A lot of us in radio have the sense that we want to give back: After all we are truly blessed. Don’t have to kill our own food, no heavy lifting; fingernails stay relatively clean so a certain amount of gratitude is an appropriate response. As an unrepentant do-gooder, I’ve always felt that doing service feeding the homeless, supporting the Salvation Army (who allowed me to do what I know how to do, following September 11th ), being involved with my alma mater (Rice University) racing for cures for breast cancer and AIDS research. But I also wanted to have a little more control and direction over how and where my money was spent. As much as I enjoy the hands-on approach, in the last few years, I’ve served on the Mayor’s Commission Against Domestic Violence and Covenant House and the New York Foundling Hospital in a more “grown-up” capacity. To this purpose, five years ago I set Up: Dr. Joy To the World. To be quite honest, I have been really fairly low-key about it and continued to disperse the funds to other organizations because I really didn’t have the sense of what exactly I wanted to do until recently. It has been radio with a little television thrown in that has allowed me to find the focus and the passion that was missing in my rather scatter-shot approach.
Beginning a year ago my radio program began simulcasting twice daily on Discovery Health. Much to both my surprise and Discovery Health’s surprise, we discovered a pocket of very young women, under 20, who quite often had a number of children, living in abusive relationships. Without exception, none of them had high school diplomas or GED’s, dooming them to second class citizenship, low-paying, menial jobs, no health benefits and emotional and financial dependence on the males in their lives who often were as ill-equipped and, as a result were frustrated, mean and often violent. Dependency seldom works as a long-term basis in relationships, and is unlikely to bring out the best in people.
A light bulb went on above my head, allowing me to see a path to stamping out the seeds of domestic violence early rather than having the sad and frustrating task of dealing with abusers or the abused after the fact. Helping young woman in particular, though not exclusively, to get an honest to goodness high school diploma and link-up to the Job Corps seems a direct path out of the dependency, abuse syndrome.
We have arranged to partner with Penn Foster University; as of the fourth quarter of this year, we will be able to offer young woman (and men), not only in affiliate cities but potentially anyplace in the world, wherever radio or the Internet takes me, the opportunity to fill out a application form, and submit any part of their high school transcript and a nominal application (things that you don’t pay for at all tend not to be valued.) The foundation will pay the reminder of the tuition for a high school diploma that can be obtained locally, on line or at home in as little as 3 months or as long as several years. Once the diploma is firmly in hand, we will hook them up directly with Job Corps all over the country.
My work with the Principal for a Day Program has convinced me of the incalculable value of mentorship when dealing with young people who have not had notable success. I am currently setting up a mentorship program through an endowment I have made to Rice University as well as with a sister organization in San Diego to supply mentors to help the young people stay on course and answer any questions. Interest in mentoring has also been shown by a major bank.
The radio program has offered me the visibility to be included in the Mayor’s Office, Principal for a Day, and given me access to Discovery Health listenership, which has allowed me to discover this real pocket of need. So, all of it came together in a very nice way.
Passion is great but it is even more gratifying to find a channel to be effective as well as enthused. If I were going to seek out lesson in this for others, I would advise a willingness to continue to sort through ideas and experiences until everything comes together that feels right so you don’t get distracted by the merely emotional or ephemeral. Admittedly, patience is not my chief virtue. I’ve certainly run through a lot of different ideas about how and what I wanted to do. But as we have all learned by listening to our callers, clarity comes with no little effort. I can now clearly, concisely & patiently describe the mission statement of Dr. Joy to the World in several words so I know that at long last, I’m on target and the way ahead is clear.
article written by
Al Peterson and originally published in September
22nd edition of Radio
& Records. |
