cumberbatch and i'm the associate vice president of policy at the david rothenberg center for public policy at the fortune society and welcome to both sides of the bars our discussion driven show that examines the criminal justice system from various perspectives including those most impacted by the criminal justice system we discussed critical questions about how the current system works its intersections with social justice and highlight the efforts that are being made to improve the lives of everyone that is affected by it we ask you the viewers to spread the word about both sides of the bars and share your comments with us on twitter at the fortune s o c today's show is titled community engagement why building communities is vital to criminal justice reform according to the national reinsurer resource center approximately nine million people will be released annually from jails across the country once released they face systemic and individual barriers that impede their ability to obtain a successful reentry and acclamation many advocates across the country are pushing for an investment into communities through a myriad of initiatives in campaigns that address the lack of resources needed to survive post incarceration my guest today is william evans founder and president of neighborhood benches a not for profit organization designed to help young adults and leaders achieve positive changes in communities where capacity building community service and restored of an restorative justice practices are needed will thanks for joining us our viewers about neighborhood benches one why the name sue why now and three out of all of the places out of all of the touch points in the criminal justice system benches is something that we can all identify with not only is this something that we can or identify with but start in a discussion with individuals from the community that's impacted like the ones that we come from  they can identify what it is to sit on a bench and have a gathering and talk about about life and for some young individuals it's about the street which is about the street life the gang life and that's their meeting  individuals how they can model change for young adults in a community and show them there is a different lifestyle and that they need to be focused on and when you say impacted individuals you mean folks who have had experience or involvement our understanding is that they work in a cycle you know so we shall make sure we stay on point with having that discussion with our young folks and so one how does your organization to find young that's a definition that means different things to different people definitely and you know why work with youth year everyone wants to work with youth but if you sit down with a bunch of teenagers for ten minutes you'll see that it is not quite that easy task ye and so you know why you think you know why communities write like why out of all of the points you could insert your energy into that you chose to do it there so so one thing that we we notice is that young people who have a problem with really paying attention especially when they feel as though what it is that it's talking about is not something that they can relate to however when you talk about mass incarceration thirteen years all we have is just two years right before they can actually get caught up in a criminal justice system all the way up to twenty four and we do that specifically because we know that that group where we're no steel police brutality we're still going violence and we're still trying to find themselves and so we try to make sure we focus on that population and utilize some of the older folks like ourselves to teach them what it is to be role model different type of turmoil and so how how did you get to the point where you say i'm going to found an organization i'm going to start something of my own like you know what was some of that journey well that for me growing up in jackson houses in the south bronx i was i was shot in the neck at the age of sixteen a verse arrest at the age of fifteen coming from the supermarket for making a delivery coming out of a with my mission but also resonated with me to the point where i said i have to do more so you know like me i'm a strong believer in all of the vista of the practices and i said in order for me to make this work i that was that was the point for me where i said where i have to actually go back to the community where i would want to raise a child to do something about it and if it were there i know it can work anywhere and so how has it been you know as someone who is there regularly impacted by as you said violence and the criminal justice system how do you use that experience at all to guide the principles of an organization that is now responsible for serving people who are just like you and me here you know is it so ways it's always a battle because you want you want people to believe in  system but at the same time you want them to believe in it enough to know that they can make changes to buy because most of the time we have young people who do not believe in the system they're not going to pay attention to how the system is impacting us so w for eleven months and four days of exile and but then i was acquitted so i let them know i've never been sentenced to any time but that doesn't stop me from having some type of space in this conversation where i still had a mother that experienced it a brother  issue why this is happen and you know and so when you look at like communities across the country you know particularly in communities of color you see some troubling trends as it relates to young people but particularly young people of color you know excessive levels of violence excessive levels of peer pressure in a way that is not just about cutting school but you know sometimes it involves initiations into entities that are labeled as gangs you know how how is neighborhood benches of approach helping to address some of that and you know and and individuals understand we need to stop pushing you into this space and when i say to space death to space where we have a conference's about you where we actually have an all these different discussions about you but but yet they're not in there they're not in the same space here so you know like for for us like we let them know if if a gang to you is about having a larger group so you need to move with us because we're moving in a we're moving in a happened in one of the things that we try to help people understand is that when you have these young people are near only in junior high school high school they may never be a part of that discussion if that opportunity do not happen so we take them into the spaces where this expert speaking about their experiences some of the things that they will learn in in in in not only can they take form from their conversation but they can also try to formulate a style of the own child to help someone else in their community most of the young people they can identify with some of the things that that has taken place in net same   two things i would largely say is one is that you know they think of black and brown youth and they generally think about black or brown boys or young men you're what is neighborhood benches doing to address the experiences that young girls and young women of color face as you know and maybe the viewers know that you know african american girls of a particular age range are the fastest growing so population in the criminal justice system in prison children do and so you know we let our viewers know about what neighborhood benches is doing to try to address their particular concerns and may be different invite people into the space and charge to work with them so not only understand what it is that we're doing but help them understand what they're calling could be or would be a calling is at the time  all and this is some sisters tested as actually taken on younger sisters to teach them how to teach them about their responsibilities not only to themselves but to the community and we all is a fascinating  because not only are there now not only is it that they're females but but but they're there they're coming from all over you know in is the way you see  of violence and they're stepping into the space strong so we're definitely out here so support and other groups you know of doing this work and so our youth goes through neighborhood benches or engages with neighborhood benches however you don't have a lot of them that don't know and that nonprofit direct service and work but they have the power and the structure to do so so we step into that space and we help them identify some of the things that they can be doing how to identify funded how to identify some of the issue from their communities some of the directly impacted brothers and sisters and how to pull them together and have them a system with development programs so then you have a community level where we're actually taken some of the young brothers and sisters and we're showing them how to basically polo how to police the a can how to police the community and bring down the you from taken students from four different areas which is courts public housing course public housing colleges and summer youth and we're mixing them in because they all have different of experiences and we look forward to launching the on project by two thousand and twenty one that's focused on some of the work there we're doing here and so how how how do the youth i remember one time it was in the summer maybe about two years ago that you shoot a fashion indeed had i would say somewhere around thirty or forty youth and and just on a whim you were you were passing by a i would say it was like a it was a it was a city only yard that had a bunch of just plants and stuff growing in it obviously needed someone to just kind of do some green thumb work and you just you know the youth were like so energetic they just cleaned up that entire park like in a day yeah so so what the activities that neighborhood benches does is obviously some of it is community driven right stuff like that yes but then is there any work being done around helping to address some of the policies that that are negatively impacting youth yes yes so we do have them one of the fixed and in a mixed community feel good at the same time but the but the young folks are also feeling good about it because this is something that they can engage with and they can do on the on line over and over and we introduced them to some of the grants from like citizens committee so they can understand that they can also request fund fund into neuters work and if the fund is not there you could do it for free or still feel good about it understand that that's just like school you know because schools schools are not teaching our young kids these things you know i did introduce him to to the to the space but not to the space spaces where they can feel feel i would say better when tom go go by and it won't be something new to them and you know we find that young young people is not in this space to the point where they're not all over the country what would you say to someone who is listening to this right now and saying you know i could be will like i could be somebody who could start something an in community does working with youth you know what would you tell them based on all of your experiences now as like a founder and president of a living organization you know what would you tell them about some of  part of giving back and it's somethin that they do not expect to be financially compensated by this is something that they have to know that their heart is in they feel and they feel will passionate about that will be the first thing the second i want to point out to them is that you're going to be saving a lot of lives doing this work right and you know if you need if you need to understand what's going on in your community you need to go out there and better understand people ask the people questions and act on what they need because what i realize over time is that b b because i can identify with so in things that do not make me the only expert in that space on this other people that i have answers and solutions that can sit down with you and help you kotick what it is that you need to do for the community in addition to that i would say if you have a dream go for it you know don't let anything stop you you know because you not a failure until you actually stop trying you know and for those who want to look at the model with you and and want to try to do some of the things that we're doing they can look on our website you know and be able to identify ours be able to identify between the solutions that they want to utilize in their community and reach out to us and so i want to take the last couple of minutes that we have  to talk about you know your vision for neighborhood benches i know as a founder and president you probably get asked that all the time about what's your long term strategy with your five year plan but let's just you know without putting a number on it some time in the not so distant future when you look at neighborhood benches what is it that you would want to see i would definitely want to see m know making sure our young folks understand that that outside of education is still education no i want to be able to push our forced to actually adjust some of these issues that's impact nation and be able to implement our program and to colleges and the public schools and so how can folks learn more about neighborhood benches in the last thirty seconds that we have they can actually go visit will and thank you to the viewers for tuning in if you're interested in finding out more about the fortune society or neighborhood benches please check us out on the web fortune society's website addresses fortune society dot