Sustaining ARPA Funding and Reprioritizing Resources with Ron Waddell

Part 8/9 from our mini-series: ARPA Funding in Worcester

Public Hearing is back with another episode of our ARPA Funding In Worcester series with this week’s guest, Ron Waddell. Ron is the Executive Director and Co-Founder of Legendary Legacies; a non-profit organization working with black and latino males in the city of Worcester, MA. In this episode, Ron and Josh talk about how we can use the $147 million in ARPA funding that has been granted to the city of Worcester to promote equity and how we can hold city officials accountable as well as how this money can be used to reprioritize how and where we spend resources in our communities in ways that are sustainable. 

You can learn more about Legendary Legacies as well as their podcast on their website!

Learn more about how Worcester plans to spend ARPA dollars on the City website.

Public Hearing is a podcast from Action! by Design about our home city of Worcester, Massachusetts and the people we should be listening to—residents, artists, activists, community leaders, storytellers, and those most impacted by issues facing our city. Our mission is to cultivate community through equity, inclusion, and design, and that work starts at home.

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Transcript for this episode

Joshua Croke (00:01):

Hello Worcester in the world. You are listening to Public Hearing on WICN 90.5 FM Worcester's only NPR affiliate station or wherever you get your podcast. I am your host, Joshua Croke, and we are recording this episode on the heels of the massacre in Texas and the white supremacist racism-fueled mass shooting in Buffalo. At the time of this recording, it is the 146th day of the year and America has experienced 213 mass shootings. So far, I'm asking you, listeners, to take thoughtful action that is measurable. Our votes matter, our dollars matter, our voices matter. And these issues need to be talked about. This country has been long overdue for taking action surrounding gun control, as well as addressing mental health and violence prevention measures for our country. We need action and we need it. Now we've provided some resources and actionable, actionable steps

Joshua Croke (00:53):

you can take to advocate for gun control and violence prevention on our Action! by Design Facebook page and on Instagram at Action! by Design co. For the past many weeks, and this intersects with these issues, we've been talking about ARPA, the American Rescue Plan Act funding that is bringing $146 million to Worcester to address the impacts of the pandemic in our communities. These dollars are earmarked for projects that support those disproportionately impacted by the pandemic, primarily low-income communities and communities of color. Our conversations with guests have weaved in and around possibilities for ARPA, but what has stood out most presently to me is that the folks who are doing equity first work and working to address our community's greatest challenges already hold solutions to these not new problems. So while there is a lot of new money on the table, we're continuing to do the work and advocating for resources that we know have been able to be there all along.

Joshua Croke (01:49):

This is the Public Hearing podcast. Public Hearing is our show about making public participation and civic engagement, more accessible in Worcester, our home base, and sharing stories from people in our community doing work that resonates with our commitment of engaging people with purpose. Today, we're talking with Ron Waddell. Ron is the executive director and co-founder of Legendary Legacies, a nonprofit organization working with black and Latino males in the city of Worcester. The hope of the organization is to interrupt cycles of racism, poverty, and incarceration. Ron's a Certified Transformational Life Coach through The Association for Christian Character Development, a Certified Gang Specialist through The National Gang Crime and Research Center and a Certified Youth Mental Health Specialist. He's also a Certified Recovery Coach and holds a Certificate in Nonprofit Management and Leadership from Boston University. He's completed and co-facilitated multiple reentry training inside the Mass House of Corrections and is present at a number of community and state events speaking about issues affecting marginalized communities. Ron has experienced many of these issues that affect the targeted youth participants of the Legacy Builders Program and uses this experience to better relate to marginalized youth throughout the city of Worcester. Ron, thanks so much for being here before we start talking about ARPA and really about how we need to reprioritize how and where we spend resources in our communities. I welcome guests to share any other information about their background experience and social location. They feel might benefit listeners to know before we embark on this conversational journey together.

Ron Waddell (03:21):

For sure. Well first thank you for having me on the podcast. It's an honor to be here. Just thinking back to when we met and then to both have now have podcasts and to be having this conversation is really, really really, really exciting. So in regards to myself and for the sake of the show in time I will give it in a nutshell. I'll do my best. I grew up in Southern New Jersey near Philadelphia in a suburban area, but the majority of my family extended family Lebanons and uncles were in Chester, PA. Chester, PA at the time was frequently on the country's most dangerous cities list and so very early on, it was an interesting social experiment for me to see these two social-economic classes kind of happening at the same time. I would go home

Ron Waddell (04:15):

and we would trade cards with police officers, cuz if you collected all 13, you got a prize. And then when I went to Chester to be with my family over there, it'd be like, you better be inside before 7:30 type of thing. And so that was very interesting. And then moving to Massachusetts after my mom passed away, I moved to Westboro, which is a very affluent town here in Massachusetts. And so that experience really shaped a lot of things for me. I was fortunate enough to have a foster son at age 22. He was 15, he stayed with me for two years. And that's how I really got to understand a lot of the challenges facing our public school students in high school. And I felt it very interesting in the work that he was doing related to what I had picked up and learned at Westboro in just 20 miles down the road in Worcester, the educational experience was so drastically different.

Ron Waddell (05:14):

I further experienced the challenges or the inequities within our school system, as I drove the Bookmobile for the library and we got to go to every elementary school. I had no idea at the time there were 34 elementary schools, but in doing that interfacing with the schools and just seeing the different interactions that we had and the different resources that were available at different schools was also very enlightening. And at the same time, I have two sons that are eight and nine, elementary school-aged. And yeah, I think that's a healthy place to stop and give a little bit of background about who I am and for the listeners before we jump into the convo.

Joshua Croke (05:54):

Yeah. Thank you, Ron, and do a quick shout up for your podcast

Ron Waddell (05:58):

Oh yeah, no doubt you gotta tune in its Legendary Legacies Presents, Keeping it 100, please tune in. We are endeavoring this season to really paint a holistic picture of the participants that we have within our program, the different struggles, challenges, and obstacles that they face as they get involved in the criminal justice system and then endeavor to return and make better for themselves.

Joshua Croke (06:23):

Awesome. Well, thanks so much, Ron, for being here and from past conversations that you and I have had, I know that we're both very connected and passionate about like identifying and addressing like root causes in our community. And we talk a lot about, you know, equity and I think a lot of people are hearing these words now because it has become more of a kind of demanded focus from folks in the community. But I think a lot of organizations and structures and institutions still really struggle with what equity looks like and how that actually manifests in action and like in process and in outcomes. And so could you highlight for listeners some of the work that Legendary Legacies does and maybe with the lens of addressing some of the root causes of the challenges that you see in our community?

Ron Waddell (07:13):

Yeah, so we focus on three critical areas of the participants. We have either you are recently returning from incarceration, have significant gang involvement or have a current or history of substance use disorder. So any combination or one of those is who we're working with. And we pick that work up from the onset of a response team to help respond to critical events that happen in the community to try to mitigate violence and build outreach. We have a program that we call Legacy Builders, which is the core of kind of mentoring those participants who are looking to exit the life. And then lastly, our Legacy Links program, which is the newest program that we received fund generous funding from the state to run focuses on black and Latino males who are returning to the community from incarceration and looking to help get them on the right track.

Ron Waddell (08:07):

As you talk about like root causes to the challenges that we face first and foremost is the necessity of having people that have lived experience and understand those challenges. And I still learn every day. I, myself was never incarcerated. I've been around, I've been close, my father was, but I learn every day from folks on the team what some of those challenges are and what some of those barriers are. And when we think about especially returning from incarceration specifically we know that if you're able to, the research shows if you're able to avoid recidivating within three years, then your likelihood of going back drops significantly. So people think it's the job, people think it's a home which are barriers we can talk about later, but really it has a lot to do, what is that support network around you?

Ron Waddell (09:00):

There was a research done by Annie E. Casey that looked at that and they asked folks, what is the thing that's gonna make you most successful? And everyone, the majority said a job, you know they stayed with the group and those that were successful after three years, they asked them what it was and overwhelmingly they said that it was the support network that was around them because when you hit those barriers, it's only so many times you can apply for housing and you can't get it because of a quarry or you apply for a job and you can't get it because of a quarry or you can't live with your family because they're in public housing and you have a felony record, so you can't live there with your family anymore. And so all these things take an emotional toll, a mental toll, and to have someone that can walk alongside you, have an understanding of what that's like in addition to the fact of being black and Latino in our community in the pandemic really uncovered with those inequities that exist in various different sectors.

Ron Waddell (10:00):

And so having those unique challenges are very critical. I see ourselves playing a lot ways like a broker between our participants and into mainstream culture or society, if you will, and helping them bridge that and walk alongside them in that space. And I'm excited that we've been able to build our team in a way that is entirely black and Latino from our executive team down to our frontline workers as well as our board really resembles and we've brought folks on that, aren't your traditional board members but those that we knew have a passion and are connected to and can really speak into this work.

Joshua Croke (10:41):

And there are a handful of things there that I'd love to like highlight one of them being I love and appreciate and value organizations that lead with the lived experience piece, you know, as a central kind of tenant for how programs are built and how services are provided. And I think often in kind of the, I often talk about the nonprofit industrial complex and like the big corporate funded, you know, social movements that are kind of allowed at these levels and at these scales often are pumping money into large institutions with majority leadership that does not reflect community who are closest and most experiencing these issues. And also kind of have a bit of like a savior complex and like we're here to save these individuals instead of like verify and like validate their innate power and their ability to realize and hope for, and want to, you know, participate fully in their own lives and in their community.

Joshua Croke (11:47):

So I want to kind of uplift the focus that you pay in the work you do. And I think about I'm a board member of Living In Freedom Together also known as LIFT, which is a survivor-led organization, supporting women and marginalized gendered folks who have been impacted by the sex trade and prostitution also dealing often with substance use disorders, mental health disorders, and a lot of the ways in which you talk about your work is very similar to the way LIFT talks about their work. And even like to the point of talking about like exiting the life and what the life means in like the lived experience of different people in the community. And so I wanted to just uplift that and for listeners, the critical work that is done by folks with lived experience who are closest to these issues and the folks that are impacted by these challenges in community.

Ron Waddell (12:42):

Yeah. The way I usually respond to folks on that, Josh and I appreciate you highlighting that and underscoring is there's a unique difference in studying and understanding what cancer can do to a body, it's a whole different experience to watch your loved one deteriorate in front of you. There's a different wisdom you get, it's a different experience, right? And so to be able to walk along someone in that space having gone through is just a whole different level of care of understanding and support. Not that those who haven't, but there's a relatability of what is happening internally, emotionally and psychologically, and what is needed in some of those moments, because you were in those spaces, which is unique to the lived experience, which you guys at LIFT also highlight.

Joshua Croke (13:27):

And that I kind of transitions well into the next piece that I wanted to talk about, which is the need for, and the focus on individual versus place-based change, right? Like supporting individuals that are, you know, reentering and have unique and specific needs and have hopes, aspirations, and are looking for support networks. And then the place-based work that needs to happen to ensure that the communities that our folks are coming from have the resources that they need to be successful very early on. Right. And I think there's the prevention piece. And then there's the response piece. And often folks, especially organizations closest to the ground are dealing with both and are having, and maybe you can speak to this if you agree or disagree from your experience, finding resources to do the change work at the community level to resource and provide prevention is harder to fund than the response work that often is a bit more visible. Like I can feed a person, solving hunger is a whole thing that isn't as, you know attainable for the political cycle or for this funding cycle or whatever it might be. Right. Yeah. So could you talk a little bit about how you engage in that, you know, dynamic?

Ron Waddell (14:52):

Yeah. You bring up a great point. It's a constant challenge with our funding structures, we fortunately for us, we have had some really good partners but there's been some other funding that we haven't been able to engage in for that very reason. And what you speak to is some of the discrepancies in the work and the research. For instance, when we talk about the returning citizen and understanding that three years, one of them is, well, then why would we make a one year program? Why would we fund it on a year basis if we know three years is what leads to success. When we talk about recovery to get to a maintenance stage in that change, we're talking three to five years again, why would we fund things on a six-month cycle and then expect, or be disappointed with the results?

Ron Waddell (15:40):

A lot of the challenges there for us are the fact that the work is longitudinal, hence the name of our organization, Legendary Legacies. People have asked me a lot of times, like, how will you measure success? I said, I don't know, I really won't know because what we're endeavoring to do is beyond just the brothers we're working with, what is the outcome of the children that they've had and then after that is really what our lens is and what we're looking for within our organization. And it doesn't really lend to traditional funding models that holds you on these certain outcomes that they need and want. We run up against that quite a bit and I think we're continuing, trying to figure out how to navigate that. One of the things that we have done that has helped us was work with Roca to develop a theory of change so that we are very clear on who we work with and what we do.

Ron Waddell (16:34):

And so now going to talk to a funder sounds a little bit different than it had before where it was like, oh, as we were starting out, we really need this funding. But maybe we took funding that wasn't aligned with our values and how we could do work, cuz we could try to figure out how to make it fit, you know? But one of the things we say to funders now like is, Hey, if someone's referred to our program and they don't get in trouble in the first 60 or 90 days, then you sent me the wrong person. So it's a whole different way of looking at the population. Not that our population is, but like it's, we shouldn't be surprised that there was a relapse or we're not surprised that there is still in it.

Ron Waddell (17:13):

And so being able to communicate that very clearly up front to the funders I would love, it has helped some, like I've never thought about it that way, those types of things we hear. But it is a unique challenge and especially as we go into this funding cycle through ARPA we're hoping to put together a proposal and package for it. But we're thinking about, is it, how do we sustain it after this funding? Because yeah, it's great. But that one time thing we're dealing with people's lives.

Joshua Croke (17:44):

Absolutely. And that leads to my next question around, how do you hope that this funding is really prioritized? I think a very justifiable question that we've gotten on the show and in conversations that I've had with people in the community, is that all right, great there's all this money that's on the table. It's coming to the city directly. How are we gonna hold them accountable that this is actually going to the communities that have been most disproportionately impacted by this and not be used on pet projects that the city has or different, you know, there's even been a question around whether or not organizations are deserving, but having that money immediately earmarked a million dollars here, $500,000 here without a community informed process for what our priorities are, that that money is not going to have the greatest impact that it could have. And so I wanna address both what are your hopes for maybe the process and well as like what this money could be used on.

Joshua Croke (18:41):

And then also that sustainability piece, like we have, I think a responsibility as a city to say our municipal budget now needs to reflect the priorities that is the community is championing and we're gonna learn a lot about what those community priorities are. We already know mostly what those are and they need to really be listened to and prioritized and built into that budget. Etel they are district five city counselor talks about the budget as a moral document, right. And that is like, so resonates with me and like, we need to change our long term funding structures inclusive of our foundations, our philanthropic entities and families, et cetera. But so jumping back, ARPA, how do you hope that money is used? Where do you want it to go? What are projects, programs, areas of focus that you feel this money should be used?

Ron Waddell (19:32):

Yeah, I appreciate that question. I'm also the co-chair of the Coalition for a Healthy Greater Worcester and so the initial thing that comes to mind is I would hope that we are looking to fund things in alignment with the CHIP, the Community Health Improvement Plan, and really looking at that there's been tremendous work done by Casey, Chantel Bethea and Tempe in that work and other folks that are on that steering committee and connected to really produce this, to say, hey, these are the target areas that went to the community and heard directly from them. So I'm hoping that that is gonna be included in the process. I, for me, I also am hoping that the funding is really used for innovative, imaginative projects. I think that this is one-time funding that we have to really experiment and move forward with things that aren't the status quo but things that are really challenging the status quo that may not have been traditionally funded.

Ron Waddell (20:24):

How we go about doing that I would love to perhaps have more community input in that process I know that internally or working on a number of racial equity tools and things like that but I would love for that to be in the process. I would say right now, pressing, as I'm sitting on this show with you housing is, I hear it from all different sectors. I'm sure at LIFT with our participants and other places, and it's really challenging to find affordable housing for our participants. And I, and for the city as a whole the rising costs and the ability to be able to have a living wage and take care of yourself is something that we really need to be able to bridge. In addition to this funding, if they do make sure it gets to the grassroots organizations that are on the ground,

Ron Waddell (21:23):

what I hope that we do with this funding is also support those organizations from a technical assistance standpoint on how to handle this funding. I don't think that it's wise just to drop this on grassroots organizations, a large sum of money that you haven't been familiar with working with you're focused on doing the work, but the back infrastructure that you may need to be able to handle those funds, make sure your financial structures are in place so that you don't run into sort of any trouble so that you can be sustainable is something that we should also be including in this work. I think that's something that I've been passionate about in talking to funders as well, if there's certain data that you do want from these programs, then I would ask that you help fund me in how to collect that data that you're looking for.

Joshua Croke (22:06):

I love that as someone who I have, like a, one of my principles in the way that I work is like use data as a tool to inform and not dictate, like let's learn from data. There's also things that we don't necessarily need measured to know that they're having an impact in people's lives, especially when you're doing this on the ground work, right? You're like, I don't need a survey in 10 years from now to tell me what we already know. Like, we need money to support the people that are closest to these issues. You can say, I know what we need. Don't make me like put together a five-year longitudinal study to prove it right? Like, let's actually address some of these things now, The other piece, I think the tech assistance and like providing data teams as a community would be huge, would be a huge impact for not only how our organizations individually are able to help assess their impact, but also collectively how we're able to assess our impact and inform what gap areas might exist and how we can as a community kind of respond and Worcester being such a dense nonprofit community.

Joshua Croke (23:13):

I think with also very limited local funding has a false sense, that might be a very real sense of competition that exists between organizations, which in my opinion, kind of prevents certain collaboration and work because it's fear of, oh, if we work with too many other organizations, we're gonna have to spread our money out too thin, and we won't be able to do our core work

Ron Waddell (23:39):

That's spot on that is a realistic, there isn't a lot of funding or funders in Central Mass and so you do run into that a lot of times, I think especially as a grassroots organization coming up, I know early for us was the hesitancy of really putting out and not having formalized some of our work and then being nervous that if we partner with folks where they try to take that and then not do it with the same fidelity or things of that nature, that was a very real concern for us in doing the work as it related to that. But we are grateful for partners like Worcester Community Action, we exist primarily because of the partnership of Worcester Community Action Council and them starting off for us as a subcontracting work to us as a way, you know and I think more opportunities to do like do things like that.

Ron Waddell (24:32):

I love what Mary Beth Campbell's doing over there. In that respect of saying, Hey, we're this hub. We play this part, but how can we as an organization also support those other smaller organizations that don't have access and that mindset trickles down to myself as well. I mean we are constantly doing that for either smaller grassroots, some of the things that have been successful for us we have implemented with smaller grassroots and have loaned out our grant writer on our dime to say, Hey, listen, it'd be really great cuz you need grant templates. And so helping them support in that way,

Joshua Croke (25:08):

Housing absolutely as well. For listeners who might be unfamiliar with housing first models, I highly encourage you look into that. Oftentimes our systems are set up to say, oh, someone is struggling with substance use disorder. Let's have them fix that first before we provide them housing which is such, again, like a community savior complex of, you know, this person isn't deserving of this yet, cuz they can't handle it when in reality, and you know this from your work, and we know this from our work at LIFT, people are asking for a safe home that is not a shelter, not the things that people experience in shelters. They need safety in their own space. And so if you're unfamiliar with housing first models, please look those up. We are almost at time Ron, so any final kind of thoughts that you wanna impart to the listeners and you know, to bring voice to on this show?

Ron Waddell (26:00):

I would encourage listeners to, well first thanks listeners for tuning in first and foremost but secondarily I would encourage you if you're not, I imagine most that are listening are civically engaged. And I know it's a lot and right now it's really divisive. But on a local level, I think it's imperative that we engage ourselves in this process and do the research to find it. It's not always readily available. I think there could be better promotion of these things. I would consider myself one of the people that's in the know. So you do got a little bit of digging, a little bit of research but your voice is entirely valid. Going back to the top of the show as you spoke to the gun violence and my heart goes out to those families of those children and the teachers, but your voice is extremely valuable and it has way more impact on a local level. And we see a lot of decisions being made because of the folks that show up. And so if you feel a certain way, see a certain way and have a certain position, I echo what you said at the top of the show, please get involved, find ways to get involved, heck call the show, call me, we will direct you to how to get involved and find ways to lend your voice to these conversations.

Joshua Croke (27:14)

Awesome, thank you. We’re talking with Ron Waddell, Executive Director and Co-Founder of Legendary Legacies. I am Joshua Croke, thank you for listening to Public Hearing, our podcast and radio show that airs every Wednesday at 6pm on WICN 90.5 FM, Worcester’s only NPR affiliate station and can be heard wherever you listen to podcasts. Our show is about Worcester, community engagement, and elevating resident representation in decision-making spaces. You can follow the show at publichearing.co and reach out to our team. Thank you to our audio producer, Giuliano D’Orazio, who also made our show music and thank you to Molly Gammon and Kellee Kosiorek who also support the production of this show. The work continues Worcester! Thanks for listening.