Growth & Grace

Wesley Knight 0:00
This is a KU NB studios original program. The following program is underwritten by Crawford management group and Chris glow and does not reflect the views or opinions of 91.5 Jaz and Moore the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, or the Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education

Music 0:18
even better than I was the last time, baby. We back and

Music 0:35
we back and we back and we back and we back and we back. And I was the last do better than I

Leaha Crawford 0:42
was the last time. Good morning Las Vegas. Wow. This is Leah Crawford, your host of growth and grace. Julian Rosado is not here with me this morning. Sentence, Peace, blessings and love out to my little cousin. Hope you are well. Um, today we have an amazing guest in the studio with us. We're going to talk about him and the program that he is a part of. Mr. Rick Austin, welcome to the show. I

Rick Austin 1:14
am so elated to be here. So thank you and I received that welcome.

Leaha Crawford 1:18
You received that welcome. All right, so first of all, before we get into what we came here to talk about, who is Rick Alston,

Rick Austin 1:24
who is Rick? Rick Austin is a servant. No, I'm also the direct I'm on the director's board for uplift foundation of Nevada.

Leaha Crawford 1:33
Okay, what else do you do? Who is Rick Austin? I also,

Rick Austin 1:37
by day, I work at Amazon. I'm a site leader of a site in North Las Vegas, so I lead about 600 folks. Well, that's a lot of people. Yeah, it's fun. It's fun. But I'm one of the smaller buildings, interestingly enough. Oh,

Leaha Crawford 1:51
okay, smaller 600 600 smaller 600 just change the goal, uplift foundation of Nevada, yes, let's uplift. Well, you're a member

Rick Austin 2:06
of the board. I'm a member of the board. I am a proud member of the best fraternity on the planet. Okay? The Give it to me. Fraternity Incorporated. But to speak about uplift. The origin began in about 1978 when we were doing really smaller things with the frontier Girl Scouts and handing out food baskets. And since then, in about 2002 we were we became official and recognized as the uplift foundation of Nevada, and since then, have done annual Scott college scholarships. Omega gents is a big part of our program where we mentor young boys in high school ages. Economic Summit and Student Leadership Conference is another huge event that we do every year in conjunction with the greatest sorority in the life. Okay, come on, Alpha Kappa. Alpha Sorority Incorporated

Leaha Crawford 3:14
theta theta omega chapter,

Rick Austin 3:16
yes, that's the plug. That's the plug. Talent hunts that we do by by and only by annually, as well as the much philanthropy you mentioned, I think we talked of a little earlier during the break about nations, nation Spelling Bee, Native Son spelling Native Son Spelling Bee, excuse me, as well as be con so,

Leaha Crawford 3:37
oh, wow. So y'all so you represent productive absolutely in this community. Absolutely productive in this community. I love it. So let's talk. Well, let's, let's start breaking it down, and we can. Let's go back into omega gents. Yes, Omega gents. Tell us a little bit more about omega what is it? Because school is about. School starts Monday. Absolutely Omega gents. So the

Rick Austin 3:58
Omega gents is our extension and our our outreach for fatherhood and mentoring within high schools and so we go out, we speak to parents. We do tutoring during that time with with the kids that participate. We kind of present a kind of a guideline for young men to follow everything from fiscal responsibility to to helping them with their studies, again, with tutoring and college preparation, whether it's going to be college or technical school for some some other youth, but we want to make sure that they are guided. We believe that one of the major reasons why we see some of the decline in the country in youth is because they are scared at the possibilities for the future, and so linking youth and. Specifically young boys with their gifts and talents and skills and abilities, and where that shows up and how that could show up in a professional way, helps give them more confidence for the future. So I

Leaha Crawford 5:13
want to say this, men leading future men. That's right, men leading future men. And that is the Omega gents. The Omega. Gents, absolutely. Let's talk about the other program that you talk I mean that that you have here. I mean, I think this one is one of my I won't do the Student Leadership Conference. We're gonna say, I'm not gonna go to the Student Leadership Conference, even though that's amazing. We're gonna bring that back for another day and really dig into that, because that's an annual event. Same first Saturday of December, we're going to come back and talk about that. But the youth and justice forum, because that's coming up

Rick Austin 5:49
right away, September 6, from about 9am to 2pm at advanced tech cat Tech Academy, we will run the youth and justice forum, and just to kind of give a little background on what that is, began in 2009 and it It's an event that takes a lot of collaboration, because I think to get the full picture, we have to have all levels and all voices at the table, right? So what we what we looked at, was the need to reduce the amount of youth that we see moving into and through the juvenile justice system. Last year alone, 2024, 7000 youth were either on probation or in detention centers, and that's something that we want to see reduced so partnerships, we're talking about Las Vegas Metro. PD, right, the N double, a, CP, Las Vegas chapter is involved.

Leaha Crawford 6:48
Shout outs to their president, yes, Clinton. Savoir, yes.

Rick Austin 6:53
And I love that brother. I'll say, yeah. I do the brothers of phi, beta, Sigma Fraternity, Incorporated, the local chapter here of omega, Psi Phi Incorporated, of course, we're involved, and we're really, really proud to have our state senator, District Four, Representative Dena Neal, being one of the major key players that help us bring this all together. And so you know what we do in that in that time that we spend with the youth, there is to really educate them, and through educating them and getting all of these players involved, some, some, some folks I forgot to mention, were law students and lawyers nice within our community that are also there that help youth to see law enforcement from all angles, right from a different angle, absolutely different angle. And so it starts with a 90 minute presentation where lawyers and law students will discuss the different different aspects of the law, and then we go into breakout sessions where we're discussing scenarios, specifically with the youth, with lawyers and law students and law enforcement officers present and giving those scenarios, and kind of walking you through that within that there is a lot of teaching that happens directly to the youth, but I think there's a lot of learning that happens with the adults back up, you know, with the adults as well. So it's a great that's a time of great insight. And so we're really proud that it's happening. It's rooted in in empirical data, we have studies coming out of Cambridge, Massachusetts, where we've seen that this type of education had an 84% reduction in the amount of youth that went into the system. And so that's what we're going for. That's what we want to get done. And again, that's September 6, 9am to 2pm at Advanced Tech Academy, and you can sign up at our website, uplift foundation of nevada.org

Leaha Crawford 9:08
uplift foundation of nevada.org What I always say, Everybody asks Siri, everything else. So just ask Siri, or ask, you know, just ask uplift foundation Nevada of Nevada, of nevada.org, basically get more information about the event and sign up if they're, you know, with youth. So get more information. Get involved. And this that that's huge, because if they're seeing the impact, and if you start planning the seeds now, now you've been doing this since you said to since 2009

Rick Austin 9:43
since 2009 we've had this youth and justice forum, yeah, and it's, it's amazing. The what's most amazing, I think, is the youth that come back and attest to the effectiveness of just learning. Learning this information. And so I think something that we need to herald more in the community, and so that we can see more more folks come

Leaha Crawford 10:10
out, more folks, more folks. Okay, I love it. I love it. So I want to circle back to omega gents. Now, do the Omega gents participate as well in this?

Rick Austin 10:19
Absolutely, we do get omega gents involved. And we do, we have a new, you know, cohort of gents almost every year, okay? And so some are returning, I say almost because some are returning, right? And and others, others add on. So we're real proud of that as well. But yes, Omega gents, just as they participate in the economic summit, they also participate in youth and justice

Leaha Crawford 10:49
forum, youth and justice forum, and that is again, let's get that date, September,

Rick Austin 10:54
September 6, 9am to 2pm at the advanced Tech Academy ATAC

Leaha Crawford 10:59
advanced Career Technical No, what

Rick Austin 11:04
is it? Advanced Technical Academy. And it is on the website as well. Okay,

Leaha Crawford 11:08
on the website. Got it. Got it. So Rick, you being involved in this? Has it impacted your life?

Rick Austin 11:18
I will say it's, it's helped me to go back because I have sons. I have a 30 year old son, and I have a 24 year old son, and they're very much still finding their way. I'm a grandfather as a result of my 30 year old son, but

Leaha Crawford 11:37
Grandpa, I am the grays. Don't lie, I haven't been blessed. I have not been

Leaha Crawford 11:44
blessed to have grandchildren.

Rick Austin 11:46
Well, you got the Wisdom, then that's one of the two, right? But no forums like like the youth and justice forum have even made me go back. And I know my sons aren't, aren't super young anymore, but it's made me, it's made me go back and redress some of the things and some of the topics that come out within the forum with my own sons, and make sure and reaffirm that they're still good. I think sometimes, as as they transition into adulthood, we have the propensity of thinking that, Oh, they're good now we're like, hands off now, no, it, there is still parenting that happens with with young adults. Go figure,

Leaha Crawford 12:28
go figure, even though they might not like to admit it, but that, but that phone call probably means a lot and support, and

Rick Austin 12:36
then juxtapose to the climate of our country right now, right without getting too political, I just want to, just want to make sure that, make sure that they're all right and that they're understanding how they need to govern themselves. And

Leaha Crawford 12:47
that's a consistent conversation. It really is. It's a consistent conversation, but it can be a healthy conversation. It can a health it should be a healthy conversation. It

Rick Austin 12:57
can it all can also can be a frustrating one, as they see in their lives, that maybe the progress that we think we have gotten and earned and done and is not as

Leaha Crawford 13:12
but do you say okay, and I try to lead with hope? Well, you lead with hope and lead and because I would also think too, it's a chance to be creative, yeah, maybe the first time we did it, maybe this time we do something a little bit different, a little bit different. Let's switch it up a little bit. Yes, and, and maybe some things have to be broken, yeah, in order for them to be fixed Absolutely. So, you know, everybody talk about the system, the system's broken. I'm like, Okay, well, define that. Tell me define that. Tell me how is it broken, but more importantly, give me some ideas on how

Rick Austin 13:47
to fix it. And I think probably one of the most tell, because I'm still learning, right? Yeah, and, and I literally just learned through, through a group that I became associated with here in Las Vegas last year called Leadership Las Vegas on government day. I literally was 48 years old when I learned that really, our local government doesn't behave as the on as it does on the national scale, and that there's a lot of goodness. There's a lot of hope that we can make and so what I took from that is that if we can just focus locally, what do, what you do, what you can use, what you have start, where you are,

Leaha Crawford 14:35
right? Say that. No, no, no, slow down. No, that's huge. Slow down and say that again.

Rick Austin 14:42
So I'll say, do what you can use, what you have start where you are, hmm, and

Leaha Crawford 14:50
we say it another, politics are local. Absolutely. Politics are local, if you impact your front door, you know. And then that impact can grow if everybody. Body is, you know, if we're all working towards the same goal,

Rick Austin 15:02
it increases confidence, because we get local wins, and we see the results here locally. And, you know, as the great Barack Obama said, you know, one man, one voice, could change a room, one room can change it. I forget that he extracted it out. He says it much better than me. He's a brilliant expositor,

Leaha Crawford 15:25
right? But so, but basically, one step at a time, absolutely right, you know? And I take a baby grandfather, right? Absolutely so for baby, first comes. Baby can lay down. It's all about the baby can do that's right. Then the baby possibly can look around and maybe, maybe wrote, start to roll over, then you go from rolling over to sitting up, absolutely no sitting up to, you know, crawling and know, their steps to this. And the more you do, the more you can have an impact. Yeah, absolutely. But start somewhere. But start where you are.

Rick Austin 15:55
We do not have to spend our wheels being in desperation or being down about what's happening at the large scale when we can affect what's happening here at the local scale. I

Leaha Crawford 16:07
got it. Okay, yeah. My name is Leah Crawford. You are listening to growth and grace. And today I have Mr. Rick Austin here with me representing uplift foundation of Nevada. And I want to tell you this organization does amazing work here in the community, and it's still grassroots. There are there on the ground, impacting lives. Dave, have been impacting students lives now for almost three decades, in ensuring, you know, it's college scholarships, spelling bees, being involved in Be kind, the graduation, doing the Student Leadership Conference, and really being impactful in everything, just trying to impact the community in which they live. And what I love is continuity, because it's always somebody else that jumps right in at the helm.

Rick Austin 17:00
I mean, honestly, Lee, I'm leaving the program today and going to do Q cuts now. Registration is closed, okay? But he cuts we've been doing since 1987 and it's, it's, it's very it's really a program that affects about 150 to 200 students a year, male students, and we get them haircuts. We partner with local barber shops to get them haircut fresh and ready for school. We have grown to handing out backpacks along with that and school supplies, and it's something that we do right before every fall begin beginning

Leaha Crawford 17:42
of school, getting school year. Yeah. Okay, so cue cuts, all right. So why had to bring you back on so we can get that because I'm sure those slots fill up quickly. They do. They fill up quickly. Well, okay, so cue cuts, all right. Well, okay. Well, that was okay. I like cue cuts. So what else are you? What else are you gentlemen doing?

Rick Austin 18:03
Yes. So we partner with aka sorority as well for 20 pearls giveaway during our holiday season, as well as omega cloths, which is where we go out and get a bunch of toys and give away toys to the community as well. We have scholarship luncheon that happens once a year, every year that was early June, and this year, we gave away $37,000 to about 10 different recipients, one of which very excited, our first Yale University enroller. So we're just just excited about all this great work, and we just need to get more folks involved and make it bigger each year so that we can continue to reach more families in the Vegas

Leaha Crawford 18:59
valley. Reach more. Reach more. Families have an impact on the families. Now, let me ask, and I guess we can say this for a later date, to stick a pin in this one, I would love to hear the stories of some of the lives that you've impacted absolutely as the uplift Foundation, because you do amazing work. Another event, I think we talked about it briefly, off air, though. Haha, there's a HBCU football game coming up. Oh, you are doing an event around that football game. You want to talk a little bit about

Rick Austin 19:33
that event we we are, we are taking advantage of the event that's coming to town, where we have Jackson State playing Grambling here at Allegiant stadium, proud to be a part of of that event as as well. We're there is a a party that we used to annually throw right around October, the later part of October. But we've kind of. That back to line up with this fabulous weekend where so many HBCUs will likely descend upon Las Vegas, and we wanted to have something available for them to have a great time. It has traditionally been called the wine soiree, and for those of you that remember the Omega wine soiree, however, we're doing it bigger and better, and there will be more to come in.

Leaha Crawford 20:31
So it's so funny because one of your brothers, his birthday is October 13, and shouts out to Mr. Ken Evans. And I used to advise, like, yeah, y'all just throwing Ken a birthday party. That's Kenny. Ken's my favorite. Yeah, Ken is can definitely, and I've watched his impact on this community, and being a being, and being a gentleman of omega sci fi, and just being able to move and do things strategically that help the youth, because he understand the youth are our future. Yes, they are tomorrow. So let's back. Let's back up, because we only have a couple in a couple minutes left. Okay, let's talk about the youth and justice forum against people that might or might they're they're just tuning in. Give me the date again.

Rick Austin 21:11
So yeah, that date is September 6, uh, 9am to 2pm at Advanced Tech Academy. And you can reach out and go to our website, uplift foundation of nevada.org, and get all of the information on that. There's QR codes there where you can sign your children up so that you can come out, and they come out and be a part of this event that basically educates them and helps them to better understand law enforcement within our communities, and maybe some of their insights too will help law enforcement to kind of better understand them. And so whenever we can get that dialog going between lawyers and law enforcement and our youth, I think it's going to be a good thing. Yep.

Leaha Crawford 21:57
And then the other thing is, children, when you come speak up, yeah, say something absolutely, tell them how you feel, because they can't, don't, don't, let them guess. This is your chance to have your voice heard, instead of the adults telling you, no, this is how we feel.

Rick Austin 22:13
It's a two way dialog. Yes, okay,

Leaha Crawford 22:15
okay, yeah, but, but I know a lot of times when we had these forums, a lot the children don't get to have input. Yeah, and you're telling us, You know what y'all, I mean, we see what y'all are doing to us. But let me tell you how I feel, right, and the fact that we're having this forum where the children can tell you, Okay, this is how I feel.

Rick Austin 22:34
And Leah, you bring up an extremely important point, and that's that's something that we look at with all of our programming at this point, is ensuring that the students, the children, have voices and are participating, because this is how we have the greatest impact on their lives. This is what makes it memorable. Otherwise they're on their phones.

Leaha Crawford 22:56
Well, the other thing to that is like, I can only bring up the Student Leadership Conference, and I think the committee took the feedback. They took the feedback and did something different. I didn't see air child on their phone at the event, block party. Block Party. They were partying. They were doing it was great. You know, when we used to do Mad City money the same way. Yes, they were. They had their phones, but they were too busy trying to figure out how they're trying to figure out life. They were trying to figure out. And guys, I will tell you, if you ever get a chance to have a group of students do Mad City money, because it's a program where they are adults and they build their life, they graduate from college, get married, buy houses, buy trips, and you should have seen the children trying to buy a trip with no money, making decisions on bills, making decisions to pay or not to pay, take the loans out.

Rick Austin 23:48
Absolutely. It's a beautiful thing to watch. I simulation. I was actually, I actually had to play the the villain at one of the bad city buddy stations that I was, I was trying to coerce the students into purchasing things, purchasing cars, boats and more TVs, and so it was just so much fun watching them the eyes, like watching their wheels turn.

Leaha Crawford 24:13
Well, not only that, so I played. I was the banker. Awesome. I'm at the bank, right? So I'm denying the loans. We're denying the loans, and then we're telling you, and if we did approve them, your payments are due. So making sure that they got in it was actually a good way for us to interact with and they were engaged. Yes, same thing with the block party. They were engaged, absolutely. Now let me ask you this by with this forum that's coming up, September 6. We want to go over again. September 6. September 6, the sign up is okay. So for more information, they can find information on the website. Can you give us the website one more time?

Rick Austin 24:52
Absolutely. Uplift foundation of nevada.org. Say it again. Uplift foundation of Nevada. Do. Dot org,

Leaha Crawford 25:00
right? And I just just the partners. Let's go over to partners one more

Rick Austin 25:04
time. Yeah. So again, we're excited to have Vegas Metro. PD, which is obviously where, where it all all begins and starts. NAACP, the Las Vegas chapter of the NAACP, so very excited to have them on board. Them on board, the brothers of phi, Beta Sigma Fraternity Incorporated. We have the brothers of omega, Psi Phi Fraternity Incorporated. And I'm continuing to finish with the amazing the outstanding district four state senator Dina Neal. So really appreciate her.

Leaha Crawford 25:42
All right, so I want to tell you, I want to, but once again, thank you for accepting my invitation to come on the show and to talk about the programs, about uplift foundation, I am extending another invitation now, and I will work on the other org to get them to come in so we can really talk about student leadership conference to get our students engaged here on the campus of UNLV, it's an amazing week because scholarships are given out. So if you know, I mean, if you know, a high school senior, scholarships are given out that day, a bunch of information about colleges and different programs, a bunch of school I mean, and it's for high schoolers right now, and we've even had some middle schoolers come.

Rick Austin 26:22
Absolutely, we do allow middle schoolers to come as well. And the other then, the last piece I wanted to mention about the economic summit was that we also get employers in, right? Yeah. So that link and trades that yeah, the employers and trades, employers and trades, that linkage is there as well. So students like come out, get connected to these organizations, and let the fear just melt away. Let the fear,

Leaha Crawford 26:49
I love that, let the fear melt away. Come on. Let's say it together. Let the fear melt

Rick Austin 26:55
away. All right, you don't have to be afraid of your

Leaha Crawford 26:57
future. Don't have to be Hey, you embrace it because it's coming. Absolutely, whether you wanted to or not. It's coming. Tomorrow's gonna come whether you wanted to or not. It's gonna be here. All right. My name is Leah Crawford. That ends our show for today. I want to tell you guys, thank you. Thank you. Thank you for listening. I have more updates coming. I think I got our website up and coming so you can go, you know, you'll be able to go to our website and get links for the shows. Again, we are on most of the platforms I believe and have an amazing blessed Saturday. Peace and blessings y'all bye.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai