The Role of Community in Youth Development

Rev. Dr. Keith Haney, Host (: 00:01

Well, we welcome Richard Jack III to the podcast. How you doing today, my friend?

Richard Jack (: 00:05

I'm doing well. about yourself, sir?

Rev. Dr. Keith Haney, Host (: 00:07

I can't complain about one thing, God is good and all the time. I'm, that's right. I love to ask my guests this question. This is my go -to question. Get to thinking and kind of get to know you better. What's the best piece of advice you've ever received?

Richard Jack (: 00:11

All the time. Amen on that. That's right.

Richard Jack (: 00:23

The best piece of advice I've ever received was from my grandfather. He was a man of very few words. And the one thing he always said to me, even during conflict, was pay attention. At the time when he told me, I had no idea what he was saying. But as I've seasoned in life, the pay attention means be aware of who you are, what you are, what you're doing, and how you represent yourself. And be aware of the things that's going on around you.

And that was sound advice for me at a very tender age.

Rev. Dr. Keith Haney, Host (: 00:55

I love that. I'm curious what role, who were some role models as you were growing up in your life? know, because I think for us when we

get to a certain stage, we think back and think about all the people that impacted us. They'll be mad at or appreciate at the time, but we look back and they've had a huge impact. Who were some of those people for you and what made them special?

Richard Jack (: 01:15

Well, I was blessed to be around a loving family. And so for me, family is everything. And each individual in the family, I was a male, and my immediate circle took on a parental perspective and love for me. So the one I have to say was my grandfather. He was my man, my rock, my everything. When he walked the streets, he was very congenial.

didn't say much, but when he spoke, people had much respect for him. They'd say, good morning, Mr. Johnson. And he would say, good morning, how are you? And that was a nod, and he'd keep going. And he was my number one. Then my mother had two brothers, Matthew Johnson, Sr., and William Russell Johnson, Jr. They also played a heavy part in my life. was worried that my father was not in the house. So I relied on my uncles to have an impact on me. And when I got to high school, I had a football coach named Tommy Lee.

Mr. Lee was a phenomenal motivator. He was hard -nosed, which I really appreciated about him. He demanded your best, but he also had a loving hand and father -type approach. And then I'd say as I went through my military career, the one man that impressed me the most was a gentleman by the name of Elliot Sanders. He rose to the rank of E9 Chief Master Sergeant in the Air Force.

Rev. Dr. Keith Haney, Host (: 02:36

I love that.

Richard Jack (: 02:36

his presence, his ability to understand and to point out some things that I needed to understand. I'll never forget the day he reached out to me from Langley Air Force Base and I was living in Las Vegas, Nevada. And he had a conversation with me and let me know that, you have a lot of potential. I need you to start, you know, to buckle down and get some things done. And each step of my life, I've had great mentors, but those five gentlemen have been the most impactful.

Rev. Dr. Keith Haney, Host (: 03:06

So tell me about your journey from serving in US military, US armed force, Air Force to becoming a Youth Personal Development Coach.

Richard Jack (: 03:13

Yeah, it was kind of interesting. So I retired in military 2007. I got out and I became a retired and I became a contract controller at a local control tower. I went back to school and got my degree in school counseling and I got my first job here in Las Vegas. And I immediately became a school counselor of a K through 12 school. I had no experience whatsoever.

and I walked in the door and coming out of a structured environment to a school environment, I thought it was a lot of chaos. And as time went on, as a school counselor, I started getting more more involved and asking more questions. And I saw a lot of challenges that our young men were having in terms of how did they relate? How did they emotionally regulate with their teachers? How did they connect with their teachers, in particular, their female teachers? And all of a sudden,

They were getting sent to my office crying all the time and it's nothing more hurtful for me than to see a young man come to my office with snot in his nose, tears in his eyes, frustrated that I have an issue. The teacher cut me off. I want to tell her about it, but every time I speak, I'm told to stop talking. And then I'm sent to the office because I'm being considered disobedient or talking back.

And it was gut wrenching. And so I said to the dean, said, hey, man, we have to do something about this issue because the amount of time it takes for them to send them to your office or my office for support, the teachers could resolve the issue inside the classroom. And so we began to explore how can we provide the students an opportunity to learn how to self -regulate.

how to engage in positive conversation with an adult female teacher, teachers in period, adult female teachers. And we built this program called Gentleman by Choice. And in that program, we create a paradigm shift that we teach them that they're gentlemen and that they treat all ladies, mother, sister, teacher, principal, the lady next door. And we teach them how to be gentlemen to those individuals. Then we shift the paradigm that they're no longer focused on that she's a teacher.

Richard Jack (: 05:29

but that she's focused on a lady and that right there was a trigger. And once we did that and we treated him at first rate class, the school that I was at was an underprivileged school, low social economical background. And we put these young men in new shirts, new ties, new pants, and we taught them how to walk upright, head up high, have a conversation and have dialogue in a positive way with an adult and to respect their teachers and to respect themselves.

go home and respect their mother and we challenge them to be better at home than you are in school. Man, it was just amazing to watch the program take off and develop and how these young men.

know, grew before our very eyes and one year turned into two years and two years turned into three years. And we were, were in different countries doing it, not different countries, but different states doing it. We had a chance to be in Maui, Hawaii, Tacoma, Washington, South Switch relay in Las Vegas all simultaneously. And it all started with the desire to help. And what we also learned is that when you love a child enough to say, Hey, if I don't correct you, I fail you. They understand that. And they'll buy

into it and they'll give you everything they got. That's all we can ask for.

Rev. Dr. Keith Haney, Host (: 06:47

In your work with these young men,

What is the heart of the reason why there's a struggle to either learn how to respect women or even how to talk to them? What's at the heart of all of that?

Richard Jack (: 06:59

There's a multiple of things that we've noticed throughout our journey, primarily is, A, if you're coming from a single parent house or with no father in the house, that can be a contributing factor. Two, if you're coming from a low social economical background and the guys that you're most familiar with are.

the drug dealers, the guys that are involved in criminal activities, those are modeling behaviors that you're going to begin to emulate if you're not careful. Not understanding that, hey, if mom is working two jobs and dad's working a job, maybe mom and dad are in the house, but maybe the lack of supervision there. So there's a multitude of things that create this dynamic. And what's concerning to me is that the schools are no longer prepared to teach these soft skills

skills development because they're busy focusing on testing. So you have a lot of contributing factors. And I think going forward, another contributing factor is who am I? What is my identity? Because now you have AI technology that's taken over and we have a lot of contributing factors that we didn't have 20, 30 years ago, but they're becoming more and more prevalent in today's society.

Rev. Dr. Keith Haney, Host (: 08:09

So let's start out. You run across a young man.

who you're trying to teach this to, where do you start?

Richard Jack (: 08:17

Well, for us, we go to the schools and say, listen, we have this program. We want 25 year students that are struggling 25 young men, fourth and fifth graders, we wanted them old enough that they can understand the concept, but not too far develop that their identity is set. And then we use a military framework, which is when you come into military, they teach you how to walk, talk and behave like a professional military soldier.

Well, we kind of use the same model. teach you how to walk, talk, behave like a gent. We take the values that you've been taught at home, we reacquaint you with those values, and then we begin the process of grooming you to help you understand who you are, and we give you an identity. So now when you say you're a gent, your chest puffs out. You smile little bit brighter. Your head is so high. You're taking care. You're grooming. You're practicing proper etiquette. So all this starts with a conversation. Hey, we want you in this program.

not because you're a troubled teen or a troubled child, but because we see the leadership in you. And once they bind to that concept, it works like nobody else's business.

Rev. Dr. Keith Haney, Host (: 09:24

So you started out with young men and now you've branched out to include young ladies Tell me how'd you how the program evolved from men to including ladies in this program?

Richard Jack (: 09:34

Yeah, it's a funny story. So in 2015, I had a chance to go live in Maui, Hawaii, and I had a great time over there. And my first year, they told me, hey, listen, you're not going to get these guys to buy into this program because Hawaiian culture is a lot more laid back.

you know, the students might not say to it. Now, given taking consideration that I was the only African -American at the school I was at, I'm coming outside of the community, which Hawaii is a very close community to certain extent. They accept everyone, but the culture is very strong. And, you know, to me, I was like a bit of a challenge, right? Let me show you how this works, right? So the first year I went all in, we did the whole program.

The young men had on pink shirts, black pants. They told me the students wore flip flops the whole time. They wouldn't wear shoes, all that stuff. So we went online. Then we did the black and white tie gala, which I'll tell you more about that. But at the end of the program, we do a huge black and white tie gala. So now last year, the guys, the boys come in with their tuxedos on. People are crying like, my goodness, I've never seen these kids look like this. And I'm getting chills talking about it because to walk into a Hawaiian culture at the

time and show them something and to be received by the community was something I'll never forget, right? Lahana community was amazing to me and I love them for that. But the following year I went back,

I was a school counselor and I'm walking along and about four to seven young ladies knocked on my door and said, Mr. Jack, we want to talk to you. said, well, yeah, what's the problem? Somebody getting into a fight or something. They're like, no, we have a problem. I'm like, what's the problem? They said, how is it that you can come over here and do this for the boys and not do it for the girls? I was like, well, that's a great question. And it was like, well, don't you think we deserve an opportunity to have something like this? I was like, yeah. And it's like, well,

Richard Jack (: 11:39

I've never done it. Well, can you figure this out for me, please? Because we really want this program. We want to look like they look, and we want the same kind of treatment. I said, OK, let me think about this. So the young lady that I was with at the time, she was also there. She was the assistant principal. No, she was working as the curriculum coordinator. We had a great conversation. She says, listen, the girls want it. Let's support them, and let's do it.

And so we did the same program in Hawaii for the girls that we did for the boys. And lo and behold, now we have ladies by choice at the time it was called the Island Ladies program. And we've taken it into Vegas and we've had such success teaching the same model with the same philosophy. The only distinction different is the boys is empowerment. I'm sorry. The girls is empowerment and the boys is enrichment. I'm not sure I understand.

Rev. Dr. Keith Haney, Host (: 12:29

So define those two different things for me.

Richard Jack (: 12:34

Yeah, so when we talk about enrichment, we're educating the boys on to walk in more of what is expected of them.

Normally with young men, they have an idea of who they want to be, but no one's really shown them how to do it. So we want to enrich their perspective of what it is to be a gentleman. A lot of times as a counselor, I saw that young ladies were lost in terms of who am I, how do I have a voice, what do I say? And we decided to teach them how to empower themselves through the program by having workshops that was around who are you, your identity, which increases their self -esteem. You do have a voice.

Even though you're a female, a lot of times females are not given that opportunity. We wanted to encourage them to use their voice in a more positive way. And what we saw is that a lot of the gossiping went away. A lot of the negative behaviors went away. And with the boys, we've seen them step up and do things more that in a manly way, if you will.

Rev. Dr. Keith Haney, Host (: 13:35

That's amazing. So what's been

the results of this, I mean, sounds like an amazing program. And you talked about the Black Tie event at the end. So how do you get from just learning to dress the right way, stand the right way, to graduating, so to speak, to the Black Tie event?

Richard Jack (: 13:53

That's a great question. We coach them up. So we have two curriculums. We have a personal development curriculum and we have a life skills curriculum. The life skills stands for leadership, image, financial management and etiquette. The personal development curriculum is 10 weeks. The life skills is 16 weeks. We start with the personal development curriculum, which is getting their mindset. Do you have a growth mindset or a fixed mindset? Do you understand the power of habits? Do you understand the power of belief? Do you understand how your behavior and attitude show

up and how that affects your outcomes in life. And then we move into the life curriculum. The life curriculum is the major curriculum because now you're going into attitude and behavior as it pertains to leadership. One of the things that you have to keep in mind with the GBC philosophy is that we believe in two things. One is we have to expose you, right? We have to expose you to different environments for you to grow. And then we have to educate you on habits and beliefs, right? That's very important.

important to us. So as they go through that process, we're giving them the information we want them to digest to help with the emotional regulation and develop the how. How do I behave as a gentleman? How do I act when I'm in a leadership position? What attitudes or behaviors are going to work for me favorably in these situations? And then we get into image. And when we get into image, we give them shirt ties and pants. We give them tall tree kits with the GBC logo on it. We provide all the tall tree supplies.

So now we're not just talking about acting like a leader. We're not just talking about behaving like a leader now addressing you like a leader. Okay. And now you're feeling good about yourself. And then we teach you etiquette, right? So we do the etiquette piece because the etiquette kind of talks about how are you relating to people, how you having conversations with people, what's the correct dialogue, how do I show up and treat a young lady like a lady? when we were in schools, are you opening the door for young leads? Are you helping your teacher to clash?

Are you doing the things that a gentleman is supposed to do to show support for a female and for humans as a whole? And then we get into financial literacy. And the reason we get into financial literacy is because we primarily serve communities that that's not discussed at the table, if there is a table. And so we want to give them some understanding and education.

Richard Jack (: 16:17

And the way that we look at it is that we're actually giving them some help in the decision making when it comes to money. Not necessarily the in depth, this is how you budget, although we do cover that, but we want to understand where money comes from and can we give you enough education to make you think about the decisions you're making be responsible when you do have money in your hands.

Rev. Dr. Keith Haney, Host (: 16:37

You talked about one of the key parts of this program is mentors.

Richard Jack (: 16:41

Yes.

Rev. Dr. Keith Haney, Host (: 16:41

Tell me what are you looking for in terms of qualifications for someone being a mentor in the Gentleman or Ladies by Choice program? Sure.

Richard Jack (: 16:49

Yeah, the can I go back a little bit, Because there's two components I also want to stress to you about the leader, the life skills component. So after we give them the certain ties, we actually in an etiquette piece, we actually take the students out to a restaurant where they have to practice and demonstrate the etiquette skills. inside the class, we bring a mock.

table in on white tablecloths, the whole setup as they were in a formal dining event. We walked them through that process where they get a chance to get hands on and know how to use the utensils properly, how to set the table. We bring in an iron and iron board to teach the students how to iron their own clothes. And that process takes us to getting to the black and white tie event. we've

We've given you a new uniform. We've taught you how to on it. We've given you told you kids, we taught you how to dress appropriately. We've taken you to the etiquette. We've helped you take set the table. We taught you the mannerisms that you need to demonstrate at a table. And that's all working up to the black and white tie gala event. Now the black and white tie gala is usually runs us between fifteen thousand and twenty thousand dollars because it's a big event. We make it elaborate and we dress the students in tuxedos and the girls in black gowns.

We make the program free for the families because a lot of times our students are coming out of environments where this is not a norm. But the experience and exposure they get through this process, it gives them a self of, belong here, I can do this if I work hard. And then we role model the behaviors that we want them to emulate at these events. And when I tell you that it's a transformational experience for these children, that's saying it very mightily.

Rev. Dr. Keith Haney, Host (: 18:32

So now tell me about the kind of mentors you're looking for in this program to help come alongside what you're working with.

Richard Jack (: 18:38

Yeah, mentorship is one of the most biggest challenges that we have because a lot of times we're looking for college educated or not, not a requirement, but it's preferred men that have been in professional environments so that they can walk in and model the behaviors that the students can emulate. And so it's been a struggle getting those types of mentors. We prefer mentors that are college educated. Again, not necessarily required, but a preference. And the reason why we're big on that is because they need to see what it looks like to go through that grind.

to understand it and the students need to understand this is what it takes. The image that I'm looking at is a man that's gone through college and I use myself as example. I've gone through the military 20 years. I've gone to school and got two or three different degrees.

constantly into educational opportunities for myself, whether it's through different classes. And I can go back and relate to them and have these conversations. And I'm encouraging to think outside the box and not let their environments be the limiting factor. Find someone that you want to emulate and grow. And by putting those role models in front of students, we've seen some great things happen.

Rev. Dr. Keith Haney, Host (: 19:47

So you mentioned, you kind of led me by the next question. So share with me some of success stories, maybe two or three to come to mind that just really impacted you from what you've done.

Richard Jack (: 19:57

Wow. There's one gentleman, when we first started the program, he was one of those guys that he just knew he had it together. He was a fifth grader. And his dad was one of our first mentors. And we did a special presentation at the school.

We opened up to all our students. had some students that we wanted to target, but this student was a student. He knew we had it going on. And then he just believed that he was going to be part of program. So what we did was we waited and all the other students over a course of about a week received their invitations to be a part of program.

Rev. Dr. Keith Haney, Host (: 20:39

you

Richard Jack (: 20:44

And we held his to the very last minute to let him know that this is not something that just because you have good grades that you can get into it, that this is a select process and you need to show up. And he went home the night before that we gave him his letter. He told his dad, said, I don't know what I did. I'm not going to get in. And it was a humbling experience for him. But his dad had was aware of the plan the whole time and knew it was going to happen.

ating this year, coming up in: 2025

And so when I was in Hawaii, I had reached out to some of the local hotels and we got some of their faculty, or sorry, some of their key leadership to be a part of the advisory board we had built in Hawaii. And so the gentleman in question's name was Lee. And Lee happened to be the HR director for the Sheraton Hotel. And we had had the gala.

And Lee was coming out and he recognized that one of the workers at the hotel, his son was in the program. And so Lee walked up to him and said, hey, know, I saw you at the event the other night. How did you enjoy it? And the gentleman said, he paused and he started crying. And Lee said to him, you know, what are you crying? What's wrong with you? He said.

I can't tell you how much the program impacted my child to the point that he's outgoing and he's more involved, he's more interactive. And it brought tears to Lee's eyes that that's what happened. So those are the things that I can say that we've impacted children in four states. We still get calls from Tacoma, Washington, which is what they request the program now. We've had comments from South Central where they want the program back.

Richard Jack (: 22:55

biggest challenge we've had is the ability to grow and find mentors that can carry on the program at the standard that we've set for the organization.

Rev. Dr. Keith Haney, Host (: 23:05

As you look at the impact you're having in these communities like South Central LA, Tacoma, Las Vegas,

What is your big vision for how you begin to transform these communities by transforming the lives of these young people?

Richard Jack (: 23:21

My big vision is I like that Gentleman by Choice and Ladies by Choice program be a national program. My big vision is that.

we get away from, and I gotta be transparent with you, this type of stuff for youth is not sexy, it's not popular. People don't necessarily understand how impactful this is. And so the big vision was initially to try and take this as a national program because I believe that now more than ever our youth need it. Now more than ever, when we have a deficit in morale,

where we have finger pointing and shaming and blaming, getting back to civility is key. And I think this program is an instrument to help us get there faster, quicker and sooner.

Rev. Dr. Keith Haney, Host (: 24:10

So if you had no monetary problems or challenges to move this program out, what would be your goal and how would you get this in every single school system around the country?

Richard Jack (: 24:22

I would go to as many school boards, knock on as many doors, meet with as many politicians, meet with as many community leaders and say, listen, this is a proven formula that we've used to make things, make change happen in youth lives. And we need your support in helping to set this up, establishing and growing it as an organization that teaches these basic skill sets that our youth need, especially in communities of color.

Rev. Dr. Keith Haney, Host (: 24:24

I love that.

Rev. Dr. Keith Haney, Host (: 24:52

So I'm curious, I know this must be some really inspiring, but also probably some very frustrating work because you probably hit a lot of doors. How do you stay motivated when you have pushback or frustrations as trying to get this program to expand beyond where you are right now?

Richard Jack (: 25:10

That's a great question. It's through the grace of God. mean, listen, God gave me a gift a long time ago in the vision to have an impact on the lives of these children and particularly young boys. I grew up with a single mom. She did the best she could with what she knew how to, what she had to work with. I have two or three siblings. And so I watched her struggle.

And I vowed that if I can be a vessel to prevent any young man from having to struggle the way that we struggled to have a better understanding of who he needs to be in this world, then I was going to do that. And God put that on my soul. I carry it with me every day. It's the reason why I up the morning to get things done. It's the reason that even people tell me all the time, you're working too much, you're going to burn yourself out. And they're right. It has created some struggles for me, but I'm faithful.

And when people have slammed the doors and said, no, this is not going to work, I kept moving. I dropped to my knees and said, God, give me strength and keep going. There's times when we didn't have the money and I had to use my own money to pay for it. But it's never been about the money. It's been about, can I touch a child's life and can I take that young man or that young lady, pour into them in a way that elevates them and gets them to the next level. And when I can do that, there's no greater satisfaction in the world for me, brother.

Rev. Dr. Keith Haney, Host (: 26:36

So my audience

How can they come alongside you and help you to push this program into every community that's under -resourced?

Richard Jack (: 26:45

It's simple.

Contact me and let's figure out how to get it into community. Contact me and bring stakeholders or people to the table that want to invest in something that is not entertainment. It's not about sports. It's about getting back to civility. It's about lifting our young men and women up and getting back to some of the basic foundations and fibers that makes this country great. That makes our communities great that we need to see in everyday society. I mean, I'll digress a little bit. Personal development is something that, you know, I didn't even

know anything about it until: 2016

I'm like, why do we have to wait till we get to at that time, 40 or 42 years old to learn something that's so simple that we need to know? I think about Napoleon Hill's book, Think and Grow Rich, how powerful it is, or Dale Carnegie's book, How to Win Friends and Influence People. Those are cornerstones on how to do this stuff at a high level. And we shouldn't have to wait for our kids to get that.

That leads me to this, if we could take that information and make it a required reading in our community and take gentlemen by choice and ladies by choice program to be the vessel teach that we can change the world.

Rev. Dr. Keith Haney, Host (: 28:25

So what's next for you? Do you have a book coming up to help people pull this off? Or you have a program that can join online? How can they take what you're doing, work with you, expand it to their community?

Richard Jack (: 28:37

Yeah, it's a great question. I'm like a mad scientist when it comes to this type of stuff. So one of the things that we did was we built an online academy that students across the country can go into our online academies called Gentlemen by Choice Online Academy. You can go on our web page, gentlemenbychoice .org.

and that'll take you directly to the courses. The courses is meant for you to log on and take courses on personal development for youth. It gets into a lot of things that we talked about, the etiquette training, the finance training, the leadership component. So those things are in there. The other thing that we're working on now, project we're working on is how do we go into schools and teach the program to the schools as a behavior management system that the teachers and faculty can put in play and they can change

the culture of school just by adding some simple techniques and strategies that I think have an impact and is based upon a philosophy that we've achieved at GBC. And that's called the Community Culture Academy, right? ConstructiveCommunityCultureAcademy .com. You can go on there and get that information or you can reach out to me on my my on my Gentleman by Choice page, which is GentlemanByChoice .org or LadiesByChoice .org.

Rev. Dr. Keith Haney, Host (: 29:58

So having just completed my degree in education, I know how much schools love change.

Richard Jack (: 30:03

Yeah.

Rev. Dr. Keith Haney, Host (: 30:03

So I'm sure that's probably one of the biggest challenges you have is to convince the school to add something to curriculum or to adapt curriculum. So if you are in a school system where they want to bring this in and because you have run headlong into the educational system, what advice do you have for parents who want to present this to their school board or their individual school?

Richard Jack (: 30:30

Well, I want to address something. A lot of times when we go into schools, they welcome it.

because they have men coming in as role models to teach the curriculum, to demonstrate the behavior. We become a fiber, a piece of the fabric of the school because we can have conversation with parents that is not necessarily centered on education, but maybe question some of the things that they can do and give us a strategy on how they can adjust the situation at home as well. So that's also been very good for me. wherever I've gone, it's never been a challenge,

where schools have said no, they've normally welcomed it. The only challenge that schools have had is how do we fund it?

That's been the biggest thing. If I was a parent and I wanted this program in my school, I would just reach out to me and have a conversation, say, hey, Mr. Jack or Coach Jack, how can we get this in my school? And let's start the process of saying, let's meet with the school leadership. Let's meet with the principal and assistant principals. Let's have that conversation. And let's show the impact of what the program can do in.

their school first for the 25 and then for the school culture. Because I think that the school culture, know, teachers struggle. And I don't mean that in a negative way. It's not enough time in a day for them. They have a lot of things going on. They to do a lot of preparations in terms of testing and things like that.

Richard Jack (: 31:55

But what if you were able to have somebody else come in and teach this for you to make it easier and simpler? And then we find men that can, we can raise up and come beside us, give them necessary training, give them the necessary perspective. And most of all, you know, find out how much do you love these children? If we can find that, sky's the limit.

Rev. Dr. Keith Haney, Host (: 32:15

I love that. So how do you solve the funding piece?

Richard Jack (: 32:19

Schools have money. You know, if you're in Title I schools, they have money for these type of programs. We can reach out to community sponsors to try and help us out with it. There's ways that we can do that. Does that mean it's going to be easy? No. Does it mean we're to have to up our sleeves and kind of figure it out? Yes. And that's what we've been doing for the past 10 years. I went to Hawaii with no budget. The school said they couldn't, it wasn't going to fund it. The hotels in Hawaii pitched in and all of sudden we had a program that lasted three years.

and we had three successful galleries. In Vegas, we started off small, we went into schools, we fundraised, we sold tables. We did all those things that you would do for another club team.

This is a bigger club team because if a child doesn't make it to the NBA, NFL, whatever the endeavor is, entertainer, these lessons that we're giving them are lifelong lessons and it's preparing them for those opportunities down the road. So to me, this is even more important and more valuable. And I believe that if the right presentation is presented, we can find funding for this.

Rev. Dr. Keith Haney, Host (: 33:19

So on that line of funding, tell me about what to expect to do this program for you. What's the average typical cost for that?

Richard Jack (: 33:28

Yeah, for about 25 students, you're talking about between 15 and $25 ,000. And why that's so high is because you have to factor in the gala. The gala is the most important part of the process for me. And that's not true. Let me rephrase it this way. The gala is significant because now you're bringing all stay close to the table. So when you do the gala, the kids are in tuxedos, the parents are there. We made it free for the parents. So there's no reason why a parent can't show up and participate.

And when you do that and they get a chance to see their child on stage, dressed up and seeing what the child is becoming through this process, that's very key for us is that this is not about did you or didn't you, it's about, it's a process of becoming, hey.

you know, when we first started the program, he was yelling out, his behavior was bad. He didn't do this. He does now. All of sudden he's carrying himself up, right? He's behaving better. He's taken out the trash. He's helping out at home. He's being more responsible. That is really a big part of this conversation. And so without those all components running at the same time,

I don't think the program is the same, but if you're able to invest the money into the process, then I think the bang is going to be more than what you expected. Does that answer your question? Yeah.

Rev. Dr. Keith Haney, Host (: 34:48

I love this program. It does.

I love it and I love what you're doing. And I'm kind of curious, as you think about the impact you're having now, what do you want your legacy to be?

Richard Jack (: 35:03

My legacy is that he loved the children enough that he gave everything he had for them, by them, and to them. And that I left no stone unturned, that I put my heart and soul into a program that I believed in with all my heart. And it stemmed from the belief that God put this in my heart a long time ago, and that I was able to manifest it with his support and love.

and that it all starts with love. If I love my fellow man enough, if I love you enough to correct you and to help you and to guide you, so I can ask one, and that is my legacy, a legacy of love for children.

Rev. Dr. Keith Haney, Host (: 35:41

That's great. As you wrap this up, Richard, any key takeaways you want to leave with the audience today?

Richard Jack (: 35:50

Yes, the biggest takeaway I can say is that our children, in my mind, need us more now than ever. Life is happening at a neck break pace, which is causing some of us to get left behind. AI is going to be a huge player in the future. Low income jobs are going to be going by the wayside.

And we have to equip our children. The one thing you cannot, that a robot cannot replace is human connection and civility. And if we can teach our children to have that now, they'll be ahead of the game in the future. If we don't do that, the future is questionable.

Rev. Dr. Keith Haney, Host (: 36:32

Well, thank you so much. Where can people find you, Richard? And where can they find your website and what you're doing with gentlemen by choice and ladies by choice?

Richard Jack (: 36:40

Yes, if they want to contact me directly on my cell phone 702 -969 -8203 702 -969 -8203 you can visit me on my website at gentlemenbychoice .org and that's gentlemen spelled with the E not an A gentlemenbychoice .org or ladiesbychoice .org. Another way you can contact me is

-: 6862

Rev. Dr. Keith Haney, Host (: 37:32

Richard, thank you so much for coming on and sharing your heart in this wonderful ministry with my audience. Blessings on the work you're doing. May God continue to send more people to you, more men and women to transform their lives. And may you continue to transform these communities. We do need this generation and to understand what it means to be a man. It means to be a woman because they are the future. They are the present. They are everything for us right now.

Richard Jack (: 37:56

Thank you so much for having me.