>>Charlottesville
has a lot to offer,

and there's so many different
parts of the community,

you know, like, there's
not one community,

there's so many different
communities here.

>>I think we all
have a role to play,

but finding out
what that role is,

is an individualized thing.

>>You can't just sit at home

and think something's
going to change,

because it's not,
you have to get out,

you have to reach
out, you have to try.

>>Today on this special episode

of "Charlottesville Inside-Out"

we're going to introduce you

to five people you
may or may not know

who are striving to make a
difference in the community

in a variety of ways,
often behind the scenes.

Join us as we find out what
inspires them to do the work

and why they are dedicated
to being the change, come on.

>>Production funding

for "Charlottesville
Inside-Out" is provided by.

(light music)

(gentle music)

>>Myra Anderson is a poet

and a UVA Equity Center
Community fellow-in-residence.

She is also the founder
of Brave Souls on Fire,

a peer run organization
focused on emotional wellness,

advocacy, and healing justice
for African Americans.

As a descendant of
enslaved families

of Monticello and the
University of Virginia,

Myra reflects upon her roots
to help inform the change

she wants to bring about
now and for the future.

>>Dear Africa, I was not
born in the sacred land,

but my blood beats from
the heart of the ancestors.

So I am one with thee.

And even though we may
not speak the same tongue,

I can still move to
the beat of your drum,

my heart pulses to its rhythm

as it becomes the
essence of sound.

I am an individual that loves
the city that I live in.

I am a person who's
committed to doing the work

to make my city better.

I just, I love people, and
I like seeing people well,

and having access to the
things that they need in life.

Poetry kinda tells the
tale of my own story,

I've written many
times when I, myself,

was struggling
with various things

and there seems to
be no other outlet,

I started to write about it.

Sankofa is a mythical
bird, African bird,

and the meaning behind sankofa
is in order to move forward,

you have to go
back to your roots.

So it's not only about
what I'm trying to do

with this mental health project,

but it's me and my own journey

going back and
understanding about my roots

which happens to be,

my ancestors were
enslaved at Monticello

and were also amongst
the enslaved laborers

at the University of Virginia.

So when I reflect
on that, it's like,

one of my ancestors helped
build the stone foundation

the stairs of the rotunda,

and you fast forward,
like over 190 years,

I'm at that same
university, his descendant,

and what I'm doing is
working on a project

that is gonna bring dignity
and hope and support

to the very people
who were denied theirs

that many years ago.

My project focuses specifically
on black mental health,

and it's about creating,
not only a space,

but a safe liberating space

to be able to try to
unpack some of the things

that is weight, that as a black
people and black community,

we continue to carry.

And that's so important
for so many reasons

first of all, because
African Americans

are more likely to experience
mental health problems,

and then secondly, there is
a whole nother complexity,

racism, medical racism, and bias

that often makes up
individuals, African Americans,

reluctant to seek the help.

And then there's a third layer

of cultural stigma in the
African American community,

that it's not okay, you know,

you have to be a strong person

and it kinda goes against
that that cultural norm

to seek help.

So the whole idea
is understanding

that there is an
internal component,

there is a cultural component,

and then there is
engaging in a system

that has not
historically, you know,

been conducive to black
people getting help,

all of those things together,
is why I chose to focus

on black mental health and
naturally my own black skin

and having that lived
experience myself

added on top of that.

It wasn't until
more recent years

when I started to just feel
the weight of a lot of things

going on in our community.

And at first, I was
looking to other people,

like, "Who's gonna fix
this, who's gonna step up

and help or work on this?"

And I struggled with
that question for a while

and then I came to
the conclusion that
maybe I'm the person,

maybe it's me, maybe
it's for me to step up

in whatever capacity
that I could

and try to see what I could do.

I don't think I just
had this one moment

where I was like,
"Oh, I wanna do this,"

but it was more of a realization

that we all have a role to play

and until our community is
a great place for everyone,

and everyone is thriving,
there's always work to be done.

>>Visit Brave Souls
on Fire on Facebook

to learn more about the
mental health support services

and resources they provide

for African Americans
in the community.

Robert Gray is a father,
a sports enthusiast,

and a member of the
community hotline network

"Sitdowns Before Shootouts."

He is also the cofounder

of the Conscious
Capitalist Foundation,

an organization that
works to interrupt

the school to prison pipeline

by providing financial literacy
training, business skills,

and credible
messenger mentoring.

Having dropped out
of college twice

before earning his
political science degree,

Robert is committed to
giving community youth

the chances they
need to succeed.

>>I always say I'm not a
role model, I'm a real model.

I'm a community guy, I'm an
activist, I'm an advocate.

When I wake up, you
know, I wanna go to work.

I love what I'm doing,
I love my community,

I love my people,

and so that kinda like
gives me the energy

to, you know, wake up and do
this over and over and over.

Social entrepreneurship
is essentially

identifying a problem
that exists in society,

your community, and
creating a business model

or business idea to
address that issue.

Our primary focus
is on, you know,

youth in the juvenile justice
system, court-involved youth,

you know, most of my family
has been incarcerated

at some point in their life,

and I'm kinda like
the exception,

but I'm not bigger
than my community.

If you can believe in yourself,
you can change the world.

And so a lot of these kids,

they don't think they
can change the world

but in reality and
actuality they can,

they can change the world.

They're very creative, you know,

they wanna be able to learn
how to create something

and, you know, add
value to their lives,

the lives of their families,

and then just the
community in general.

We primarily focus on financial
literacy, entrepreneurship,

and workforce
development training,

but then we also
provide mentoring

around better decision making,

so essentially teaching them
how to make better decisions

and ideally, how to become
assets to their communities

and not liabilities.

We grew up in a very
rural community,

where at one point,
you know, in the '90s,

it was ravaged by a lot of drugs

and so we just, we saw
stuff early growing up.

For me, I felt like
I was that kid,

you know, in high school,

I'd be in the back of
the class, like doodling.

It's kinda like, I lost, like
total interest in education.

And so like, I was a sports guy,

you know, in the sports arena

you meet a lot of
different people.

And so, I think that's kinda
like the community part.

It's not like, I'm
going into the community

not knowing individuals,

like I know a lot of
these individuals,

and I have, like, real
relationships with people.

And then also my uncle,

he was my basketball
coach growing up.

And I just seen,
like, the compassion

he had for the neighborhood,

like the kids growing
up in the neighborhood,

he would like literally
pick a bunch of us up,

take us on AEU trips, gave us
kind of like an opportunity

to see the world outside of
just like our small community,

and Charlottesville in general.

So that was kind of like
an eye opener for me.

I'm big on practical
application,

so if someone wants to
get involved in anything,

not just this line of work,

the first thing you gotta do
is believe in yourself, right?

You have to convince yourself

that you can do whatever
it is you're trying to do

before you can
convince somebody else.

The second step is research.

You gotta be a
researched practitioner,

that's what I call it, gotta
know what you're talking about.

It's a lot easier for the
youth to accept the information

'cause the first
thing they wanna know

is like, kinda like what
you've been through.

But then also, you have to
have a personal conviction,

I call it a purpose,

like, I have a purpose
for this line of work.

I just wanna make sure
kids have the opportunity

to, you know,
embrace their gifts,

but then also, providing them
with the resources they need

in order to, you know,
manifest their gifts,

and shine a light on the world.

>>To learn more about the
Conscious Capitalist Foundation,

visit
consciouscapitalistfoundation.o.

With a tremendous amount of
support from the community,

athlete and former
educator, Katie Kishore,

founded Kindness Cafe,
a nonprofit coffee shop

created to employ adults
with cognitive disabilities.

Katie's story is proof

that even for the strongest,
most independent people,

sudden life changes
can make us reevaluate

our priorities and
our perceptions,

and help us to understand
how much we can learn

from people with
different experiences.

>>One of the
lessons I've learned

both through my life experiences

and working in this world of
with adults with disabilities

is that it's a gift to be
able to lean on others,

it's a gift to be able to both
provide support for a friend,

but it's also a gift
to have the strength

to ask for support.

So I have two daughters.

Mira is nine years old, and
she's typically developing.

She is joyful and fun,
and a great big sister.

A lot of positive energy.

My other daughter is Kiran,

she's seven years old and
she has Down syndrome.

She is also very joyful and fun,

they have a lot of
things in common

in terms of how they
interact with the world,

and then obviously they
have a lot of differences.

Mira is gonna check
you out a little longer

and where she and I might
hesitate, Kiran is all in.

She has that shout
it from the rooftops

kind of joy and energy and love.

When I was thinking
about pursuing this idea

of a coffee shop
that employed adults

with cognitive disabilities,

there was a lot of
excitement around it, right?

A lot of people were supportive,

and it's fun to
do something new.

And then there's also some
real fear in it for me,

and you know, not only
what if it doesn't succeed,

but what is it
gonna be like for me

raising a daughter with
the cognitive disability

to throw myself into this world

of adults with
cognitive disabilities.

So I think for me, it
took me to understand

that fear was gonna be
a part of the process,

and I was gonna uncover
things about myself

and discover things
about the world

that were gonna
be uncomfortable,

but that it was
gonna be worth it.

I grew up very committed
to being the best

at everything I pursued.

I played soccer and basketball,
and I excelled in both,

and I went on to play soccer
and basketball at UVA,

I was the captain of both teams.

Following graduation,

I played professional
soccer in New York.

In 2014, a lot
happened in my life.

I've grown older, I'm a mom,

athletics doesn't have
the same role in my life

as it once did,

my husband had been diagnosed
with terminal cancer,

Kiran was born, and then two
weeks later, he passed away.

And the day after
Kiran was born,

she was diagnosed
with Down syndrome.

And you know, Kiran is
a star today, right?

She is a joy and a gift.

And I'm glad I've
been able to raise her

and to be with her.

In that in that
moment, though, right,

it felt like a
challenging diagnosis,

it felt like an added weight

to an already
difficult situation.

And, you know, from life
experiences, we grow.

Kris was a wonderful man,

he was a long time
teacher in the community,

he was very kind, right?

And so when we are
talking about names,

when we stumbled across
the name of kindness,

well we thought it worked
for a lot of people reasons

and one of those was
that Kris was known

to many of his
friends as the K Man,

and so his name Kris
is spelled with a K,

last name is Kishore,
also spelled with a K.

So we thought it was
a good fit, you know,

I don't think the
average customer knows

that the K has any
significance beyond kindness.

But you know, it's
nice within our family

to know that it represents
Kris in some ways.

I want people to love
coming to Kindness,

and I want people to
experience joy at Kindness,

and I also want people to have

their perceptions
challenged a little bit.

I want our customers to
realize what they can learn

by interacting with our staff.

If we can all see the
gifts in those around us,

and we can treat others
with with kindness,

then that's really
the change we need.

Everyone brings gifts and
value into this world,

and it's important that
we have eyes to see it.

>>To learn more about the Cafe
and the community partners

who came together to
make it a reality,

visit kindnesscafecville.com.

(fast-paced music)

Jimmy Hollins is the co-founder
of the Burley Varsity Club,

a group of athletes who attended
the all-black high school

that served the community
from 1951 to 1967.

Focused on preserving the
history of their beloved school,

the club was recently successful

in listing the building
as a Virginia landmark

and on the National
Register of Historic Places.

Additional projects have
included honorary road signs,

plaques, and a memorial wall

to celebrate coaches,
faculty, and students.

Almost always quietly
working behind the scenes

and often with area partners,
Jimmy is currently helping

with the Burley
Restoration Project

to repair and modernize

the existing athletic
field and facility.

>>Have you ever seen that
movie "Friday Night Lights"?

Well, Burley was
Friday night lights.

If you were a student,

you could not wait
until school was out,

you go home, you
ate, you waited.

Of course when you
played football,

Coach Jones didn't
let you go back home.

Or Coach Smith didn't
let you go back home.

You would lay out in the
hallway and take a nap,

and then they'd wake
you up at a certain time

when you go change,
put your uniform on,

and when the team
came on the field,

the team ran in between the
band and the cheerleaders.

Nothing like it.

I wouldn't trade it in for
nothing in the world, mm-mm.

Only if we lost that's the only
time you wanna trade it in.

Yeah, but that was far
and few in between.

The Burley Varsity Club is an
organization made up of guys

that played sports at
Burley High School.

It could be football,
basketball, or baseball.

Our first goal, when
we formed a club,

was to have a cookout and
reunite the athletes of Burley.

And then our next project was
to have a trophy case built,

so that's what we did.

We think Burley is
really important

because it's the second
black high school

in the city of Charlottesville,

and they felt that they
were going to eventually

have to desegregate schools.

And they wanted to, I guess,

try to head that off
with a new school.

We had a young lady, she's
a friend of ours now,

Olivia Ferguson McQueen,

she was one of the,
if not the first,

that was supposed to
desegregate Lane High School.

The governor closed
the schools up

rather than to
integrate the schools

until the court case was
finally decided and won.

The judge here said he
feared for her life,

and he would not let
her go into Lane,

and he would not let
her go back to Burley.

She went to school in the
superintendent's office.

And when she graduated,

she never did get a
high school diploma.

She got a piece of paper

saying that she had
completed her work.

In 2013 our club held a
graduation exercise for her

where she got her
official diploma

after she was supposed
to graduate in 1959,

but she got her
graduation diploma

over in our
auditorium at Burley.

Young kids don't realize
what she paid the price to do

for them to go to school today.

In September of 2018,

I started a petition
to the school board

for making Burley a
historical landmark.

It took probably almost two
years from start to finish.

We want younger kids to
know what Burley was like,

we want them to know

that Burley was a great
place to go to school.

Somebody has to do it, if it
doesn't matter to somebody,

it just will end up going away,

it may end up getting torn
down, just pushed to the side.

And I hate to see Burley
get pushed to the side.

You can't just sit at home

and think something's going
to change, because it's not,

you have to get out, you have
to reach out, you have to try.

That's the only way
it's going to work.

>>Visit the Burley
Varsity Club Facebook page

to keep up with updates
on all of their projects.

Karina Monroy describes
herself as an artist,

a community organizer,
a daughter, a friend,

a chicken raiser, and
her grandmother's legacy.

Drawing on her own life
experiences to inform her work

as the executive director
of Creciendo Juntos,

Karina is passionate
about providing a platform

for the voices and needs of
the Latinx youth community

through art, education,

leadership development,
and work groups.

>>I'm first generation Mexican,

so I was born in the US,

but my parents are
both from Mexico.

So I think a lot of
the times growing up,

I kinda felt this split between
my culture and my identity.

You know, I was growing up

in a very Mexican
traditional household,

speaking Spanish
fluently, all the times,

eating the foods, 100% in this,

immersed in this
Mexican culture at home,

but I was going to school

and making friends
in the US, right?

And so I was experiencing
this whole other life,

this whole other world.

And a lot of the times it felt

like I couldn't really be
fully myself in either or,

and I think art making
really became the way

in which I kind of asked
myself these questions

or worked through
those feelings.

Art became the tool to like,
figure out what to embrace

and what to, like, throw away.

What did I wanna take away
from both of these cultures

and kind of make my own path?

A lot of the work
that we're even doing

within Creciendo Juntos
brings in that culture,

and that creativity and
art making into life

for some of these students,

and I love exposing them

to different artists of
different backgrounds

and different upbringings

to kinda just give that
like spark and inspiration,

because I know for me,
if it wasn't for art,

I don't think I would
have graduated high school

or even gone to college and
done so well in college.

I was, you know, a young
Latina in a very white school,

and there was a time in
school when I was failing,

like, I was completely failing,

I was gonna not
graduate high school.

I look back and I
think about how,

not once did a teacher
ever pull me aside

and ask, you know,
"Hey, what's going on?

Why are you not passing,
why are you not succeeding?"

And I think that a
large part of that

has to do with this
expectation or this, you know,

or low expectations set
for Latinos in our school.

And so I look back,
and I think about like,

imagine someone
actually reaching out

and being, you know, there's
something going on here,

why aren't you succeeding
like the rest of your peers?

Our services at Creciendo Juntos

are all Latinx,
youth-focused programs

and it's all about
cultivating leadership

and cultivating community within
the Latinx community here.

The purpose of these programs

are really just
to provide a space

for latinx youth to gather,
connect, create together,

learn from artists, from
teachers, from poets,

and kind of give them that
space to flourish and grow.

I'm just passionate
about our youth

and our students
having all the options,

and then being able to
freely choose what they want.

So we're not saying like, you
know, "College is the only way

and we're here to
get you into college

whether you like it
or not," you know.

We're here to say like,
"If this is something

that you might wanna do, like,
let's figure it out together,

and let's give you that option

so you can feel empowered to
choose that for yourself."

I think that's why I'm
so passionate about it,

'cause I feel like,
as a young person,

I feel like a lot of options
were taken away from me

without me knowing it.

One of the major gaps

that keeps coming up
over and over again

is the lack of mental
health services.

One of the things that
we've talked about a lot

is how can we get mental health
providers within the schools

to help teens and students
who are struggling

with mental health issues.

It all intersects,

mental health is gonna
affect a student's ability

to believe in themselves and
their ability to achieve.

And it's really getting these
kids together in a cohort

and talking about some of
these difficult barriers

that the Latinx community face,

and really breaking it down
in a way that's accessible

and easy to understand.

For me, success
looks like, you know,

seeing our youth
putting on initiatives

beyond our
organization, you know,

I see them growing up

and being the leaders
of our community,

and really investing their
time back into the community.

I think that a lot of the times

when we're trying to make
change within the community,

we have to start from
within, start with ourselves

and question, you know,
our own upbringings,

our own privileges,
our own faults.

Look in the mirror, you
know, in that sense,

and kind of start working from
there to be a changemaker,

because I think that you really
can't affect people's lives

until you really feel secure

and feel that you
like radically,

really love yourself
as a person.

>>To learn more about
Creciendo Juntos,

visit cj-network.org.

Thank you for joining us

for this special episode of
"Charlottesville Inside-Out."

We hope you enjoyed hearing

from just a few of the people

who are working to make a
difference in our community.

Thank you to our guests
for taking the time

to tell us a little
about the work they do,

and why they do it.

We all have passions
and life experiences.

How might we see ourselves
being the change?

>>Production funding

for "Charlottesville
Inside-Out" is provided by.

(light music)

(gentle music)

(words dinging)