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What I believe is common sense, I'm learning is not that common. The public has been left out of so many conversations on community issues, and as a publicly elected official, I want to change this. I want to invite my community in a new space, where you can listen in behind the scenes to the discussions that lead to the decisions that are impacting our lives. In a podcast I named Common Sense, I'm inviting the whole world to see these conversations happening in real time! Subscribe to listen in on these conversations!
Music
What I believe is common sense, I'm learning it's not that
common.
From time to time, I like to bring people onto this podcast that may not
be well known throughout the community, but the work they do is life
changing and their stories deserve to be told. At the top
of that list is my friend, Adan Grimaldo. Adan is in the
middle of all things juvenile, from foster care to behavioral health
challenges and juvenile crime. He works through multiple organizations,
including Pyxis, Hope for da Hood and Gathered Strong. And
when I need answers to challenges that are happening on the front lines,
Adan is one of the first people I call. My hope is that this
discussion serves as an educational rundown of all the challenges
we are facing with juvenile behavioral health and as well as what we
can and should be doing to reverse some really
dangerous trajectories involving our youth. I hope
you enjoy my conversation with my youth advocate,
mentor and friend, Adan Grimaldo. Adan, my
man. So good to have you here, man. I. This
one, I'm really excited about this conversation because I want people
to know all the work that you're doing and. And that your organizations are
doing in the community. So I'm. Your story deserves to be
told and the impact you're having in the organizations and the people you work
with, it deserves to be told to the public. So I'm really, really
excited. Before we get rolling though, man, it's Friday. What is it, the 23rd?
It's about 3:20. Snowmageddon
is projected to come. Let's get on record now, man.
How many inches of snow do you think we get here? By the time this
thing airs, this thing will hopefully come and gone. So, I mean, you hear this
stuff all the time. Sometimes they're like, sometimes it's like, oh, we're gonna get a
little sleet. And then that's when we get 20 inches of snow. And then other
times it's like, oh, it's gonna be crazy. And what do you think, man?
I'm kind of hoping for some snow. Oh, I. Dude, I. Well,
I got the kids like, so, like, I've got like, I've probably got like
20 sleds. And so I want to go to Sedgwick county and take the kids
out. Well, you do you, bud. You do it. I'm happy for you. I'm not
a cold weather guy. I'm happy for you. I'm at 8 inches. Some people are
saying 10 to 12 inches. I got it at 8 inches. So I'll say,
I'll I'll go in between. I'll play it safe. I'll say 10, 10 inches. Okay,
man. Well, we'll see what's up. We'll see what's up. I'm glad you're here.
There's a lot that has to be told. My. My
goal here is to inform the public of the work that's
happening. And not just the. The work that's happening, but why it's happening,
why it needs to continue, and things that we can do to help change the
trajectory that I think we're on a very dangerous trajectory, particularly with youth violence,
foster care situation, behavioral with kids, and. And you're smack dab in the
middle of it, man. So I've always wondered, I don't know this.
These reasons why. Why do you have a heart for
vulnerable kids, kids that have behavioral health challenges, things of that sort.
Like, where did this heart come from that motivates the work that
you do?
Honestly, I think of story in the Bible that Jesus says where
he, you know, he's given this parable about
these two sinners, really is what he's talking about.
And, you know, one of them
has a huge debt and the other one has a smaller debt. And
when. When their debts were forgiven, the one with the bigger debt
was, you know, thankful a lot more and just
was so ready to give everything he had, understanding that his debt was completely
gotten rid of. And. And for me,
my debt is large and. And
the impact, the negative impact that I had
on the, you know, the stuff that's going on today,
like, I. I was a part of that influence and to
help be a part of cleaning up some of what I
created, like, it. It helps me.
That's my passion. It's repurposed. Yeah, Tell me about that. So
fill me in a little bit on your history from Wichita. Not from Wichita,
obviously. You talk a little bit about
some of the behaviors you had and demonstrated the community. Like, fill
me in, like, what's that? Like what, what? Help me understand your youth,
your teenage years, young adult years, and how
it shaped you to where you are today. Yeah. And you can. I mean, we
can make this as short as long as you want. You just tell me what
you know. But
I think it's important to know
because, you know, parents, it always. It always goes back to the parents.
But I think it's important to know that
I'm first generation, born here on my dad's side. So
he's an immigrant family. Yeah. Yep. And he's never had a.
He's always had Like a visitation visa. And so he
comes back and. And goes back and forth.
But I'm second generation born here on
my mom's side. And so.
And so access to resources back then was just
different than it is today. And so I think that played a huge part in.
In how my, you know, how my parents raised me. But,
you know, I, um, dad and
mom and dad got divorced when I was younger, and
that played a huge impact, had a huge impact on
the. The coming years. I had a lot of family who were involved in. In
gangs and gangs on the north side of Wichita, north end. Yep, yep.
And so I was very easily, you know,
influenced and pulled in that direction and
joined a gang very young. How old were you?
I was 12, going on 13, really.
And that's when I started hanging out with them. And it was
probably 13 when. When really things got heavy.
What was the draw? Why the gang life? Was it just because everyone else was.
Oh, I know now. I know now of everything. With everything that I do.
I know now. This is. This is in the,
you know, behavior health world or mental health world, what you call
the dysfunctional pathway. And this is
when. When we have behaviors, we start
to become rejected. We become rejected by our
society, we become rejected by our neighbors, we become rejected by
our teachers, even our parents. And so,
you know, we were created for connection and to be
belonging. And so to be rejected from all
angles. School, neighbors, family.
To. To find a group of people
who were also rejected by the community
and to have a place where I belonged.
Not to mention the gap between not having a father in my life and
having older men praise me
for the activity that I was a part of. And
so there was, you know, oxytocin and dopamine and all of
these things that were involved when it comes to relationships and
that I wasn't getting from everywhere else. I was getting rejected by society
and being accepted by the other,
quote, unquote rejected. And so
I didn't know that then. I do now. That, that is. That's
what we're fighting against. We're fighting
this rejection and acceptance
thing. And so when you. When you tell a kid, you know, you should,
you should, you should, we hear, you know, you're rejected, you're
rejected. And you have other people, grown men even, telling you
you're doing great, that's awesome. Like, you're. You're cool for that and
do. Do it more, do it again. You're. Join our club,
Join our thing. And you were being accepted. Yeah, there was a gap.
Yes. And they Filled that gap. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. So the things that
come with gang life, drugs. You have drugs, criminal behavior, there's
violence. Drugs sold drugs, violence.
You know, I held a gun and shot it.
And, you know, between that 12 and 13 age, by the
time I was 14, I was already selling
a lot of different kinds of drugs and was
breaking in houses and stealing cars, everything that
came with that lifestyle. So it was daily. Daily just party and
drinking, having, you know, getting. Getting
money for all the stuff that I was doing and. Yeah, just
all that. What about the law? Did you get in trouble with the law? Did
you ever get caught? How'd that work? I like to
think I'm pretty. I was pretty slick back then.
Not a lot. The one time I did,
I was with people. And
you didn't. You didn't run if, you know,
you didn't. You didn't run away from situations that you
got put in with other. With other people. Like, that was part of code.
Like, yeah, you don't take off. You. You stick it out with your homies. Sure.
And so stuck it out,
ended up taking the fall for everybody, even though
it didn't all work out that way. But. But I told
detectives, I remember being in this black building, in
the window building everyone calls the black building, and
sitting in a room, sitting in a chair, handcuffed to
my leg, handcuffed to the floor or chair, and my arm
handcuffed to the table. And I can't even remember how long I waited
in there until they came in and talked to me. And I'm confessed to
everything so that I didn't get my friends in trouble. The friends I was with,
they were already in trouble with the law. And so that was kind of code
also. Like, you know, don't put something on. Don't put something on your homies when
they already got things going on when you're young and you can get away with
some of those things. Wow. Put it all on yourself. So that
kind of, you know, I was able to get on
diversion for that, and it was for
stealing a vehicle and. And some other items from that were
in the vehicle, and I was able to catch diversion
for that, but I didn't want to stop selling
drugs and doing drugs. So I was on the run for a little while, and
it caught up with me. I got into some heavier drugs
and went home. At one point, my
mom called the police on me, and. And so they picked me
up. And so I did a little bit of time in JDF, and
it wasn't too long after that, that I really started trying to turn things
around. I say not too long, but I was on papers and house arrest and
everything like that for the following two years, so. Well, let's process that for a
second. Okay. So obviously a
dad that wasn't present. Yeah. You were in the north
side, where were you at in the North End.
22nd and Fairview. Yeah, man. So this is
right in the heart. 22nd family at 25th and Jackson.
So this is where I grew up. Yeah. So I know that area well. I
know likely who you were running with. Yeah. So you have
a dad that isn't present. You have a gang life that absorbed you and
made you accredited. You made you feel valuable, made you feel a part
of a family, a part of a unit. You get in trouble,
you have drugs, you have violence, all these things, you get caught up, you get
on paper. So help me understand now, like, what is that
helps me know you and why you have a heart for juveniles and a heart
for kids, which we'll talk about shortly. What was the
change to where. There was there a moment where you're like, I'm done.
Like, I can't do this anymore, or was this over a period of
time? Help me understand what took place in your life that
was the trajectory changer. Was it an individual, an organization that
helped you? Like, how did the change start in
Adan's life?
Well, I'll give you the two reasons, and we can kind of go through those.
The first thing that happened to me was
I found out I was having a daughter at 18. Wow. Yeah,
man. And we'll go.
And the second thing was. Was Jesus. And those kind of
happened a little bit. There was some space in between that. But when I
step back for a second
when my. When. When my mom and dad got divorced,
and. And maybe this can kind of give you a window into, you know, how.
How kids see these things. But,
you know, my life was relative to me, and
so it wasn't. It wasn't good or
bad. It was. It was what it was. And so
anyone from the outside would look at it and go, yeah, that was pretty.
You know, you could see that coming from a mile away. But for me, it
was like this was another day in the neighborhood. And. And
why now? They. Why are they breaking up now?
And I remember my mom asking me. I'm telling you, I had to
have been. I had to have been 11 or 12. I was young. And remember
my mom asking me if. Who. Who I wanted to live with, and I
needed to make that choice. Wow. It's hard. It was obvious for
me that, you know, it was going to be my mom. My dad
was a alcoholic and, you know, he was doing his
thing, going out on my mom.
And so even at that age, I knew that I was staying with my
mom, but I didn't answer her right then and there. I remember running to my
room and bawling my eyes out and crying,
looking up to God and just
asking him to fix this. And then also
telling him that I made a promise to God
that I will never do this, that I will never do my family like
this, and that I will. When I have a family of my own, I will
be a father who is present. And this is a cognizant moment. You remember this
very vividly. Yeah. And it was. It makes me emotional even now just because
it was such a. It was such a hard time for me. Yeah.
Fast forward. Me finding out
that I'm about to have a baby. Yeah. And remembering that
promise. And
it was big. It was enough. Yeah, it was. It was enough.
And I knew
that I needed to make a shift in my life because my, My.
And. And when I found out I was having a girl.
Yes. Yeah. That was.
Well, I have a 13 year old. I think every man needs a
daughter. Oh, man. Yeah. For a lot of different reasons.
Softens your heart. Yeah. That you value immediately. Yeah,
man. It. It makes you value women in a different
way. It makes you appreciate in a different way.
You see, the. My daughter's fierce, man. I mean, she's tough.
She's fierce, but there's a softness to her heart and her soul that is
so admirable and so incredible. Necessary. She's built different than my boys.
My boys are. They're feral cats, man. They're
warriors. They're. They're. They're built different than she is. And she's tough. And we need
tough women in this world, but she has a heart about her that I think
every. Every dad, every man needs a daughter. Yeah. I really do.
That's intense. You had a lot in your life that
happened, and I understand why you have such a heart
for young people. Let's talk about the things that
you do now and the work that you do now in the organizations. Yeah. The
organization you're employed with, that you do most of your work through is an organization
called Pyxis. Now, again, this. One of the
reasons why I wanted you and some other people on podcasts like
this from time to time is to tell the story of organization and
individuals that are doing things in this community that most people are unaware
of. Yet you're making this community work in so
many different ways. It's the untold stories that I think the public need to be
aware of. So \Pyxis is an organization that you're
involved with. What is the work that Pyxis do and what's its impact to the
community? We're in the trenches, man.
And so the work that we do
specifically is,
you know, for people who don't know. Right. There are anywhere
at any given time between 1400 to 1500
kids in the foster care system. 1502. As 1502.
Okay. 1502 today.
Which means that number hasn't really gone down a lot. Hasn't.
Out of those 1502, there may be
about 50. I would say anywhere between.
And it fluctuates all the time. Anywhere from 20 to 50
at any given time in Sedgwick County alone that.
That can't make it in a
conventional foster home or group
home. They're, you know, they're in and out of JDF, in and
out of mental health hospitals. And so these are the kids that
you hear about that are sleeping in offices.
Probably about five or six years ago,
we took on, you know, the. The task of
working with some of these kids and found out really quick that it wasn't
going to be an easy thing. Yeah. To. To work with them.
You're talking about.
Violence, drugs, significant behavioral health challenges.
Yeah. And for clarity, for those that are listening, that may not have familiarity with
the foster care system, 1500 kids or so in the out of out of,
out of home placements. There's a subset of that population that gets
put into the foster care system that most traditional foster
families simply cannot handle. The behavioral health
challenges, a lot of it is clinical. Some of it is some mental
health issues. Some of it's drugs, violence. The.
I don't like using this phrase because I don't want to, but it's
the. It's the. The worst of the worst of the challenges that are
involved in foster foster kids. And many times what
happens is these kids continue to bounce from house to house to house to house
because the foster parents are not equipped to handle that kind of behavioral
health challenges. And as you said, many times these are the ones sleeping in offices.
There's over 40 kids a night in Ember Hope alone that are sleeping in offices
where they're failure to place. They can't place these kids in a home. And many
times it's because the foster family simply cannot handle that sort of
behavioral health challenge. And that's where you come in. It is, it
is where we come in. We provide a service during
the day from anywhere
from 6am to 11pm where these
kids are with us. Because a lot of these kids, you know, they're not going
to school because of their behavioral challenges and
mental health challenges. And so we, we work
with them on a day to day and
you know, we primarily work with
the kids that. Yeah, nobody else wants to work. Well, tell me what that's like
then. Okay, so you get a kid.
Some behavioral health challenges cannot be sustained in a
traditional foster home. What are the, some
of the things that you have to experience in this role?
I really want the audience to understand the type of
behaviors that are associated with many of these kids that are bouncing.
What is that like? Tell me some examples.
Well, I can, you know, give you the kind of a spectrum. So
on any given day you can deal with a kid who
maybe just kind of isolates themselves and maybe they're
fidgety or, you know, they're just anxious as who wouldn't
be? I mean these, these kids that I work with carry backpacks every single
day with them. They're, they're homeless. It's the homeless population, really. They don't have,
they don't have a long term placement, permanent place. So that,
that in and of itself, I mean, we can go into. So I could talk
about this stuff forever? No, you can, man. And
so, you know, behaviors come with that. So that can, that
can be. I'm anxious, I don't know where I'm staying tonight.
You know, I'm just, I would call, you know, that
lower, lower level behaviors.
A little bit. You know, I would say on the other end of the spectrum,
we can be dealing with kids who cause
significant property damage, breaking windows, putting holes in walls,
fighting other kids, trying to attack staff.
We can deal with suicidal attempts or ideation.
I, I've kicked down a bathroom door and found
a girl laying in a three foot puddle of blood once and
had to get her to the hospital, clean the blood up, get the day going
and then go break up a fight at another location. Didn't even have time to
grieve it. Love that little girl still. She's, she's around still. Thank God.
I've been to six funerals
for kids who've been in my program. Fentanyl
overdoses, gang violence.
These are kids, man. Yeah, babies. You have
such a way about you with these. I've seen this, man. I
mean, that's just why I wish I could demonstrate to people
that are Listening to this or watching this, that you have this
capacity to get into the room with these kids and
talk to them and reach them and love them in ways that
maybe they've never experienced before. And they gravitate towards
your program. You have a handshake deal with DCF in many regards that they know
that you, you, you, they call you when they have these kids
and Adan comes to the rescue.
What, how, what is it that you're able to do
with these, the most challenging cases
of foster care kids in Sedgwick County? When they call you
to say we need your help, what is it that you do that makes
this work and is able to bring some sort of stability and peace to these
kids lives? Well, first I want to acknowledge, you
know, it's definitely me and my team, like the people
who come to Pyxis, you know, they learn our culture really quick and they, they
understand that you're either gonna make it with us or you're not. You're
called here, you're not, because we do things a little bit differently.
The other thing is, you know, I don't know if someone's looking for
secret sauce, but it's really not,
I learned, you know, I think my experience definitely
helped in, in working with some of these kids because it allowed me
to be able to, you know,
connect with them pretty easily. Right.
But as we advanced and grew and learned how to
work with these kids, the secret sauce is that most
people who work with children already have this information.
And the difference that I'm, that I watch and I see is
that I, I'm holding my staff and myself accountable to actually
using the tactics and, and strategies that
research has already put out there. The trauma related response.
Yes, stuff works. And, and one of the things that I
love to do is I, is I recently I've been trying to do
this a little more with some of my younger staff. And I've done it in
the past is when we got a kid with any kind of
behavior, I will go in and
have a conversation with kid, go back to our staff, tell them exactly what
strategy I used so that they can see it actually working in real time.
It's natural because it should be natural. Sure. Most of the stuff I
teach I was already doing, but now there's a
language behind it and there was research that was happening, so there were connections I
was making where I was like, oh, I am doing
some of this stuff. And a lot of people find when I'm teaching them,
I'm a SCM instructor and A TBRI practitioner as well. TBR
is trust based relational interventions. Strategies, how to deal
with trauma response. Yes. Very prevalent in the foster care community. Yes.
And so when I'm teaching
these. When I'm teaching these things, I tell my staff, like, they're probably going
to have these aha moments where they go, oh, I do that already. But
connecting it to the language and shifting from it being
something that you just do naturally to something that you actually are tactful about
and you're thinking about, because not all of your
strategies that you use or you think that's going to work off
instinct is the right thing to do. Sure. So, yeah, the
secret sauce is it's already out there. You just like, if you, you
gotta. You've got to work it and you've got to know you. You bring intentionality
to the program and to the approach. How do you measure success?
I mean, is it. Is success just keeping these kids alive? Is success
trying to reunite them into a foster situation or
even their families? How do you measure success here?
It can be individual. Right? So success for one
kid could be. I didn't put a hole in a wall today.
That could be success for a kid. And, and I will, I will
praise a kid. You know, it takes. It takes 15 positive
remarks to negate one negative. And,
and so we're, we're so quick to jump
on some of those things, but it's, it's hard for us to acknowledge just positive
behavior. And sometimes positive behavior can be, you know, oh, man,
I appreciate you putting your seatbelt on. Like, I don't feel like getting a ticket
today, bro. Yeah, and. And it could be,
you know, amen. Like,
you've only said five cuss words when we were at Ihop, like,
bro, I know that took a lot from you. And they're sitting
there, man, I'm trying to tell you. And, and that could be.
That could be success for an individual. Got it. Success for
Pyxis. And, and I want to acknowledge this because I've acknowledged it
to a lot of people. When we took this project on,
it was always a band aid. There was a hemorrhage when JO kids started
flooding the foster care system. And, and it was hemorrhaging. They didn't know what
to do. They weren't prepared. The. The idea behind
367 was good because it, it kept kids from becoming
institutionalized. But there were no programming put in
place to. To. To take care of the flood. Okay, that's good.
Now you're where I want to go, buddy. It's like you read my mind.
Let's add some context for the listeners. This is language you and I use frequently.
People that are involved in the foster care space. You're throwing some code words out.
No, it's good now. Let's. But this is where we need to add some context
for the. For those that are doing well, you're addressing. There's a
couple things that we need to. That we
need to bring light to. Yeah. There's a Senate bill
introduced in 2016 and passed in 2016 here in the state of Kansas
called Senate Bill 367. Everyone that's involved in child welfare and
family welfare is very familiar with this bill. 2016, Senate Bill
367. And the heart of this bill, which was intended with good intention.
Absolutely. Was that, hey, we're locking up and
putting too many juveniles in juvenile detentional facilities
and we need to have some more community programming and not over
criminalize youth. Yeah. Okay. You and I both would say because they're kids.
Yeah, they're kids. Yeah, That's. We don't want kids ending up in juvenile
detention facilities. We need more community program. The heart of that
is really good. But here is what has happened, and I
don't think anybody could have predicted it at the time, but what has happened is
juvenile offender kids. So juveniles that are in the criminal justice
system because we're not sending kids to juvenile
detention facilities, and judges have no authority
to really prosecute some of these crimes that
they're committing. These juvenile offenders are now getting placed into
the foster care system because they have. Parents can't take care of
them. They have nowhere to go. There's no. No support systems in place. That's
correct. So what happens is they come into the foster
care system where these foster families cannot provide. They're not
equipped for this. They were not prepared. That's not what the foster care. Foster care
system was intended to house. Correct. So what's happening is
the foster care system is being overrun by a lot of
behavioral health challenges and a lot of. And we're having a hard time recruiting foster
families. Foster families are falling out of the system.
It's not beneficial. They're not trained to deal with these JO. Juvenile
offender kids and behavioral health challenges. And what's happening is we have
no middle ground. So a judge either says juvenile
detention or foster care, and there's no middle
ground. And what many of us. I have to give a shout out to
Commissioner Jim Howell, who talks about this frequently, and he was up just
yesterday testifying at State legislature.
What's happening is we're trying to find some sort of medium option
that judges can say we don't want to send you to juvenile detention facility,
but we need some sort of youth residential facility bed. That's
not the foster care system. That's what we're working through now. But
to add some color to what it is you're talking about is juvenile
offender kids are getting put in the foster care system. It's overrunning the system. Did
I know it? Am I, am I right in all that? Yeah. And,
and you know, yeah, we walk through that. The
parents can't handle it. They're not, they're not, you know, supported enough. And,
and you're talking about the blind leading the blind. Let's go back to that. Like
we can, we can talk bad about parents all day long. The reality is, and
the reason I was giving you kind of the history of my own parents
Because I've worked through my issues there and
I understand that they didn't have access to the same kind of resources I do
today. I understand that they did the best that they could with what they had.
And to blame the parents for even what's going on right
now. They were not equipped. Yeah. It's interesting you say that. I appreciate
you saying that. When I did 12 years of pastoral ministry and did a lot
of marriage counseling and I would talk about, particularly when it was
newlyweds, when I was going to do a wedding and we'd meet to do some
pre marriage counseling and I'd ask them to give me their perception of
their parents marriage. Because by default your marriage
will look like your parents marriage unless you're intentionally trying to make adjustments or
you're aware of areas. Because this is what you've seen, this is what you know
in marriage. So it's the same thing with the way we raise kids.
The way I was raised is going to be very reflective of the way I
raise my children. Unless there's an intentional effort or
pivot made to make a change. Yeah. This is some psych 101 stuff.
I'm an actor, salesman, brother and a. So I'm not even a
psychologist. I can understand that. Yeah. When we have, when we have
neural pathways that are created through habits and
those neuropathways get created at a very, very young age.
It is hard to. You think of neuropathways as that
kind of bike trail that when you pass by someone's yard and
everybody kind of took the same one and you fall into the same groove. Right.
And so it's natural for you to react in a certain way every time
you take that same trail. So whenever, whenever you hear the
word. Whenever some of our kids hear the word. No. Well, if, if
their trail, if that they're going to react the same way. It's default button.
Yes, it's their default. Yeah, it's. It is, it's default. And so to
retrain the brain to eliminate that, that neural
pathway and to create new ones takes a lot of time,
a lot of patience, a lot of consistency and a lot of love.
Come on now. Let's talk data. I want to share some data with you. I
brought some data. And this is a new era in my
life with reading glasses. Oh, man. My boy Troy Trussell is laughing. My birthday's in two days.
Man. We both have to get reading glasses. It's tough right now. So
it's a new era. So forgive me. I gotta actually put these on to read
this. Every day in our community we are waking up,
it feels like, and there's more violent crime. A lot of shootings,
a lot of violent crime. And many times what
we see when we read the fine print is that it's juvenile crime. A lot
of youth involved in crime today. Those numbers are
dangerously high. I want to share some data for the
public and for you and get your comments on this. And let
me, let me start by saying I'm not blaming this on Senate Bill 367. So
I don't want anybody to. I'm certainly not. I think you and I are both
in agreement that the heart behind that was absolutely, absolutely good.
That's why we can't go back to what it was. Right? We need to, we
need to, we need. It's time to reform. Correct. We need to give judges more
options. That is, we still don't want to send kids to juvenile detention facility. There's
other options, intermediate options that we can look at. But I want to give you
Some data from 2016 when Sentinel 367 passed and
beyond. I'll give you a couple years before. Let's just talk about homicides
in Sedgwick county and I'll give you some comparisons.
2016 to 2024. It's the most recent year end data.
There have been 383 homicides in Sedgwick County. County. Okay, I'm getting this
directly from the district attorney. 383. In
that time span, Johnson county had 89.
Reno county had 11. Shawnee county, that's where Topeka is, had
184. Sedgwick county had
383. Of those.
383, 14.6%. So
56 of them were juveniles. Okay, so 56
homicides since 2016 here in Sedgwick county were committed by
juveniles. Let's talk about firearms because this is where we're starting
to see significant, significant challenges. And I think
I want to know your opinion as to why. I think I know the answer
but. In 2014, we're talking about juvenile crimes where
a firearm was associated with the crime. 2014, there
were 15. 2015, there were 14.
2016, there were 13. Okay, Senate Bill 367 passes
in 2016. That year, there were 13 juvenile crimes where
a firearm was associated. 2017, the first year after.
367, there were 48. 2018,
there were 86. I'm going to scroll down.
2020 72 2023 105 2024,
83. The trajectory
is noticeable. Yeah. That since
2016, the amount of
juvenile crimes where a firearm is associated with the crime.
It is, it is.
Compounding in numbers compared to before. I'm
not. Please, everyone, listen. For those of you that are going to send me
a message, I cannot say and won't say Senate Bill
367 is the sole cause that marks that increase. I'm looking at
this chart right here. You see this chart? But there is
an indisputable change after 2016 in Sedgwick County.
So in firearms, being involved in this surge
in juvenile crime. Help me understand this
data. The data is what it is. It's undeniable. Help me understand
what's happening with juvenile crime, why it's increased since
2016 and the role of the firearm in juvenile crime and
why we're seeing just such an increase in these numbers. Yeah,
I mean, I have a couple thoughts on that one. I'll
be 38 on the 25th. And so
as a older minded person. You're a young
stallion. Oh, man. Well, I mean, you know, I could be considered an
OG at this point if I was still doing what I was doing. And so
from that mentality right. If.
If there's no consequences for my, for my younger fellows,
I might, I might be more lean to, to put a. To put
something in their hand to go handle some business. Okay, so let's talk through that.
Okay, let's pause for a second. This is really important because I, I had some
people on TikTok take into me because of my opinions
on why the surging gun violence for juveniles that we're seeing recently,
if you're an adult you're committing a crime, you have a gun.
It's significant. If you have a, if you're, if you have a,
a charge, if you're on paper and you have a gun. Yeah.
It's significant. Yeah. If you're a juvenile and
you get caught with a gun, you go into JIAC and you
release the same day. Two hours. Two hours. Right. There's no
consequence for a juvenile. It's illegal. Yeah. But there's no real
consequence. Judges hands are tied. Yeah. So what do you do as
an OG gang banger selling drugs? What do you do?
And what's the best mechanism for you to be able to push drugs and to
perform violent acts? What do you do? Hey, you use the
juveniles. You hire the kids. Yeah. And you know, and
it goes both ways because. Right. Like, because it's. As a
juvenile, not to say because as the adults were responsible. Sure. We
should, we should carry that weight and it's, and it's their fault.
But you know, as a, as a juvenile that came from that, I wanted to,
I was accepted. To prove your worth. Yes. I wanted to be a part of
that. And I wanted, I wanted to show them that I could do it. And
they were more than willing to give me any kind of, you know,
product and they were willing to put anything in my hand. And this is
what's happening right. When we're seeing this surge in numbers after Senate Bill
367 is because these individuals that are,
that are, that are dealing drugs and selling drugs and other things,
it's common knowledge that the juvenile that gets caught with the gun is
going to have no real punishment. I've had
juvenile judges tell me that kids in
their courtroom will say, I know you can't do anything to me.
Yeah. And it's true. Because of Senate Bill 367, they have
no sentencing guideline. There's no intermediate steps. Yeah. So
this is true. Right. This is not just the politicians saying this. This is not
just the district attorney saying this. This was true even when I was young. It's
just more prevalent now because, because we're understanding that it's,
it's, you know, the, the sentencing is even, even less so.
Two hours. Are you crazy? I got caught with a little bit of,
a little bit of drugs on me and, you know, and took
a car joyriding and I was in there for three months
and then, and then, and then on papers for another two years after that.
And that, that doesn't happen anymore.
They're in and out in a couple of hours and there's no real consequence. And
man, again, please everyone hear me. Yes. I'm not saying we
weren't kids in juvenile detention facilities. Okay. I'm not saying that.
What I'm saying is there has to be some accountability and we actually have to
do things where there is going to be some sort of recuperation
and rehabilitation. And right now judges
don't have capacity to use these alternative methods and these
alternative facilities. They don't exist. And we
need to have something intermediate steps so that because when they're starting to
taste a little bit of crime, we need to stop it there before it
elevates, especially with a gun, before it elevates into something greater. If a judge
has capacity to nip it at the point where you're starting to
interact with the juvenile system, in the correction system,
if he can stop it there. Yeah. Then it may not progress. So
yeah, man, this is. I do. Have one
other point that I think that has kind of shifted,
you know, from, from my time as a
juvenile to now. And I think social media has played a big part in that.
Without a shadow, you know, when I was
a teenager, if, if I got into a fight,
you know, it was, it was the stories went through
the school, right. It was me, what,
what I said and my friends said that happened versus what
they said. Sure.
Now it's, you're not only ridiculed for losing a fight
by the people around you, it gets posted on Facebook or
yeah, Snapchat or TikTok and. And you're
ridiculed by the entire world. And these, these,
some of these kids just aren't willing to deal with that kind of ridicule. And
it's a lot easier to pull a gun out on someone and take their life
and say I win than it is to face the
entire planet on social media and get
clowned for, for losing a fight. Yeah, man,
that's just it. A thousand percent agree. For all the good
things that technology brings to our world and all the opportunities within
social media, there is equal if not more downsides to what
it's doing to us socially. Yeah. And in our communities, without a shadow of a
doubt. And I see it, I have a 13 year old daughter now. We got
her a phone because she's always at practices and friends houses. We want to know
where she's at, we want to be able to reach her. But guarding that and
that influence is really, really challenging, man. It is, man. You can't
even, you can't even find a phone that you can lock down enough like, it's.
I know, I know. You know the other thing, too. So I appreciate. Thank you
for some things you're saying. And these are the topics and conversations that we have
to have as a community. And they're hard to have because we don't want to
devalue children. Every child is value. Every human is
valuable. These children are valuable, and they have an opportunity. And all I'm saying
is we have to pivot in the statutes that we have. We have
to pivot in the system and create more options for rehabilitation
and to get preventative, not just reactive. And right Now, Senate Bill
367 hasn't given us that opportunity. There's another aspect of this,
too. So we want to provide more resources and different resources for
kids that are in the juvenile system, the offenders, these JO kids. But
the other issue is when we put JO kids into the foster care system and
they interact with foster kids. Oh, yeah. CINC kids, child in need
of care. They're there because of their victims of abuse or neglect or
abandonment. These are not JO kids too. But. Yeah, yeah,
correct. But these sink kids are not juvenile offenders
traditionally. But when we take juvenile offenders and
behavioral health challenges and we put them with foster kids, it influences those
foster kids. I've watched it happen in real time. So that's why we can't.
That's why I hate saying that we have to separate these kids as if
they're, as if they're lepers. I'm not saying that,
but we have to guard the CINC kids and not put JO
kids into the sink population. The programming should have
the same kind of, you
know, TBRI powered. Like, you know, like it's got
to be from the same place. And here's, here's where I, I, you know,
maybe you can shed some light of understanding.
Twins. Let's say, let's say you have twins in a household. Same age, everything
identical. They experience the same
trauma, whatever it might be. Their parents getting divorced.
Maybe. Maybe they live my same life. Life. Right. One of them,
their response to that trauma could make them a CINC kid.
The other one makes them a JO kid. So it's not,
it's not that they're different. It's that their
response to the trauma that they experienced is different. And
so the prescription is the same
where it's prescribed, whether it's in foster care
system or supported programs that catch these kids on the JO
side, where a judge could have the power to
court order them to some of these services with people
throw my name out there. Yeah. That are experienced enough to
do this, it would be the same. I, I, it would not, it would
not be any different. What we would prevent is
mixing that those kind of behaviors in with some of these
CINC kids who aren't experiencing the same and connected
to the same kinds of things. Come on, man. We are totally on the same
page there, man. Thank you for bringing this to light. Thank you for that conversation
in your heart. I know what it is that you're doing in this space. I'm
grateful for what you're doing. Thank you, man. What you're doing is hard work, and
not everybody can do the work that you do, but it's pressing
and it's urgent. We are at crisis levels throughout
the state of Kansas, but primarily here in Sedgwick County. And
we've got to reverse this dangerous trajectory. Not just of kids that are entering
into the systems and there's some family health,
family welfare, the faith communities have a lot to do in this space.
Nonprofits. We've got to, there's a lot that goes into that, but
reverse the dangerous trajectory that we're seeing in violent behavior in
these kids and this juvenile crime. We're on a dangerous trajectory,
and we've got to be more explorative in the options than what we are
now. Well, you know, nothing changes if nothing changes. Got to change.
So the, I think I live in this space because
day programs, we. Pyxis was the first day program
ever, and you know it. And that was
working with this. When this whole issue arose with St. Francis.
And it was all, it was all
trailblazing was just, just, just the, the experience
of, of figuring it out. Yeah, it was, there was, there
was no, there was, there was no playbook. No one had the playbook.
And, and so when, when I first took it on, dude, I
had 27 kids at one location that were,
you know, we called the cops every day. I was chasing away, you know, drug
dealers. I was, oh, goodness. You know, there's, there's things that I probably shouldn't
even say that was going on. And, you know,
to, for, for everyone.
And, you know, I don't blame people. I think everyone was just kind of
taken aback where it was like, we don't know what to do. And that was
really the answer. We don't know what to do. And so things were being
not, not allowed, but maybe kind of like, you know, we're going to cover our
eyes and pretend we're not seeing some of this stuff because we don't, we don't
have the answer. We don't know what to do. No one told me to develop
this program and make it bigger or better or anything. My heart for them.
Like, I could not, not, like, I couldn't not do this and I could not
chase this the way that I did. And so I live in the space of
ingenuity and like, let's do things
differently and sit me at the table, Bring me to the table. Because.
Because if it's. If you want. If you want something new, something fresh,
like, I'm down to try it out. Yeah, man. Well, so that's
Pyxis and what you do there. I'm familiar with your work through Pyxis. COMCARE. You're
actually a partner with COMCARE too. Yeah. And our children. Our
COMCARE children. So thank you for the work you could do there. Yeah. You're
also a fellow board member of Gathered Strong. Correct. So we work a lot
in the foster care reform spaces and all that. But where I actually first
came accompanied with you and heard your name was actually not in either of those.
It was for an organization called Hope for da Hood. Hope for da Hood, Yeah.
So this is where I first heard your name. And. Beni, let's
go. So what is Hope for da Hood, man? And
that's where I first became familiar with who you are. Oh, man. What is Hope
for da Hood? It's in the name, brother. It's.
It is Jesus driven
people trying to
bring hope to. To the hoods that. That we
damaged. You know, it's founded by Beni Santibañez
He was a OG of the same gang
that I was a part of. And Jesus grabbed a hold of his
life and, you know, he. He started by,
you know, giving his life over to Jesus and
switching from gangster rap music to
gospel driven to rap. And,
you know, that was. I can't even remember the year it started,
but that was years ago. I didn't even get involved until years after that.
But, you know, now it's an organization that. A faith organization.
Yeah, yeah. It has a. Has a. We have a. There's a church. We have
church services. We have urban
impact leaders who connect with people in our community to
different services. Anywhere from, hey, let's help you get your driver's
license. Or, you know, we're Ubering people to
WSU Tech as they're taking courses there. And like,
we have all these. We're connected with this entire ecosystem
of services in. In Wichita. There's some big things going on.
Yeah, man. And I think what's really cool is, you know, young people that are
into the lifestyle that you once were, they need to see
examples of hope. They need to see examples of people that
walk the path they walked and found their way out of it. And they
need the testimony of those people to speak into their lives and say, come on,
I know the way. I know the light. I know the way. And as
you and I both believe, the true transformation is
a spiritual transformation. There's a heart transformation that has to happen through.
And you're a walking testimony of that. And Beni's a walking testament
of that. Dude. That dude was it, I think it was last year or two
years ago, he, he prayed at the Wichita prayer breakfast.
But he brought the house down, man. I was like, this guy, he's a
preacher. Yeah, but it's people that, that live the
lifestyle that you described earlier that have found
hope and found light and found repentance. And they're speaking back into
that community and telling these young people, come on, we got you. Brother. We were
ready to die for something that was finite. How
much more do you think we're going to do and how much, how much more
fight do you think we have in us working for
an eternal kingdom? Okay, man, come on now. You got me.
That's good. This is why, this is why it's working. This is why Hope for
da Hood is what it is because we bring people in who were, you know,
betrayed by their, by their own people or, you know,
been locked up and lost their entire lives to, you know, most of their lives
to the cause, and, and they were
ready to die for it, and some killed for it. And,
and to, to have all of that wiped away
and to say that we'll lay our, we'll lay
our lives down for a cause that's eternal, man. You
can't, you can't find, you can't find better people who will
just, you know, throw down for the kingdom. My hat says it's one of our
hope for da hood has Godster. Like, we went from, we went from gangsters to
Godsters. Jesus, soldiers. That's it,
man. And so I, I, I love my people, my
brothers and sisters. I hope for da hood. You come on a Sunday, it's different.
You show up and, you know, you got, you got OGs,
you got people. Some of the biggest drug dealers. Used to be some of the
biggest drug dealers in Wichita. You got people who've been in jail. You got, oh,
you know, you got tattooed up. Just a bunch of misfit and
wretches just loving Jesus and holding their hands up and praising
God together, man, it is the most amazing thing you'll experience. And God
is in that place. Come on now. That encourages me, man. Thank you.
Thank you for the work you guys are doing there. Yeah, it's, it's desperately needed.
Yeah. We got a couple minutes.
Cast the vision. So you have the magic wand.
You have obviously seen firsthand in the
trench the challenges we're facing. Foster care, juvenile offenders,
juvenile crime. The trajectory that we're on.
If you were writing the script of how we change this trajectory that
we're on, what does it look like? What do we do?
We've got to shift the, the culture in our community.
And this isn't a, this isn't a
shift on a dime tomorrow kind of plan. This, this has to be
intentional. This has to be something where,
you know, parents are getting
provided resources that are actually helpful. This
is the same kind of, you know, stuff that I teach. You know, could
you imagine the same kind of stuff I'm teaching my own staff and, and equipping
parents and, and foster parents. Not just a one time class that you
take just so you can get certified and take on foster kids or whatever. Yeah,
yeah. No, this is a, this is a. You've got to buy into it.
Like you've got to buy into a culture shift.
I think, you know, I think that's part of it. I think on the end
that I'm working on now, it's, you know, in
the bouncing culture. No, no kids doing this night to night thing
currently they're trying to end some of
that stuff. There's a big push for it. And
we've been taking on some kids 16 and older that
are, that we're taking on overnight. And
now that they've been with us overnight, we're, we're seeing some stability happen in their
lives. And you know, they're,
they're going to get a bed and you know, and a dresser to put their,
their clothes in. Safety. Yeah, they're. And I think that's, you know,
one of the biggest things that, that, that, that we've got to
provide is that safety. That felt safety. But yeah, so
the, the dream for, for Pyxis, the
next kind of step is,
you know, providing, providing a space for,
for kids and adults to not just
be educated but to create a, a different kind of community.
Come on, man. Yeah. Your heart inspires me, man. The work that you
do inspires me. I want to tell your story because I think the community needs
to understand not just the challenges, the work that's being
Done. And how hard and difficult that work is, but how hopeful this
work is too. That there's fruit, man. Yeah. And you've told me stories
about kids whose lives have been changed. And it's amazing,
man. Yeah. For, you know, and it's, you know, I've been doing this work long
enough for. For every sad and horrible story
I have of, you know, kids who are no
longer with us. Us. I'm starting to have some stories of
kids who were just known, you know, known by
everybody to just be menace. Oh. And
you know, they're. They're on campus at WSU now and you know, they're
generational change. Oh my gosh. Big stuff, man. Well,
there's a lot that we're working too. You talk about WSU Tech and Dr. Sherry
Utash is now involved in these spaces trying to find pathways for kids, particularly in
foster care system, into some credentialed work to where they can
get into advanced manufacturing or advanced trades or other
avenues here. Like we have a community that's working together
now in the foster care space and collaborating. And there's always been.
There's always been individuals and organizations doing this work. This isn't new.
There's been superheroes running all the way around. But what is up new is there's
a collaborative spirit now that I think is new. Since I've been involved in
the space the last eight, nine years. A gathering. There's a gathering.
Yeah. Trying to gathering. Trying to get. Trying to get these
siloed places to. Be able to connect continuum of working together.
So, yes, I'm encouraged, I'm hopeful. I value you. I value the
work that your team does. I'm grateful, man. As a. As
a Christian, I'm grateful. As a. As a individual
in this community, as a dad in this community, I'm thankful for the work that
you're doing. As an elective. I understand
the value of your work and I just want you to know that you guys
are seen, man. You're seeing the kids that you work with are seen.
And. And we all should come together to continue to resource your work
and make sure that you have the resources you need to keep doing the things
you do well. So God bless you, brother. Yeah. Yeah. You're great. Appreciate it. Thank
you, brother. Thank you.
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