- Education.
To me, education is it.
If you don't know how to read, if you don't know
how to write, if you don't know how to spell
then life is tough.
And people having real problems
in these different neighborhoods.
You're gonna feed your kids or you're gonna
go to school; you're gonna pay your rent
or you're gonna go to school, and I understand that
'cause I've been there.
But I want people to know that the bus represents change,
change in self, change in community,
change in everything.
I want them to see that this bus is something different
and anything is possible.
(calm music)
(somber piano music)
I grew up in Sunnydale projects in San Francisco.
It was just me and my brother and my sister,
my mother had to work a lot, she did overnights.
This a really rough neighborhood, and as I grew up,
a lot of people started fighting, selling drugs,
doing drugs, so I started selling drugs and robbery,
prostitution, and dropped out of school
to do what I wanted to do.
Then one day, my son, he asked me,
"You didn't go to school, why I gotta go to school?"
So I started thinking about changing my life.
I went to a lady who's in our community
and she said, "There's a program coming called Five Keys.
"You can learn how to read and get your GED
"or your high school diploma."
It was like everything just started falling in place.
From that point, I started going, going, going, going
until I learned how to read.
I graduated in 2015,
had the cap and gown, I walked down,
they played the little music,
it was almost the happiest day of my life.
And I said OK, now that I graduated,
I got my high school diploma, can I get a job?
And they made a position for me;
that's what I am now, the Community Ambassador;
and so now I'm giving back and I'm helping other people.
Five Keys' mobile classroom is a classroom on wheels.
It's a bus that drives up to different neighborhoods,
different projects, and we spend about three hours
in each neighborhood.
- Yes!
- Happy to see you.
- [Shelia] From there, people get on the bus,
we'll give them their homework packets,
and they do their work.
- Subtract that number and then you get the number.
- [John] Exactly, you subtract that number.
- Yeah, and then you get the answer that you want.
You know if I have a problem, I'm calling you, right?
- Yeah.
Let me show you a couple more things though
before we start.
- We started operating a few years ago
and ever since then, we have a lot of people
that come on the bus.
Give me some love.
- Hi, baby. - Hi honey.
- I guess you could call it like an education desert.
There's not the facilities; there's not the infrastructure,
and it's difficult for students to get
to where there are classrooms,
so it was designed with that in mind.
And the fact that the bus is unique,
there's a sense of pride with that
that OK, this is maybe a community
that has been historically underserved
but now, we have something that no one else has.
- We serve everyone from different walks of life,
we have people that's working, that's not working,
we have people from age 16 to 116, doesn't matter.
Some people come with their kids,
some people come straight from work,
some people come before they have to go to work,
they put a lot of time and effort in
'cause they really want their education.
(knocks)
Hi, it's Shelia.
Hi honey.
My role on this bus is to go out
to the different neighborhoods and knock
on people's doors.
I'll go wherever they need me to be,
'cause I'm that person that tries to get them in
and try to keep them in.
Hi, how you doing, I'm going to give you this,
it's about Five Keys.
If you know anybody that need a GED
or high school diploma, right there, that big green bus.
Totally free.
I'll call them; I'll bug them;
I'll text them; I'll email them, whatever it takes.
I just want you to get your education, that's it.
I didn't even know how to read a book to my son,
and I got four kids, my oldest is 30.
I let them know my story like I couldn't read,
so don't be ashamed that you can't read,
that you can't do math, that you dropped out
in fifth, sixth grade, it doesn't matter,
just come on back and we got you.
I can show you, better, I can tell you.
- [Man] OK.
- OK, nice meeting you guys. - You too.
- See you on Thursday.
You too, God bless.
- It be hard in the morning getting up,
but guess what?
It's worth it, because you come here to learn
things that you never learned or never knew.
It's an encouraging thing, it's like you know,
I'm getting ready, it's like I'm going to school,
I feel like a big kid, it's like, you know?
- So I have a total of 20 squares.
- I dropped out of school in the sixth grade.
Since then, it has been one heck of a ride.
I always have some excuse as to why I couldn't
get it done, but it wasn't no excuse.
Now we're working on algebra and I'm looking forward
to graduating at the next graduation.
- This bus has impacted hundreds of lives
in these different neighborhoods.
It makes me happy to see a mother
or a father come on this bus with their kids
and push through.
I don't want them to feel like we're just
another program that came in the neighborhood
and now we're gone, because we're here;
we're here to stay, so that's why I keep going
'cause I want them to know that we're real.
Four. - Yeah!
- Yay, high five, ah.
God gave me a second chance,
and I wanna show people that they
can get a second chance too.