Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Vegas Circle Podcast with your hosts
Paki and Chris.
We are people who arepassionate about business,
success and culture, and this isour platform to showcase people
in our city who make it happen.
On today's podcast, we're goingto be diving into the DREAM
Program.
We'll explore what the DREAM is, the officers that are leading
it.
So let's welcome to the Circle.
Las Vegas Metro PoliceDepartment's officers of the
DREAM Program.
(00:20):
We got Mr Ben Baldessari I'mtrying not to jack they babe up
We've got Juan Orstoga and thenwe also got Nick Calisas.
I was close enough, right onthe money.
Right on the money, man.
So let's jump in, man.
So we got the Dream Program.
I originally met Ben.
We were talking offline earlier, I think it was about two years
ago.
We met at a town hall, actuallyGot a chance to connect and
(00:41):
talk a little about the DREAMprogram.
And then you invited us down,man, which I really appreciate.
You invited us down to LasVegas' headquarters, got a
chance to meet you and Juan andsit with you guys for a couple
hours and really just kind ofdissect what you guys are doing
with the program.
Honestly, I'm just I'm reallyhappy to see what you guys are
doing.
I think it's setting a presencehere, it's making an impact.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
I know, nick, I think was part of like the original
part of this right, so I'll leadit to you first then.
So let's say for you first whatis the Dream Program?
What is it all about?
Yeah, so when we startedSummerland Area Command this was
back in 2020, you know, we hadan idea and an ambition to try
to see what can we do for ouryouth out there.
You know, originally we werenoticing that kids that were,
you know, getting in trouble.
We weren't really doinganything for them, doing the
traditional justice route ofgoing disciplinary right, of
(01:32):
doing the arrest, doing thecitation.
So instead we said, well, whydon't we try a more positive
approach?
Let's try doing fundamental,you know, motivating these kids.
And for me, I'm a big proponenton you learn a lot off other
people's experiences, you knoweveryone here in this story.
they have a story to tell.
Everyone has something thatthey can teach and what we try
to do, especially in Dreamitself, you know, is part of our
acronym, you know, discover,redirect, empower, advocate and
(01:53):
mentor.
That mentoring does such a bigthing in these kids' lives
because a lot of these kids theycome from families that they
don't have that positive rolemodel.
And for us, you know, I feelthat's why a lot of us became
police officers, because we wantto try to enrich and impact the
lives of our community membersand try to bring back that
public trust.
You know, being a native, youknow Vegas here.
(02:14):
You know I always grew up.
You know parents were two oldschool Greek people that had
diners and all the traditional,you know, stuff you have.
But we always trust in ourcommunity.
The traditional stuff you have,but we always trust in our
community.
So for us we want to try toshow that same kind of
encouragement.
And what we saw when we startedDream was we were taking
children that had the highestcalls for service in our area
(02:35):
and we noticed that when we putthem through this program, we
put them through mentoring, wesaw a difference, that all of a
sudden, the calls started todrop.
We started noticing they wereimpacting their lives and we
were seeing a difference in them.
And I think for us, especiallyas officers, that's what really
makes the thing, because you canget over 100 kids right, and
maybe you reach 20, maybe youreach one, but that one you
(02:57):
reach.
If you can have him change adifference in his life, that's a
win.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
So for me.
That's what a dream comes inNow, when did dream?
Speaker 2 (03:03):
start?
Was it 2021?
The first class started in 2021with just two kids, literally
with two kids, and I'm proud tosay we've graduated over 420
kids at this moment right now.
That is awesome.
So it started with literallyjust one area commands vision.
We were able to grow it tobring it over to Spring Valley,
(03:24):
which Officer Juan here did anamazing job taking over and
really growing that himself andI'll let him kind of get into it
when we go there and then wewere able to grow it over to
South Central.
So all this hard work all theseofficers were doing right, all
the impact that we're making andseeing the success stories,
that's what kind of caught theeye of our headquarters and,
like how officer Ben was sayingbefore about what was going on
(03:45):
in Boston, they said, well,we're doing that here too, we're
just doing it through the dreamprogram.
And that's when it was well,why don't we just have this get
involved to become its ownsection?
And that's where we're at todayand we're very happy and it's a
lot of work, but we all lovewhat we do you know so.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
So how did you guys all get connected?
So you first started off in2021, kind of like.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
So when I first got to the section, the section we
were currently all in was calledthe community-oriented policing
section.
Right, okay, when I first gotthere I had never worked with
youth, you know I was told, hey,you're going to go join this
thing called the DREAM programand I remember at first I was
like, well, what's the DREAMprogram?
They're like it's a youth thingsitting in that classroom with
(04:32):
the original first dream officer, you know, adrian Hunt, and
seeing how he talked to thesekids and seeing how they
connected to him.
That's what inspired me to wantto do this to see someone who
you don't even know, a completestranger, connect themselves
with you, or even to try toshare a personal history and see
them grow from it.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
That, that right there, I was like this, is it
this?
Speaker 2 (04:52):
was.
It was the.
That was the light that sparkedit.
You know what I mean.
So for us it grew and we wereable to get so much more out of
it.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
That's awesome man I'm going to pass this to Ben
Absolutely.
So how did you get involved?
I know, when we met a coupleyears ago, that was like when we
first kind of connected and youmentioned like, hey, man, we've
got this dream program and Forme, how can I get involved?
How can we better help, chrisand I and things?
But how did you?
Speaker 3 (05:14):
get involved.
So Nick and I worked togetherat Summerlin Area Command, okay.
And when I transferred over toCOP, the Community Oriented
Policing Section, I took overfor that void when Adrian left.
Okay, so Adrian and Nick wererunning it.
And then, when Adrian left, hewent up to our Intergovernmental
Affairs Section and then I tookover his spot as Nick's partner
(05:36):
.
So we were still doing ourcommunity stuff, which is when I
met you.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
Got it.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
And so on our off time, in between, what we were
doing on our daily stuff, wewould run the dream program, and
then Juan was doing the samething over at Spring Valley and
they were doing the same thingover at South Central.
So we had three differentprograms running but only for
the specific areas that weworked, got it.
So now we've obviouslytransferred over into one giant
(06:02):
section that covers the entirevalley.
But at the time when I had metyou, that's how we were
incorporated, with our communitysection and doing our community
engagement stuff.
So it was cool that I had anopportunity to meet you then,
because I believe everythinghappens for a reason.
Everything's timing, man youmeet people for specific reasons
at a specific time.
So here we are.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
That's awesome, man.
And then Juan bringing you inman, so you were doing the
Spring Valley side of thebusiness.
What kind of made you reallyget involved and really sink
your teeth into this program?
Speaker 4 (06:31):
also.
You know, it was crazy, as Ihad, I think, at the time I had
seven years on and my entirecareer was street, street,
street.
Okay, now are you from LasVegas also?
No, I've been here 19 and ahalf years.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
I'm originally from.
Speaker 4 (06:41):
LA, that's right.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (06:43):
So you know you go your entire career and you're
just hustling and bustling,running and gunning, and it was
this one thing.
It this one thing.
It's like you know you got tocatch the bad guy, right, but a
lot of people don't.
What a lot of people don't knowabout las vegas is when you're
a police officer, you patrol acertain area, you have repeat
offenders right, which is whatwe call our customers right,
(07:04):
it's literally you book them.
You already know they're goingto be out.
Yeah, you see them again.
You already know what they got.
And it was one of those thingswas like yeah, I felt great that
you were doing something forthe community, but it really
didn't change much, right.
So I got you kind of get boredof the streets a little bit,
right, and you want, you want toread, you want to build your
resume at some point and, likenick said, like you end up doing
(07:25):
the community stuff, which iscop, and you're doing the
community stuff, and then theytell you, hey, you're going to
take over this program.
You're like man, what?
Speaker 3 (07:32):
is this program.
Speaker 4 (07:33):
And the crazy thing about DREAM is that not every
cop knows.
I'm going to say maybe 25% ofpolice officers know what DREAM
is, and that's even ourdepartment, and it's crazy, it's
not a good thing, it's not agood thing at all, at all.
So then when I got involved atSpring Valley, I know I knew Ben
had just gone to Dream at thesame time at Summerlin and I've
(07:58):
known Nick and so I was like,all right, well, what are they
doing?
So I saw what they were doingand I was like, well, we got a
lot of kids on probation that wemade so much connections with
the west side of Juby Probationand they were all like, hey, can
we put our kids here, can weput our kids there?
And then we started finding abunch of different foundations
(08:19):
that were like, hey, we all dothe same thing.
How do we get involved with youguys?
Right, because no matter whatthe badge does, a lot of opens,
a lot of doors, right, yeah, sowhen I took over the program at
spring valley, it was one ofthose things where it's like we
started partnering up and thenwhat was next?
(08:39):
Right, yeah.
So we started seeing that the12 weeks was so amazing that we
changed so many kids perceptionof the badge itself because
we're doing it in uniform, youknow, um, and the biggest thing
that I think we all said when wewent into the academy and they
asked you why do you want to tobe a cop, it's because you want
to change or you want to betterthe community that you actually
work for, right, the communitythat you're growing up in or
(09:02):
raising your kids in, right.
I think that's the mentalitythat almost every cop has.
We're actually doing it.
You're working with you on adaily basis.
Because here's my thing I havenothing against.
I have family members that havecommitted crimes and stuff like
that gone to prison.
They've done their things.
But once they come out, it's alot harder for them to get back
into society, right.
(09:22):
And then starting up, startinglife at 25, 30, even 40 years
old, is a lot harder than doingit when you're still 18 years
old, right.
So that revolving door thing iswhat we wanted.
It's a real thing.
We wanted to stop it.
And crazy that we all had thesame mentality.
So we pushed and, pushed andpushed.
(09:43):
I don't know how many meetingswe definitely had with all the
upper ups and it's like, hey,how about you just throw it at
every area command and go teachevery other officer?
The problem is there's a ton ofofficers just like us, but
there's a lot of turnaround whenit comes to COP.
So I'm like that's not going tomake a change.
That's not what we're focusedon.
We're trying to make the changeand just and keep it right.
(10:04):
Stop the revolving door, causeit's going to be a revolving
door for us as well, and that'swhen we started pushing.
We put so much effort into itthat they decided, hey, we're
going to test for the position.
We ended up testing and luckily, by the grace of God, we ended
up getting top three positions,so one, two and three, and we
(10:25):
went up to headquarters.
So it's not like you can.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
Just, ben, and I have talked about this before.
It's not like you can just gosign up for it.
Hey, you guys get chosen.
You have to get tested.
What's that test like?
What do you have to get?
What's that?
Speaker 4 (10:35):
test like what do you have to?
It's basically an oral award.
Okay, right, and then what yougot to prove to?
Um, the people that are doingthe oral board they are.
They want to know that you'reactually fit to to hold the
position.
To hold the position,absolutely yeah, to hold the
position okay, because it's not.
This position has a lot ofliability, right, you're dealing
with a lot of kids.
You're dealing with kids thatwant to be gangsters, kids that
(10:58):
are gangsters, and they'reprobably going to test you
multiple times throughout theday Kids that are going to test
your patience at 100% right andyou have to maintain a
professional demeanor the entiretime.
(11:36):
No-transcript, damn, they'regonna get us right.
And I remember a couple carstops and I tell the story all
the time where you know we gotpulled over.
It was van eyes, I was eightyears old and you know my dad's
driving.
And then we get, um, we hadthree kids in the backseat,
which was my two sisters and I,and then we had one little girl,
(11:57):
a little blonde haired girl,and we were driving down Van
Nuys and we get pulled over.
I never forget that.
We got pulled over and twoofficers get out.
One gets out with the shotgunracks, it walks up to the car.
My dad gets scared, gets out ofthe car and they're yelling at
him.
And then one cop just walks upto the door, to the the back uh,
(12:17):
back door peeks in the windowand he goes are you okay, little
girl?
To the little girl, that wasthat my mom babysat.
So I never, that, never, left mymind.
But at the same time, growingup, I always said well, he
probably had a reason, you know.
But what was the reason?
Yeah, and then I moved to Vegasand guess what we're hiring.
I'm like man, let's try thisout Right.
(12:39):
If I ever want to make changesto where I want to perceive my,
I want my family to perceive thecops a different way.
I think I got to get myselfinto it and I did.
You know it was a goal as a kidanyways, because I never wanted
to be in gangs.
You know I knew that wasn't forme, and my mom, my dad, busted
their butt so hard for to keepme out of it that I think I I
wanted to maintain that right.
(12:59):
I wanted to keep that that.
My parents were proud of it, soI wanted to keep them proud yeah
so taking this over, takingthis program over, I think the
steps that we've taken right now, listen, I think we probably
don't sleep every night thinkingman, tomorrow we gotta go do to
go, do this, tomorrow we got togo do that.
Oh man, remember that kid.
We got to go help him.
We visit so many families andguess what we went from?
(13:20):
We don't like you, we don'tlike the police to.
Hey, can I hug you?
I get calls from kids that werein my program at Spring Valley
still to this day.
Call me Unc, hey, unc, hey, canyou help me with the job?
Absolutely, I can't pay, youcan't pay.
You know.
Hey, mom struggling with foodright now, can you help us?
Speaker 1 (13:39):
absolutely, I got you you got you got to be the
change you want to see so sotell me that.
I'm glad you opened it up withthat because that's that's very
powerful.
A lot of people can hear itbecause of the perception, like
we're been and I've talkedmultiple times over a couple
years and it and we do have abad perception on cops.
Right, I'm originally fromChicago and we've talked a lot
about some stories.
But what I want to talk aboutfirst is what is the ages of the
(14:03):
program?
If I remember correctly, it waslike 10 years old to about 18.
Okay, got it.
So it's basically fifth gradeall the way up to senior high
school.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
In reality, we don't necessarily turn anyone away.
Okay, um, but an eight-year-oldis not going to comprehend the
stuff that we're teaching.
Sure, it doesn't benefit.
We've had little siblings fromsome of our kids and we're like,
just bring them.
You know, they want to sit withbig brother, big sister, um, so
they kind of sit through it onoccasion.
But for the most part we reallywant to focus, focus mainly on
those middle school to highschool kids.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
That's the too cool age man.
They're really trying to figurethemselves out.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
And you get the 16, 17, and even 18-year-olds on
occasion, and sometimes theirminds are already made up.
And that's the tough part,because you're like man.
We really got to work withthese ones because we got to
change their minds, because ifwe don't, the decisions that
they're already involved in areliterally going to cost them
their life or change the courseof their life.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
So what's the quick synopsis of a 12-week program?
So let's say I've got two boysChris is not here today, he's
actually hurt his back but he'sgot three girls.
So let's say we wanted to putour five children into the
program.
What would that look like forthe listeners?
What would they experience ifthey were to sign up in the
program?
Speaker 3 (15:16):
Well, we do a lot of different stuff.
We have a curriculum withspecific classroom classes that
we do.
We teach some stuff and then webring in.
We have two specific mentorgroups that we use.
We use two groups.
One is called Thug Life, whichis true heroes under God, live
in freedom evermore.
Um, some amazing gentlemen thatare involved in that program.
(15:37):
Uh, their head guy is davidhollis.
He is a former blood gang memberfrom back in the day he's a
real cat, so they sit down incalifornia um, but he always
tells our kids he's like, uh, Ihad straight a's student body
president gangbanging, so youknow, he's like wherever you put
your motivation, you couldstill be doing bad stuff but you
could still go to school.
(15:58):
And he's like I'm living proofof that.
Uh, but he was one of the firstmembers of his family to kind
of make a better choice in hislife and to go the other route.
So he decided he didn't want todo that stuff anymore.
Um got into football.
Sports obviously changed himfor the better.
He ended up being on our UNLVchampionship team here back in
the 80s.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
Oh, that's awesome Played with.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
Randall Cunningham and some of the big names, okay,
and he ended up taking that allthe way to the NFL.
Played for the Kansas CityChiefs, okay.
Played for the Seahawks.
Those connect his network?
That would be crazy.
He's still got tons of nflplayer friends that he connects
with to this day, um.
But then he turned that afterthat career he went to juvenile
probation for 25 years pearl orjuvenile parole, excuse me, but
(16:40):
he was heavily involved inworking with the youth back then
.
So when he retired um, theystarted a, a group and got some
of their former you know friendstogether that were involved in
the same interest and so nowthey they help us with our
program.
And then the secondary programis SOW.
It's the spiritual, optimisticwarriors.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
And the guy who runs, that's Andrew Trujillo.
He's former head of the Mexicangangs in prison.
So you know just like Nickmentioned earlier, we want to
bring that reality to these kids.
So so, even though we're policeofficers, we're blessed with
this position right now becauseit's a very versatile role,
because we're not teaching thesekids to be cops.
We bring in that street reality, we bring in the doses of life
(17:22):
that's going to teach them thatone bad decision is going to
change the course of your entirelife.
And when you have a guy justlike Juan mentioned earlier,
restarting his life at 45 yearsold, come talk to these kids and
say, hey, man, I've been inprison since I was 17 years old,
I just got out and I got myfirst job, 45 years old, grown
man, my first real job, justbought my first car, just
(17:45):
starting my life over.
And these guys are tellingthese kids tatted, blasted up
you know what I mean with tearsin their eyes because they're so
sympathetic to the fact thatthey would go, they would give
anything to go back and sit inone of those kids' shoes and
start over and make differentdecisions.
And for us to be able toprovide that platform.
(18:05):
It's extremely unique becauseobviously this is not the job
that most people perceive as apolice officer, but like Juan
mentioned, we have a specifictask at hand to not only provide
these kids with a differentopportunity, but to give them
education, a dose of reality,and then to provide that
structure for them.
Some of them don't have it.
(18:26):
They have parents that reallycare, and they don't always know
what to do with them, though,because these kids start doing
so much that the parents getstressed out and sometimes they
literally give up, and when theytalk to us they say I've
completely given up, I don'tknow what else to do.
I've tried abc one, two, threeand, and I'm at, I'm at your
mercy at this point, like andI'm glad you brought that up,
(18:48):
because I mean las vegas.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
I've been here 17 years now and vegas is a place.
I don't know if I could havedone it when I was a young kid
man.
I don't know if it's just toomuch to just too much to do.
So having a program that thatyou guys have man is awesome.
What we noticed too.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
It's um, you allow some of these kids the
opportunity to actually beleaders, and not just, you know,
for themselves.
But there's um, we observed alot in this last cohort we did,
where even some of our kids thatwere on parole and probation
right and they they were forcedto have to be in the class due
to circumstances, but allowingthem that opportunity to be a
leader for other kids or fortheir classmates, it just showed
(19:27):
such a spark.
Because it's like ben wassaying you know our mentors.
You know a lot of these guyswere in your shoes when you were
young.
They were there, they, theywere in that same age, they made
those same mistakes and this isthe outcome some of them had.
And to see where they've gottento and what they've become, and
they see how they are with us,how they interact.
We're all family.
You know what I mean and I'lltell these guys.
I see them every day when I dabthem up and I've been working
(19:48):
with these guys.
I consult with them and ourbiggest proponent in dream it
doesn't matter what you've donein your past and it matters what
you're doing now.
We tell these kids, every dayis a gift, that's why we call it
the present, you know what Imean.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
You have to be willing to be the change you
want to see and make your ownopinion of it.
I want to step back just alittle bit about the Boston
Miracle.
So, if I'm understandingcorrectly, a miracle, so if I'm,
if I'm understanding correctly,it was like 150% decrease in
crime, right, and because of theprogram that Boston put
together, so.
So how did you guys connectwith them to be able to
understand what the you knowwhat was in that program, what
worked in that program, and beable to bring that back to Las
(20:30):
Vegas?
How did that?
Speaker 3 (20:31):
work Across the country sheriffs, chiefs, you
know very-ups of departments.
They all get together andthere's conferences I don't know
what it's called, so forgive me.
Sure, they have their ownlittle conventions and things
that they do and they info-sharea lot of stuff.
So when these departments allhear about something like what
Boston was doing, everybody'sears perk up and they're like yo
(20:53):
, what are they doing?
Because a 30% to 40% reductionis a good number, but when you
have something like that 150 ishuge.
It's unheard of.
It literally is unheard of.
So they start trying to findout hey, what are they doing?
And then they find out thatBoston has a slew of programs
that they're doing and they'reheavily targeting the juvenile
population and it seems to beworking.
(21:14):
But, uh, you know, they havesocial workers and they have all
these different avenues for, uh, you know, these programs to
connect with.
And so, um, when the sheriff uhfound out that that that's how
they were doing things, that hekind of said well, you know, we
have something similar here.
Maybe we should exploit that andreally expand on it.
So that's that'sREAM programturned into a centralized
(21:37):
valley-wide program that it isnow.
Speaker 4 (21:38):
Awesome, the one thing, if I can piggyback off of
what Ben was saying.
The one thing that I think whatwe kind of heard and what
Boston is doing different is youend up finding, while doing the
DREAM program here, you end upfinding a ton of different
resources that the city actuallyhas that nobody really knows
that exist, because I mean,communication isn't there.
(22:00):
So, um, throughout doing theirprogram, they have entities from
everywhere, like theiruniversities.
They, you know how they do theirresearch jobs and they have, uh
, their social workers that haveto do their hours and, you know
, even their doctors have tocover some hours and stuff like
that.
They all got together.
(22:21):
And kind of overlappedeverything, overlapped
everything, because everybodywas trying to do the same thing.
So now, instead of doing thesame thing, they're all one in
one big pile.
It's one resource, right?
And it's like, hey, I have thischild, or I have this family,
or I have this adult, they allneed this, this, this and this.
Who's got it?
I got it, I got it, we'll worktogether.
(22:41):
We got this, you got that.
So they came together as a fullcommunity and that's how their
numbers have gone down.
Right, that's awesome.
That's what we're trying to do,bed nick and I.
We partner with a ton of people.
We reach out to a ton of people, um, that are out here doing
the same thing harbor, t-pop, um, parks and rec, the
(23:04):
commissioner's office, sure, um,we and we even just find
regular foundations that youknow pop up on ig and we email
them.
Hey, the shack foundation yeahyou know all these different
foundations that are doing thesame thing he does, have been
every year, yeah, last coupleyears yeah, yeah shameless.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
Yeah, there you go, yeah, listen, yeah, listen, yeah
, just in case you're listening,right, yeah?
Speaker 4 (23:26):
but we work with all these different foundation
organizations because we want tomake sure we just we instead of
all doing our little bit hereand a little bit there, we can
all come together.
One big thing we have afoundation, an organization that
actually has been that workwith us at Spring Valley, that
we're bringing up during thesummer, and their biggest thing
is we are a village.
(23:47):
But we always say it takes avillage.
Right, so we are the village,so it takes a village to set up
to help more people, to actuallyhelp our community make a
difference and an impact.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
So how can we get involved?
Right, so I know you guys havementors.
You've got certain companiesthat can obviously give
donations, things like that.
Walk us through real quick onhow we can help as Las Vegas
community.
How can we reach out to youguys to be part of that?
Do you guys have a website thatwe can, just as Las Vegas
community, how can we reach outto you guys to be part of that?
Do you guys have a website thatwe can just give donations for
or we can come out and beinvolved in a program Like how
does that work?
Speaker 2 (24:22):
Yeah, so, being part of the office of community
engagement, a lot of like ourresources and how we advertise
is through, obviously, socialmedia.
So you'll see postings on, youknow, facebook and Instagram,
and also right now, ourheadstrong goal is here.
We're trying to have at least afall class, a spring class and,
like Juan was saying, a summerclass, so it's going to be
(24:43):
year-round A big connection onthere.
We all have our contactinformation on our flyer page
that we're going to be postingout there too.
So the biggest thing is we telleveryone, everywhere you go, if
you feel someone wantsleadership, it isn't even if you
meet the criteria.
If someone seeks leadership,please send them our way.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
That's awesome, even as a partner itself.
Speaker 4 (25:02):
if you're looking to make a difference in your
community, by all means reachout.
There's always space time wecan make it work.
Speaker 3 (25:10):
I will touch on that real quick Sure real quick.
So a lot of what our communitypartners do is not just refer
these kids to us, which is hugebecause, you know, having like
what Juan says, having thislarge group and everyone has the
same goal in mind.
When they find out that there'sa kid that could use this
program, they reach out to us,they send the information.
Hey, I have a good referral foryou.
(25:30):
We then reach out to theparents, we contact them
directly and then we say, hey,you were referred to us or
whatever.
We have a program if youhaven't heard about it, but
luckily our partners are kind oftelling them about the program
as well.
But every class that we have wefeed these kids.
So we have some phenomenalcommunity partners that donate
food to us and so there's alwaysfood for these kids.
(25:53):
Anna Marie's Italian restaurant, pizzeria they're phenomenal.
Buffalo Wild Wings We've workedwith Cane's, we're working with
Chick-fil-A.
Right now Smith's has beeninstrumental.
They provide tons of snacks andthings for these kids.
And then as well as Smith's wasalso saying when we first got
(26:14):
involved with them, that if thekids graduated the program and
they were of age and passed abackground check, that they
would employ them.
So a lot of these kids washelping to get them entry-level
position jobs.
But it helps keep them busy andactive and not just sitting
around getting in trouble again.
So we're still constantlylooking for more resources
(26:34):
because now that the program'sexpanded we have to worry about.
Well, smith's can't hire 120kids tomorrow.
So we do understand that it's aheavy burden to ask for
something so large in that groupof numbers, but some of the
people can hire as long asthey're 18.
Or some of the people thatwe're working with now are like,
hey, we have late nightprograms, like the county, they
(26:59):
have specific programs just forteens and the older teens, they
have work programs, they havesummer programs.
But, um, we have all thesedifferent options that we
provide for the program, notjust our mentors, not just the
classes, but feeding them, giftsfor them.
We usually have our graduationsat red rock.
It's formal, we wear our class auniforms great excuse me, we
have our Clark Countycommissioners, city councilmen
(27:20):
and men and women that providethese kids with proclamations.
So they get awards, they getproclamations.
We give them trophies, they getplaques.
There's all sorts of goodrewards yeah, rewards yeah.
We give them shirts.
We usually get a lot of thingsdonated gift-wise backpacks,
duffel bags, sometimes shoes,hats, beanies.
We were blessed when we firststarted the program.
(27:40):
The Vegas Golden Knights issuedDream a $25,000 check.
Speaker 1 (27:44):
That's beautiful.
Speaker 3 (27:45):
So we're still using that check today.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
Shout out to the Golden Knights man, that's
stepping up, that's great, andDerek Inklin.
Speaker 3 (27:50):
When we had our first kickoff party, he provided us
another $10,000 check from theVGK Foundation.
So we've linked up with somephenomenal people who have been
there and blessed us withdonations for the program, and
it does it goes a long way.
Speaker 1 (28:03):
That's huge.
Speaker 3 (28:04):
We do get some donations, obviously, and some
of the people have their ownways of donating food and things
like that, but in order tosustain the program for a long
period of time, it woulddefinitely assist us.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
Yeah, that's great.
I feel like I've said it beforeit takes a real special person
to completely donate something,or even give something simple to
a bunch of strangers they nevermet before.
Sure, and one I have to shoutthem out for uh, danny mccumber
with bonefish grill actuallydonates these kids a
three-course meal for our partof the program and I know for
some of these, these kidsespecially, you know, upbringing
or however they, you know,wherever their situation is,
that is an enhancement in theirlives that they never will never
(28:42):
, probably ever see again, youknow what I mean and for us to
kind of give that experience tothem and have an individual like
Danny to be able to providethat for us.
That's awesome.
So we're very happy for thesepeople.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
I was curious.
I never asked this before.
I remember when I was inChicago they used to do midnight
leagues to probably keep peopleoff from because a lot of stuff
happens between midnight and 2o'clock at the border Nothing
good happens, nothing at all.
But do they do anything likethat in Las Vegas?
Not that we know of.
Okay, I need to figure out howto.
Speaker 3 (29:08):
I do know the county has, like I said, they have some
stuff that's like later in theevening Okay, like later in the
evening.
Okay, Because a lot of theseyou know the standard schedule.
Speaker 1 (29:14):
It's tough to do midnight.
Speaker 3 (29:15):
It's very, very tough , yeah, but I think they have
like a six to 10 hour and it'slike basketball stuff Okay.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
And the county has some.
Speaker 3 (29:22):
Okay, there are some programs out there, but we're
still trying to get moreinformation.
With our summer program, we'rehoping to explore that a little
bit more.
Speaker 4 (29:28):
Awesome.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
We're literally just getting started.
Speaker 4 (29:32):
Yeah, we're, we're.
Our plan is to to have a dreamrec center, you know, and to
have all the resources, all the.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
I love what you're saying, well, man that's great,
all the workshops that the kidsneeds that vision.
Our vision is strong, it's bigand I don't think we're going to
stop until we actually getthere.
What is the vision?
You answered it for me, man.
Well, I got to make this fun alittle bit.
We always ask our guests.
We don't have our traditionalinterviews.
We have, but we talk about foodall the time.
(29:59):
I'm a big foodie, so I do gotto ask you guys what is your
favorite restaurant in Vegas?
I'm going to start with Benfirst.
So, favorite restaurant inVegas, man?
Speaker 3 (30:07):
that's a tough one.
Food is good.
Here is so diverse for food andit's tough because I'm
constantly looking for new ones.
Of course, yeah, um, you know,I follow a lot of the foodie
pages.
But man, um, I know one of myfavorites was soho, soho, okay.
(30:28):
More on jones and warm sushispot.
Yeah, okay, it's like a, it's asushi restaurant okay but uh, I
heard they recently changedmanagement, so okay, I have not
been since.
Speaker 1 (30:34):
So that was probably one of my favorite go-tos.
Okay, good stuff.
Speaker 3 (30:37):
I love me some sushi.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
Good stuff, good stuff.
They got great food.
All right, that's awesome.
I think somebody mentioned Soho, I think before.
What about you, nate?
Speaker 2 (30:46):
Well, at a young age you're always taught no one
cooks better than your ownmother.
I got got to do a shout out tomy mom's place, Vicky's Diner.
Speaker 1 (30:56):
Okay, where's Vicky's Diner?
Speaker 2 (30:57):
It's off of Saharan Commercial Center.
Okay, quick little fact.
My grandfather used to own itback in the 50s and 60s, but it
used to be located off of VegasBoulevard in Oakey.
Okay, so it's the old WhiteCross.
Okay, so to go there.
Mom took it over back in 2000.
Speaker 1 (31:17):
It's our little spot we go to for everything.
100% go there.
I'm checking out restaurants.
Old school home good diner food, you said it was Vicky's.
Diner.
Nobody's mentioned that.
Somebody's mentioned Soho.
Shout out to Vicky's Diner.
What about you, Juan?
What?
Speaker 4 (31:32):
about you, man.
Vegas is tough man becauseVegas has so many good spots,
it's becoming the mecca.
Yeah, yeah, it is the mecca.
You know, my wife and I, thebiggest thing is like when her
family always comes out.
We always go to the cellar.
Oh okay, it's always a goodspot.
Steaks are amazing.
Speaker 1 (31:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (31:50):
I'm a steak guy.
Okay, talk about sushi.
Speaker 1 (31:59):
I love sushi we hit up a spot up in harris is called
k?
Speaker 4 (32:00):
uh kaisen, kaisen, kaisen, okay, okay, yeah, great
spot we've been going.
I'm gonna stop you for onesecond.
The steakhouse.
Speaker 1 (32:04):
I'm not even gonna lie to you.
I just went this past saturday,the 666.
I saw your post and I got oh mygod, I'm not even gonna, I'm
not.
Even.
Well now you said I gotta givehim a.
I was mad I didn't get aninvite.
That is probably the best steakI've ever had, really In the
winter, yeah.
Speaker 2 (32:19):
You know where it's from right.
Speaker 1 (32:21):
It's one of the ranches, yeah.
Speaker 2 (32:22):
Well, it's off the Yellowstone, it's like
Yellowstone.
Speaker 1 (32:25):
Yeah, okay, yeah, but it's a pop-up and so they're
only doing it through.
I think it was March 16th.
They told us we were just there.
Yeah, we were literally justthere.
So check it out 100%.
I appreciate that.
But what else do you want toleave us out on?
I know you mentioned the visionof maybe having a rec center of
dream, but what would you guyssay that anything I maybe forgot
to ask you guys that you wantto leave us out on?
Speaker 2 (32:46):
I know a biggest one too.
I want people to know that theprogram just isn't like
classroom, right um because youguys are out right about field
trips, things like that.
The biggest proponent I have tosay in dream is to motivate.
Right, yeah, we're not sittinghere in a base where it's like,
oh, you have to take a test oran essay to pass some certain
standard.
All we ask is, when you're inour program, you participate?
(33:07):
Yeah, it's all aboutparticipation and respect, and
what we try to show these kidsis our biggest philosophy, is
our I over E, which is usingyour intellect over emotion.
You know what I mean.
So we try to show them withboxing they can control that
anger.
So, you know, a big shout outto Richard Steele boxing, who's
been working with us since wefirst started.
You know, don Chee King is oneof our trainers and coaches out
(33:29):
there and he does a phenomenaljob with these kids.
And another one, I have to say,is Sergio Pena's Jiu-Jitsu
house.
And what's always weird I knowwe can all agree on this is
every time we get these kids tofirst try Jiu-Jitsu it's a
battle, you know what I mean,because it's something new and
they don't know.
But when they see us officersand everyone else engaged in it
and they try it, yeah, and Ialways tell them it's a
(33:51):
discipline.
Speaker 3 (33:51):
They light up too, man, they sure do.
It's strange how much they likeit, but they don't want to
Right.
Speaker 1 (33:56):
They're like this is weird, I got to take my shoes
off.
Yeah, just try it, but oncethey get it, and they don't
realize over time.
Speaker 2 (34:04):
Man, it's going to help them.
100.
Tyler Gaston with the GasStation Studios is one of the
coolest things I've ever seen.
Speaker 1 (34:10):
I think you mentioned him when I went to the
headquarters.
Speaker 2 (34:14):
Because you got to think about.
Because you teach them aboutmedia and producing and sound,
and a lot of times you get thesekids that seek ambition A lot
of them in this day and age it'sall about that lifestyle, the
music game or even doing simplethings like podcasting.
Here you build them to havethat comfort, and the way Tyler
can motivate them and actuallyget them to come out of their
shell a little bit is superawesome.
(34:35):
Because I'll be real with you,the hardest thing in the world
is public speaking and we makethese kids, we tell them you're
going to stand up in front ofyour peers and you're going to
introduce yourself.
Hence why we have a classcalled who Am I?
Talk to us, who you are,because you have to get
comfortable in life withspeaking to people, because it
makes you smarter and it makesyou allow you to have that more
confidence.
Speaker 1 (34:53):
Well, when you said that and I could talk about this
for hours because of my boys isfinance and communication.
That's like everything andwe've been doing it for years.
Like with my kids is Iinterview them the night before
their birthday and it's for us.
But it's the communicationstyle of being able to talk
about yourself, speak about yourvision, doing all these
different things, but they canlearn that.
(35:13):
But that's awesome, that you're.
You know that you're thegentleman's teaching about the
studio and, like I said, I sayit on record, chris.
Chris had my back on this.
My wife too is we want to bepart of it too.
Speaker 3 (35:25):
If maybe this is a field trip for the kids, for
them to be able to come in, andmaybe it's a guest, that no.
Speaker 1 (35:27):
I told you straight up, yeah, and I'll put that on
record is because we want to beinvolved in the community too.
Is Vegas circle is a big circleand it's about culture, it's
about business and making animpact and, honestly, we know
you guys are making an impactand we want to be part of that,
so that's awesome.
Speaker 4 (35:42):
I appreciate what you guys are doing.
That's how Boston did it.
Guess what?
That's how we're.
Speaker 1 (35:44):
Yeah, 100.
I mean Boston was my oldstomping ground.
My parents and stuff livedthere.
My older brother, but this ishome for me now you know what I
mean and we got to figure out away to try to direct it, because
Vegas is a tough city, man.
Speaker 4 (35:59):
It's not a game.
I don't think we mentioned onething.
Sure, the program is free.
Oh, that's right.
We did not mention that, thatis very important.
I did want to say that beforewe ended.
I'm glad you said that it'sfree.
There's no charge.
You don't have to pay a dime ornothing.
All we ask for is aparticipation from the parent as
well, we don't just want thisto be a program because we've
(36:20):
had it before where the parentjust thinks I'm going to drop
him off, I'll see you in an houror two, and then the child
isn't changing.
Sure, right, because there's somuch as an officer, what you
can do right, or as a community,what you can do, because if
things aren't right at home,then guess what?
And we don't know about it andwe're never going to make a
change.
He's always gonna.
That child's going to stick tohis ways.
So we always ask for theparents participation.
We have, we get them involved.
(36:41):
And the program isn't only forthe kids.
Yeah, the program is for thefamilies themselves.
We have so many partners outthere that if the parents
looking for a job, looking forfood help, help with housing,
help with paying the rent,that's huge.
We get them all that support.
We have great support?
Speaker 1 (36:55):
Yeah, Is there like a social handle for this site for
the DREAM program?
Is there anything that they canreach out to or just what's the
website that I can get?
Speaker 3 (37:04):
Unfortunately, we don't have a specific website
yet.
Speaker 1 (37:07):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (37:08):
We have the LVMPD OCE page on Instagram.
Speaker 1 (37:10):
Okay, so that's what they can at least see, okay.
Speaker 3 (37:12):
So, office of Community Engagement, we'll get
you a copy of our flyer.
Speaker 1 (37:16):
Okay, perfect, so something at least can let them
know.
When I put this out, they'llreach directly to us.
Speaker 2 (37:20):
Okay, a lot of events , too, is all through Facebook,
okay.
Speaker 4 (37:23):
Perfect, so Facebook can get up Any upcoming and even
if they want to reach out toyou and say hey, can you contact
?
Speaker 1 (37:31):
us 100%.
We'll get you involved, youguys.
Speaker 4 (37:33):
That would be great, too Awesome.
That would be awesome.
Speaker 3 (37:35):
That would make it work.
Our next class we're looking tostart February 24th February
24th.
It'll run 12 weeks and I think,as we said at graduation, it
will be like May 15th.
Speaker 2 (37:44):
May 15th.
Speaker 3 (37:46):
What we want to do giant kickoff party for our last
one.
It was very successful.
Several hundred people showedup.
Um, that was fun, but uh, youknow we don't always get the
kids super engaged in thebeginning.
But our main focus right now isswitching the kickoff event to
like a parent's night.
So we want to shoot forfebruary 20th as our parents
night.
So we want to bring the parentsin and we decided based on just
(38:10):
how we do it as cops before westart the academy, they have a
parent night a couple of daysbefore we start and they say,
hey, we don't want no officers,are there, just your families.
Cause we're going to tell youguys what to expect over the
next 24 weeks for us, but forour uh, our program.
We want the parents engaged andinvolved because we need them
just as much as they need us.
We're very social with thefamilies, we learn about them
(38:33):
and a lot of parents and they'remore than welcome to stay a lot
of them stay.
They sit in the classroom, everysingle class.
They're there the entire timeand they're just as engaged.
But we learn so much aboutthese families and we get phone
calls on the weekends all thetime.
We get text messages all thetime Not always good, but we
(38:55):
need to know that because weneed to know the thing you said
communication.
So you gotta have the overcommunication.
Yeah, and you know it's just asmuch a reinforcement for the
families and the parents as well.
Yeah, because sometimes thesekids, they, they get the push
over parents and then we're likeyeah, yeah no, no, no, we're
gonna hold you accountable.
We're gonna, we're gonna helpyou do this, and we're gonna
walk down this path, yeah, andthese kids are smart, man.
Speaker 1 (39:09):
They are extremely, are Extremely smart Shifty.
So yeah, I'm going to use thatword, shifty, I use that.
Well, I applaud you guys, man.
Thanks for sitting down with us.
Sorry, chris, couldn't be withyou guys, man, but I didn't want
to cancel.
I wanted to keep this going man.
Chris Beck is on fire.
He's older to me.
I'm going to say that We'llcheck you guys out and plot us
(39:30):
and check us out the biggestcirclecom.
So appreciate y'all's time, man.
Speaker 2 (39:32):
There's good stuff.
Thank you for having usSeriously.
Welcome to Vegas Circle Podcast with your hosts
Paki and Chris.
We are people who arepassionate about business,
success and culture, and this isour platform to showcase people
in our city who make it happen.
On today's podcast, we're goingto be diving into the DREAM
Program.
We'll explore what the DREAM is, the officers that are leading
it.
So let's welcome to the Circle.
Las Vegas Metro PoliceDepartment's officers of the
DREAM Program.
(00:20):
We got Mr Ben Baldessari I'mtrying not to jack they babe up
We've got Juan Orstoga and thenwe also got Nick Calisas.
I was close enough, right onthe money.
Right on the money, man.
So let's jump in, man.
So we got the Dream Program.
I originally met Ben.
We were talking offline earlier, I think it was about two years
ago.
We met at a town hall, actuallyGot a chance to connect and
(00:41):
talk a little about the DREAMprogram.
And then you invited us down,man, which I really appreciate.
You invited us down to LasVegas' headquarters, got a
chance to meet you and Juan andsit with you guys for a couple
hours and really just kind ofdissect what you guys are doing
with the program.
Honestly, I'm just I'm reallyhappy to see what you guys are
doing.
I think it's setting a presencehere, it's making an impact.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
I know, nick, I think was part of like the original
part of this right, so I'll leadit to you first then.
So let's say for you first whatis the Dream Program?
What is it all about?
Yeah, so when we startedSummerland Area Command this was
back in 2020, you know, we hadan idea and an ambition to try
to see what can we do for ouryouth out there.
You know, originally we werenoticing that kids that were,
you know, getting in trouble.
We weren't really doinganything for them, doing the
traditional justice route ofgoing disciplinary right, of
(01:32):
doing the arrest, doing thecitation.
So instead we said, well, whydon't we try a more positive
approach?
Let's try doing fundamental,you know, motivating these kids.
And for me, I'm a big proponenton you learn a lot off other
people's experiences, you knoweveryone here in this story.
they have a story to tell.
Everyone has something thatthey can teach and what we try
to do, especially in Dreamitself, you know, is part of our
acronym, you know, discover,redirect, empower, advocate and
(01:53):
mentor.
That mentoring does such a bigthing in these kids' lives
because a lot of these kids theycome from families that they
don't have that positive rolemodel.
And for us, you know, I feelthat's why a lot of us became
police officers, because we wantto try to enrich and impact the
lives of our community membersand try to bring back that
public trust.
You know, being a native, youknow Vegas here.
(02:14):
You know I always grew up.
You know parents were two oldschool Greek people that had
diners and all the traditional,you know, stuff you have.
But we always trust in ourcommunity.
The traditional stuff you have,but we always trust in our
community.
So for us we want to try toshow that same kind of
encouragement.
And what we saw when we startedDream was we were taking
children that had the highestcalls for service in our area
(02:35):
and we noticed that when we putthem through this program, we
put them through mentoring, wesaw a difference, that all of a
sudden, the calls started todrop.
We started noticing they wereimpacting their lives and we
were seeing a difference in them.
And I think for us, especiallyas officers, that's what really
makes the thing, because you canget over 100 kids right, and
maybe you reach 20, maybe youreach one, but that one you
(02:57):
reach.
If you can have him change adifference in his life, that's a
win.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
So for me.
That's what a dream comes inNow, when did dream?
Speaker 2 (03:03):
start?
Was it 2021?
The first class started in 2021with just two kids, literally
with two kids, and I'm proud tosay we've graduated over 420
kids at this moment right now.
That is awesome.
So it started with literallyjust one area commands vision.
We were able to grow it tobring it over to Spring Valley,
(03:24):
which Officer Juan here did anamazing job taking over and
really growing that himself andI'll let him kind of get into it
when we go there and then wewere able to grow it over to
South Central.
So all this hard work all theseofficers were doing right, all
the impact that we're making andseeing the success stories,
that's what kind of caught theeye of our headquarters and,
like how officer Ben was sayingbefore about what was going on
(03:45):
in Boston, they said, well,we're doing that here too, we're
just doing it through the dreamprogram.
And that's when it was well,why don't we just have this get
involved to become its ownsection?
And that's where we're at todayand we're very happy and it's a
lot of work, but we all lovewhat we do you know so.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
So how did you guys all get connected?
So you first started off in2021, kind of like.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
So when I first got to the section, the section we
were currently all in was calledthe community-oriented policing
section.
Right, okay, when I first gotthere I had never worked with
youth, you know I was told, hey,you're going to go join this
thing called the DREAM programand I remember at first I was
like, well, what's the DREAMprogram?
They're like it's a youth thingsitting in that classroom with
(04:32):
the original first dream officer, you know, adrian Hunt, and
seeing how he talked to thesekids and seeing how they
connected to him.
That's what inspired me to wantto do this to see someone who
you don't even know, a completestranger, connect themselves
with you, or even to try toshare a personal history and see
them grow from it.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
That, that right there, I was like this, is it
this?
Speaker 2 (04:52):
was.
It was the.
That was the light that sparkedit.
You know what I mean.
So for us it grew and we wereable to get so much more out of
it.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
That's awesome man I'm going to pass this to Ben
Absolutely.
So how did you get involved?
I know, when we met a coupleyears ago, that was like when we
first kind of connected and youmentioned like, hey, man, we've
got this dream program and Forme, how can I get involved?
How can we better help, chrisand I and things?
But how did you?
Speaker 3 (05:14):
get involved.
So Nick and I worked togetherat Summerlin Area Command, okay.
And when I transferred over toCOP, the Community Oriented
Policing Section, I took overfor that void when Adrian left.
Okay, so Adrian and Nick wererunning it.
And then, when Adrian left, hewent up to our Intergovernmental
Affairs Section and then I tookover his spot as Nick's partner
(05:36):
.
So we were still doing ourcommunity stuff, which is when I
met you.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
Got it.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
And so on our off time, in between, what we were
doing on our daily stuff, wewould run the dream program, and
then Juan was doing the samething over at Spring Valley and
they were doing the same thingover at South Central.
So we had three differentprograms running but only for
the specific areas that weworked, got it.
So now we've obviouslytransferred over into one giant
(06:02):
section that covers the entirevalley.
But at the time when I had metyou, that's how we were
incorporated, with our communitysection and doing our community
engagement stuff.
So it was cool that I had anopportunity to meet you then,
because I believe everythinghappens for a reason.
Everything's timing, man youmeet people for specific reasons
at a specific time.
So here we are.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
That's awesome, man.
And then Juan bringing you inman, so you were doing the
Spring Valley side of thebusiness.
What kind of made you reallyget involved and really sink
your teeth into this program?
Speaker 4 (06:31):
also.
You know, it was crazy, as Ihad, I think, at the time I had
seven years on and my entirecareer was street, street,
street.
Okay, now are you from LasVegas also?
No, I've been here 19 and ahalf years.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
I'm originally from.
Speaker 4 (06:41):
LA, that's right.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (06:43):
So you know you go your entire career and you're
just hustling and bustling,running and gunning, and it was
this one thing.
It this one thing.
It's like you know you got tocatch the bad guy, right, but a
lot of people don't.
What a lot of people don't knowabout las vegas is when you're
a police officer, you patrol acertain area, you have repeat
offenders right, which is whatwe call our customers right,
(07:04):
it's literally you book them.
You already know they're goingto be out.
Yeah, you see them again.
You already know what they got.
And it was one of those thingswas like yeah, I felt great that
you were doing something forthe community, but it really
didn't change much, right.
So I got you kind of get boredof the streets a little bit,
right, and you want, you want toread, you want to build your
resume at some point and, likenick said, like you end up doing
(07:25):
the community stuff, which iscop, and you're doing the
community stuff, and then theytell you, hey, you're going to
take over this program.
You're like man, what?
Speaker 3 (07:32):
is this program.
Speaker 4 (07:33):
And the crazy thing about DREAM is that not every
cop knows.
I'm going to say maybe 25% ofpolice officers know what DREAM
is, and that's even ourdepartment, and it's crazy, it's
not a good thing, it's not agood thing at all, at all.
So then when I got involved atSpring Valley, I know I knew Ben
had just gone to Dream at thesame time at Summerlin and I've
(07:58):
known Nick and so I was like,all right, well, what are they
doing?
So I saw what they were doingand I was like, well, we got a
lot of kids on probation that wemade so much connections with
the west side of Juby Probationand they were all like, hey, can
we put our kids here, can weput our kids there?
And then we started finding abunch of different foundations
(08:19):
that were like, hey, we all dothe same thing.
How do we get involved with youguys?
Right, because no matter whatthe badge does, a lot of opens,
a lot of doors, right, yeah, sowhen I took over the program at
spring valley, it was one ofthose things where it's like we
started partnering up and thenwhat was next?
(08:39):
Right, yeah.
So we started seeing that the12 weeks was so amazing that we
changed so many kids perceptionof the badge itself because
we're doing it in uniform, youknow, um, and the biggest thing
that I think we all said when wewent into the academy and they
asked you why do you want to tobe a cop, it's because you want
to change or you want to betterthe community that you actually
work for, right, the communitythat you're growing up in or
(09:02):
raising your kids in, right.
I think that's the mentalitythat almost every cop has.
We're actually doing it.
You're working with you on adaily basis.
Because here's my thing I havenothing against.
I have family members that havecommitted crimes and stuff like
that gone to prison.
They've done their things.
But once they come out, it's alot harder for them to get back
into society, right.
(09:22):
And then starting up, startinglife at 25, 30, even 40 years
old, is a lot harder than doingit when you're still 18 years
old, right.
So that revolving door thing iswhat we wanted.
It's a real thing.
We wanted to stop it.
And crazy that we all had thesame mentality.
So we pushed and, pushed andpushed.
(09:43):
I don't know how many meetingswe definitely had with all the
upper ups and it's like, hey,how about you just throw it at
every area command and go teachevery other officer?
The problem is there's a ton ofofficers just like us, but
there's a lot of turnaround whenit comes to COP.
So I'm like that's not going tomake a change.
That's not what we're focusedon.
We're trying to make the changeand just and keep it right.
(10:04):
Stop the revolving door, causeit's going to be a revolving
door for us as well, and that'swhen we started pushing.
We put so much effort into itthat they decided, hey, we're
going to test for the position.
We ended up testing and luckily, by the grace of God, we ended
up getting top three positions,so one, two and three, and we
(10:25):
went up to headquarters.
So it's not like you can.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
Just, ben, and I have talked about this before.
It's not like you can just gosign up for it.
Hey, you guys get chosen.
You have to get tested.
What's that test like?
What do you have to get?
What's that?
Speaker 4 (10:35):
test like what do you have to?
It's basically an oral award.
Okay, right, and then what yougot to prove to?
Um, the people that are doingthe oral board they are.
They want to know that you'reactually fit to to hold the
position.
To hold the position,absolutely yeah, to hold the
position okay, because it's not.
This position has a lot ofliability, right, you're dealing
with a lot of kids.
You're dealing with kids thatwant to be gangsters, kids that
(10:58):
are gangsters, and they'reprobably going to test you
multiple times throughout theday Kids that are going to test
your patience at 100% right andyou have to maintain a
professional demeanor the entiretime.
(11:36):
No-transcript, damn, they'regonna get us right.
And I remember a couple carstops and I tell the story all
the time where you know we gotpulled over.
It was van eyes, I was eightyears old and you know my dad's
driving.
And then we get, um, we hadthree kids in the backseat,
which was my two sisters and I,and then we had one little girl,
(11:57):
a little blonde haired girl,and we were driving down Van
Nuys and we get pulled over.
I never forget that.
We got pulled over and twoofficers get out.
One gets out with the shotgunracks, it walks up to the car.
My dad gets scared, gets out ofthe car and they're yelling at
him.
And then one cop just walks upto the door, to the the back uh,
(12:17):
back door peeks in the windowand he goes are you okay, little
girl?
To the little girl, that wasthat my mom babysat.
So I never, that, never, left mymind.
But at the same time, growingup, I always said well, he
probably had a reason, you know.
But what was the reason?
Yeah, and then I moved to Vegasand guess what we're hiring.
I'm like man, let's try thisout Right.
(12:39):
If I ever want to make changesto where I want to perceive my,
I want my family to perceive thecops a different way.
I think I got to get myselfinto it and I did.
You know it was a goal as a kidanyways, because I never wanted
to be in gangs.
You know I knew that wasn't forme, and my mom, my dad, busted
their butt so hard for to keepme out of it that I think I I
wanted to maintain that right.
(12:59):
I wanted to keep that that.
My parents were proud of it, soI wanted to keep them proud yeah
so taking this over, takingthis program over, I think the
steps that we've taken right now, listen, I think we probably
don't sleep every night thinkingman, tomorrow we gotta go do to
go, do this, tomorrow we got togo do that.
Oh man, remember that kid.
We got to go help him.
We visit so many families andguess what we went from?
(13:20):
We don't like you, we don'tlike the police to.
Hey, can I hug you?
I get calls from kids that werein my program at Spring Valley
still to this day.
Call me Unc, hey, unc, hey, canyou help me with the job?
Absolutely, I can't pay, youcan't pay.
You know.
Hey, mom struggling with foodright now, can you help us?
Speaker 1 (13:39):
absolutely, I got you you got you got to be the
change you want to see so sotell me that.
I'm glad you opened it up withthat because that's that's very
powerful.
A lot of people can hear itbecause of the perception, like
we're been and I've talkedmultiple times over a couple
years and it and we do have abad perception on cops.
Right, I'm originally fromChicago and we've talked a lot
about some stories.
But what I want to talk aboutfirst is what is the ages of the
(14:03):
program?
If I remember correctly, it waslike 10 years old to about 18.
Okay, got it.
So it's basically fifth gradeall the way up to senior high
school.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
In reality, we don't necessarily turn anyone away.
Okay, um, but an eight-year-oldis not going to comprehend the
stuff that we're teaching.
Sure, it doesn't benefit.
We've had little siblings fromsome of our kids and we're like,
just bring them.
You know, they want to sit withbig brother, big sister, um, so
they kind of sit through it onoccasion.
But for the most part we reallywant to focus, focus mainly on
those middle school to highschool kids.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
That's the too cool age man.
They're really trying to figurethemselves out.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
And you get the 16, 17, and even 18-year-olds on
occasion, and sometimes theirminds are already made up.
And that's the tough part,because you're like man.
We really got to work withthese ones because we got to
change their minds, because ifwe don't, the decisions that
they're already involved in areliterally going to cost them
their life or change the courseof their life.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
So what's the quick synopsis of a 12-week program?
So let's say I've got two boysChris is not here today, he's
actually hurt his back but he'sgot three girls.
So let's say we wanted to putour five children into the
program.
What would that look like forthe listeners?
What would they experience ifthey were to sign up in the
program?
Speaker 3 (15:16):
Well, we do a lot of different stuff.
We have a curriculum withspecific classroom classes that
we do.
We teach some stuff and then webring in.
We have two specific mentorgroups that we use.
We use two groups.
One is called Thug Life, whichis true heroes under God, live
in freedom evermore.
Um, some amazing gentlemen thatare involved in that program.
(15:37):
Uh, their head guy is davidhollis.
He is a former blood gang memberfrom back in the day he's a
real cat, so they sit down incalifornia um, but he always
tells our kids he's like, uh, Ihad straight a's student body
president gangbanging, so youknow, he's like wherever you put
your motivation, you couldstill be doing bad stuff but you
could still go to school.
(15:58):
And he's like I'm living proofof that.
Uh, but he was one of the firstmembers of his family to kind
of make a better choice in hislife and to go the other route.
So he decided he didn't want todo that stuff anymore.
Um got into football.
Sports obviously changed himfor the better.
He ended up being on our UNLVchampionship team here back in
the 80s.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
Oh, that's awesome Played with.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
Randall Cunningham and some of the big names, okay,
and he ended up taking that allthe way to the NFL.
Played for the Kansas CityChiefs, okay.
Played for the Seahawks.
Those connect his network?
That would be crazy.
He's still got tons of nflplayer friends that he connects
with to this day, um.
But then he turned that afterthat career he went to juvenile
probation for 25 years pearl orjuvenile parole, excuse me, but
(16:40):
he was heavily involved inworking with the youth back then
.
So when he retired um, theystarted a, a group and got some
of their former you know friendstogether that were involved in
the same interest and so nowthey they help us with our
program.
And then the secondary programis SOW.
It's the spiritual, optimisticwarriors.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
And the guy who runs, that's Andrew Trujillo.
He's former head of the Mexicangangs in prison.
So you know just like Nickmentioned earlier, we want to
bring that reality to these kids.
So so, even though we're policeofficers, we're blessed with
this position right now becauseit's a very versatile role,
because we're not teaching thesekids to be cops.
We bring in that street reality, we bring in the doses of life
(17:22):
that's going to teach them thatone bad decision is going to
change the course of your entirelife.
And when you have a guy justlike Juan mentioned earlier,
restarting his life at 45 yearsold, come talk to these kids and
say, hey, man, I've been inprison since I was 17 years old,
I just got out and I got myfirst job, 45 years old, grown
man, my first real job, justbought my first car, just
(17:45):
starting my life over.
And these guys are tellingthese kids tatted, blasted up
you know what I mean with tearsin their eyes because they're so
sympathetic to the fact thatthey would go, they would give
anything to go back and sit inone of those kids' shoes and
start over and make differentdecisions.
And for us to be able toprovide that platform.
(18:05):
It's extremely unique becauseobviously this is not the job
that most people perceive as apolice officer, but like Juan
mentioned, we have a specifictask at hand to not only provide
these kids with a differentopportunity, but to give them
education, a dose of reality,and then to provide that
structure for them.
Some of them don't have it.
(18:26):
They have parents that reallycare, and they don't always know
what to do with them, though,because these kids start doing
so much that the parents getstressed out and sometimes they
literally give up, and when theytalk to us they say I've
completely given up, I don'tknow what else to do.
I've tried abc one, two, threeand, and I'm at, I'm at your
mercy at this point, like andI'm glad you brought that up,
(18:48):
because I mean las vegas.
Speaker 1 (18:49):
I've been here 17 years now and vegas is a place.
I don't know if I could havedone it when I was a young kid
man.
I don't know if it's just toomuch to just too much to do.
So having a program that thatyou guys have man is awesome.
What we noticed too.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
It's um, you allow some of these kids the
opportunity to actually beleaders, and not just, you know,
for themselves.
But there's um, we observed alot in this last cohort we did,
where even some of our kids thatwere on parole and probation
right and they they were forcedto have to be in the class due
to circumstances, but allowingthem that opportunity to be a
leader for other kids or fortheir classmates, it just showed
(19:27):
such a spark.
Because it's like ben wassaying you know our mentors.
You know a lot of these guyswere in your shoes when you were
young.
They were there, they, theywere in that same age, they made
those same mistakes and this isthe outcome some of them had.
And to see where they've gottento and what they've become, and
they see how they are with us,how they interact.
We're all family.
You know what I mean and I'lltell these guys.
I see them every day when I dabthem up and I've been working
(19:48):
with these guys.
I consult with them and ourbiggest proponent in dream it
doesn't matter what you've donein your past and it matters what
you're doing now.
We tell these kids, every dayis a gift, that's why we call it
the present, you know what Imean.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
You have to be willing to be the change you
want to see and make your ownopinion of it.
I want to step back just alittle bit about the Boston
Miracle.
So, if I'm understandingcorrectly, a miracle, so if I'm,
if I'm understanding correctly,it was like 150% decrease in
crime, right, and because of theprogram that Boston put
together, so.
So how did you guys connectwith them to be able to
understand what the you knowwhat was in that program, what
worked in that program, and beable to bring that back to Las
(20:30):
Vegas?
How did that?
Speaker 3 (20:31):
work Across the country sheriffs, chiefs, you
know very-ups of departments.
They all get together andthere's conferences I don't know
what it's called, so forgive me.
Sure, they have their ownlittle conventions and things
that they do and they info-sharea lot of stuff.
So when these departments allhear about something like what
Boston was doing, everybody'sears perk up and they're like yo
(20:53):
, what are they doing?
Because a 30% to 40% reductionis a good number, but when you
have something like that 150 ishuge.
It's unheard of.
It literally is unheard of.
So they start trying to findout hey, what are they doing?
And then they find out thatBoston has a slew of programs
that they're doing and they'reheavily targeting the juvenile
population and it seems to beworking.
(21:14):
But, uh, you know, they havesocial workers and they have all
these different avenues for, uh, you know, these programs to
connect with.
And so, um, when the sheriff uhfound out that that that's how
they were doing things, that hekind of said well, you know, we
have something similar here.
Maybe we should exploit that andreally expand on it.
So that's that'sREAM programturned into a centralized
(21:37):
valley-wide program that it isnow.
Speaker 4 (21:38):
Awesome, the one thing, if I can piggyback off of
what Ben was saying.
The one thing that I think whatwe kind of heard and what
Boston is doing different is youend up finding, while doing the
DREAM program here, you end upfinding a ton of different
resources that the city actuallyhas that nobody really knows
that exist, because I mean,communication isn't there.
(22:00):
So, um, throughout doing theirprogram, they have entities from
everywhere, like theiruniversities.
They, you know how they do theirresearch jobs and they have, uh
, their social workers that haveto do their hours and, you know
, even their doctors have tocover some hours and stuff like
that.
They all got together.
(22:21):
And kind of overlappedeverything, overlapped
everything, because everybodywas trying to do the same thing.
So now, instead of doing thesame thing, they're all one in
one big pile.
It's one resource, right?
And it's like, hey, I have thischild, or I have this family,
or I have this adult, they allneed this, this, this and this.
Who's got it?
I got it, I got it, we'll worktogether.
(22:41):
We got this, you got that.
So they came together as a fullcommunity and that's how their
numbers have gone down.
Right, that's awesome.
That's what we're trying to do,bed nick and I.
We partner with a ton of people.
We reach out to a ton of people, um, that are out here doing
the same thing harbor, t-pop, um, parks and rec, the
(23:04):
commissioner's office, sure, um,we and we even just find
regular foundations that youknow pop up on ig and we email
them.
Hey, the shack foundation yeahyou know all these different
foundations that are doing thesame thing he does, have been
every year, yeah, last coupleyears yeah, yeah shameless.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
Yeah, there you go, yeah, listen, yeah, listen, yeah
, just in case you're listening,right, yeah?
Speaker 4 (23:26):
but we work with all these different foundation
organizations because we want tomake sure we just we instead of
all doing our little bit hereand a little bit there, we can
all come together.
One big thing we have afoundation, an organization that
actually has been that workwith us at Spring Valley, that
we're bringing up during thesummer, and their biggest thing
is we are a village.
(23:47):
But we always say it takes avillage.
Right, so we are the village,so it takes a village to set up
to help more people, to actuallyhelp our community make a
difference and an impact.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
So how can we get involved?
Right, so I know you guys havementors.
You've got certain companiesthat can obviously give
donations, things like that.
Walk us through real quick onhow we can help as Las Vegas
community.
How can we reach out to youguys to be part of that?
Do you guys have a website thatwe can, just as Las Vegas
community, how can we reach outto you guys to be part of that?
Do you guys have a website thatwe can just give donations for
or we can come out and beinvolved in a program Like how
does that work?
Speaker 2 (24:22):
Yeah, so, being part of the office of community
engagement, a lot of like ourresources and how we advertise
is through, obviously, socialmedia.
So you'll see postings on, youknow, facebook and Instagram,
and also right now, ourheadstrong goal is here.
We're trying to have at least afall class, a spring class and,
like Juan was saying, a summerclass, so it's going to be
(24:43):
year-round A big connection onthere.
We all have our contactinformation on our flyer page
that we're going to be postingout there too.
So the biggest thing is we telleveryone, everywhere you go, if
you feel someone wantsleadership, it isn't even if you
meet the criteria.
If someone seeks leadership,please send them our way.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
That's awesome, even as a partner itself.
Speaker 4 (25:02):
if you're looking to make a difference in your
community, by all means reachout.
There's always space time wecan make it work.
Speaker 3 (25:10):
I will touch on that real quick Sure real quick.
So a lot of what our communitypartners do is not just refer
these kids to us, which is hugebecause, you know, having like
what Juan says, having thislarge group and everyone has the
same goal in mind.
When they find out that there'sa kid that could use this
program, they reach out to us,they send the information.
Hey, I have a good referral foryou.
(25:30):
We then reach out to theparents, we contact them
directly and then we say, hey,you were referred to us or
whatever.
We have a program if youhaven't heard about it, but
luckily our partners are kind oftelling them about the program
as well.
But every class that we have wefeed these kids.
So we have some phenomenalcommunity partners that donate
food to us and so there's alwaysfood for these kids.
(25:53):
Anna Marie's Italian restaurant, pizzeria they're phenomenal.
Buffalo Wild Wings We've workedwith Cane's, we're working with
Chick-fil-A.
Right now Smith's has beeninstrumental.
They provide tons of snacks andthings for these kids.
And then as well as Smith's wasalso saying when we first got
(26:14):
involved with them, that if thekids graduated the program and
they were of age and passed abackground check, that they
would employ them.
So a lot of these kids washelping to get them entry-level
position jobs.
But it helps keep them busy andactive and not just sitting
around getting in trouble again.
So we're still constantlylooking for more resources
(26:34):
because now that the program'sexpanded we have to worry about.
Well, smith's can't hire 120kids tomorrow.
So we do understand that it's aheavy burden to ask for
something so large in that groupof numbers, but some of the
people can hire as long asthey're 18.
Or some of the people thatwe're working with now are like,
hey, we have late nightprograms, like the county, they
(26:59):
have specific programs just forteens and the older teens, they
have work programs, they havesummer programs.
But, um, we have all thesedifferent options that we
provide for the program, notjust our mentors, not just the
classes, but feeding them, giftsfor them.
We usually have our graduationsat red rock.
It's formal, we wear our class auniforms great excuse me, we
have our Clark Countycommissioners, city councilmen
(27:20):
and men and women that providethese kids with proclamations.
So they get awards, they getproclamations.
We give them trophies, they getplaques.
There's all sorts of goodrewards yeah, rewards yeah.
We give them shirts.
We usually get a lot of thingsdonated gift-wise backpacks,
duffel bags, sometimes shoes,hats, beanies.
We were blessed when we firststarted the program.
(27:40):
The Vegas Golden Knights issuedDream a $25,000 check.
Speaker 1 (27:44):
That's beautiful.
Speaker 3 (27:45):
So we're still using that check today.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
Shout out to the Golden Knights man, that's
stepping up, that's great, andDerek Inklin.
Speaker 3 (27:50):
When we had our first kickoff party, he provided us
another $10,000 check from theVGK Foundation.
So we've linked up with somephenomenal people who have been
there and blessed us withdonations for the program, and
it does it goes a long way.
Speaker 1 (28:03):
That's huge.
Speaker 3 (28:04):
We do get some donations, obviously, and some
of the people have their ownways of donating food and things
like that, but in order tosustain the program for a long
period of time, it woulddefinitely assist us.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
Yeah, that's great.
I feel like I've said it beforeit takes a real special person
to completely donate something,or even give something simple to
a bunch of strangers they nevermet before.
Sure, and one I have to shoutthem out for uh, danny mccumber
with bonefish grill actuallydonates these kids a
three-course meal for our partof the program and I know for
some of these, these kidsespecially, you know, upbringing
or however they, you know,wherever their situation is,
that is an enhancement in theirlives that they never will never
(28:42):
, probably ever see again, youknow what I mean and for us to
kind of give that experience tothem and have an individual like
Danny to be able to providethat for us.
That's awesome.
So we're very happy for thesepeople.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
I was curious.
I never asked this before.
I remember when I was inChicago they used to do midnight
leagues to probably keep peopleoff from because a lot of stuff
happens between midnight and 2o'clock at the border Nothing
good happens, nothing at all.
But do they do anything likethat in Las Vegas?
Not that we know of.
Okay, I need to figure out howto.
Speaker 3 (29:08):
I do know the county has, like I said, they have some
stuff that's like later in theevening Okay, like later in the
evening.
Okay, Because a lot of theseyou know the standard schedule.
Speaker 1 (29:14):
It's tough to do midnight.
Speaker 3 (29:15):
It's very, very tough , yeah, but I think they have
like a six to 10 hour and it'slike basketball stuff Okay.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
And the county has some.
Speaker 3 (29:22):
Okay, there are some programs out there, but we're
still trying to get moreinformation.
With our summer program, we'rehoping to explore that a little
bit more.
Speaker 4 (29:28):
Awesome.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
We're literally just getting started.
Speaker 4 (29:32):
Yeah, we're, we're.
Our plan is to to have a dreamrec center, you know, and to
have all the resources, all the.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
I love what you're saying, well, man that's great,
all the workshops that the kidsneeds that vision.
Our vision is strong, it's bigand I don't think we're going to
stop until we actually getthere.
What is the vision?
You answered it for me, man.
Well, I got to make this fun alittle bit.
We always ask our guests.
We don't have our traditionalinterviews.
We have, but we talk about foodall the time.
(29:59):
I'm a big foodie, so I do gotto ask you guys what is your
favorite restaurant in Vegas?
I'm going to start with Benfirst.
So, favorite restaurant inVegas, man?
Speaker 3 (30:07):
that's a tough one.
Food is good.
Here is so diverse for food andit's tough because I'm
constantly looking for new ones.
Of course, yeah, um, you know,I follow a lot of the foodie
pages.
But man, um, I know one of myfavorites was soho, soho, okay.
(30:28):
More on jones and warm sushispot.
Yeah, okay, it's like a, it's asushi restaurant okay but uh, I
heard they recently changedmanagement, so okay, I have not
been since.
Speaker 1 (30:34):
So that was probably one of my favorite go-tos.
Okay, good stuff.
Speaker 3 (30:37):
I love me some sushi.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
Good stuff, good stuff.
They got great food.
All right, that's awesome.
I think somebody mentioned Soho, I think before.
What about you, nate?
Speaker 2 (30:46):
Well, at a young age you're always taught no one
cooks better than your ownmother.
I got got to do a shout out tomy mom's place, Vicky's Diner.
Speaker 1 (30:56):
Okay, where's Vicky's Diner?
Speaker 2 (30:57):
It's off of Saharan Commercial Center.
Okay, quick little fact.
My grandfather used to own itback in the 50s and 60s, but it
used to be located off of VegasBoulevard in Oakey.
Okay, so it's the old WhiteCross.
Okay, so to go there.
Mom took it over back in 2000.
Speaker 1 (31:17):
It's our little spot we go to for everything.
100% go there.
I'm checking out restaurants.
Old school home good diner food, you said it was Vicky's.
Diner.
Nobody's mentioned that.
Somebody's mentioned Soho.
Shout out to Vicky's Diner.
What about you, Juan?
What?
Speaker 4 (31:32):
about you, man.
Vegas is tough man becauseVegas has so many good spots,
it's becoming the mecca.
Yeah, yeah, it is the mecca.
You know, my wife and I, thebiggest thing is like when her
family always comes out.
We always go to the cellar.
Oh okay, it's always a goodspot.
Steaks are amazing.
Speaker 1 (31:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (31:50):
I'm a steak guy.
Okay, talk about sushi.
Speaker 1 (31:59):
I love sushi we hit up a spot up in harris is called
k?
Speaker 4 (32:00):
uh kaisen, kaisen, kaisen, okay, okay, yeah, great
spot we've been going.
I'm gonna stop you for onesecond.
The steakhouse.
Speaker 1 (32:04):
I'm not even gonna lie to you.
I just went this past saturday,the 666.
I saw your post and I got oh mygod, I'm not even gonna, I'm
not.
Even.
Well now you said I gotta givehim a.
I was mad I didn't get aninvite.
That is probably the best steakI've ever had, really In the
winter, yeah.
Speaker 2 (32:19):
You know where it's from right.
Speaker 1 (32:21):
It's one of the ranches, yeah.
Speaker 2 (32:22):
Well, it's off the Yellowstone, it's like
Yellowstone.
Speaker 1 (32:25):
Yeah, okay, yeah, but it's a pop-up and so they're
only doing it through.
I think it was March 16th.
They told us we were just there.
Yeah, we were literally justthere.
So check it out 100%.
I appreciate that.
But what else do you want toleave us out on?
I know you mentioned the visionof maybe having a rec center of
dream, but what would you guyssay that anything I maybe forgot
to ask you guys that you wantto leave us out on?
Speaker 2 (32:46):
I know a biggest one too.
I want people to know that theprogram just isn't like
classroom, right um because youguys are out right about field
trips, things like that.
The biggest proponent I have tosay in dream is to motivate.
Right, yeah, we're not sittinghere in a base where it's like,
oh, you have to take a test oran essay to pass some certain
standard.
All we ask is, when you're inour program, you participate?
(33:07):
Yeah, it's all aboutparticipation and respect, and
what we try to show these kidsis our biggest philosophy, is
our I over E, which is usingyour intellect over emotion.
You know what I mean.
So we try to show them withboxing they can control that
anger.
So, you know, a big shout outto Richard Steele boxing, who's
been working with us since wefirst started.
You know, don Chee King is oneof our trainers and coaches out
(33:29):
there and he does a phenomenaljob with these kids.
And another one, I have to say,is Sergio Pena's Jiu-Jitsu
house.
And what's always weird I knowwe can all agree on this is
every time we get these kids tofirst try Jiu-Jitsu it's a
battle, you know what I mean,because it's something new and
they don't know.
But when they see us officersand everyone else engaged in it
and they try it, yeah, and Ialways tell them it's a
(33:51):
discipline.
Speaker 3 (33:51):
They light up too, man, they sure do.
It's strange how much they likeit, but they don't want to
Right.
Speaker 1 (33:56):
They're like this is weird, I got to take my shoes
off.
Yeah, just try it, but oncethey get it, and they don't
realize over time.
Speaker 2 (34:04):
Man, it's going to help them.
100.
Tyler Gaston with the GasStation Studios is one of the
coolest things I've ever seen.
Speaker 1 (34:10):
I think you mentioned him when I went to the
headquarters.
Speaker 2 (34:14):
Because you got to think about.
Because you teach them aboutmedia and producing and sound,
and a lot of times you get thesekids that seek ambition A lot
of them in this day and age it'sall about that lifestyle, the
music game or even doing simplethings like podcasting.
Here you build them to havethat comfort, and the way Tyler
can motivate them and actuallyget them to come out of their
shell a little bit is superawesome.
(34:35):
Because I'll be real with you,the hardest thing in the world
is public speaking and we makethese kids, we tell them you're
going to stand up in front ofyour peers and you're going to
introduce yourself.
Hence why we have a classcalled who Am I?
Talk to us, who you are,because you have to get
comfortable in life withspeaking to people, because it
makes you smarter and it makesyou allow you to have that more
confidence.
Speaker 1 (34:53):
Well, when you said that and I could talk about this
for hours because of my boys isfinance and communication.
That's like everything andwe've been doing it for years.
Like with my kids is Iinterview them the night before
their birthday and it's for us.
But it's the communicationstyle of being able to talk
about yourself, speak about yourvision, doing all these
different things, but they canlearn that.
(35:13):
But that's awesome, that you're.
You know that you're thegentleman's teaching about the
studio and, like I said, I sayit on record, chris.
Chris had my back on this.
My wife too is we want to bepart of it too.
Speaker 3 (35:25):
If maybe this is a field trip for the kids, for
them to be able to come in, andmaybe it's a guest, that no.
Speaker 1 (35:27):
I told you straight up, yeah, and I'll put that on
record is because we want to beinvolved in the community too.
Is Vegas circle is a big circleand it's about culture, it's
about business and making animpact and, honestly, we know
you guys are making an impactand we want to be part of that,
so that's awesome.
Speaker 4 (35:42):
I appreciate what you guys are doing.
That's how Boston did it.
Guess what?
That's how we're.
Speaker 1 (35:44):
Yeah, 100.
I mean Boston was my oldstomping ground.
My parents and stuff livedthere.
My older brother, but this ishome for me now you know what I
mean and we got to figure out away to try to direct it, because
Vegas is a tough city, man.
Speaker 4 (35:59):
It's not a game.
I don't think we mentioned onething.
Sure, the program is free.
Oh, that's right.
We did not mention that, thatis very important.
I did want to say that beforewe ended.
I'm glad you said that it'sfree.
There's no charge.
You don't have to pay a dime ornothing.
All we ask for is aparticipation from the parent as
well, we don't just want thisto be a program because we've
(36:20):
had it before where the parentjust thinks I'm going to drop
him off, I'll see you in an houror two, and then the child
isn't changing.
Sure, right, because there's somuch as an officer, what you
can do right, or as a community,what you can do, because if
things aren't right at home,then guess what?
And we don't know about it andwe're never going to make a
change.
He's always gonna.
That child's going to stick tohis ways.
So we always ask for theparents participation.
We have, we get them involved.
(36:41):
And the program isn't only forthe kids.
Yeah, the program is for thefamilies themselves.
We have so many partners outthere that if the parents
looking for a job, looking forfood help, help with housing,
help with paying the rent,that's huge.
We get them all that support.
We have great support?
Speaker 1 (36:55):
Yeah, Is there like a social handle for this site for
the DREAM program?
Is there anything that they canreach out to or just what's the
website that I can get?
Speaker 3 (37:04):
Unfortunately, we don't have a specific website
yet.
Speaker 1 (37:07):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (37:08):
We have the LVMPD OCE page on Instagram.
Speaker 1 (37:10):
Okay, so that's what they can at least see, okay.
Speaker 3 (37:12):
So, office of Community Engagement, we'll get
you a copy of our flyer.
Speaker 1 (37:16):
Okay, perfect, so something at least can let them
know.
When I put this out, they'llreach directly to us.
Speaker 2 (37:20):
Okay, a lot of events , too, is all through Facebook,
okay.
Speaker 4 (37:23):
Perfect, so Facebook can get up Any upcoming and even
if they want to reach out toyou and say hey, can you contact
?
Speaker 1 (37:31):
us 100%.
We'll get you involved, youguys.
Speaker 4 (37:33):
That would be great, too Awesome.
That would be awesome.
Speaker 3 (37:35):
That would make it work.
Our next class we're looking tostart February 24th February
24th.
It'll run 12 weeks and I think,as we said at graduation, it
will be like May 15th.
Speaker 2 (37:44):
May 15th.
Speaker 3 (37:46):
What we want to do giant kickoff party for our last
one.
It was very successful.
Several hundred people showedup.
Um, that was fun, but uh, youknow we don't always get the
kids super engaged in thebeginning.
But our main focus right now isswitching the kickoff event to
like a parent's night.
So we want to shoot forfebruary 20th as our parents
night.
So we want to bring the parentsin and we decided based on just
(38:10):
how we do it as cops before westart the academy, they have a
parent night a couple of daysbefore we start and they say,
hey, we don't want no officers,are there, just your families.
Cause we're going to tell youguys what to expect over the
next 24 weeks for us, but forour uh, our program.
We want the parents engaged andinvolved because we need them
just as much as they need us.
We're very social with thefamilies, we learn about them
(38:33):
and a lot of parents and they'remore than welcome to stay a lot
of them stay.
They sit in the classroom, everysingle class.
They're there the entire timeand they're just as engaged.
But we learn so much aboutthese families and we get phone
calls on the weekends all thetime.
We get text messages all thetime Not always good, but we
(38:55):
need to know that because weneed to know the thing you said
communication.
So you gotta have the overcommunication.
Yeah, and you know it's just asmuch a reinforcement for the
families and the parents as well.
Yeah, because sometimes thesekids, they, they get the push
over parents and then we're likeyeah, yeah no, no, no, we're
gonna hold you accountable.
We're gonna, we're gonna helpyou do this, and we're gonna
walk down this path, yeah, andthese kids are smart, man.
Speaker 1 (39:09):
They are extremely, are Extremely smart Shifty.
So yeah, I'm going to use thatword, shifty, I use that.
Well, I applaud you guys, man.
Thanks for sitting down with us.
Sorry, chris, couldn't be withyou guys, man, but I didn't want
to cancel.
I wanted to keep this going man.
Chris Beck is on fire.
He's older to me.
I'm going to say that We'llcheck you guys out and plot us
(39:30):
and check us out the biggestcirclecom.
So appreciate y'all's time, man.
Speaker 2 (39:32):
There's good stuff.
Thank you for having usSeriously.
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