that's not going to work in in a temporary facility. Right? You're going to need to have those instructors who are dynamic who are students centered.
00:40:31.650 --> 00:40:35.200 Dr. Kerry Spooner: We also need to have a curriculum. That's short, right short.
00:40:35.210 --> 00:40:59.049 Dr. Kerry Spooner: Right. You have modules. We work with modules. So, for example, right Now i'm teaching a course, and remember had jail. Um! It's called. Just think I teach this question in different ways. Um, almost every time I teach it. So I am, and it's okay. It's it's it's It's um. So this this this time i'm doing something a little bit more traditional. Um, but with but
00:40:59.060 --> 00:41:17.229 Dr. Kerry Spooner: fun. I hope. Um so. I'm I'm i'm teaching. I'm teaching my students how to. You know about the art of persuasion, right? Uh and in in making an argument. Um, now i'm I'm I'm teaching my students at such a community college the exact same stuff,
00:41:17.240 --> 00:41:33.899 Dr. Kerry Spooner: the exact same stuff. So i'm teaching them the same reading right, and we're doing the same. The same work now. I'm. Only taking a short part of this semester right, a a a module, and I'm. I'm teaching that in in this this school, in the in the in the jail.
00:41:33.910 --> 00:41:44.999 Dr. Kerry Spooner: Um, and they will, I I can say they were really excited to learn that i'm also teaching it, you know, the other day at at at Suffolk. Um, you know there there are. Um
00:41:45.170 --> 00:42:02.109 Dr. Kerry Spooner: was surprised when I I first got in there. Um about the in the interest, and as it grew when I when um over the past year um, you know, I had students that even at the beginning, who told me when they come into class that they formed, they formed a study group.
00:42:02.120 --> 00:42:21.540 Tommy DiMisa: He's again, not your students on campus, your students. So these young people, and they are young people, I mean, who are you? You're one of the ages of these people. They're college age, people, right you. I eighteen and eighteen. I have thirty year olds. Um
00:42:21.550 --> 00:42:32.709 Dr. Kerry Spooner: a, you know. A lot of a lot of my students might be in their thirties and twenties,
00:42:32.990 --> 00:42:52.430 Dr. Kerry Spooner: right? Right? So when when you can introduce even these skills, we just just this basic because I I also teach other courses. I I teach, of course on i'm all ears the ethics of listening right, and in in that course I um, you know we we read um a me to a Nietzsche text from um, and it's exciting.
00:42:52.440 --> 00:42:57.460 Dr. Kerry Spooner: Um and um. And so yeah, I was I was
00:42:57.750 --> 00:43:01.620 Dr. Kerry Spooner: I I I just. I was surprised um
00:43:01.630 --> 00:43:20.799 Dr. Kerry Spooner: to to see that that that was what they were interested in in learning. And when you, when you, when you provide that kind of um material right then it opens up their minds to other, to other ideas. And in the reason why that's such a big deal is because sometimes, and and especially in the population um,
00:43:20.810 --> 00:43:28.550 Dr. Kerry Spooner: that you might find in in the jails and prisons. Right. This, this, this disconnect is a disconnect right. Um, and
00:43:29.060 --> 00:43:40.210 Dr. Kerry Spooner: and and disconnect from other people. And it may be this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this this the cell sense of of alienation and isolation.
00:43:40.220 --> 00:43:59.260 Dr. Kerry Spooner: Uh! And but when you can read about other people and in their challenges as well. Then you think Oh, it's It's not just me. And look! They can get over that, too. I mean this is my big point. Is that Yes, there they might be incarcerated right now. But don't think for a second that you can't be running something in the future
00:43:59.270 --> 00:44:07.020 Tommy DiMisa: but what you just said there, you know I we We tend to take some of the show and break it up into little sound bytes. But I love what you just said there, because
00:44:08.040 --> 00:44:37.509 Tommy DiMisa: where you are now or where you were yesterday, it's not a representation of where you're going to be tomorrow. Six months, six years, sixty years from now, I mean. We all have this opportunity and some more opportunity to others, and it takes people like you, Dr. Spoon, or I know you told me, Clay Kerry, but when I get serious I want to call you Docs, but it takes people like you, doctor, to to lean into an opportunity, then create these things that we're not there, you know to be that I Yes, you're a professor. Yes, you're an academic, but I call you an entrepreneur
00:44:37.520 --> 00:44:46.230 Tommy DiMisa: because you saw an opportunity. It took some chances you did your research, and you're and you're delivering something in the world is a better place for that, and that's critically important. And
00:44:46.240 --> 00:45:07.810 Tommy DiMisa: um, I say, all the time that nonprofit leaders and their organizations change our world, but especially founders, you know. But it took some chances here, man, and that's just what it's really special. So how many lives will be changed over the next forty years, while this organization is this existing in fifty years and sixty years, right like That's how I see it in those kind of buckets and thousands,
00:45:07.820 --> 00:45:37.720 Tommy DiMisa: right, maybe tens of thousands. And that's that's just critically important. So um! When we come back, because we always run out of time on the show, we have one more segment. I want you to kind of leave it all out there because we are going to have another meeting because of what I shared with you earlier on about this fun that is like sharing space with other ideas in my head. But um! I want to talk to you. I want you to just tell us, and and kind of sell the dream for us to what? What can sound just this initiative be in the future? And how can we help who we need connection with, whether it be
00:45:37.730 --> 00:45:46.229 Tommy DiMisa: again Long Island man? This is our is our backyard. So who do you need to know. Who can we get you connected with? And what can we do for you? Does that sound good?
00:45:46.580 --> 00:45:53.820 Tommy DiMisa: Alright, i'll call you a kerry, too, alright, if That's what you want. All right. We'll be there. We have to be in focus,
00:45:56.330 --> 00:46:20.379 www.TalkRadio.nyc: everybody. It's Tommy Dean and nonprofit sector, Connecticut, coming at you from my adding each week here on talk radio that Nyc: I hosted program the land of main focus nonprofits in contact us each and every day, and it's my focus to help them amplify their message and tell their story. Listen. Each week at ten Am. Eastern stand in time until eleven Am. In some standard time. Right here on talk radio.
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00:47:45.410 --> 00:47:48.100 Tommy in.
00:47:48.610 --> 00:47:53.490 www.TalkRadio.nyc: I'd like you to do that, you know, before the show every Friday, and then
00:47:53.570 --> 00:48:15.440 Tommy DiMisa: finally your podcast platforms philanthropy in focus. I haven't done this in a while. Focus is spelled, Pho. C. Us. Because I grew up in the nineties, and I love alliteration. And you know philanthropy in focus. So um! And you know my Buddy Mate College would probably say to me, Yes, on Fridays Friday mornings, with a Ph. In front of that. But I would. This just in
00:48:15.450 --> 00:48:37.249 Tommy DiMisa: Dr. Spooner. This just didn't carry It just gives you. This is coming from Mick on Facebook. So Mick says Compromise Dr. Kerry. Yes, I like that. We'll go with that Dr. Kerry. So Dr. Kerry this just in from Mick Collins, checking in from the Gaithersburg area, and he's telling me Edison filed a patent for the electric lamp with a carbon filament that was in one thousand eight hundred and seventy-nine
00:48:37.260 --> 00:48:52.859 Tommy DiMisa: but in one thousand eight hundred and thirty-five. The first constant electric light was demonstrated. So we got some research to do on that not gonna We'll get back to you all on that, because Kerry and I have some stuff to go through about this organization. The organization is sound justice, initiative,
00:48:53.030 --> 00:49:05.719 Tommy DiMisa: Carrie. Tell us like when you, when you first went into the jails, and you had something to offer, tell us about that, and walk me through a day in the life, and then say, How? And then the question is, how can we help you? That's the question to you.
00:49:07.400 --> 00:49:17.790 Dr. Kerry Spooner: Okay. So there's a lot there, right? Yeah, You pointed out earlier that we I this We're just scratching the
00:49:17.800 --> 00:49:31.469 Tommy DiMisa: not only hours, but days. So if they you know what let's, let's say there for a second, we are just scratching the surface. So if somebody hears this program wants to connect with you, how do they do that? Besides going to sound dash justice, or what is that the best way to do it?
00:49:31.650 --> 00:49:48.449 Dr. Kerry Spooner: Go through there? Yeah, or they could um email me directly at Kerry at sound dash justice, dot org it's kerri um, Mick, I know you got that. Mick's gonna put it right on Facebook, so we'll get it out there. Everybody. Good day.
00:49:48.530 --> 00:50:08.100 Dr. Kerry Spooner: And so just I. I wanted to point out one of one of the factors that made going into the jail. So exciting for for me was that without knowing this at the beginning, when I first started this whole thing, that we had a chance of maybe breaking the cycle of incarceration sooner,
00:50:08.240 --> 00:50:24.719 Dr. Kerry Spooner: right, and saving it in that way. Even taxpayer money um and and um hopefully having a positive effect on on families and communities. Um in in, in, in, in in Suffolk County. And so this is a a an ex somewhat of a
00:50:24.730 --> 00:50:29.179 Dr. Kerry Spooner: a revolutionary idea, I think. Anyway, at least the way We' about it.
00:50:29.190 --> 00:50:47.640 Dr. Kerry Spooner: Um! So when I, when I first, when I, when I first went in, and in in some of the courses I teach it's not only liberal arts, but I supplement that with some employment courses too. So I I teach course on on, on landing and Job, on surviving the workplace. What in what are the ins and outs what you need to do. Um! What to expect.
00:50:48.000 --> 00:50:52.840 Dr. Kerry Spooner: But my goal is to is to get them on a pathway, so that they have a career.
00:50:53.060 --> 00:50:59.139 Dr. Kerry Spooner: Not not not simply a job. So when um when I go, when I
00:50:59.300 --> 00:51:05.119 Dr. Kerry Spooner: you know when i'm in there. Um I i'm in a classroom um, and it has the
00:51:05.130 --> 00:51:25.679 Dr. Kerry Spooner: a smart board, and in and we we use the technology. Um. So we give up. We give um examples. I use Youtube right. It's a great place to. I don't know how to do anything. I don't know how to you right right right, and so what we do. I hear them um the readings
00:51:25.690 --> 00:51:36.320 Dr. Kerry Spooner: um, I supply all of the material. Um, they don't they don't um pay for those um, and nothing is they pay for right. So this is this is all. Um
00:51:36.800 --> 00:51:54.089 Dr. Kerry Spooner: um non-cost for that or so is the organization taking care of that? Or do you get money from the county or from politicians. The organization takes care of that. Okay, The organization takes care of them. Yes, okay. So we we they'll get a um oftentimes a notebook.
00:51:54.100 --> 00:52:00.630 Dr. Kerry Spooner: Um the readings. They'll do the readings we do um. Even brain teasers
00:52:00.770 --> 00:52:16.320 Dr. Kerry Spooner: back up for a moment. Usually I start each class with a brain teaser or two. That's just to get the creative juices going. And not only that it has an effect of separating them, at least temporarily from their
00:52:16.340 --> 00:52:29.499 Dr. Kerry Spooner: um um, really into the space that an intellectual space in that classroom. And and they're engaging with one another, because, like the brain, teaches, force them to have to figure it out together. Um! So that takes a first. First,
00:52:29.580 --> 00:52:32.740 Dr. Kerry Spooner: you know ten minutes we do some of that um,
00:52:32.810 --> 00:52:41.069 Dr. Kerry Spooner: and that's that's pretty standard in in the courses that I teach in there. Um! And then, uh, we get into. We get into the material. Um,
00:52:41.080 --> 00:52:54.140 Dr. Kerry Spooner: you know they have a lot of questions, you know. One of the reasons why I like teaching in the community colleges is because the students are a little bit more raw. Right? They're gonna let you know when they don't when that something isn't working for the most part right? Or they might question you more.
00:52:54.150 --> 00:53:13.339 Dr. Kerry Spooner: We're maybe at a at a university. There a little bit, you know. They know the game a little bit better, maybe right. And then and then but in a jail it's even more so right because they will let you know right from the start what what is going on here. Then we're gonna break it down right? Um, and then we have stories. Then they have their stories right that.
00:53:13.350 --> 00:53:23.989 Dr. Kerry Spooner: And uh, especially when a lot of what i'm teaching is philosophy. It's my, it's my strength. It's it's what I do. Um. I taught recently the philosophy of the South.
00:53:24.080 --> 00:53:54.030 Dr. Kerry Spooner: I have another course that I haven't yet taught, called I Robot. Yes, similar to the um movie. I love that movie, not just because the main characters last name is also Spooner. By the way, I see that I see what you know right, but it also plays around with the deceptively simple concept of the self which by in in my philosophy of the Self, it's, it's really we're we're tracing the the the evolution of the I, the concept of the self. And then who is
00:53:54.040 --> 00:54:11.610 Dr. Kerry Spooner: who who is this? Um! And then what is my place in the world. Uh, and then also a philosophy of happiness. It It turns out we don't really know what that is to be chasing something when we don't even really know what it is. Yeah,
00:54:11.620 --> 00:54:33.160 Tommy DiMisa: And that's the same thing with the self, too. Uh, it's a slippery something. I would, I would ask you for any sort of recommendations. If you want to shout out now books or otherwise to to to kind of, you know, for I I am not. I did not, major in philosophy, but I I I would love. What do you have to like to break into study of self and things like that?
00:54:34.050 --> 00:54:49.209 Dr. Kerry Spooner: Um, Um. Well, you would start with with Plato, I mean, if you if you're looking at the beginning, you know Aristotle Descartes. That's some of the but then you're getting we can get into um.
00:54:49.220 --> 00:54:54.979 Dr. Kerry Spooner: The The more modern um ideas I what I end up doing is taking a turn into um
00:54:55.120 --> 00:55:03.650 Dr. Kerry Spooner: the post the post-modern thinking of the self, which is a a more, either in some philosophy of fractured
00:55:03.750 --> 00:55:31.089 Dr. Kerry Spooner: So right? But it's also, maybe multiple, depending on the the philosopher. So Yeah, you may be looking at a multiple or a fractured, or perhaps both, at the same time. Right? Yeah. So all those things, I believe I i'm looking at. I I kind of identify with all of them. There's something wrong with me. I'm I might need to make a phone call.
00:55:31.100 --> 00:56:00.109 Tommy DiMisa: So so if people want to learn more about the organization. There's one last question I want to know, but if they want to learn more sound, they have Justice Org, that is working in the Suffolk County jails. Uh really breaking this cycle of recidivism, really trying to avoid. You know, folks getting caught up in the system and getting back in the system. And how do we do that? But through education and empowerment? What else right? What else is there than to bring people up. Um! Who Who can we connect you with Carrie? Is there somebody out there you want to meet with? Is there somebody on the island you need to know
00:56:00.610 --> 00:56:15.730 Dr. Kerry Spooner: well. Um what i'm What i'm looking to do, Um uh, as an organization is is is is collaborate with other institutions um higher in institutions. Um, but other institutions and
00:56:15.830 --> 00:56:17.569 Dr. Kerry Spooner: organizations.
00:56:17.580 --> 00:56:38.030 Dr. Kerry Spooner: Um: also unions right for apprenticeship programs. Yeah, Again, you're taking them. Not only we get these folks educated, but we're going to get them somewhere to go afterwards, right? And i'm not looking for you know i'm looking what ideally it is. It is a program that i'm confident that when I enroll or help them enroll in and register for that at the end of it,
00:56:38.040 --> 00:56:40.359 Dr. Kerry Spooner: there's there's not a job
00:56:40.370 --> 00:57:10.340 Tommy DiMisa: about a career. It's not, and it's not, and it's not a minimum wage, Right? It's a living wage with benefits, one hundred percent. Yeah, Because now you're changing generations going forward. Me? That's right. That's what we need to do. Listen. This show is all about change. The show is all about bringing you all the impact. The leaders who are making the change. Dr. Kerry Spooner sound justice initiative. Leave us with one last thought. We got like thirty seconds. Yeah, Okay. So we're also having um a uh an event, a fundraiser in January. Please come to this um website
00:57:10.350 --> 00:57:16.700 Dr. Kerry Spooner: sound dash justice org um, you know, if you want to sponsor, you want to attend. Tell us about the events.
00:57:17.250 --> 00:57:22.209 Tommy DiMisa: It's a fundraiser. It's our it's actually our first fundraiser
00:57:22.220 --> 00:57:51.560 Tommy DiMisa: and um in in with the the the particulars are still being worked out. Yeah, So i'll share that when you you and I, if you need some support on that, let me know if you need me to help out on the committee for that event. I want to be a part of what you're doing. I appreciate your especially. I don't. I don't have a favorite child. I don't have a favorite nonprofit organization. I love everybody. But there's something about the work you're doing, changing the world and and fixing a problem
00:57:51.570 --> 00:58:11.229 Tommy DiMisa: in the system. Kerry: Thanks for being here. Thanks, everybody for checking in on Facebook. The show is philanthropy focus. We do it every single Friday morning. Live. And then you guys find it around in the world. Wherever it is. You'll be listed to be hundreds of years from now, and i'm no longer on this planet anymore, Carrie. It's a great day, all right. Make it a great week, and everybody
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