Jocelynne Rainey & Jelani Anglin Share Insights On Their Missions, Impact, Spark Prize Grant + More
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
What's it's Way Up with Angela Yee. And I'm excited
to have these two guests joining us today. So we
have Jocelyn Rainey here, the CEO of Brooklyn Org, Angelini England,
who is also the CEO and co founder of Good Call.
So welcome to both of you. Thank you, thank you
to be here to Way Up with Angela ye And
we're going to get into all of the details of
this important work that you both are doing. So first, Jocelyn,
(00:24):
tell us about Brooklyn Org and what you guys do.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Yeah, So, Brooklyn Org is a foundation. We are focused
on the best borough in the city. Brand I know
you're a Brooklyn girl as you know, and you know
we are. We're a foundation, we're a philanthropy, but we're
really thinking about how we could do philanthropy different. We're
trying to bring everyone to the table, making sure that
everyone feels like they can do something to help their neighbors.
(00:51):
We're trying to do it in a way that it
is from the bottom up instead of from the top down,
and making sure that we're getting funding to those nonprofits
like Good Call that are doing the work on the
ground that really changes lives. And I just want to
share that all of our making is participatory, which means
that our Brooklyn community makes the decisions on where the
(01:13):
money goes because we believe that the people who are
on the ground, they know what's needed more than we do.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
Now, You're absolutely right, and I want to say that
right now. In particular, it's so important for us to
make sure that we take care of each other. And
I know people can be very discouraged by what's going
on in politics by you know, waiting for governing officials
to do things, but sometimes we have to be the
ones that really make it happen. Yep, I agree, and
Jelani good Call, all right, let's discuss this because I
(01:42):
know you founded this company in twenty sixteen.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
Yes, yes, so.
Speaker 4 (01:46):
Good Call is a tech hybrid, a black lead, community
centered tech hybrid working to dismantle the system of mass
incarceration by creating better access to legal support. You can
call our hotline and be connect to an attorney. That
attorney will invoke your rights to the police not to
question you and then help you with making sure that
(02:06):
you have the right information to deal with your case.
It's important that we get this information out to the
people because there's a huge gap that exists within our
legal system. People enter the system that's like a black hole.
They have no idea what to do when arrested, and
we're just trying to be there for folks.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
I mean, we think about the exonerated five. We all
know this story and what happened. Imagine if they would
have been able to have a good call back then
and have representation so that when they were coerced into
making confessions not knowing what their rights were. That's a
difficult thing and a position to be in for. I
was looking at this eleven year old girl who the
police put handcuffs on because they said to massive description
(02:42):
of somebody who stole a car or something. And that's
a traumatizing situation, you know, to happen to a child.
And I know you when you were young, Jelani, had
an instance where you were unjustly arrested.
Speaker 4 (02:54):
Yeah, you know growing up here in New York City.
I actually grew up in Queen's grew up of Farackway,
moved in my teen years, but I always was back
and forth to the boroughs. Got arrested for a minor infraction.
You don't when they started talking about not going through
the train cars. So like I was doing other stuff,
but I got arrested for going through the train cars.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
That's crazy. I've never seen anybody get arrested for that.
Speaker 4 (03:15):
Yeah, and I spent time in the precinct and then
they moved me to central book in whole process twelve hours.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
I'm just like, what is this for.
Speaker 4 (03:23):
When I was my first arrest, they questioned me about
things that were going on, but I always knew and
I learned from growing up not to say anything to
the police. So that was one of the instances where
I first saw, you know, the system can really take you,
and that's how you could become one of the three
when they talk about one out of three black males
could be arrested in their lifetime. You know, it's so
(03:44):
simple for that to happen to anybody.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Right, and now let me ask you. So let's just say,
what's the process for good call?
Speaker 5 (03:50):
Right?
Speaker 1 (03:50):
Somebody gets arrested and then what happens or detained?
Speaker 4 (03:55):
Yeah, so if anyone is detained, they're brought to a
precinct of all their belongings. Right, You're given the option
to make a couple to give to make a call
on the diw pad phone. You can call the Good
Call hotline yourself, or you can have a loved one
call on your behalf. If you remember your loved one's
number first, they can call on your behalf. The first
(04:15):
thing that happens is that they'll be connected to an attorney.
That attorney will inquire where they are, they'll act to
speak to the arresting officer, they'll invoke the rights, and
then they'll give you information to make sure you know
what's happening in the process. It's important to know that
that time that you are into preacinc is crucial. That
twelve to twenty four hours before someone's brought to Central
Booking is where you can receive that limited scope representation
(04:38):
that we provide. We want to make sure that folks
aren't course in the signing statements. Police are allowed to
lie to you when you're in the precinct at least
are allowed to lie to you wild so you have
to be able to sign it. If they want you
to sign a statement, you have to be able to
know I'm not signing anything until I have legal representation.
I need to speak to somebody and consult because it
like just.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
You can sign it to go home, right, and then
you sign it and don't go home. You don't know, Yeah,
you don't know what's going on. So does this cost money?
Because I know people are listening and they're probably like, Okay,
I want to call, but lawyers are expensive. I don't
want somebody to represent me, and then I get slap
with this huge bill.
Speaker 4 (05:13):
No, our hotline is completely free. Thank you for folks
like Brooklyn, Oregon and doctor Rainy here that help us
our organization. We fundraise for this so that we can
make sure that we can provide this resource free of
charge to everybody.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
Now, doctor Rainey, how did Good Call get on your radar?
Speaker 2 (05:29):
Yeah? You know Good Call has been doing this work,
as Johnny says, since twenty sixteen. They've been on our radar.
They are one of our long term partners. When we
think about the work that we do in regards to
funding nonprofits that are in Brooklyn that are focused on
racial justice, there is nothing more important than the disparate
outcomes that happen in our in our criminal justice system,
(05:52):
especially to young people. And I want to say how
important Good Call is because even when you're not doing anything,
like you were going between trains, which is nothing, but
the truth is that our communities are five times more
policed than other communities. So not only would do you
have an opportunity to be to have an interaction with
the police officer, you also have it's going to be
(06:14):
more opportunity for you to be unjustly detained or arrested.
So organizations like Good Call, like the other organizations that
we're giving funding to for Spark, which we're really excited about,
are organizations that create a level playing field for black
and brown people in Brooklyn, in communities where they're the
most marginalized. And yeah, so brook Call has been Good
(06:37):
Call has been a friend of ours for a really
long time and an organization that we really strongly believe in.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
Now, when you give the grant, because you mentioned Spark
and you guys did win the Spark grants, yes, right,
When you talk about the money that they are are awarded,
that is unrestricted and that's true, all right, So explain
what that means because people may not understand when you're
playing for grants. What I'm restricted versus restricted is thank you.
I think that you know.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
One of the things that I believe in having run
a nonprofit is that nonprofit leaders need to be able
to meet the needs of what their participants need and
that moment, and so many times funding, whether it be
city funding, foundation funding is restricted, which means that you
can only use it for very specific items. And all
(07:23):
of our funding is unrestricted. So this is one hundred
thousand dollars that will allow Jilani and his eating him,
for them to dream, for them to dream and be
able to serve people in the moment for what they need.
So unrestricted means that we trust you, We've gotten to
know you, we know your work, and here here is
the funding for you to be able to do what
(07:45):
you know is best for your community instead of us
telling you what we think is best for your community.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
Right, because raising capital is one of the most difficult things.
You can have the best product, but being able to
So that's why this is so important. Now, Jelani, can
you tell us from twenty six seene until now how
Good Call has grown into what it is today.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
Yeah, So it's interesting.
Speaker 4 (08:05):
When Good Call first started, it was myself and my
co founders at the time, and we were at a
co working space and it was four desk zero dollars.
I was eating a lot of Romen for real, and
we were trying to find out how we can, you know,
make this way. And after we had conversations with public defenders,
had conversations with individuals that had been arrested, we had
(08:27):
our Aha moment where it's like, if we can connect
them to each other sooner in the process, that could
caan somebody, that could change somebody's case trajectory overall immensely right.
But there's no resources. The city isn't doing this, the
city isn't paying for it. How are we going to
pay for it? So we literally got on the ground
to our started talking to people figuring out where we
(08:48):
can actually pitch this product and idea. And it was
an investor that a nonprofit investor that heard about us
through the grapevine and gave us our first check of
a hundred thousand dollars in twenty sixteen, and myself and
our team split that money to figure out how we
can continue to fundraise. But what really happened along the
(09:09):
way was us being able to prove it out. We
were able to really develop a model where our organization
not only provides this legal access, but we also transformed
into an organization that provides internship support, that provides policy support.
So now thinking about all of these things, we knew
that we had a three prong approach to really make change,
(09:32):
so we needed to find the funding for that. Our model,
we were able to fine tune it to say good
Call offers structural change, native change, and systemic change.
Speaker 3 (09:43):
And we do this in three ways.
Speaker 4 (09:44):
We have our technology, which is a structural change which
we implement into the system. We have our Native change,
which is our internship program where we work with youth
that are from alternative to incarceration programs, giving them civic
engagement skills and giving them some community organizing skills in
twelve weeks. And then we also have our policy work
where we're working to actually codify access to Council for
(10:06):
Youth in New York State. So we want to see
this lasting change. And we were able to bring that
model fine tune to folks and they were able to
digest that because it wasn't just you know, an organization
I was doing random things to support people. This was
a fine tune model that had a proven track record
of success.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
I want to also point out that Jelani, at a
young age in high school, you started your own business.
Even back then, I have to ask about your background
and how you know so much and where you got
this entrepreneurial spirit from.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
So it's funny you did your research. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
I know y'all do.
Speaker 4 (10:41):
So I started an organization called nobones dot net. I was,
in my teen years an entrepreneur from early jump. I
think it's my Capricorn nature too.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (10:58):
I feel like when I when I put my mind
to things, I really get into the weeds and try
to figure it out. And there were no summer jobs
out there, so that really sparked my entrepreneurial spirit of like,
all right, how can I make a path for myself?
So I taught myself dream weaver CS three and created
(11:18):
a website that can sell electronics refurbished to folks in
the community. And that's how I started getting I actually
got a scholarship for college for that.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
Wow, that's amazing.
Speaker 4 (11:29):
Yeah, but that was the same year that I actually
got arrested for a minor infraction. And imagine that you
can do all the good in the world, but you
still have the pitfalls that exist as a young black man.
You know, my entrepreneurial spirit led me in so many
different directions. I had to focus how to use that
for good and that's really what helped me, you know,
change that.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
And you were only sixteen when you got arrested. How
did that even affect your mentality and how you even
looked at the police, Because sometimes those interactions can make
you be like, I don't even want to ever have
to deal with any police. I'm not calling you off
for anything after what you did to me.
Speaker 4 (11:59):
So to be honest, growing up, I always we never
really Yeah, I grew up in far Rockaway in New York.
My family members has been arrested. Nobody's looking to call
the police first. But when it comes down to it,
we see how police act for other communities and how
they're there to support other communities.
Speaker 3 (12:19):
It doesn't exist for us.
Speaker 4 (12:20):
And I realized that when I got arrested, there was
no one for me to call. There was no form
of recourse. It was guilty until proven innocent. It wasn't
innocent until proven guilty. I felt like I had to
figure out how to you know, talk my way out
of it, or you know, how to call somebody that
can defend me. And I realized that there was nobody.
(12:41):
My mother's not a certified attorney.
Speaker 3 (12:43):
Like, who am I gonna what to do?
Speaker 4 (12:44):
We're all gonna call my mother's Guyanese. She's the first
that I don't want to call her let her know
that I got arrested, you know. But real talk, it
was a moment where I just had to honestly understand
that there was nobody there to save you in these instances,
and we have to educate ourselves about what to do
when these experiences happen.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
Right now, what if somebody really did commit a crime,
right and they call a good call. Let's just say
they really did do something, but you still deserve representation
and to know your rights. So does that everything still apply?
Speaker 4 (13:17):
Everybody is innocent until proven guilty, full stop.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
Okay, period. Now, Doctor Rainey got to ask you this,
Brooklyn or I know people are listening and they're like,
I have this, or I do this, I do that.
Tell me how I know? You said you work from
the ground up, and the community really tells you what
they need as you're raising money and giving grants to
some of these organizations. So for people who are listening
and they're like, well, I have this organization. You know
(13:41):
that we've been working in the community for x amount
of time. How can they contact you?
Speaker 2 (13:45):
Yeah, so you can reach us at Brooklyn dot org.
You can also follow us on Instagram and LinkedIn and
all the social media platforms. Yeah, that's the best way
to reach us. So we can hear more about what
we're doing. And we'd love to hear from nonprofits know
the work that they're doing. And we also want to
hear from other community members that are interested in how
they can get involved and support organizations like Good Call
(14:08):
and the other organizations that we support in Brooklyn.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
You know, people talk about criminal justice reform all the time,
but it's nice to see an organization that you started
that's really making a difference. Can you give us an
example of how Good Call was able to step in, say,
when somebody called you guys.
Speaker 3 (14:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (14:25):
A story that it sensed me for a while every
time I think about it is there was a woman
who gave birth and she was in need of postnatal
care and went to the hospital and the hospital ended
up calling the police because they suspected that she did
(14:48):
something to the baby. Oh wow, And this woman was
cuffed in the bed in the hospital bed and police
were interrogating her, asking her questions. Luckily a family member
was able to you have one of our cards call
and the lawyer was able to speak to the arresting officer,
get them to uncuff her and to leave the hotel
(15:09):
room and stop the interrogation.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
That is wild. You are already concerned about your baby,
trying to figure out what happened, and then you have
the police cuffing you and interrogating you. That's wild.
Speaker 4 (15:18):
Yeah, it's it's the police are relentless and there's no
form of recourse once you're suspected of a crime if
you don't know what to do, and that's why we
always push making sure that if you don't remember anything
else from this interview, don't say anything to the police
until you have legal representation. They are allowed to lie
(15:38):
to you. They can tell you that you will go
home and you won't go home again.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
And eight three three three good call? Is that?
Speaker 3 (15:44):
One?
Speaker 5 (15:45):
Eight three three three four six three four six six
three two two?
Speaker 1 (15:49):
Is that?
Speaker 5 (15:50):
So we say eight triple three okay, four six six
three two two Okay. I want to make sure people
know the number. Okase, God forbid, you need it, but
at least you can have it.
Speaker 4 (16:00):
So that's why we always say eight triple three good call,
And when you're looking at the phone, calling it from
a precinct, the two l's are silent.
Speaker 3 (16:08):
You could just dial in good call, it call regardless.
Speaker 4 (16:11):
Okay, but eight triple three good call one, eight three, three, three,
four six.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
Sixty three two to two. Now gonna put that number
on the bottom.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
Now. But that's important. And lastly, I want to say,
I see that they're also going to be adopting good
Call in other cities too, right, is.
Speaker 4 (16:31):
Yeah, So we're working on that now. We're having conversations
with different municipalities because there's two ways that this can
really work. You know, they can utilize the good Call
technology to actually launch hotlines in their city, or they
can work with good Call tech span the good Call
hotline in their city. So we have two routes where
we're having conversations with cities to see which route works best.
But we know that there are legal deserts that exist.
(16:52):
There's some cities that you know, they don't have as
many lawyers as New York does, and there's people that
are sitting in jail.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
There's backlogs that exist because people just have.
Speaker 4 (17:04):
Not had their fair day in court and they haven't
had that access to representation. So we're able to actually say,
what does it look like for us to partner with
these different municipalities to actually launch hotlines to help take
care of some of the legal deserts that exist.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
How does a police department fail about you?
Speaker 3 (17:21):
Oh, we're friends. I'm joking. I am joking. I am joking.
Speaker 4 (17:26):
You know, it's honestly interesting because there are some police
officers that the relationship could be seen as out ofversarial.
But there's some officers that grew up in our community
and they understand. They're like, you know, old buddy saying
too much. They go and hand them a good call card.
Like we've had people that have said that they've gotten
a good call card from an officer because they realized
(17:47):
that what was going on in the precinct shouldn't have
been going down.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
You know.
Speaker 4 (17:51):
But our relationship with the police is on a touch
and go basis. We believe that we are trying to
make the process of their us fair and provide transparency.
There's no reason why I should be a black hole
and people have no idea what's going on?
Speaker 1 (18:08):
Okay, perfect well, doctor Ranny, any last words regarding Brooklyn Org.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
No, I mean, I just want to say that we're
really excited. Our Spark Prize is February twenty fifth. It
is one of our most heartfelt moments. The best breakfast
in Brooklyn. You know, as a Brooklyn girl, you know
that Brooklyn is the most populated borough and all of
Brooklyn with almost three million people. We have thirty seven
percent of the nonprofits doing amazing work like Good Call,
(18:33):
and right now Brooklyn only gets about eight percent of
all funding. So one of our challenges and one of
the things that we work towards is how do we
bring more people into our family and making sure that
people have what they need and that organizations like Good
Call can expand and can do the good work that
they're doing.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
All right, well, I love this. We got a Brooklyn girl,
We got a capricorn. There's mine, but again that's Brooklyn
or that's Good Call. Thank you doctor Rannie. Thank you
so much Johanni for joining us today. Got to make
sure this information goes out spread the word.
Speaker 3 (19:06):
Thank you well
What's it's Way Up with Angela Yee. And I'm excited
to have these two guests joining us today. So we
have Jocelyn Rainey here, the CEO of Brooklyn Org, Angelini England,
who is also the CEO and co founder of Good Call.
So welcome to both of you. Thank you, thank you
to be here to Way Up with Angela ye And
we're going to get into all of the details of
this important work that you both are doing. So first, Jocelyn,
(00:24):
tell us about Brooklyn Org and what you guys do.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Yeah, So, Brooklyn Org is a foundation. We are focused
on the best borough in the city. Brand I know
you're a Brooklyn girl as you know, and you know
we are. We're a foundation, we're a philanthropy, but we're
really thinking about how we could do philanthropy different. We're
trying to bring everyone to the table, making sure that
everyone feels like they can do something to help their neighbors.
(00:51):
We're trying to do it in a way that it
is from the bottom up instead of from the top down,
and making sure that we're getting funding to those nonprofits
like Good Call that are doing the work on the
ground that really changes lives. And I just want to
share that all of our making is participatory, which means
that our Brooklyn community makes the decisions on where the
(01:13):
money goes because we believe that the people who are
on the ground, they know what's needed more than we do.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
Now, You're absolutely right, and I want to say that
right now. In particular, it's so important for us to
make sure that we take care of each other. And
I know people can be very discouraged by what's going
on in politics by you know, waiting for governing officials
to do things, but sometimes we have to be the
ones that really make it happen. Yep, I agree, and
Jelani good Call, all right, let's discuss this because I
(01:42):
know you founded this company in twenty sixteen.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
Yes, yes, so.
Speaker 4 (01:46):
Good Call is a tech hybrid, a black lead, community
centered tech hybrid working to dismantle the system of mass
incarceration by creating better access to legal support. You can
call our hotline and be connect to an attorney. That
attorney will invoke your rights to the police not to
question you and then help you with making sure that
(02:06):
you have the right information to deal with your case.
It's important that we get this information out to the
people because there's a huge gap that exists within our
legal system. People enter the system that's like a black hole.
They have no idea what to do when arrested, and
we're just trying to be there for folks.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
I mean, we think about the exonerated five. We all
know this story and what happened. Imagine if they would
have been able to have a good call back then
and have representation so that when they were coerced into
making confessions not knowing what their rights were. That's a
difficult thing and a position to be in for. I
was looking at this eleven year old girl who the
police put handcuffs on because they said to massive description
(02:42):
of somebody who stole a car or something. And that's
a traumatizing situation, you know, to happen to a child.
And I know you when you were young, Jelani, had
an instance where you were unjustly arrested.
Speaker 4 (02:54):
Yeah, you know growing up here in New York City.
I actually grew up in Queen's grew up of Farackway,
moved in my teen years, but I always was back
and forth to the boroughs. Got arrested for a minor infraction.
You don't when they started talking about not going through
the train cars. So like I was doing other stuff,
but I got arrested for going through the train cars.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
That's crazy. I've never seen anybody get arrested for that.
Speaker 4 (03:15):
Yeah, and I spent time in the precinct and then
they moved me to central book in whole process twelve hours.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
I'm just like, what is this for.
Speaker 4 (03:23):
When I was my first arrest, they questioned me about
things that were going on, but I always knew and
I learned from growing up not to say anything to
the police. So that was one of the instances where
I first saw, you know, the system can really take you,
and that's how you could become one of the three
when they talk about one out of three black males
could be arrested in their lifetime. You know, it's so
(03:44):
simple for that to happen to anybody.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
Right, and now let me ask you. So let's just say,
what's the process for good call?
Speaker 5 (03:50):
Right?
Speaker 1 (03:50):
Somebody gets arrested and then what happens or detained?
Speaker 4 (03:55):
Yeah, so if anyone is detained, they're brought to a
precinct of all their belongings. Right, You're given the option
to make a couple to give to make a call
on the diw pad phone. You can call the Good
Call hotline yourself, or you can have a loved one
call on your behalf. If you remember your loved one's
number first, they can call on your behalf. The first
(04:15):
thing that happens is that they'll be connected to an attorney.
That attorney will inquire where they are, they'll act to
speak to the arresting officer, they'll invoke the rights, and
then they'll give you information to make sure you know
what's happening in the process. It's important to know that
that time that you are into preacinc is crucial. That
twelve to twenty four hours before someone's brought to Central
Booking is where you can receive that limited scope representation
(04:38):
that we provide. We want to make sure that folks
aren't course in the signing statements. Police are allowed to
lie to you when you're in the precinct at least
are allowed to lie to you wild so you have
to be able to sign it. If they want you
to sign a statement, you have to be able to
know I'm not signing anything until I have legal representation.
I need to speak to somebody and consult because it
like just.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
You can sign it to go home, right, and then
you sign it and don't go home. You don't know, Yeah,
you don't know what's going on. So does this cost money?
Because I know people are listening and they're probably like, Okay,
I want to call, but lawyers are expensive. I don't
want somebody to represent me, and then I get slap
with this huge bill.
Speaker 4 (05:13):
No, our hotline is completely free. Thank you for folks
like Brooklyn, Oregon and doctor Rainy here that help us
our organization. We fundraise for this so that we can
make sure that we can provide this resource free of
charge to everybody.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
Now, doctor Rainey, how did Good Call get on your radar?
Speaker 2 (05:29):
Yeah? You know Good Call has been doing this work,
as Johnny says, since twenty sixteen. They've been on our radar.
They are one of our long term partners. When we
think about the work that we do in regards to
funding nonprofits that are in Brooklyn that are focused on
racial justice, there is nothing more important than the disparate
outcomes that happen in our in our criminal justice system,
(05:52):
especially to young people. And I want to say how
important Good Call is because even when you're not doing anything,
like you were going between trains, which is nothing, but
the truth is that our communities are five times more
policed than other communities. So not only would do you
have an opportunity to be to have an interaction with
the police officer, you also have it's going to be
(06:14):
more opportunity for you to be unjustly detained or arrested.
So organizations like Good Call, like the other organizations that
we're giving funding to for Spark, which we're really excited about,
are organizations that create a level playing field for black
and brown people in Brooklyn, in communities where they're the
most marginalized. And yeah, so brook Call has been Good
(06:37):
Call has been a friend of ours for a really
long time and an organization that we really strongly believe in.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
Now, when you give the grant, because you mentioned Spark
and you guys did win the Spark grants, yes, right,
When you talk about the money that they are are awarded,
that is unrestricted and that's true, all right, So explain
what that means because people may not understand when you're
playing for grants. What I'm restricted versus restricted is thank you.
I think that you know.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
One of the things that I believe in having run
a nonprofit is that nonprofit leaders need to be able
to meet the needs of what their participants need and
that moment, and so many times funding, whether it be
city funding, foundation funding is restricted, which means that you
can only use it for very specific items. And all
(07:23):
of our funding is unrestricted. So this is one hundred
thousand dollars that will allow Jilani and his eating him,
for them to dream, for them to dream and be
able to serve people in the moment for what they need.
So unrestricted means that we trust you, We've gotten to
know you, we know your work, and here here is
the funding for you to be able to do what
(07:45):
you know is best for your community instead of us
telling you what we think is best for your community.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
Right, because raising capital is one of the most difficult things.
You can have the best product, but being able to
So that's why this is so important. Now, Jelani, can
you tell us from twenty six seene until now how
Good Call has grown into what it is today.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
Yeah, So it's interesting.
Speaker 4 (08:05):
When Good Call first started, it was myself and my
co founders at the time, and we were at a
co working space and it was four desk zero dollars.
I was eating a lot of Romen for real, and
we were trying to find out how we can, you know,
make this way. And after we had conversations with public defenders,
had conversations with individuals that had been arrested, we had
(08:27):
our Aha moment where it's like, if we can connect
them to each other sooner in the process, that could
caan somebody, that could change somebody's case trajectory overall immensely right.
But there's no resources. The city isn't doing this, the
city isn't paying for it. How are we going to
pay for it? So we literally got on the ground
to our started talking to people figuring out where we
(08:48):
can actually pitch this product and idea. And it was
an investor that a nonprofit investor that heard about us
through the grapevine and gave us our first check of
a hundred thousand dollars in twenty sixteen, and myself and
our team split that money to figure out how we
can continue to fundraise. But what really happened along the
(09:09):
way was us being able to prove it out. We
were able to really develop a model where our organization
not only provides this legal access, but we also transformed
into an organization that provides internship support, that provides policy support.
So now thinking about all of these things, we knew
that we had a three prong approach to really make change,
(09:32):
so we needed to find the funding for that. Our model,
we were able to fine tune it to say good
Call offers structural change, native change, and systemic change.
Speaker 3 (09:43):
And we do this in three ways.
Speaker 4 (09:44):
We have our technology, which is a structural change which
we implement into the system. We have our Native change,
which is our internship program where we work with youth
that are from alternative to incarceration programs, giving them civic
engagement skills and giving them some community organizing skills in
twelve weeks. And then we also have our policy work
where we're working to actually codify access to Council for
(10:06):
Youth in New York State. So we want to see
this lasting change. And we were able to bring that
model fine tune to folks and they were able to
digest that because it wasn't just you know, an organization
I was doing random things to support people. This was
a fine tune model that had a proven track record
of success.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
I want to also point out that Jelani, at a
young age in high school, you started your own business.
Even back then, I have to ask about your background
and how you know so much and where you got
this entrepreneurial spirit from.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
So it's funny you did your research. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
I know y'all do.
Speaker 4 (10:41):
So I started an organization called nobones dot net. I was,
in my teen years an entrepreneur from early jump. I
think it's my Capricorn nature too.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (10:58):
I feel like when I when I put my mind
to things, I really get into the weeds and try
to figure it out. And there were no summer jobs
out there, so that really sparked my entrepreneurial spirit of like,
all right, how can I make a path for myself?
So I taught myself dream weaver CS three and created
(11:18):
a website that can sell electronics refurbished to folks in
the community. And that's how I started getting I actually
got a scholarship for college for that.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
Wow, that's amazing.
Speaker 4 (11:29):
Yeah, but that was the same year that I actually
got arrested for a minor infraction. And imagine that you
can do all the good in the world, but you
still have the pitfalls that exist as a young black man.
You know, my entrepreneurial spirit led me in so many
different directions. I had to focus how to use that
for good and that's really what helped me, you know,
change that.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
And you were only sixteen when you got arrested. How
did that even affect your mentality and how you even
looked at the police, Because sometimes those interactions can make
you be like, I don't even want to ever have
to deal with any police. I'm not calling you off
for anything after what you did to me.
Speaker 4 (11:59):
So to be honest, growing up, I always we never
really Yeah, I grew up in far Rockaway in New York.
My family members has been arrested. Nobody's looking to call
the police first. But when it comes down to it,
we see how police act for other communities and how
they're there to support other communities.
Speaker 3 (12:19):
It doesn't exist for us.
Speaker 4 (12:20):
And I realized that when I got arrested, there was
no one for me to call. There was no form
of recourse. It was guilty until proven innocent. It wasn't
innocent until proven guilty. I felt like I had to
figure out how to you know, talk my way out
of it, or you know, how to call somebody that
can defend me. And I realized that there was nobody.
(12:41):
My mother's not a certified attorney.
Speaker 3 (12:43):
Like, who am I gonna what to do?
Speaker 4 (12:44):
We're all gonna call my mother's Guyanese. She's the first
that I don't want to call her let her know
that I got arrested, you know. But real talk, it
was a moment where I just had to honestly understand
that there was nobody there to save you in these instances,
and we have to educate ourselves about what to do
when these experiences happen.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
Right now, what if somebody really did commit a crime,
right and they call a good call. Let's just say
they really did do something, but you still deserve representation
and to know your rights. So does that everything still apply?
Speaker 4 (13:17):
Everybody is innocent until proven guilty, full stop.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
Okay, period. Now, Doctor Rainey got to ask you this,
Brooklyn or I know people are listening and they're like,
I have this, or I do this, I do that.
Tell me how I know? You said you work from
the ground up, and the community really tells you what
they need as you're raising money and giving grants to
some of these organizations. So for people who are listening
and they're like, well, I have this organization. You know
(13:41):
that we've been working in the community for x amount
of time. How can they contact you?
Speaker 2 (13:45):
Yeah, so you can reach us at Brooklyn dot org.
You can also follow us on Instagram and LinkedIn and
all the social media platforms. Yeah, that's the best way
to reach us. So we can hear more about what
we're doing. And we'd love to hear from nonprofits know
the work that they're doing. And we also want to
hear from other community members that are interested in how
they can get involved and support organizations like Good Call
(14:08):
and the other organizations that we support in Brooklyn.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
You know, people talk about criminal justice reform all the time,
but it's nice to see an organization that you started
that's really making a difference. Can you give us an
example of how Good Call was able to step in, say,
when somebody called you guys.
Speaker 3 (14:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (14:25):
A story that it sensed me for a while every
time I think about it is there was a woman
who gave birth and she was in need of postnatal
care and went to the hospital and the hospital ended
up calling the police because they suspected that she did
(14:48):
something to the baby. Oh wow, And this woman was
cuffed in the bed in the hospital bed and police
were interrogating her, asking her questions. Luckily a family member
was able to you have one of our cards call
and the lawyer was able to speak to the arresting officer,
get them to uncuff her and to leave the hotel
(15:09):
room and stop the interrogation.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
That is wild. You are already concerned about your baby,
trying to figure out what happened, and then you have
the police cuffing you and interrogating you. That's wild.
Speaker 4 (15:18):
Yeah, it's it's the police are relentless and there's no
form of recourse once you're suspected of a crime if
you don't know what to do, and that's why we
always push making sure that if you don't remember anything
else from this interview, don't say anything to the police
until you have legal representation. They are allowed to lie
(15:38):
to you. They can tell you that you will go
home and you won't go home again.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
And eight three three three good call? Is that?
Speaker 3 (15:44):
One?
Speaker 5 (15:45):
Eight three three three four six three four six six
three two two?
Speaker 1 (15:49):
Is that?
Speaker 5 (15:50):
So we say eight triple three okay, four six six
three two two Okay. I want to make sure people
know the number. Okase, God forbid, you need it, but
at least you can have it.
Speaker 4 (16:00):
So that's why we always say eight triple three good call,
And when you're looking at the phone, calling it from
a precinct, the two l's are silent.
Speaker 3 (16:08):
You could just dial in good call, it call regardless.
Speaker 4 (16:11):
Okay, but eight triple three good call one, eight three, three, three,
four six.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
Sixty three two to two. Now gonna put that number
on the bottom.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
Now. But that's important. And lastly, I want to say,
I see that they're also going to be adopting good
Call in other cities too, right, is.
Speaker 4 (16:31):
Yeah, So we're working on that now. We're having conversations
with different municipalities because there's two ways that this can
really work. You know, they can utilize the good Call
technology to actually launch hotlines in their city, or they
can work with good Call tech span the good Call
hotline in their city. So we have two routes where
we're having conversations with cities to see which route works best.
But we know that there are legal deserts that exist.
(16:52):
There's some cities that you know, they don't have as
many lawyers as New York does, and there's people that
are sitting in jail.
Speaker 3 (17:01):
There's backlogs that exist because people just have.
Speaker 4 (17:04):
Not had their fair day in court and they haven't
had that access to representation. So we're able to actually say,
what does it look like for us to partner with
these different municipalities to actually launch hotlines to help take
care of some of the legal deserts that exist.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
How does a police department fail about you?
Speaker 3 (17:21):
Oh, we're friends. I'm joking. I am joking. I am joking.
Speaker 4 (17:26):
You know, it's honestly interesting because there are some police
officers that the relationship could be seen as out ofversarial.
But there's some officers that grew up in our community
and they understand. They're like, you know, old buddy saying
too much. They go and hand them a good call card.
Like we've had people that have said that they've gotten
a good call card from an officer because they realized
(17:47):
that what was going on in the precinct shouldn't have
been going down.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
You know.
Speaker 4 (17:51):
But our relationship with the police is on a touch
and go basis. We believe that we are trying to
make the process of their us fair and provide transparency.
There's no reason why I should be a black hole
and people have no idea what's going on?
Speaker 1 (18:08):
Okay, perfect well, doctor Ranny, any last words regarding Brooklyn Org.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
No, I mean, I just want to say that we're
really excited. Our Spark Prize is February twenty fifth. It
is one of our most heartfelt moments. The best breakfast
in Brooklyn. You know, as a Brooklyn girl, you know
that Brooklyn is the most populated borough and all of
Brooklyn with almost three million people. We have thirty seven
percent of the nonprofits doing amazing work like Good Call,
(18:33):
and right now Brooklyn only gets about eight percent of
all funding. So one of our challenges and one of
the things that we work towards is how do we
bring more people into our family and making sure that
people have what they need and that organizations like Good
Call can expand and can do the good work that
they're doing.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
All right, well, I love this. We got a Brooklyn girl,
We got a capricorn. There's mine, but again that's Brooklyn
or that's Good Call. Thank you doctor Rannie. Thank you
so much Johanni for joining us today. Got to make
sure this information goes out spread the word.
Speaker 3 (19:06):
Thank you well
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