CLEAR VIEW HV05-07-2023 GUEST:JASMAINE CLAY,FOUNDER SAVING OUR TOMORROW FOUNDATION-BACKGROUND,WHY SHE FOUNDED THE FOUNDATION & IT'S PURPPOSE

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Episode Transcript

(00:01):
The views and opinions expressed in thefollowing programmer those of the speaker and don't
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Accent fg Insurance dot com for moreinfo. Hey, it's Uncle Mike and
joining me this week in the studiois Jazz Maine Clay and the founder of
Saving Our Tomorrow, which is afascinating organization we're going to learn a lot
more about today. Good morning,Jazz Maine. How are you. Good
morning, Uncle Mike. It's apleasure to be here. Yeah, thanks
for joining me, Jazz Maine.Before we get started about Saving Our Tomorrow,

(00:46):
I always like the listeners to havea little bit of a background about
the voice behind the microphone. Sowhy don't you give it a little bit
about your background and how you gotinvolved with the foundation, How you found
a the foundation. So I joinedthe military back in two thousand and eight,
and I had a pretty rough start. I had one son and I
was in a pretty rough domestic violencerelationship, but joined the National Guard went

(01:11):
away. When I came back,I was pretty much homeless. I didn't
have anywhere to go. My clotheswere stolen. My first night home I
was in had to sleep in ahotel. I ended up moving back in
with this guy and ended up pregnantagain as you would guests and no job,
no money, ended up in thedomestic violence shelter, had no help.

(01:32):
So moving forward, I figured Iwould help others through my same situation.
So that's how Saving Hour Tomorrow cameabout. It's like I wanted to
be the person to help other womenthrough that situation, as well as helping
the children to understand. My childrendidn't have any guidance wall in there through
the shelter system. It's like youhave socks for tots, and you have

(01:55):
toys for tots and different things,but it was no one to give them
that guidance and explained to them whatwas happening with their parents. You had
a lot of counseling for the mothers, but where was the support for the
children. So I wanted to bethat support. So I was not an
easy start. Oh, no,by far you were in the National Guard.

(02:15):
How long were you in the service? Oh, I'm still in.
I actually ets July of this year. Okay. And how long at two
thousand and eight is when you gotin, Yes, so it'll be fifteen
years, almost fifteen years. Haveyou been deployed anywhere? Yes, to
Kuwait in Iraq twenty sixteen, twentyseventeen operation in Durhan Freedom. Wow.

(02:37):
Yeah, that was quite an experience, I'm sure. Oh my god,
it was, I want to say, both exciting and scary. Yes,
it was. We had I raisedmy GT score, I went back to
school. It opened up many doorsfor me, but we also had I
had an attempted MST out there beforeI went. I was dealing with a

(03:00):
lot of situations. And when Icame home, they don't explain to you
the transition back. They tell younot to address certain things with your family.
Don't come back, don't tell themwhat you did. Don't I'm going
to details of your stressors. SoI pretty much shut down. There was
no emotion when I came home,so I didn't know how to deal with

(03:23):
my depression or my PTSD of whathappened. So We had a lot of
suicidal ideations, and I had torely on a military one source to kind
of get me and my family through. But yeah, when you came back,
you really you were all by yourselfwhen you came back on top of
everything else. Yeah, yes,that makes it even worse. So you

(03:45):
make it through the military, andI can understand what you're saying with the
with the PTS, which is abrutal disease that most people don't understand unless
they go through it. Right,So you're dealing with that, and then
you're dealing with your whole the messsituation where you end up back in the
same bad situation you were in whenyou left, right, and you know,

(04:08):
through no faulty your own, butyou did. So what what do
you credit to getting you to theother side, to getting you through it
and making it so you could function? So I credit my children, I
credit my support system. I hadmy husband, so before I left,
UM, I had my children,which was my stable foundation. I had

(04:30):
another child before I left, soI had three children. I had my
husband who was keeping my children whileI went overseas, And going overseas was
a surprise to me. I hadno idea I was on the d and
d UM. I had just gota federal technician position, so I was
finally building that stability that everyone talkedabout. I didn't know what financial stability

(04:53):
was, so going overseas kind ofthreatened that for me. But then I
also knew that having that active Dservice time was going to help me and
it was going to bring benefits becausewhat a lot of people don't tell you
is when your National Guard, youdon't get the same entitlements as active duty
soldiers do. They don't look atyou the same and I had to go.

(05:14):
So what got me through was thatsupport system that was here. And
it's interesting you touch on that becausethey are trying to change that. They
are working with the military now becauseyou are you're in a National Guard,
you're serving, yes, But becauseyou're not active duty unless you get deployed,
you're not going to get your dD two fourteen. You're not going
to be and if you don't havethat DD two fourteen, you're not entitled

(05:38):
to most of the benefits through theVA. Yes, which doesn't make a
whole lot of sense, but that'sthe way that it's set up right now,
that is there are in the works. There's a lot of people fighting
for that, and I hope theyget it because it's not really fair when
you think about it. So savingour tomorrow came out of necessity really on
your part. You saw the situationyou were in and how bad it was

(06:00):
not only for you but for yourchildren. Yes it was, and there
was not really any resource out thereto help either one of you. And
so let's talk about that process.So you made a decision that you had
to do something, yes, andyou committed to it. Yes, How
did you get started? What didyou do to get things started? So
I bugged my brother in law,so he owns a magazine, g Mixed

(06:26):
Mags, so he was better ata setting up the business structure. So
I went through him and he helpedme get everything going. He helped me
with business plan, and then hetold me about the Small Business Association,
so I went through them and statin Island and they helped me get everything
started and searching my name and gettingthings copy right written for me and setting

(06:47):
things up. And then when Igot back to my position as a federal
technician, a lot of people withinthat support channel was able to tell me
certain things that I might need toknow. Also, Miss Betty Eisenfelt,
she's the f arg in the city. She was able to give me a
few bits and pieces on that.And when I when we first started out,

(07:10):
we started out with events. Wedid a lot of collaboration events with
like the Boys Club in Harlem,and we would work with a lot of
the athletic teams that would be inthe city, and the social clubs and
motorcycle clubs, and I would tryto get like the veterans involved and soldiers.

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And that's how we started to expandour network. Sure, and everything
was done mostly in New York Cityuntil last year when we came up here
to Pokeepsie. And then Pokeepsie kindof changed my outlook on everything. So
once we got up here, onceI was transferred to the fifteen sixty ninth

(07:54):
Transportation Company, I had a soldierand my soldier's name was Colin Schmidt.
Oh yeah, And Colin Schmidt wasthe assemblyman. And he said, you
remind me of someone. And Isaid, who do I remind you of?
And he said, you remind meof Sharon. I said, well,
who's Sharon, Yes, the YFoundation, And he said, Sharon

(08:18):
Tony Page. He said, andhe said, you've got a meet and
he did the email introduction and she'slike, Jasmine, you got to become
a five or one C three,You got to change your business structure.
And I said, okay, welltell me what I need to do.

(08:39):
And I changed the whole trajectory ofwhat I was thinking about doing. And
then um, I started meeting morepeople, and I started expanding my network
and the mission got bigger. Andthen I had soldiers who were dealing with
all of the issues that I wasalready dealing with, the MST, the

(09:01):
PTSD, the depression, the anxiety, and I was watching other leaders within
the ranks brushed them off. Andthen now you have the situation with the
transgender soldiers and them not being treatedthe way they needed to be treated.
And then I was dealing with thefiling of an EO complaint and how it
kept being brushed off or if itwas addressed, the person who I filed

(09:26):
on was being notified before it wastime, and then I was being targeted
for it. So I had toprotect my soldiers as an NCO, so
I'm like, I need to helpmy soldiers, and there wasn't anything in
place that I could do, andwe're tied by certain rules within the regulations

(09:46):
so that you can't help them.So I needed to do something within my
nonprofit that will protect them. Sothat's how Saving Our Tomorrow just kind of
expanded into so many different facets thatwe're able to touch many people. And
that's actually many of the nonprofits I'minvolved with, that's they evolved that way.
You start off. You always stickto your main goal, but there's

(10:11):
so many things that you discover alongthe way. Oh yes, and you
realize that you can make a difference, and you do, and that's fantastic.
Yes to fifteen sixty. Where wereyou out of them? Now?
Since my medical board is complete,or since I was pushed into the medical
board after my multiple squirrels as diagnosislast year, I was moved into the

(10:33):
go Calm which is actually in courtletManner cam Smith camp Smith. Oh yeah,
okay, I know where Camp Smithis. Yes, And now you're
you're full time here in the HudsonValley with your foundation. You're doing a
lot. We've got a couple ofevents coming up. I guess we could
talk about them real quick. ThatGirl's Self Care is coming up on the
thirteenth of May at three ten MillStreet. Why don't we talk about that

(10:54):
little yes, from three to six. I am super excited because the kids
ask for this, and when theyask me for something, I try to
give it to them, which isprobably why my children to spoil you.
Yeah. Well, so it's apeer educated event. Mostly the children are
going to teach other children how todo self care, how to conduct the

(11:18):
skincare routines and do their makeup,and how to style their hair and hair
retention and what's important to them.They're also going to have like Q and
A sessions and solutions. They're alsogoing to have an etiquette course by a
etiquette teacher, and we have cosmetologistsfrom the surrounding local areas who is going

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to come and teach them a coupleof things. We're going to have licensed
professionals come out and help them.We're trying to push mentorship. We're also
going to have a one hundred dollarsgift basket that's going to go out from
the Hairpiece Salon and Wappinger's Falls,and we're looking for more people to come
out and sponsor us. It's notjust a saving our Tomorrow event. The

(12:01):
love Quest Foundation is also involved.I'm speaking with Jazzmine Clay, the founder
of Saving Our Tomorrow, Jazz Maine. How did they get a hold of
you? If they want to findout more about the foundation, you can
access my website at www dot Savingour Tomorrow dot org. You can send
me an email at founder at SavingOur Tomorrow dot org. That's the best

(12:22):
way to get a holding, Yes, it is. So to find out
more about the event, and tofind out more about the event, you
can actually go on to the websiteas well, and you can contact us
through our socials. We are onFacebook at Saving Our Tomorrow and we are
on Instagram at Saving our Tomorrow Official. Okay, well, there's a way
to get a hold of and findout more. Yes, you got another

(12:43):
event, a couple more events comingup the routine. Now. These are
kind of fascinating to me because it'sanother kind of area you discovered in the
area here, another part of thisthat you felt like you needed to help
the routine clean up. Talk aboutthat that's coming up soon too. So
I am a coalition leader parents todayfor the youth of Tomorrow, and we

(13:07):
teach on substance use and alcohol useand our partner with the Counter Drug Task
Force and the Mid Hudson PRC,which is the Prevention Resource Center in Orange
County, and they also help us. We're in prevention planning. So the
routine cleanups kind of entail and theyhit on the opioid pandemic that's going on

(13:28):
right now or epidemic, and we'recleaning up needles, we're cleaning up paraphernilia
where we're helping get to the rootof the issues. Like we were talking
about before, we have the clothingdistribution this past week and that was amazing,
but a lot of things, they'retreated like prisoners, So why wouldn't

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someone want to indulge in something tokind of sue themselves to escape that reality.
Those things are hard, Yeah,but we have to get out there
as a community to combat these issues. We got to get down to the
route and saving our tomorrow addresses thebasic necessities. Cleanup is one of them.

(14:11):
So you go into some of theareas that have a lot of yes,
you clean the area up, andyes, take the area back for
lack of a better word, ohyes, And we we absolutely need the
help of our community. We needto help getting uh PPE. That's the
protective equipment. We need the sterilizedcontainers for the needles. Um. The

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parks are riddled with these things.The churches are riddled with these things.
We have children who come out andsee these things and it's it's unsafe,
it's not right. Yeah, soit's Saving our Tomorrow dot org is the
website, yes, sir. Andnow they are nonprofits so they can always

(14:54):
use donations. Oh yes, butyou need volunteers as well, Yes,
sir, And that's probably sounds likeit sounds funny because you always need you're
always gonna need money, but volunteersare just as important. Oh yes.
So if you like what you're hearingor you're interested in what we're talking about,
reach out starting Shaving our Tomorrow dotorg and find out more about it

(15:15):
and get involved and help her.And then you've got a garden clean up
you're gonna do as well, right. Oh yes, we have the community
garden on fourteen Dwayne Street that isour veterans slash community garden. And we
have this little thing in the gardenthat is flowers to our loved ones.

(15:35):
And that's more so for our veteranswho have lost battle buddies or family members
where they can plant a flower andthey get to place their flags there with
the help of the y T Foundationand in remembrance of the ones they've lost,
and it's just a place for themto go and just have that time

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because we just don't get that sometimeit's something for us to do. It's
just a place for us to goto meet up that's outside, enjoy the
weather, and just have commoderie.It's fascinating in Jazzmaine. And you're a
soldier, so you know better thanthat. I can explain it. But
the the peer to peer relationship withveterans is unbreakable. Oh yes, and

(16:22):
it's sometimes the only connection that canhelp a veteran. I mean, you
know, you and I can sitand talk about something, but I never
served. I never had the honorof serving, and I don't understand what
you went through. I mean,I've heard it and I've heard it,
and I've been involved all my lifewith a military as a supporter, but
it's not the same. And thatgarden that sounds like a great opportunity,

(16:47):
especially this area with the loved ones, because I'm sure when someone goes there
to peacefully meditate, there's other veteransthere in that conversation I'm sure starts and
that's invaluable, those conversations. Andwe love to talk. If you've if
you've ever sat with a veteran,we love to talk to other veterans or
to educate others about what we dowell because there's not a lot of opportunity

(17:11):
for you. You explained when youcame back that they just kind of pushed
you out and say good luck.And you know when you come back,
you especially the situation you had.You know, when you're deployed, when
you come back, you've changed andthe people you're coming back to have changed.
Oh yes, So you're really aloneand there's nobody. I mean,

(17:34):
some of the things that you've seenyou can't unsee and there's nobody to talk
to that about really, because youknow you're talking to someone who's never served.
They're gonna try to understand, butthey don't. I mean, I
had had a World War two guyone time. I never forgot this from
the honor flight he said to me. He says, it's very simple.
He says, when I came home, I could tell my wife how cold

(17:56):
the water was, but that soldierwas in the water. Yes, and
that's stuck with me ever since.I immediately I understood from that point on
what you know, what the bondis. So the garden especially seems to
me like that's an invaluable tool andyou're making a big effort to keep it
cleaned up and and and have anarea from the girls. So that's fantastic,

(18:19):
it really is. And you gotto have the heart for this type
of work. It's the heart,it's the passion, it's the ambition is
to drive, and it's so manythings that I'm trying to to get off
the ground. There's so many thingsthat I'm trying to get to move because
there's so many needs and there's somany, so many needs. Sure,

(18:41):
I get so many phone calls withpeople who want me to help them with
something, but it's like we justdon't have the manpower. And then the
military teaches you you have to havesome type of capacity planning, you have
to be able to focus and getthings done. But without the capacity,

(19:03):
you just can't do it. Surethe military does teach you some good things,
oh yes, and logistics, yeah, again, it's saving our tomorrow
dot org to find out more,Jasmine. I'm just curious to go through
what you went through. And well, you know the other part of this

(19:23):
is the DNA of a soldier issuch and I know the hundreds of thousands
of soldiers I've met over the years, and the DNA is all the same.
You have that DNA to serve,and you serve your country, do
it proudly. But when you getout of the service, and eventually you
will get out completely out of theservice, your desire to serve is still

(19:45):
there. And I've met that withevery veteran I know has that within them,
and I think it's fascinating that mostof them continue to find a way
to serve like you're doing. Somebecome police officers, some become firefighters,
some become a MT the correction officers. If you look in the ranks of
all those organizations, a good majorityof them are veterans. And there's a

(20:07):
reason for that, yes, andit's important that they're able to keep doing
that. But it's important to dowhat you're doing where you're you know,
you're helping other veterans. Yeah,you're helping children, and you're helping people
with substance ap use and all thosethings. But you're helping veterans, is
the bottom line. Well, yes, and by doing that, you're it's
helping you too. Yes, itis, and that's with a lot of

(20:32):
people don't understand the mission Denver stops. Yeah. And when you go into
basic training, they teach you tothe left and the right of you are
your brothers and sisters, and younever give that up. You never give
it up. I don't care whatbackground you're from, Navy, Marines,
Air Force, Coast Guard. You'restill my battle buddy. I don't care

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if I've just met you, you'veserved. You are my brother or sister.
And even though I and serve,I've heard it so much, I
understand. You know. Boot campespecially is designed just to create that unit.
Like you said, it goes beyondwhat you're saying that. They make
it clear that the person to theright of you and the person to the
left of you has got your backand may save your life and you're gonna

(21:17):
have to save their life. Yes, and that's the relationship you have.
And until you get to that levelin boot camp, they don't let you
go. They make sure they break. They have to break your will,
your independent will to a certain extent, and become part of that unit,
and the unit has to be youknow, it's the sum of the hall
is more important than the individual.Yes, it is. And that's the

(21:37):
training you go through and anyone andI don't I never went through it.
I don't completely understand it, butI get it. And people who have
never served in a military they seeall the crazy commercials about boot camp and
some of the stupid movies they've done, But that's what they're trying to teach.
And they're teaching you that because ifyou do, God forbid, have
to go into combat, that'll keepyou alive. And that's why they do

(21:59):
it. And you remember it.You can't forget it, there's no way.
Yeah, it sticks with you.And that's what basic training is about.
When you go into that automatic fightflight of freeze, they want that
to come up. They want thatto be a part of that automatic response,
protect to your left. And you'reright to you that it has to

(22:21):
be a part of your makeup.I'm curious, Jasmine, with some of
these areas you're getting into, especiallywith the opioid crisis and the drug views,
how much have you gotten how muchhow has law enforcement been involved that
they helped you? They have nothelped me. I'm sorry to hear that,
but they have not helped me atall. I've reached out quite a

(22:42):
few times. I've gotten a lotof support from my battles at the Counter
Drug Task Force, of course,but with the City of Poughkeepsie law enforcement,
I haven't gotten much support at all. That's just a shame. Yeah,
and if you tried any other Imean, what about the Sheriff's office.

(23:04):
The Sheriff's office is aware, butI know their short staff, so
trying to get them to come outis really hard. Yeah, that's a
shame because I know the sheriff hasa very deep commitment to the community,
his whole staff does. What aboutthe town up Keepsie, they have quite

(23:25):
a drug enforcement unit. Yes,when we called, well when I called,
I was told I would have tocontact the City of Keepsie, so
they read, they redirect you towhere you need to call. And then
even with the churches, because theygo under the church steps and they use
and they try to live there,they disgrace Holy Land and it's like that's

(23:48):
a whole nother ball game. Andto go into the parks, we had
to get the kids out of thepark on Saturday while cleaning because it's not
safe. Yeah, I would neverbring my children to that part or any
park in a station shouldn't be thatway. And it was just build,
it was just redone. It's like, you got to get rid of the
problem first, yeah, before youcan redo it. Yeah. And and

(24:11):
and they are, to their credit, they're trying to get rid of the
problem, but they are really outmatchedat the Yes, it's it's staggering how
much of a And you look acrossthe country at the you know, they
use that number I think recently onehundred and ten thousand overdoses. And that's
that's just what's been reported. It'sa lot worse than that. Oh yeah,
a lot higher than that. Andthe availability still is on the street

(24:33):
is too easy to get and uh, and now you add de fetanyl component
to it, where people are dyingnot even realizing what they're taking. So
it's it's it's a big problem.And then you got cannabis and whether it's
uh opted in or opted out ofin the city of Poughkeepsie, and the
marketing is for children. You gotwhat is that the the saur patch logo

(24:56):
and and different things and in thecells it's not being watched. And then
you have the inactive licenses for liquorin different things. It's all of this
comes into play, and it's whatyou're teaching the community is okay. So
a lot of this has to change, especially the children. Yes, I
think for the last couple of generations, we've really missed the ball with our

(25:18):
kids because and part of it,I say it all the time. You
know you're in an economy now especially, but you've been in one where both
parents have to work. Oh yes, and those children when they get to
be twelve thirteen years old, areraising themselves and just what you pointed out,
all the people on the bad sideof this know that, and they're
targeting them, yes, and they'restarting them at a younger and younger age,

(25:41):
and it's it's you know, it'sharder to break them, break them
from that cycle. It's it's discouragingsometimes, but with a foundation like you,
as you're trying, you're making aneffort and hopefully it continues to grow
again. It's saving our tomorrow.Dot org. I want you to go
to that website right now while you'relistening to us and check it out,
because she's doing some wonderful things witha lot of help. But she needs

(26:03):
more help. She needs your financialsupport, but she needs volunteers. So
please go on the website and seewhat it's all about. And then if
you have a couple hours a week, whatever you can do, get a
hold of Jasmine and tell her,yeah, I'd love to help you.
Anything helps well, Jasmine. It'sthe fastest thirty minutes in radio. I
know when you sat down you thoughtyou gonna talk about for thirty minutes,

(26:25):
we got more to talk about.I'm gonna have you back again. The
thirteenth is the next event that girlSelf Care, which sounds really cool for
the teaching the little girls, andit's not just about makeup. It's about
taking care of themselves, yes,and taking care of their sisters and the
people around them, setting boundaries andjust being them. You don't want them

(26:52):
to disconnect from society. You don'twant them to become rough is. They've
been becoming violent. You just don'twant to let them go. Yeah,
we need it all across the board. We need it with the little boys,
we need it with the little girls. We need it all across the
board with the community. Well,they need to know there's an alternative.
That is the only way to goon right now to them, that's all

(27:15):
there presented with. So yes,that's that's a problem, serious one.
But and you're trying to help.So that's on the thirteenth. The routine
clean up, what is that goingto be? That is every other Saturday.
The next one is on the twentyninth, but there will be a
cleanup Saturday on the twenty second,okay, And where do they meet for
that? Is it? For thisfor the twenty second is going to be

(27:37):
I believe at Mansion Square Park,Okay, but you can find it on
the website as yes, you canbe okay. And then what about the
garden clean up? On? Isthat the garden is every Saturday from one
to five, okay, So it'severywhere, everywhere, every week and that's
at fourteen Dwayne Street. Yes,okay, And you should go check that
garden now because that sounds like aspecial place. Yes, Jasmine, thanks
for what you're doing. Thank youfor your service to the country, but

(28:00):
thanks for beyond that, what you'redoing to continue to serve. You're trying
to help the kids, you're tryingto help everybody who's struggling, and it
comes from from your heart because youstruggled. Yes, and thank God that
you saw that you needed to turnup that negative that happened to you into
something positive. And that's usually whenreally great things happen. And it's happening.

(28:22):
Yes, so again. Jazzmine Playis the founder. She spent the
morning with us and it's Saving OurTomorrow dot org. Please check that out.
Thanks so much for coming out.Thank you so much. We're gonna
talk to you real soon. Allright. Yes, I hope you enjoyed
this week's episode of clear View HudsonValley, and I want to remind you
that all the episodes are available ona clear View Hudson Valley podcast available at

(28:45):
iHeartRadio dot com. I'm Uncle Mike, and if I don't see you out
and about, I'll catch you onthe radio. Have a great week, everyone,