- What's up, y'all? (audience applauding)
I'm back with Jessie Ennis, give it up!
I love your dress, by the way,
and I want it. - [Jessie] Thank you!
- I hope my stylist is looking at you right now.
Getting in trouble with the law at an early age
can lead to a lifetime of consequences for kids.
My next guest is looking to change all that in Seattle
with an innovative program that gives kids an alternative.
Instead of being prosecuted,
they can choose to see the best in themselves and thrive.
Take a look. (air whooshes)
- CHOOSE 180 as a nonprofit organization.
Our foremost goal is to transform systems of injustice
to no longer do harm to communities,
particularly, the black and brown community.
- So tell me about a time
that you made that different decision.
- [Sean] The difference between a young person
who's successful,
and a young person who has challenges,
has everything to do with the community surrounding them.
(slapping sound)
- What the program aims to do is
to not label a kid for a mistake.
It seeks to help the kid make better decisions.
It doesn't always have to be a jail cell,
or a judge, or a courtroom.
- Last year, we supported a little over 500 youth
and young adults.
Over 90% of them don't return to the criminal legal system
within 12 months of participating in our program.
Which means that community is better
because a young person is better,
because that family is better.
(audience applauds)
(air whooshes)
- This is the greatest organization.
I'm so excited y'all.
Over the years, Sean Goode,
the executive director of CHOOSE 180 has helped
more than 6,000 kids turn their lives around.
He's what we like to call a "Rad Human."
(lively music)
- Woo! (Kelly applauds)
Please welcome Sean, everybody!
What's up, man?
How you doing?
- I am amazing, Kelly.
- Well, meet Jessie.
- Hi, nice to meet you.
- Hey Jessie. - [Jessie] Hi.
- Great to meet you as well. - [Jessie] You too.
- Well we were just talking in the break,
how excited we are, like, she does this podcast.
She gets to meet people that are really cool
and changing people's lives
and have a lot of information
that we, maybe, don't know about.
And I have been so excited since reading all about you,
about having you on the show.
I think it's incredible what you're doing.
So, two very different events in your childhood
inspired what you do right now, right?
- Yeah, absolutely.
You know, when I was six years old,
I visited my brother, who, at the age of 13,
was incarcerated for a poor choice that he made
and he was locked up inside of a kid jail
until he was a 21-year-old man.
And when I went to visit him on this day,
the security guard, when I stepped into the building,
pointed me to an article that was on the wall behind me.
And this article was all about my brother
and how he did this amazing job going
and visiting a school and inspiring the young people.
And it wasn't lost on me at the age of six
that, although he could do so much great
outside of this building,
because of a poor choice he made when he was a 13-year-old,
he was stuck in here until he was 21.
And by the time I got to the age of about 10, 11, 12,
I had a really difficult anger management problems.
And I would break holes and doors and walls
and even harm my mother and the police got called on me.
And I remember this day clearly,
when the police brought me down
and put me in the back of their car and said,
"Look, we can take you with us or send you back upstairs.
But if we send you back upstairs, and we have to come back,
you're definitely coming with us again."
And that moment of grace was a big pivot moment for me
that helped me commit to a new direction for my life.
- Wow!
And that's quite a moment too, because you never know
you know, what the kid will choose, you know,
and it's an interesting thing though,
that you've pointed out,
that they can choose the positive path.
And I think that's the coolest part of what you're doing.
The kids in CHOOSE 180, just have to do
a one-day program to get their charges dropped, right?
So how does it work?
- We have this really unique relationship
with the district attorneys in our community
where we're able to give young people community
instead of a courtroom.
And, essentially, what happens is when a young person's
behavior is criminalized, they get referred to our program
instead of referred to the court system.
They show up to the shared space with people
with lived experience that mirrors them.
They hear testimonies from folks through this exercise
we have called the "Color of Connectedness,"
where, I'll tell my story, for example,
about how I used to damage property that wasn't mine.
And then, I will invite the young people,
they're connected adults, the prosecutors in the space,
the staff, the volunteers.
So I'll come down and get like a green Mardi Gras bead
and we'll do the same thing for physical violence,
for theft, and drugs, and alcohol.
And before you know it, everybody in the space
has these beads around their neck
and the young people recognize
that I'm not here because I'm guilty,
'cause if that's the case, then all of us are guilty.
Then it must be for something different.
It's for grace.
And we've recognized that grace is a far better motivator
for behavior change than guilt ever could be.
- Absolutely.
Did you feel like you had moments in your life
that you're like, "Oh, God, I'm glad that my whole path
wasn't decided because of that one thing, like,
one mistake."
- Yeah, yeah, I mean, what you're saying,
it really reminds me of this thing that I try to recognize,
which is that, like, there's angels everywhere.
And so, my story is when I was a little kid,
I didn't really like school that much,
but I knew I wanted to be an actor.
And my parents sent me to this acting program
over the summer.
And then the following semester,
we hadn't enrolled because my family was tight on money
and we just couldn't afford to swing it.
And the director of the program called my parents
and be like, "Hey, we noticed that Jessie isn't signed up
for this next semester.
Just trying to, you know,
make sure that you're all good to go.
Like it's starting soon."
And my mom explained, "Oh, you know,
we're a little tight right now.
So we're gonna take a little time off.
And this director of the program, she said,
"Well, you know, Jessie is really intense in class
and she gets the other kids to focus.
So, we wanna offer her a lifetime scholarship
and she can come whenever she wants."
And so, I got to go to acting classes for 10 years
because of this woman Ellen Mendel.
And it was like- - [Kelly] Wow!
- totally blessed by an angel kind of moment.
I'm so grateful to her. - You know, it's so funny.
I had similar moments in my life.
We had no money.
There wasn't a lot of support in that area
'cause there just couldn't be.
And I had people help me.
And I think what you're saying is,
if you give kids that maybe don't have the opportunity,
because of finances they don't have, the opportunity,
because of, they don't have support system,
those little moments, look at where we are right now.
We would probably not be here had people not believed in us
and had they not, you know,
kind of helped us on a better path,
and one that we'd had opportunity.
A few years ago, our next guest was homeless
and facing serious jail time.
That's when she discovered CHOOSE 180
and made a commitment to change.
Now, her life looks drastically different.
Everybody, say hello to Lamaria!
(audience applauds)
Hi, Lamaria! - Hi!
- Hi, say hi to Jessie, as well.
- Hi!
- Hi, Jessie! (Kelly giggles)
- All right, well, Lamaria,
can you tell us a little about your background first?
- You know, I grew up and I was bullied, you know,
being a bigger girl,
my mom wasn't financially stable to get me
the things that could distract bullies from bullying me.
So, at about 13, my behavior changed and I began stealing.
I didn't enter the criminal justice system
until I was 18, for theft.
And, when I went to jail, I got out,
I got out to being homeless, Kelly.
I got out to couch surfing, you know,
and I was entering into survival mode.
"How can I survive?"
And that led to cashing bad checks
and cashing bad checks led to facing seven felony forgeries.
So, you can only imagine, you know, how that was.
- I think that's the interesting thing about situations
like this, is everybody thinks they're invincible.
You're not, you don't have any idea, like,
what could happen, your place could burn down.
Everything can go up in flames.
And, all of a sudden,
you're in a completely different environment,
or you don't have the support around you.
You don't have people to call for money,
and, like, not everybody has that.
And that can happen to anyone.
Well, what was your experience like with the program?
- Oh, my experience was amazing, Kelly.
You know, like I said earlier, I was homeless.
I was in a place where I didn't know
if I could stop stealing.
I didn't know if I could stop cashing checks.
And, I came into the program, I walked into the workshop,
thinking it's going to be a one day thing,
but it turned into two years and a half
of turning my life around, building amazing relationships.
And I, in that, in the midst of that time, I got stable.
I learned life lessons.
How to financially save, how to be stable within a home.
They paid for all my moving costs.
Just, just a new start for me.
It was amazing, honestly, truthfully,
and in the midst of that as well,
all seven forgery charges, Kelly, are gone.
(Lamaria laughs) (audience applauds)
I did not have to go to jail.
There were so many community leaders that, on my behalf,
wrote a letter that, you know,
"Lamaria, you know, was in a circumstances to survive
and that's not her.
She can do better."
And that resulted to employment.
Sean just offered me employment to give back
to my community, to help out youth,
young girls just like me.
So, that's my calling.
And I just wanna be the best at that.
- I love it.
You wanna be the best version of yourself.
And that's what I love from the video too,
that we played before we brought Sean out,
is, you know, he said, "This isn't just a good thing
for these individuals.
It's an amazing thing for these individuals.
But it's an even bigger thing
and in a bigger impact on the community as a whole."
Lamaria, I understand that you have something
you wanna say to Sean, right?
- Yes, I do.
Uncle Sean, I just wanted to let you know,
thank you for everything you've done for me.
Thank you for everything you do for the Seattle community.
I love you forever for it.
And I appreciate all the opportunities
and I can't wait to see what the future holds.
(audience applauds)
- And we love what CHOOSE 180 is all about
and how it's changing lives.
So, Sean, we are giving the program $10,000.
How's that sound? - What?!
Oh, that sounds amazing, Kelly!
(Kelly laughs and applauds)
- All right!
We love what you're doing
and I've been so excited, literally,
to have you on this show.
And I'm, I'm, it's just such a gift.
You're such a gift
and you should let those tears flow, man.
That means it matters, it's okay.