February 10, 2025 • 36 mins
Councilmember Ray Martin, a retired 22-year military veteran turned Vice Mayor of Lauderhill, joins us to unpack the incredible impact of nonprofit collaboration on community welfare. Discover how Ray's military background has shaped his insights into the crucial role nonprofits play in addressing the gaps that government support often leaves. He opens up about his memorable collaborations with organizations like ICNA Relief, which provide essential support during natural disasters, and underscores how nonprofits are vital assets in enhancing community resilience.
Explore the transformative power of partnerships and the immense potential for greater impact when public officials and nonprofits join forces. We spotlight initiatives from Women in Distress, Warm Hearts Foundation, and Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies, exploring how they are making a difference by supporting families, mentoring youth, and offering essential parental services. Ray delves into his vision of creating a network akin to a BNI group, where nonprofits can come together to optimize resources and avoid duplicating efforts, ultimately strengthening their service delivery and fundraising capabilities.
In our conversation, Ray offers invaluable advice for nonprofits seeking funding, emphasizing the importance of connecting early with city officials and presenting compelling stories that illustrate their impact. Learn from the successful collaboration between Joy's Roti and Farmshare, a testament to the power of coordinated resources in feeding those in need. As Ray shares his aspirations for Lauderhill, he passionately advocates for policy changes to support struggling families and seniors and build a legacy of increased homeownership and improved life quality for all residents. Join us as we explore how nonprofit collaboration can build stronger, more vibrant communities.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Chris Baker (00:35):
Welcome to another episode of Visual Eyes, where we
work on collaborations to helpnonprofits.
Today we are welcoming to theshow Councilmember Ray Martin.
Ray, could you share a littlebit of your journey from your 22
years in the military career tobecoming part of the City
(00:57):
Council of Lauderhill?
Ray Martin (00:59):
Yes, thank you, chris.
I want to first start off bysaying thank you to you and Momo
and what you guys do for ourcommunity, and thank you for
having me here.
My first name is Sarai, spelledS-A-R-A-I.
Most people can't pronounce itor understand what it means when
they see it written, so Itypically go by Ray.
Chris Baker (01:16):
Oh, fair enough, Ray Martin.
Ray Martin (01:19):
Commissioner for the City of Lauderhill, currently
serving as the Vice Mayor.
The Vice Mayor is a positionthat rotates annually between
the other four commissioners.
This year, I'm the lucky one.
I just was reelected in 2024.
My first election was in 2020.
The very first time I ran wasin 2018.
I lost my first election.
Got elected the second time Iran, which is in 2020.
(01:42):
And again, I was just reelectedin 2024.
Chris Baker (01:45):
So how.
Ray Martin (01:46):
I got here.
I grew up in South Florida.
I joined the military at theage of 17.
I served for 22 years.
I retired in 2025.
In 2025, I kind of wanted tofigure out what I want to do
when I grow up.
I had been in the military forso long that I didn't know what
it was like life outside of themilitary, so I wanted to
(02:06):
continue to serve.
And then I learned about thelocal politics.
I started serving on our localboards.
I started serving on our localhousing authority board, then I
served as chairman of the LauderHills Community Budget and
Advisory Board and as Icontinued to learn the city,
then I decided to run for office, and that's how I got to where
(02:27):
I am now.
Chris Baker (02:27):
So I just want to make sure that we clarify you
said 2025.
Did you mean 2015?
Ray Martin (02:32):
Oh, I'm sorry, 2015.
Yeah, so I was like, wow,you're like in the future.
It came back so no, that's allright.
Chris Baker (02:39):
Yeah, so it's 2015 is when you decide to start
making this change.
Perfect, okay.
So what inspired you?
And besides that, is thereanything else that inspired you
to help make an impact in thecommunity?
Besides really kind of want tostay in?
Ray Martin (02:52):
Well, when I was in the military, I was kind of
isolated from a lot of thestruggles that the average
community goes through and I didnot really fully appreciate or
understand how nonprofits, aswell as churches, contributed to
the community.
In the military, everything isprovided for you food, housing,
(03:12):
counseling services, chaplainservices, everything you need
and so we just kind of thinkeverybody has those same tools
at their disposal.
And when I got out, I realized,and I started even encountering
struggles myself.
I met other community memberswho were going through a lot of
things.
I had more time to spend withfamily members that I hadn't
(03:33):
spent with as much time withbecause I was away in the
military.
And when, as I learned throughtheir struggles, I ask everybody
how do you, how do you getthrough this, how do you do that
?
How you know, how are yousurviving?
How is the community going?
And the resources that theypointed me to a lot of times
were nonprofits.
And then, as I became anelected official, I realized I
thought I would be able to helpmany, many people as a elected
(03:56):
official.
However, that is not the case.
We can help some folks, butit's tax dollars.
We can't use our tax dollars tohelp individual persons, it has
to kind of benefit the greatercommunity and there's still a
large group of the populationthat's out there.
That's not that we can't assist, and so how do they get by or
(04:17):
how do they survive?
I learned that nonprofits arekey.
It's really the backbone that'skind of keeping the whole
country from falling apart.
Sometimes nonprofits are thelast net of relief, or the only
net that can kind of save quitea few people.
(04:38):
And so I've learned to grow toappreciate nonprofits.
And now, instead of trying todo things individually, I feel
like we as a city, where we canbest serve our community is by
using funds, instead of tryingto be a nonprofit ourselves, is
to give those funds and helpother nonprofits, who are
(05:00):
already experts at doing whatthey do, to make them a little
bit better, to help get morebang for our buck, so we're not
duplicating resources out thereand so so.
So that's kind of what I'veseen with the nonprofit space
and and and some of the, the,the holes within the system of
our, our, our political systemthat we can't, that we can't
(05:22):
help.
Chris Baker (05:22):
So no, and that's definitely where we have noticed
, as well as just you know,there is a gap and I'm glad to
hear that you know you'relooking at this and the city of
water hill is looking at this asa bigger scope of like.
How do we assist all of theseother pieces of people in the
community?
Um, we definitely need to makethat a priority.
(05:43):
So there is a wider range ofdifferent nonprofits that are
serving or a part of Lauder Hill.
Ray Martin (05:53):
Can you?
Chris Baker (05:53):
name some of those and any memorable collaborations
that you guys have had with anynonprofits.
Ray Martin (06:01):
Yeah, absolutely.
There's quite a few, some thatare headquartered in.
Chris Baker (06:04):
Lauder.
Ray Martin (06:04):
Hill and then there are some that are headquartered
in other cities, but they helpmany of our residents in Lauder
Hill, some that come to mind,one of them where we met.
You know I'll tell you whatI'll save where we met for last,
but I'll start off with ICNARelief.
I-c-n-a, the Islamic Circle ofNorth America.
Icna Relief is a Muslimorganization.
(06:25):
They provide a lot of freeresources, whether it be
financial or food or housing.
They're really awesome.
Some key takeaways is we had acouple of hurricanes in the past
and there was flooding andbecause of that flooding, stores
was closed.
There was no food.
Icna Relief brought out theirown vehicles.
They partner with, I want tosay, the larger food banks and
(06:48):
they bring that food to make itlocal to our residents and
there's no cost.
They give it to everyone, theyserve everyone.
Actually, you know what It'llbe a good segue, most recently
with Healthy Mothers, healthyBabies, where we met at.
ICNA Relief helped us acquiretwo pallets that included baby
(07:12):
formula, baby diapers and someother baby supplies free of
charge.
So it was one large nonprofitorganization giving to another
nonprofit organization and I wasable to happen because I knew
the two nonprofits and just kindof put them two together and so
I think they were able to helpwith about I don't know, maybe
(07:36):
about 100 families just fromfrom those two pallets alone.
And I just got a call last weekthat they have about 10 more
pallets that they're willing togive to healthy mothers, healthy
babies.
Uh, so that's a relationshipthat I hope will go into
impurity.
Um, just from their lastmeeting, um, some of the other
ones is women in distress.
(07:57):
Um, some of the other ones, um,mentorship program with our
Parkway middle school.
Uh, warm hearts and warm heartsmentorship I believe that's the
name of it.
It's a mentorship by one of theguidance that was started by
one of the guidance counselorsat our Parkway Middle School.
Because that guidance counselorfound that there were parents
(08:18):
of children that oftentimes wedon't know that they're going
without food or they're goinghungry or they're going without
electricity in, they're goinghungry or they're going without
electric electricity in theirhomes.
And because those counselors inschool are able to learn from
the children some of theenvironments they're living in,
that kind of birthed, thatnonprofit, and so as a public
(08:38):
official, what I try to do ishelp steer some of those
fundings to those organizationsthat can see families in
distress that maybe they havenot raised their hand to the
city so and they sometimes don'teven know who to turn to.
So just kind of summary Women inDistress, warm Hearts
Foundation, the ICNA Relief, andthen the Healthy Mother,
(09:00):
healthy Babies and one of theinitiatives with Healthy Mothers
, healthy Babies, excuse me.
Well, there's a few things.
They're helping a lot of singleparents, whether male or female
.
They provide counselingservices for men, help them get
back on track and reconnect withtheir children.
One of the things I think thehealthy mothers, healthy babies,
(09:21):
want to improve on is prematurebirth or the death I can't
remember the exact name of itbut a mother who loses the child
prior to birth.
They believe that it can be.
Those numbers can be reduced ifthey get the education and they
get healthy nutrition and gettheir services ahead of time.
(09:43):
but they don't know that theseservices exist and get their
services ahead of time, but theydon't know that these services
exist.
But there's a lot of mothersthat are suffering from
postpartum syndrome and if theyknew these services exist we can
probably reduce some of thoseinfant mortalities.
Chris Baker (09:56):
There could be a lot of yeah, lives saved.
Lives saved yeah, yeah,definitely.
So it's actually kind ofbeautiful that you were talking
about ICNA and Healthy Mothers,healthy Babies and that
connection, because that'sreally what has inspired us to
make this podcast.
Okay, it's really trying tofigure out how, like, two
nonprofits can either worktogether or four profits to work
(10:19):
with nonprofits so that theycan do bigger, better things.
So I'd like you to dive alittle bit deeper in how you
made that connection and because, like right now you're saying,
that's evolved and they're goingto be able to help sustain each
other longer.
And that's very valuable and, Ithink, to anybody that's
watching future podcasts.
Like we're wanting to hopefullygive them ideas so that they
(10:42):
can either reach out to theright people or think of a
different way to build thatcollaboration.
Ray Martin (10:47):
So if you could do a little bit, Absolutely, and a
lot of people call me for help.
Even prior to coming here,there was another phone call
that was requesting somefinancial assistance, and what I
found is, through the platform,being an elected official
commissioner here in the city ofWaterhill, what I found is I'm
not the expert, but I've becomea point of resource and, as a
(11:10):
result, when people are askingfor resources or for help, as I
mentioned before, there's a lotof times that the city just
simply can't do it.
However, when I open up theRolodex and look to the left and
right, I said I can't do it,city can't do it.
The city can't do it.
But guess what?
I just heard about anothernonprofit they can do it, and so
(11:32):
what I'd like to do in thefuture is work with people like
you, bring all our nonprofitstogether.
So this nonprofit is not tryingto do car washes to raise money
and this profit anothernonprofit around the corner is
selling fish dinners to raisemoney and guess what?
It's all for the same purpose.
But if we come together we cando a lot.
What did I say Team?
(11:54):
Together each achieves more,instead of everyone trying to do
it themselves.
So if we can get nonprofits tokind of function like what's one
of those organizations wherethey have one discipline, it's
one of those organizations wherethey have one discipline.
They might have a realtor, abanker, a plumber, an AC, like a
B&I group.
Chris Baker (12:12):
Yeah, like a B&I group yeah.
Ray Martin (12:16):
And so they come together so that it's one of
each area.
And I think if we can do thatwith our nonprofits and say,
okay, if you work with infants,you come to the table and now
we're looking for someone thatworks with adults, okay, now we
look for someone that's workingwith, uh, housing, another one
that works with food sustenance,and if we can uh bring all the
pieces together and we operatekind of in in unison.
(12:37):
And our calendars are anotherproblem.
When we're trying to raisemoney, we'll see a lot of
organizations have the eventsaround the same time and it's
hard for for-profitorganizations to donate to each
one because they're all at thesame time.
Chris Baker (12:51):
Right.
Ray Martin (12:53):
If they were like spaced out and we had some
synergy on how we collect money,how we get the message out, I
think is the way to go.
So I'm really looking tocontinue to work with our
nonprofits bring them to thetable, so we're not duplicating
efforts.
We can maximize fundraisingopportunities as well as being a
one-stop shop, so to speak.
Chris Baker (13:13):
Yeah, and one of the things that I have talked to
other people like I've talkedto Kathy Brown at the community
foundation of Broward, and it'sfinding ways to have some of the
maybe even a larger nonprofit.
They start another program,pillar, however you want to do
it, but that smaller nonprofitis really niche in that area and
(13:35):
maybe that becomes part of thatprogram and so it's like
another-.
Ray Martin (13:40):
Spoke on a wheel, yeah.
Chris Baker (13:42):
It just adds more value and there's more ability
to just do more things.
And that other nonprofit that'ssmaller and niched into what
they're really really good at,can do more.
Right Because they have moreresources, they have more you
know, potentially more staff.
That wasn't even there to likehey, can you make a couple calls
(14:03):
?
Ray Martin (14:04):
Yeah.
We could save and make a hugedifference, and that brings up a
good example that comes to mind, as I mentioned, the
partnership with ICNA, reliefand Healthy Mothers, healthy
Babies.
Like I mentioned, I got anothercall.
It says they have 16 pallets ofsupplies and materials for
young parents and, as you know,we met at healthy mothers,
healthy babies.
They don't have a lot of space,they don't and so we have a
(14:26):
larger nonprofit that's bringingin the supplies, but we don't
even have the storage capacityto even hold it.
So partnering with anothernonprofit that maybe have
storage space or that they canpartner together or share that
storage space, can, can, canincrease each niches capacity.
And so, right, we it'll be agreat thing if we can all come
(14:50):
together and, hey, we need morespace over here.
Hey, you guys got food overthere.
How about we exchange this?
You exchange that, we.
We need a lot more of that, andso that's what I'm hoping to
work with you on, and to worktogether with other nonprofits.
Chris Baker (15:02):
Yeah, I'm so grateful to hear that.
You know you're thinking aboutthis.
You know we're thinking aboutthis.
One of our recent individualsthat came on our show recently
was just thrilled about tryingto actually talk more about
collaboration and so I really dofeel like this is a need, and
we all need to kind of figureout how we can help each other
(15:23):
as community awesome, um.
So now let's let's switch thegears a little bit and let's
talk about some of thechallenges, so as supporting
nonprofits, and we had a reallyhard time through COVID, and so
that was probably very demanding.
How did you manage that andwhat were the key lessons that
(15:47):
you guys learned as the citythat really can help
organizations through toughperiods like that?
Ray Martin (15:58):
Yep.
So um, we, when I got electedin 2020, we were just getting
ready to come out of COVID Um,what I found at that time, there
was an uh profit for profitorganization and I'd like to
give them a big shout out calledJoy's Roti.
Joy's Roti is a restaurant, uh,located at the Lauder Hill Mall
in Lauder Hill, and Joy's Rotipartnered with, I want to say,
(16:20):
farmshare, and every week and Iwent out there and I worked as a
volunteer with them every weekfor about six months, we must
have fed about 500 people everyweekend, and so we were out
there in the sun.
We had pallets and tents and Irealized by the number of people
(16:40):
that came through the line thateverybody was affected.
There's a lot of familiesthat's struggling and that there
is no one typical stereotypetype person who needs help.
We provided food, from myobservation, to people from all
walks of life, whether theydrove up in a Corvette or they
(17:02):
might've drove up in a we usedto call them hoopties.
You know a car that's justmaking it.
Some people had multiple family, multiple generational families
inside their vehicle.
These families were trulystruggling.
They would sit in line for twoto three hours just for some
groceries.
So it it warmed my heart to dothat.
(17:23):
I was.
I was impressed by how muchjoys got involved and how much
money they put behind to fund alot of this.
They put behind to fund a lotof this and it just showed me
that we have a large populationout there that has a lot of
needs and there's not a lot ofresources to fill those needs,
(17:46):
or there's not a lot ofcoordinated resources to fill
those needs.
Chris Baker (17:51):
Right, what is basically some advice that
you've gotten from that timeperiod that you could give to
other nonprofits, so that we canall kind of try to figure out
ways to work together?
Ray Martin (18:07):
So one of the things that I advice that I would give
that I have been given to somenonprofits.
As an elected official, what Ilearned is we have a budget
every year but a city of LaurierHill ours is a little over 200
million dollars, but every yearwe'll'll probably allot about
$150,000 worth of our budget todifferent nonprofits.
That includes like Aging andBroward.
Aging and Broward provides somefoods to our senior community.
Sometimes they provide bus andshuttle service.
(18:31):
And so what I learned as anelected official that there's an
opportunity our funding cyclestarts in April that nonprofits
would come to the city, theywould pitch their story and the
things that they do and theywould also make a request, be
asked and then, by the towardsthe end of the funding cycle in
(18:52):
September, the commissionerswith the staff would review all
of the packets that have beenput in and then the staff would
make those recommendations tothe commissioners and the city
manager as to how much funds wemay have available and how much
we can afford to give to eachnonprofit.
Sometimes we can give a littleto all of the nonprofits,
sometimes we give a lot to justa few, but what I've really been
(19:15):
making a claim to fame to do isreally educate the nonprofits
out there, to let them know thatthere are some funding sources
available from the cities, butthey have to make the ask.
I give them example packets onwhat a package should look like
and I also kind of give them acheat code and tell them this is
how our staff will score you,and then I let other nonprofits
(19:35):
know hey, that's how you cancome to the city of Lauderhill.
But guess what?
We're just one city.
In Broward County there's 31cities and each city has a
funding cycle, and each city Iwant to say most of them give
some money uh to uh nonprofits,whether it be the children's
Service Council.
There's a lot of organizationsout there that provide services
(19:59):
to our community and the fundingthey get is received either
from the county or BrowardSheriff's Office or other cities
like ours.
So I'd like to tell nonprofitsyou don't have to always cook
fish or chicken or dinners totry to raise money.
There are organizations outthere that will donate to you,
but you have to kind of makesure that your paperwork is in
(20:22):
proper order and we give you themap or the route to try to
secure some of that funding, andso we'll try to help as many
organizations as we can, butsometimes they'll come up in
October or September and say,hey, can I get some money?
I heard Nextdoor got some money.
Yeah well, they started eightmonths ago.
(20:43):
So start early and if you don'tget it the first time, go
around, continue to make yourefforts known, and then also
what cities like to hear.
So, for example, before ourcity gives funding, we want to
know how many residents withinour city that you have served.
So it does well, if you canserve some of our community
(21:04):
before coming to ask for moneyDoesn't have to be a whole lot,
but at least you can demonstratethat you've helped our
community, helped our city, andthen it makes your ask a little
more easier to receive once youkind of demonstrate that and
bring that to us, and so I tryto share that with nonprofits on
how to get funding.
Chris Baker (21:24):
Sure, no, that makes a lot of sense.
So actually, before we switchto the next topic, one of the
things that we do is we helptell stories for nonprofits and
a lot of the times that wecreate that narrative to show
their impact that they're makingon the community the
testimonials, the successstories, all of these pieces
(21:44):
that they can really you knowhow important is that to kind of
help with that potential ofgetting that funding.
Ray Martin (21:51):
Well, you actually just hit the nail on the head
and from now on I want to tellpeople what they can do and I'm
going to say go see Momo so thatyou can get your story together
and then bring that to us hereat City Hall.
So I think that is a challenge.
There are a lot of people who,a lot of directors of nonprofit
organizations who mean well, whodoes a great job at what they
(22:13):
do, but sometimes they don'tknow how to tell their story.
And a lot of times, theindividuals that are leaders of
nonprofits or volunteers andnonprofits, most of them what
I've seen as a character.
They're very humble, they'renot out front and they don't
always tell their story.
Uh, not because the storydoesn't exist just because they
(22:35):
don't do it for show.
That's not why they do whatthey do, and so I think they
oftentimes need an organizationlike yours to come pull that
information out of them and tellthe real big story, because
they have a lot ofaccomplishments, but they may
not know how to tell it becausethat's not their profession.
Their profession is to helppeople, not tell stories, and so
tying the two together, if youcan help tell their story, make
(23:00):
it understandable and palatablefor political folks like myself,
so we can give funding and makeit easier to approve funding
for those nonprofits.
Chris Baker (23:09):
I think it's great what you do, thank you, thank
you.
Yeah, one of the things that wehaven't even is most
non-profits are come from eitherlack passion, like there's
there's some reason that'scoming there, but you're right,
and they don't always have thestorytelling and the video
component to really tell thatstory what they need.
So thank you for that.
(23:29):
Um, let's talk about one otherinitiative that you guys have,
um the united lauder hillcommunity association.
Ray Martin (23:37):
What is that aim to do?
Yes, so within a city of lauderhill, a lot of people.
We have homeowners associatesand hoas.
However, there's a differenceand let me just explain a little
bit about that difference.
There's voluntary hoas andthere's involuntary HOAs.
Obviously, if you drive into acommunity and the gate goes up
and there's a guard there,that's typically a involuntary.
(23:59):
It's a mandatory HOA that thosehomeowners pay fees to belong
to.
The HOAs that we're talkingabout, which is our community
association, and actually Ichanged the name from because it
used to be homeownersassociation.
But we as a city and and and mypersonal belief, we have
renters, but those renters, justbecause they're renters, does
(24:20):
not mean that they don't belong.
So we took homeowners out ofthe name and made it community
association so that we canencompass everyone, Because what
we found was when you call it ahomeowners association, renters
don't feel welcome, they won'tshow up and although they
might make up 40 to 50% of thepopulation in that area, and so
(24:41):
we turned it to communityassociation and it's voluntary,
which means it's a geographicalarea invisible lines that we've
drawn on a map, just by the waythe streets are lined up but
they don't have to pay to becomea member.
It's for the community, anybodycan come in, and it's an
opportunity for us me as anelected official to meet with
(25:01):
our constituents, share thoseresources that are available in
the city, update them on newcoming policies or development,
as well as take in their issues,concerns or complaints so that
I can go back to City Hall andour staff to make it work.
What I found is it's best tomeet people where they are.
Not everybody is going to beable to come to City Hall and
(25:22):
sit there for four hours to talkto their commissioner.
Not everybody is going to getoff work and be able to come do
those things.
However, we make it easy and goto the community where they
live and make it easy bringrefreshments, food, provide
child care.
They'll come out and they canhear from our elected officials,
and so I make myself availableand what we've done with the
United Lauder Hill CommunityAssociation, the city of Lauder
(25:44):
Hill probably has about eight tonine voluntary associations.
Sure, there are gatedcommunities where there are
mandatory associations, but thisis just where the community
gets together.
We use our community park andour community rec center and the
homes that are in that area.
Those are the homes that wecall that particular community
(26:07):
association.
And so for United Lauder HillCommunity Association, they meet
the first Tuesday of the monthat the satkin center, which is
next to wolk park in city oflauder hill, near 12th street
and 441.
What we do is the the communitygathers there.
We establish the board.
That board provides informationto the community and some of
(26:29):
those board members come to thecity hall meetings.
They collect the informationand take it back to the
community and share thatinformation.
And then, when myself or otherelected officials are available,
we attend those meetings andmake ourselves available to the
community as well.
And so for this particular one,it serves about, I want to say
about 3,000 homes, 2,000 homes,and it's a voice for the
(26:55):
community.
And if they need anything,that's the route that they can
get access to me, because Ican't knock on every single door
, but I do come to the communityso that they can come once a
month meet.
We'll have donuts, pizza andsit around and have an informal
conversation like we're havingnow.
Chris Baker (27:13):
So one of the things I love about that so much
is it makes it more inclusive,like you're really inviting the
community to kind of be a partof the city as a whole, so I
think that's fantastic.
Well, john, I hope a lot morecities out there start looking
at that If they don't havesomething similar that would be
amazing.
Now the other question to add tothat are you inviting any of
(27:35):
the nonprofits, Because maybethey can get some knowledge of
what they can help with in thecommunity?
If the community is alreadyspeaking about that, right then
and there, yeah we have not.
Ray Martin (27:48):
There's been times where nonprofits have reached
out and asked can they attend?
And we've allowed them toattend.
But me personally have not madea concerted effort to call in
the nonprofits.
I'm still in an infancy stageof trying to create a nonprofit
database.
There's a lot of nonprofits andjust trying to correlate that
(28:10):
data into a single databasewhere I can send invitations out
to say, hey, listen, like Imentioned, we have about eight
voluntary associations that meetat different times of the month
.
Some of the nonprofits obviouslymaybe not all of them can come
Right, they all can't come onthe same day, but if we gave
(28:30):
them a list of dates and thelocations and whenever they can
come, they make their way to it,but still building the database
of the nonprofits to be able toreach out to to invite them,
but I don't, I don't have thatnow.
Chris Baker (28:43):
OK, so I'm going to actually take a moment.
I'm going to have you look atthat camera and do it.
Ok, call to action to thosenonprofits that they want to
contact you.
So just go right there.
Ray Martin (28:52):
All right, listen, if you're a nonprofit out there,
I'm asking you for your helpbecause I've seen firsthand the
needs of the community and theyneed your help, and there's a
lot of things that you guys cando that we as a city cannot do
so.
Number one attend your localcity meetings.
Let them know that you existand the services that you
(29:15):
provide.
Number two if you need funding,reach out to Momo.
Get your story together andthen present your story to
everybody that's willing tolisten.
There's 31 cities in BrowardCounty.
Broward Sheriff's Office hasfunding and Broward County has
funding.
Find out what their fundingcycle is.
Office have funding and BrowardCounty has funding.
Find out what their fundingcycle is.
(29:35):
Learn when they are acceptingapplications or packets for
funding or requests for funding.
Tell your story through Momo.
Tell your story and go get somefunding.
If you don't get it the firstyear round, keep trying.
It will help.
And then, lastly, learn aboutyour neighborhood community
meetings, because there's a lotof people that need help that
may not always call the cityhall, they may not call women in
(29:59):
distress, they may feel likethere's no one out there to help
them, and so the more you makeyourself available, the more
people will feel comfortable toreach out to you, and I believe
as we fill those gaps, ourchildren will learn better in
school, crime will be reduced.
And I'll say something else thatis sometimes overlooked as I go
(30:22):
into some of the schools andask the children there how many
children in this classroom moveto this school this year, and a
lot of times about 75% of thehands raised go up.
And what?
What that tells me is the it'sa lot of transient.
The children are moving a lotand because they're moving a lot
(30:44):
, sometimes the schools aregetting ding.
Their scores are not high.
It's not necessarily it's a badschool, it's just simply the
kids have been moved so muchthat there's no consistency in
their learning and that'sresulting in lower grades.
And so if we can help familiesto become more stable, I think
we will increase the economy, Ithink our grades will do better,
I think crime will go down andI just think overall it's great
(31:07):
and we need you, as a nonprofit,to do your part and collaborate
with others and reach out toyour local elected officials.
I'm Commissioner Ray Martin forthe City of Lauderhill and I
don't have a problem withoutgiving out my information.
My telephone number is954-644-0578.
Please text me first so that Iknow who you are and then I'll
(31:28):
answer.
But I hope that answers yourquestion.
Chris Baker (31:32):
That is fantastic.
So one more time, can you givethe ways to contact you?
I don't know if you want toprovide an email website phone
number.
Ray Martin (31:43):
Yes, feel free.
My official contact information, my official cell phone, is
954-907-4503.
954-907-4503, 954-907-4503.
My official email is rmartin atlauderhill-flgov and I'm also
(32:03):
available on all social mediaplatforms like Facebook and
Instagram as Commissioner RayMartin or Sir Ray Martin, and
it's spelled S-A-R-A-I Martin,m-a-r-t-i-n.
Feel free to reach out to mevia text, email or social media
or give me a call, or you cancome by my city hall, 5581 West
(32:23):
Oakland Park Boulevard, lauderHill, florida, 33313.
And if there's anybody elsethat want to send any funding
for any of the nonprofits thatyou know in the city of
Lauderhill, you can feel free tomail it to our city hall and
just attention me and I'll makesure that that check gets to the
nonprofits that are out there.
Chris Baker (32:41):
Fantastic, all right.
So as we wrap up today's show,I wrap up with the same question
.
So what is the legacy that youhope to leave behind through
your work right now in the city,and how do you envision it to
better the future generation?
Ray Martin (33:00):
Legacy, what I'd like to leave behind or what I'd
like to see.
So let me give a couple ofnumbers.
We have probably about around.
We'll just say about 50% of ourcity is renters.
I'd like to increase ourhomeownership.
Increasing homeownership againwill increase our stability.
(33:20):
I'd like to reduce the numberof times our children change
schools.
I'd like to reduce infantmortality.
We want to.
We got a lot of health issues,social determinants in our city
that is not meeting where itshould be, and so I'd like to
(33:52):
get our nonprofits together toincrease our health awareness,
offering more healthyinitiatives, whether it be food
farmer's market within our cityor our region.
Really, you know what it comesback to, what we started off
with.
There's a lot of strugglingfamilies.
I want to see our strugglingfamilies do better.
I want to reduce the struggleas much as possible.
There are some.
I mean, we can go on and on.
For example, there's fundingavailable for some of our
seniors and the process thatthey use They'll, they'll take
(34:16):
in.
What's your home value?
What's in your bank?
What's this?
And if you exceed a certainnumber, you don't qualify for
those resources.
Well, just because grandma livedin this house for 20 years and
the house is worth three hundredthousand dollars more than it
used to be because the the themarket has gone up, does not
mean that there's more money inher pocket, correct?
(34:36):
And so grandma is stillstruggling.
House may be worth $400,000,but because she's a senior, it's
not like she can get a homeequity line of credit.
She can't get no home loan.
She's on a fixed income and isshe supposed to give up her
house so that she can qualifyfor some extra funding?
I don't think so.
So what I do think is we, aselected officials, need to
change our policies to ensurethat it's keeping up with the
(34:58):
times and adjust thoserequirements so that, just
because your home value may havebeen artificially inflated now,
which can go down next year ortwo years, from now that our
policies and those policies ofour state leaders are written in
such a way that it takes intoaccount for those things and we
(35:20):
can still help those strugglingfamilies.
So, really, what it's all aboutthe legacy is improving the
quality of life for our familiesand our children, for the city.
Chris Baker (35:29):
I love that.
That's fantastic.
Thank you so much, thank youThank you for being on our show
today and I just want to wrap up.
So thank you for tuning in toVisualEyes and stay tuned for
our next episode.
Thank you again.
Thank you, Ray Martin, forbeing here today.
Ray Martin (35:45):
Thank you.
I don't think I gave a bigshout out to Chris.
I know I've been talking aboutMomo, but Momo couldn't do this
without Chris Baker.
So thank you for what you do.
We can't do it without eachother.
So thank you so much, thank you.
Happy to be here you.
Welcome to another episode of Visual Eyes, where we
work on collaborations to helpnonprofits.
Today we are welcoming to theshow Councilmember Ray Martin.
Ray, could you share a littlebit of your journey from your 22
years in the military career tobecoming part of the City
(00:57):
Council of Lauderhill?
Ray Martin (00:59):
Yes, thank you, chris.
I want to first start off bysaying thank you to you and Momo
and what you guys do for ourcommunity, and thank you for
having me here.
My first name is Sarai, spelledS-A-R-A-I.
Most people can't pronounce itor understand what it means when
they see it written, so Itypically go by Ray.
Chris Baker (01:16):
Oh, fair enough, Ray Martin.
Ray Martin (01:19):
Commissioner for the City of Lauderhill, currently
serving as the Vice Mayor.
The Vice Mayor is a positionthat rotates annually between
the other four commissioners.
This year, I'm the lucky one.
I just was reelected in 2024.
My first election was in 2020.
The very first time I ran wasin 2018.
I lost my first election.
Got elected the second time Iran, which is in 2020.
(01:42):
And again, I was just reelectedin 2024.
Chris Baker (01:45):
So how.
Ray Martin (01:46):
I got here.
I grew up in South Florida.
I joined the military at theage of 17.
I served for 22 years.
I retired in 2025.
In 2025, I kind of wanted tofigure out what I want to do
when I grow up.
I had been in the military forso long that I didn't know what
it was like life outside of themilitary, so I wanted to
(02:06):
continue to serve.
And then I learned about thelocal politics.
I started serving on our localboards.
I started serving on our localhousing authority board, then I
served as chairman of the LauderHills Community Budget and
Advisory Board and as Icontinued to learn the city,
then I decided to run for office, and that's how I got to where
(02:27):
I am now.
Chris Baker (02:27):
So I just want to make sure that we clarify you
said 2025.
Did you mean 2015?
Ray Martin (02:32):
Oh, I'm sorry, 2015.
Yeah, so I was like, wow,you're like in the future.
It came back so no, that's allright.
Chris Baker (02:39):
Yeah, so it's 2015 is when you decide to start
making this change.
Perfect, okay.
So what inspired you?
And besides that, is thereanything else that inspired you
to help make an impact in thecommunity?
Besides really kind of want tostay in?
Ray Martin (02:52):
Well, when I was in the military, I was kind of
isolated from a lot of thestruggles that the average
community goes through and I didnot really fully appreciate or
understand how nonprofits, aswell as churches, contributed to
the community.
In the military, everything isprovided for you food, housing,
(03:12):
counseling services, chaplainservices, everything you need
and so we just kind of thinkeverybody has those same tools
at their disposal.
And when I got out, I realized,and I started even encountering
struggles myself.
I met other community memberswho were going through a lot of
things.
I had more time to spend withfamily members that I hadn't
(03:33):
spent with as much time withbecause I was away in the
military.
And when, as I learned throughtheir struggles, I ask everybody
how do you, how do you getthrough this, how do you do that
?
How you know, how are yousurviving?
How is the community going?
And the resources that theypointed me to a lot of times
were nonprofits.
And then, as I became anelected official, I realized I
thought I would be able to helpmany, many people as a elected
(03:56):
official.
However, that is not the case.
We can help some folks, butit's tax dollars.
We can't use our tax dollars tohelp individual persons, it has
to kind of benefit the greatercommunity and there's still a
large group of the populationthat's out there.
That's not that we can't assist, and so how do they get by or
(04:17):
how do they survive?
I learned that nonprofits arekey.
It's really the backbone that'skind of keeping the whole
country from falling apart.
Sometimes nonprofits are thelast net of relief, or the only
net that can kind of save quitea few people.
(04:38):
And so I've learned to grow toappreciate nonprofits.
And now, instead of trying todo things individually, I feel
like we as a city, where we canbest serve our community is by
using funds, instead of tryingto be a nonprofit ourselves, is
to give those funds and helpother nonprofits, who are
(05:00):
already experts at doing whatthey do, to make them a little
bit better, to help get morebang for our buck, so we're not
duplicating resources out thereand so so.
So that's kind of what I'veseen with the nonprofit space
and and and some of the, the,the holes within the system of
our, our, our political systemthat we can't, that we can't
(05:22):
help.
Chris Baker (05:22):
So no, and that's definitely where we have noticed
, as well as just you know,there is a gap and I'm glad to
hear that you know you'relooking at this and the city of
water hill is looking at this asa bigger scope of like.
How do we assist all of theseother pieces of people in the
community?
Um, we definitely need to makethat a priority.
(05:43):
So there is a wider range ofdifferent nonprofits that are
serving or a part of Lauder Hill.
Ray Martin (05:53):
Can you?
Chris Baker (05:53):
name some of those and any memorable collaborations
that you guys have had with anynonprofits.
Ray Martin (06:01):
Yeah, absolutely.
There's quite a few, some thatare headquartered in.
Chris Baker (06:04):
Lauder.
Ray Martin (06:04):
Hill and then there are some that are headquartered
in other cities, but they helpmany of our residents in Lauder
Hill, some that come to mind,one of them where we met.
You know I'll tell you whatI'll save where we met for last,
but I'll start off with ICNARelief.
I-c-n-a, the Islamic Circle ofNorth America.
Icna Relief is a Muslimorganization.
(06:25):
They provide a lot of freeresources, whether it be
financial or food or housing.
They're really awesome.
Some key takeaways is we had acouple of hurricanes in the past
and there was flooding andbecause of that flooding, stores
was closed.
There was no food.
Icna Relief brought out theirown vehicles.
They partner with, I want tosay, the larger food banks and
(06:48):
they bring that food to make itlocal to our residents and
there's no cost.
They give it to everyone, theyserve everyone.
Actually, you know what It'llbe a good segue, most recently
with Healthy Mothers, healthyBabies, where we met at.
ICNA Relief helped us acquiretwo pallets that included baby
(07:12):
formula, baby diapers and someother baby supplies free of
charge.
So it was one large nonprofitorganization giving to another
nonprofit organization and I wasable to happen because I knew
the two nonprofits and just kindof put them two together and so
I think they were able to helpwith about I don't know, maybe
(07:36):
about 100 families just fromfrom those two pallets alone.
And I just got a call last weekthat they have about 10 more
pallets that they're willing togive to healthy mothers, healthy
babies.
Uh, so that's a relationshipthat I hope will go into
impurity.
Um, just from their lastmeeting, um, some of the other
ones is women in distress.
(07:57):
Um, some of the other ones, um,mentorship program with our
Parkway middle school.
Uh, warm hearts and warm heartsmentorship I believe that's the
name of it.
It's a mentorship by one of theguidance that was started by
one of the guidance counselorsat our Parkway Middle School.
Because that guidance counselorfound that there were parents
(08:18):
of children that oftentimes wedon't know that they're going
without food or they're goinghungry or they're going without
electricity in, they're goinghungry or they're going without
electric electricity in theirhomes.
And because those counselors inschool are able to learn from
the children some of theenvironments they're living in,
that kind of birthed, thatnonprofit, and so as a public
(08:38):
official, what I try to do ishelp steer some of those
fundings to those organizationsthat can see families in
distress that maybe they havenot raised their hand to the
city so and they sometimes don'teven know who to turn to.
So just kind of summary Women inDistress, warm Hearts
Foundation, the ICNA Relief, andthen the Healthy Mother,
(09:00):
healthy Babies and one of theinitiatives with Healthy Mothers
, healthy Babies, excuse me.
Well, there's a few things.
They're helping a lot of singleparents, whether male or female
.
They provide counselingservices for men, help them get
back on track and reconnect withtheir children.
One of the things I think thehealthy mothers, healthy babies,
(09:21):
want to improve on is prematurebirth or the death I can't
remember the exact name of itbut a mother who loses the child
prior to birth.
They believe that it can be.
Those numbers can be reduced ifthey get the education and they
get healthy nutrition and gettheir services ahead of time.
(09:43):
but they don't know that theseservices exist and get their
services ahead of time, but theydon't know that these services
exist.
But there's a lot of mothersthat are suffering from
postpartum syndrome and if theyknew these services exist we can
probably reduce some of thoseinfant mortalities.
Chris Baker (09:56):
There could be a lot of yeah, lives saved.
Lives saved yeah, yeah,definitely.
So it's actually kind ofbeautiful that you were talking
about ICNA and Healthy Mothers,healthy Babies and that
connection, because that'sreally what has inspired us to
make this podcast.
Okay, it's really trying tofigure out how, like, two
nonprofits can either worktogether or four profits to work
(10:19):
with nonprofits so that theycan do bigger, better things.
So I'd like you to dive alittle bit deeper in how you
made that connection and because, like right now you're saying,
that's evolved and they're goingto be able to help sustain each
other longer.
And that's very valuable and, Ithink, to anybody that's
watching future podcasts.
Like we're wanting to hopefullygive them ideas so that they
(10:42):
can either reach out to theright people or think of a
different way to build thatcollaboration.
Ray Martin (10:47):
So if you could do a little bit, Absolutely, and a
lot of people call me for help.
Even prior to coming here,there was another phone call
that was requesting somefinancial assistance, and what I
found is, through the platform,being an elected official
commissioner here in the city ofWaterhill, what I found is I'm
not the expert, but I've becomea point of resource and, as a
(11:10):
result, when people are askingfor resources or for help, as I
mentioned before, there's a lotof times that the city just
simply can't do it.
However, when I open up theRolodex and look to the left and
right, I said I can't do it,city can't do it.
The city can't do it.
But guess what?
I just heard about anothernonprofit they can do it, and so
(11:32):
what I'd like to do in thefuture is work with people like
you, bring all our nonprofitstogether.
So this nonprofit is not tryingto do car washes to raise money
and this profit anothernonprofit around the corner is
selling fish dinners to raisemoney and guess what?
It's all for the same purpose.
But if we come together we cando a lot.
What did I say Team?
(11:54):
Together each achieves more,instead of everyone trying to do
it themselves.
So if we can get nonprofits tokind of function like what's one
of those organizations wherethey have one discipline, it's
one of those organizations wherethey have one discipline.
They might have a realtor, abanker, a plumber, an AC, like a
B&I group.
Chris Baker (12:12):
Yeah, like a B&I group yeah.
Ray Martin (12:16):
And so they come together so that it's one of
each area.
And I think if we can do thatwith our nonprofits and say,
okay, if you work with infants,you come to the table and now
we're looking for someone thatworks with adults, okay, now we
look for someone that's workingwith, uh, housing, another one
that works with food sustenance,and if we can uh bring all the
pieces together and we operatekind of in in unison.
(12:37):
And our calendars are anotherproblem.
When we're trying to raisemoney, we'll see a lot of
organizations have the eventsaround the same time and it's
hard for for-profitorganizations to donate to each
one because they're all at thesame time.
Chris Baker (12:51):
Right.
Ray Martin (12:53):
If they were like spaced out and we had some
synergy on how we collect money,how we get the message out, I
think is the way to go.
So I'm really looking tocontinue to work with our
nonprofits bring them to thetable, so we're not duplicating
efforts.
We can maximize fundraisingopportunities as well as being a
one-stop shop, so to speak.
Chris Baker (13:13):
Yeah, and one of the things that I have talked to
other people like I've talkedto Kathy Brown at the community
foundation of Broward, and it'sfinding ways to have some of the
maybe even a larger nonprofit.
They start another program,pillar, however you want to do
it, but that smaller nonprofitis really niche in that area and
(13:35):
maybe that becomes part of thatprogram and so it's like
another-.
Ray Martin (13:40):
Spoke on a wheel, yeah.
Chris Baker (13:42):
It just adds more value and there's more ability
to just do more things.
And that other nonprofit that'ssmaller and niched into what
they're really really good at,can do more.
Right Because they have moreresources, they have more you
know, potentially more staff.
That wasn't even there to likehey, can you make a couple calls
(14:03):
?
Ray Martin (14:04):
Yeah.
We could save and make a hugedifference, and that brings up a
good example that comes to mind, as I mentioned, the
partnership with ICNA, reliefand Healthy Mothers, healthy
Babies.
Like I mentioned, I got anothercall.
It says they have 16 pallets ofsupplies and materials for
young parents and, as you know,we met at healthy mothers,
healthy babies.
They don't have a lot of space,they don't and so we have a
(14:26):
larger nonprofit that's bringingin the supplies, but we don't
even have the storage capacityto even hold it.
So partnering with anothernonprofit that maybe have
storage space or that they canpartner together or share that
storage space, can, can, canincrease each niches capacity.
And so, right, we it'll be agreat thing if we can all come
(14:50):
together and, hey, we need morespace over here.
Hey, you guys got food overthere.
How about we exchange this?
You exchange that, we.
We need a lot more of that, andso that's what I'm hoping to
work with you on, and to worktogether with other nonprofits.
Chris Baker (15:02):
Yeah, I'm so grateful to hear that.
You know you're thinking aboutthis.
You know we're thinking aboutthis.
One of our recent individualsthat came on our show recently
was just thrilled about tryingto actually talk more about
collaboration and so I really dofeel like this is a need, and
we all need to kind of figureout how we can help each other
(15:23):
as community awesome, um.
So now let's let's switch thegears a little bit and let's
talk about some of thechallenges, so as supporting
nonprofits, and we had a reallyhard time through COVID, and so
that was probably very demanding.
How did you manage that andwhat were the key lessons that
(15:47):
you guys learned as the citythat really can help
organizations through toughperiods like that?
Ray Martin (15:58):
Yep.
So um, we, when I got electedin 2020, we were just getting
ready to come out of COVID Um,what I found at that time, there
was an uh profit for profitorganization and I'd like to
give them a big shout out calledJoy's Roti.
Joy's Roti is a restaurant, uh,located at the Lauder Hill Mall
in Lauder Hill, and Joy's Rotipartnered with, I want to say,
(16:20):
farmshare, and every week and Iwent out there and I worked as a
volunteer with them every weekfor about six months, we must
have fed about 500 people everyweekend, and so we were out
there in the sun.
We had pallets and tents and Irealized by the number of people
(16:40):
that came through the line thateverybody was affected.
There's a lot of familiesthat's struggling and that there
is no one typical stereotypetype person who needs help.
We provided food, from myobservation, to people from all
walks of life, whether theydrove up in a Corvette or they
(17:02):
might've drove up in a we usedto call them hoopties.
You know a car that's justmaking it.
Some people had multiple family, multiple generational families
inside their vehicle.
These families were trulystruggling.
They would sit in line for twoto three hours just for some
groceries.
So it it warmed my heart to dothat.
(17:23):
I was.
I was impressed by how muchjoys got involved and how much
money they put behind to fund alot of this.
They put behind to fund a lotof this and it just showed me
that we have a large populationout there that has a lot of
needs and there's not a lot ofresources to fill those needs,
(17:46):
or there's not a lot ofcoordinated resources to fill
those needs.
Chris Baker (17:51):
Right, what is basically some advice that
you've gotten from that timeperiod that you could give to
other nonprofits, so that we canall kind of try to figure out
ways to work together?
Ray Martin (18:07):
So one of the things that I advice that I would give
that I have been given to somenonprofits.
As an elected official, what Ilearned is we have a budget
every year but a city of LaurierHill ours is a little over 200
million dollars, but every yearwe'll'll probably allot about
$150,000 worth of our budget todifferent nonprofits.
That includes like Aging andBroward.
Aging and Broward provides somefoods to our senior community.
Sometimes they provide bus andshuttle service.
(18:31):
And so what I learned as anelected official that there's an
opportunity our funding cyclestarts in April that nonprofits
would come to the city, theywould pitch their story and the
things that they do and theywould also make a request, be
asked and then, by the towardsthe end of the funding cycle in
(18:52):
September, the commissionerswith the staff would review all
of the packets that have beenput in and then the staff would
make those recommendations tothe commissioners and the city
manager as to how much funds wemay have available and how much
we can afford to give to eachnonprofit.
Sometimes we can give a littleto all of the nonprofits,
sometimes we give a lot to justa few, but what I've really been
(19:15):
making a claim to fame to do isreally educate the nonprofits
out there, to let them know thatthere are some funding sources
available from the cities, butthey have to make the ask.
I give them example packets onwhat a package should look like
and I also kind of give them acheat code and tell them this is
how our staff will score you,and then I let other nonprofits
(19:35):
know hey, that's how you cancome to the city of Lauderhill.
But guess what?
We're just one city.
In Broward County there's 31cities and each city has a
funding cycle, and each city Iwant to say most of them give
some money uh to uh nonprofits,whether it be the children's
Service Council.
There's a lot of organizationsout there that provide services
(19:59):
to our community and the fundingthey get is received either
from the county or BrowardSheriff's Office or other cities
like ours.
So I'd like to tell nonprofitsyou don't have to always cook
fish or chicken or dinners totry to raise money.
There are organizations outthere that will donate to you,
but you have to kind of makesure that your paperwork is in
(20:22):
proper order and we give you themap or the route to try to
secure some of that funding, andso we'll try to help as many
organizations as we can, butsometimes they'll come up in
October or September and say,hey, can I get some money?
I heard Nextdoor got some money.
Yeah well, they started eightmonths ago.
(20:43):
So start early and if you don'tget it the first time, go
around, continue to make yourefforts known, and then also
what cities like to hear.
So, for example, before ourcity gives funding, we want to
know how many residents withinour city that you have served.
So it does well, if you canserve some of our community
(21:04):
before coming to ask for moneyDoesn't have to be a whole lot,
but at least you can demonstratethat you've helped our
community, helped our city, andthen it makes your ask a little
more easier to receive once youkind of demonstrate that and
bring that to us, and so I tryto share that with nonprofits on
how to get funding.
Chris Baker (21:24):
Sure, no, that makes a lot of sense.
So actually, before we switchto the next topic, one of the
things that we do is we helptell stories for nonprofits and
a lot of the times that wecreate that narrative to show
their impact that they're makingon the community the
testimonials, the successstories, all of these pieces
(21:44):
that they can really you knowhow important is that to kind of
help with that potential ofgetting that funding.
Ray Martin (21:51):
Well, you actually just hit the nail on the head
and from now on I want to tellpeople what they can do and I'm
going to say go see Momo so thatyou can get your story together
and then bring that to us hereat City Hall.
So I think that is a challenge.
There are a lot of people who,a lot of directors of nonprofit
organizations who mean well, whodoes a great job at what they
(22:13):
do, but sometimes they don'tknow how to tell their story.
And a lot of times, theindividuals that are leaders of
nonprofits or volunteers andnonprofits, most of them what
I've seen as a character.
They're very humble, they'renot out front and they don't
always tell their story.
Uh, not because the storydoesn't exist just because they
(22:35):
don't do it for show.
That's not why they do whatthey do, and so I think they
oftentimes need an organizationlike yours to come pull that
information out of them and tellthe real big story, because
they have a lot ofaccomplishments, but they may
not know how to tell it becausethat's not their profession.
Their profession is to helppeople, not tell stories, and so
tying the two together, if youcan help tell their story, make
(23:00):
it understandable and palatablefor political folks like myself,
so we can give funding and makeit easier to approve funding
for those nonprofits.
Chris Baker (23:09):
I think it's great what you do, thank you, thank
you.
Yeah, one of the things that wehaven't even is most
non-profits are come from eitherlack passion, like there's
there's some reason that'scoming there, but you're right,
and they don't always have thestorytelling and the video
component to really tell thatstory what they need.
So thank you for that.
(23:29):
Um, let's talk about one otherinitiative that you guys have,
um the united lauder hillcommunity association.
Ray Martin (23:37):
What is that aim to do?
Yes, so within a city of lauderhill, a lot of people.
We have homeowners associatesand hoas.
However, there's a differenceand let me just explain a little
bit about that difference.
There's voluntary hoas andthere's involuntary HOAs.
Obviously, if you drive into acommunity and the gate goes up
and there's a guard there,that's typically a involuntary.
(23:59):
It's a mandatory HOA that thosehomeowners pay fees to belong
to.
The HOAs that we're talkingabout, which is our community
association, and actually Ichanged the name from because it
used to be homeownersassociation.
But we as a city and and and mypersonal belief, we have
renters, but those renters, justbecause they're renters, does
(24:20):
not mean that they don't belong.
So we took homeowners out ofthe name and made it community
association so that we canencompass everyone, Because what
we found was when you call it ahomeowners association, renters
don't feel welcome, they won'tshow up and although they
might make up 40 to 50% of thepopulation in that area, and so
(24:41):
we turned it to communityassociation and it's voluntary,
which means it's a geographicalarea invisible lines that we've
drawn on a map, just by the waythe streets are lined up but
they don't have to pay to becomea member.
It's for the community, anybodycan come in, and it's an
opportunity for us me as anelected official to meet with
(25:01):
our constituents, share thoseresources that are available in
the city, update them on newcoming policies or development,
as well as take in their issues,concerns or complaints so that
I can go back to City Hall andour staff to make it work.
What I found is it's best tomeet people where they are.
Not everybody is going to beable to come to City Hall and
(25:22):
sit there for four hours to talkto their commissioner.
Not everybody is going to getoff work and be able to come do
those things.
However, we make it easy and goto the community where they
live and make it easy bringrefreshments, food, provide
child care.
They'll come out and they canhear from our elected officials,
and so I make myself availableand what we've done with the
United Lauder Hill CommunityAssociation, the city of Lauder
(25:44):
Hill probably has about eight tonine voluntary associations.
Sure, there are gatedcommunities where there are
mandatory associations, but thisis just where the community
gets together.
We use our community park andour community rec center and the
homes that are in that area.
Those are the homes that wecall that particular community
(26:07):
association.
And so for United Lauder HillCommunity Association, they meet
the first Tuesday of the monthat the satkin center, which is
next to wolk park in city oflauder hill, near 12th street
and 441.
What we do is the the communitygathers there.
We establish the board.
That board provides informationto the community and some of
(26:29):
those board members come to thecity hall meetings.
They collect the informationand take it back to the
community and share thatinformation.
And then, when myself or otherelected officials are available,
we attend those meetings andmake ourselves available to the
community as well.
And so for this particular one,it serves about, I want to say
about 3,000 homes, 2,000 homes,and it's a voice for the
(26:55):
community.
And if they need anything,that's the route that they can
get access to me, because Ican't knock on every single door
, but I do come to the communityso that they can come once a
month meet.
We'll have donuts, pizza andsit around and have an informal
conversation like we're havingnow.
Chris Baker (27:13):
So one of the things I love about that so much
is it makes it more inclusive,like you're really inviting the
community to kind of be a partof the city as a whole, so I
think that's fantastic.
Well, john, I hope a lot morecities out there start looking
at that If they don't havesomething similar that would be
amazing.
Now the other question to add tothat are you inviting any of
(27:35):
the nonprofits, Because maybethey can get some knowledge of
what they can help with in thecommunity?
If the community is alreadyspeaking about that, right then
and there, yeah we have not.
Ray Martin (27:48):
There's been times where nonprofits have reached
out and asked can they attend?
And we've allowed them toattend.
But me personally have not madea concerted effort to call in
the nonprofits.
I'm still in an infancy stageof trying to create a nonprofit
database.
There's a lot of nonprofits andjust trying to correlate that
(28:10):
data into a single databasewhere I can send invitations out
to say, hey, listen, like Imentioned, we have about eight
voluntary associations that meetat different times of the month
.
Some of the nonprofits obviouslymaybe not all of them can come
Right, they all can't come onthe same day, but if we gave
(28:30):
them a list of dates and thelocations and whenever they can
come, they make their way to it,but still building the database
of the nonprofits to be able toreach out to to invite them,
but I don't, I don't have thatnow.
Chris Baker (28:43):
OK, so I'm going to actually take a moment.
I'm going to have you look atthat camera and do it.
Ok, call to action to thosenonprofits that they want to
contact you.
So just go right there.
Ray Martin (28:52):
All right, listen, if you're a nonprofit out there,
I'm asking you for your helpbecause I've seen firsthand the
needs of the community and theyneed your help, and there's a
lot of things that you guys cando that we as a city cannot do
so.
Number one attend your localcity meetings.
Let them know that you existand the services that you
(29:15):
provide.
Number two if you need funding,reach out to Momo.
Get your story together andthen present your story to
everybody that's willing tolisten.
There's 31 cities in BrowardCounty.
Broward Sheriff's Office hasfunding and Broward County has
funding.
Find out what their fundingcycle is.
Office have funding and BrowardCounty has funding.
Find out what their fundingcycle is.
(29:35):
Learn when they are acceptingapplications or packets for
funding or requests for funding.
Tell your story through Momo.
Tell your story and go get somefunding.
If you don't get it the firstyear round, keep trying.
It will help.
And then, lastly, learn aboutyour neighborhood community
meetings, because there's a lotof people that need help that
may not always call the cityhall, they may not call women in
(29:59):
distress, they may feel likethere's no one out there to help
them, and so the more you makeyourself available, the more
people will feel comfortable toreach out to you, and I believe
as we fill those gaps, ourchildren will learn better in
school, crime will be reduced.
And I'll say something else thatis sometimes overlooked as I go
(30:22):
into some of the schools andask the children there how many
children in this classroom moveto this school this year, and a
lot of times about 75% of thehands raised go up.
And what?
What that tells me is the it'sa lot of transient.
The children are moving a lotand because they're moving a lot
(30:44):
, sometimes the schools aregetting ding.
Their scores are not high.
It's not necessarily it's a badschool, it's just simply the
kids have been moved so muchthat there's no consistency in
their learning and that'sresulting in lower grades.
And so if we can help familiesto become more stable, I think
we will increase the economy, Ithink our grades will do better,
I think crime will go down andI just think overall it's great
(31:07):
and we need you, as a nonprofit,to do your part and collaborate
with others and reach out toyour local elected officials.
I'm Commissioner Ray Martin forthe City of Lauderhill and I
don't have a problem withoutgiving out my information.
My telephone number is954-644-0578.
Please text me first so that Iknow who you are and then I'll
(31:28):
answer.
But I hope that answers yourquestion.
Chris Baker (31:32):
That is fantastic.
So one more time, can you givethe ways to contact you?
I don't know if you want toprovide an email website phone
number.
Ray Martin (31:43):
Yes, feel free.
My official contact information, my official cell phone, is
954-907-4503.
954-907-4503, 954-907-4503.
My official email is rmartin atlauderhill-flgov and I'm also
(32:03):
available on all social mediaplatforms like Facebook and
Instagram as Commissioner RayMartin or Sir Ray Martin, and
it's spelled S-A-R-A-I Martin,m-a-r-t-i-n.
Feel free to reach out to mevia text, email or social media
or give me a call, or you cancome by my city hall, 5581 West
(32:23):
Oakland Park Boulevard, lauderHill, florida, 33313.
And if there's anybody elsethat want to send any funding
for any of the nonprofits thatyou know in the city of
Lauderhill, you can feel free tomail it to our city hall and
just attention me and I'll makesure that that check gets to the
nonprofits that are out there.
Chris Baker (32:41):
Fantastic, all right.
So as we wrap up today's show,I wrap up with the same question
.
So what is the legacy that youhope to leave behind through
your work right now in the city,and how do you envision it to
better the future generation?
Ray Martin (33:00):
Legacy, what I'd like to leave behind or what I'd
like to see.
So let me give a couple ofnumbers.
We have probably about around.
We'll just say about 50% of ourcity is renters.
I'd like to increase ourhomeownership.
Increasing homeownership againwill increase our stability.
(33:20):
I'd like to reduce the numberof times our children change
schools.
I'd like to reduce infantmortality.
We want to.
We got a lot of health issues,social determinants in our city
that is not meeting where itshould be, and so I'd like to
(33:52):
get our nonprofits together toincrease our health awareness,
offering more healthyinitiatives, whether it be food
farmer's market within our cityor our region.
Really, you know what it comesback to, what we started off
with.
There's a lot of strugglingfamilies.
I want to see our strugglingfamilies do better.
I want to reduce the struggleas much as possible.
There are some.
I mean, we can go on and on.
For example, there's fundingavailable for some of our
seniors and the process thatthey use They'll, they'll take
(34:16):
in.
What's your home value?
What's in your bank?
What's this?
And if you exceed a certainnumber, you don't qualify for
those resources.
Well, just because grandma livedin this house for 20 years and
the house is worth three hundredthousand dollars more than it
used to be because the the themarket has gone up, does not
mean that there's more money inher pocket, correct?
(34:36):
And so grandma is stillstruggling.
House may be worth $400,000,but because she's a senior, it's
not like she can get a homeequity line of credit.
She can't get no home loan.
She's on a fixed income and isshe supposed to give up her
house so that she can qualifyfor some extra funding?
I don't think so.
So what I do think is we, aselected officials, need to
change our policies to ensurethat it's keeping up with the
(34:58):
times and adjust thoserequirements so that, just
because your home value may havebeen artificially inflated now,
which can go down next year ortwo years, from now that our
policies and those policies ofour state leaders are written in
such a way that it takes intoaccount for those things and we
(35:20):
can still help those strugglingfamilies.
So, really, what it's all aboutthe legacy is improving the
quality of life for our familiesand our children, for the city.
Chris Baker (35:29):
I love that.
That's fantastic.
Thank you so much, thank youThank you for being on our show
today and I just want to wrap up.
So thank you for tuning in toVisualEyes and stay tuned for
our next episode.
Thank you again.
Thank you, Ray Martin, forbeing here today.
Ray Martin (35:45):
Thank you.
I don't think I gave a bigshout out to Chris.
I know I've been talking aboutMomo, but Momo couldn't do this
without Chris Baker.
So thank you for what you do.
We can't do it without eachother.
So thank you so much, thank you.
Happy to be here you.
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