>> announcer: good morning, this is news 4 your sunday. >> good morning, i'm chris lawrence. i've got to tell you, sometimes young men in our area get a bad rap for not caring so much about the community that they live in, but i've got to tell you our guests today are going to dispel all of those myths. they have been working hard. i'd like to welcome troy bullock, jr. thank you, troy. also darius baxter and danny wright. they are the founders of good projects, an organization that is trying to do a lot of outreach and partnering in our area. troy, i want to start with you. how did you get involved in this? i understand you left teach for america to start this. >> yes. the organization started very organically. we all played against each other in high

the crazy part is we all met each other on the field at georgetown on the same team. became best friends, became roommates. in our senior year we came together and were challenged by our mentor to go back in the community and do something goodgood. and out came good projects. in the nonprofit arena it isn't a lot of fun and not a lot of money. i i had to do teach for america. do projects on the side. before i came home, we were successfully enough to get funding and i left teach for america to do it full-time because i knew this was my real passion and my partners' real passion, so, yeah. >> danny, tell me a little about what you guys had been doing. >> yeah, so, as troy mentioned, we each are very passionate about the communities we help because we come from the communities. and so for us, you know, being how we could create real change and have real impact was po

d.c., gun violence, mostly in the months of june and july it spikes. we started the program last summer after graduating, called good camp. we had a lot of partners help us bring it all together to make it happen. i'll let darius talk more about that. >> put you on the spot. >> they always say i'm the one that talks too much. no, good camp was a collaboration, they won't tell it, but dan i and i weny and i g in our college house and we were going back and forth saying we're going to have a football camp. no, we're going to have a camp. this went on for weeks. hold on, why can't we put all these different ideas into one program? and good camp was born. we're bringing in elements of athletics, elements of entrepreneurship, elements of

etiquette. this year we're adding an environmental piece with an a cost i can't. it's been a collaborative effort not just amongst us three, but community organizations in the washington, d.c. area. >> one of the things that really jumped out to me in learning more about the organization was that it's not just thinking about physical exercise, but you guys are doing work with nutrition, mental health, areas that sometimes don't get the attention. >> yeah. it's important for us. we went into this understanding that from a big picture, we wanted to attack poverty as a whole. and we use a holistic approach to attacking poverty and we understand there are things that stem from it. a lot of times the things you mentioned, a lack of nutrition, a lack of physical exercise, a lot of other different factors. so, when we created this program, it was we're going to attack poverty at a micro level, attacking the things that stem from it. >> how big -- you

challenges of the nonprofit world. >> yeah. >> and finding funding. how important has it been to find partners? and how much work is that to actually go out and bring these partners in? >> darius is our partner guy. [ laughter ] >> he does a great job. last year we had over 40 partners in the camp. we ran our camp last year on a budget of $6,000. in reality the camp was worth over $200,000 because of all the in-kind donations and all the partnerships we created. so, the community really rallied around our camp and our efforts to serve the youth and combat gun violence. >> that's one thing we really harp on. specifically our business model. we don't want to shine, we don't want the attention. it's about the impact and the youth we're helping. for us to be able to partner with government agencies, to be able to partner with community-based organizations and all the people that are really specialized and good at what they do and bring them together to create a program, th

mentioned, wraparound services to attack poverty on a micro level. >> that's a great point to take a break on. you're watching news 4 your sunday. we'll be right back. come on...you can do it! dogs just won't quit. neither does frontline. that's why there's frontline gold. with its easy applicator frontline gold delivers powerful protection that doesn't quit for a full 30 days. its triple action formula is relentless at killing fleas and ticks. frontline gold. the latest innovation from the maker of frontline plus. for persistent protection you can trust... good boy! go for the gold. frontline gold. available at your vet.

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welcome back to news 4 your sunday. i'm chris lawrence and i'm joined today by darius baxter, danny wright and troy bullock from good projects. guys, we were talking a little about all the work you do. tell me a little about some of the feedback you've had from some of the people you've helped or who have attended the camp. >> you got this one, man. [ laughter ] >> not everybody at once. go ahead. >> so, the feedback is great. when we originally thought of the idea of having this program, we wanted to be very targeted in the areas we help. last time we did anacostia.

through 2016. our approach to getting assistance was hitting the ground running, going door to door, talking to parents and grandparents in the community that we spoke with. because of that we were able to get good feedback because we had that one-on-one connection with each one of them. and, so, you know, that's why we're doing it again this year and that's why we're trying to have more impact. that's why we're creating the curriculum and adding the environmental piece because the feedback was great. people want more services. and the more we can do, the better it will be. and hopefully following the camp we'll be able to turn it into a year long program where we continue to have the same impact with the participants over the course of the year to have real impact. >> i would think the city would be so supportive of this. they see the numbers. they see the fall off in learning from students over the summer. they see the spike in violence as you mentioned, june, july, august. i would think you'd have a lot

>> so, we run a few different programs. d.c. government has been amazing in supporting us from the get-go. we work now with the department of youth and rehabilitation services on a separate program called the credible messenger initiative. i'm working with youth involved in ndrs. looking at the camp specifically, again, dpr has been awesome. they've been an amazing partner. last summer we partnered with dps. an amazing partner. from that standpoint as a young organization, looking at a lot of the binger foundations and even private donors, they want to see some traction. usually two, three years into the game. when we came to d.c. government, all the different algencies, thy opened up the floodgates for us. had a helping hand since day one. >> i think that's one thing people don't realize about the nonprofit world. you do have to at some point you have to show results. >> yeah. >> to cte

which a lot of entities are going for. >> yeah. we founded it on a simple premise that -- we looked at the numbers of nonprofits in the country and just looking at america. and the amount of money being spent in the nonprofit space, which was in the hundreds of billions of dollars, but at the same time going back to poverty, the rate of poverty was increasing at almost the same rate that philanthropic dollars were going up. we said, how is this possible that we're spending more and more money every single year on philanthropy and programs and all this other jazz, but poverty has gone up? so, we came into the space, again, sort of as a disrupter where we said there's 1.x million doing things at that level. and let's find partners and expand the work and our impact. >> gotcha. you were trying to connect can the dots of a lot of people and organizations already sort of operating in the space. >> exactly. >> and, you know,

thing that we harp on. because we're young and the entrepreneurial spirit, we were able to garner so many partners for our program last summer. that's what we're trying to give back and teach other young people in our programs, specifically in addition to good camp we have entrepreneur camp where we're going to do live demonstration this summer. it will be in the afternoon so we're going to teach a curriculum similar to that that we learned how to build a business model, find your customers, all those different things. that's another segue for people to sign up and come to. >> i have to tell you, you guys are really doing it the old-fashioned way. knocking on grandma's door to get the contact. is registration open? if people are interested, how do they get the information? >> yeah. so, registration is still open. we welcome the more kids, but it's filling up quick. so, if you want to contact us, good projects d.c., twitter, facebook, instagram, contact us on there and we'll ge

you and give you next steps for registration. >> all right. >> they can also sign up on dps website. >> they have a few different options with dpr. they can go down to the site and sign up in person or they can go on the dpr website and sign up that way. looking at our social entrepreneur camp we'll be opening up registration for that in the next week. >> darius, danny, troy, thank you so much and wish you guys a lot of luck this summer. we'll be right back. >> thank you.

introducing the ifrom subway.ction head in now to grab the five dollar footlong spicy italian. loaded with salami and pepperoni. for a limited time, the spicy italian footlong is just five dollars. it's a big value for even bigger flavor. only at subway. welcome back to news 4 your sunday. i'm chris lawrence. look, we're heading into the summer months and we have been talking about some of the opportunities for young people here in the district. obviously there are tremendous programs. with me here now joining me are d.c. at large councilmember robert white, jr., as well as a deputy director at d.c. department of parks and

one of the things that really jumped out to me when you talk about filling up that time in the summer is the pools. the d.c. pools, and the fact that so many people don't know they're out there and they're free. >> well, i don't know if they don't know that they're out there because our pools are just filled to the brim throughout the summertimes. when it comes to summer you're going to think of d.c. parks and recreation. we have over 50 aquatic facilities whether 19 outdoor pools, the spray park or indoor pools. so, we are doing lots of fun activities and events throughout the summer. >> and i guess also, too, if you don't live in d.c., you can still use the pools. you pay a small fee, but they are open to use as well. >> one thing unique to the district of columbia if you are a district resident you get to utilize the pool for how much? for free. free for district residents to c

that's why we have such huge numbers. if you are a visitor to the district of columbia, you can come and visit the pool and get into the pool. as you say, there is a nominal fee for nondistrict residents. >> and, councilmember white, i just wanted to touch on that, in that teachers say they see the drop-off in learning over the summer. the d.c. police department looks at the spike in violence over the summer. how important is it to fill that time in june, july and august? >> it's incredibly important. i met with a few students from a school in ward 8 two weeks ago and i asked them what they were doing for the summer. they looked at each other and looked at me and said nothing. i know that the teachers want those students to continue to learn and be active, but i think those students want to do the same thing. we don't want their minds to be idle. they can be doing things that they don't have time or the ability to do during the school year. >> what sort of programs do you think are --o

experience -- most effective at getting the kids engaged over those summer months? >> anything that's fun is i think going to do the job. and dpr does an incredible job with programs throughout the summer. there are some nonprofits that help out a bit, too. i played rugby and lacrosse growing up. we have free rugby and lacrosse programs in the district. we have the washington, d.c. youth rugby league that has practice on wednesdays and tuesdays and they play on sundays and we have winner's lacrosse which is a nonprofit that does free lacrosse programs both in june and july. >> it seems like summer could be a great opportunity to sort of expand your world a little bit. maybe try some things that maybe you don't have access to or you don't have time for during the school year. >> well, when i was growing up, you went to camp, there was only one type of camp. you went, you did the same thing every day and you went home. the world is now so much more culturally

programmatically, d.c. offers great programming. we talked about our camps. we have hundreds of camps. our camps are normally 50% full when we open registration in february. as of this minute they're 96% full, but there are a plethora if different camps, from sports camps to artistic camps, special needs, you name it, we have a lot of different opportunities for kids. and another big think of course is the job opportunities for the kids now. you know, under mayor bowser, they've expanded the job opportunities for the youth this summer. dpr, we are so proud to know we are going to probably take about 1300 youth this summer, provide them with jobs. not only jobs, but camps as well. camp opportunities. >> yeah, we know about obviously -- you know, former mayor marion barry's funeral, people came out of the marion barry summer youtp

man, that was my first step into the successive now. how big is that this year? i know the registration is closed. >> correct. the registration is closed, but we should have no reduction in the number of slots for young people in the summers program. i think it's a little above 12,000, and i think that every one of those slots will be utilized. >> okay, all right. that's a great point to just take a quick break on. when we come back on the other side, we're going to pickup, talk a little more about the summer youth program and some of the other opportunities out there in the district.

welcome back to news 4 your sunday. i'm chris lawrence and i'm joined again by the d.c. at large councilmember robert white as well as the deputy director at d.c. parks and recreation, john stokes. councilmember, i did want to ask you, we have en

program. where are some of these jobs? you mentioned 12,000 jobs. where are the young people going to be working? >> that's a wonderful thing about the program, is that young people can work almost anywhere. i've seen youth participate in arts and dance organizations where they help produce shows, and you see those shows at the end of the summer. and i see youth working in offices and, of course, in the council and in d.c. government, like with dpr. so, almost whatever you want to try, you can try through this program. >> and when you look at, you know, parks and rec, how important is it to -- how important is it -- do you see sort of an instance where if you get a young person into a program, they sort of come back summer after summer after summer? >> we have a phenomena at dpr known as rec baby.

and it's really small ages and our camps, they go through the whole process. they come to us year after year after year, and become employees. they calm back a they come back and work for us. they think it's fun. when you're thinking parks and recreation, you're thinking fun and great customer service. what a better job to have and better experience to be in. >> you think of learning skills like customer service, showing up to work, taking direction, showing initiative, things like that. >> there are other programs that we have to continue to highlight for people. you know, there are some younger folks who have become disengaged from school and we have programs that really help to address that as well. the d.c. guard has the capital challenge youth academy, and they are actually enrolling for the summer now where young adults can get some structure and discipline, but also get their ged or high school diploma. and we have our udc

d.c. residents who want to get a certification or move up in their career. and i think the summer is an excellent time to address those, too. >> you just made a great point, too. this isn't a situation where someone turns 18 and it's like, oh, well, that's it for you. we don't have anything left for you. this continues into young adulthood as well. >> that's right. summer means something different for all of us, but we remember being, i say under 25. the summer meant something special. it was an opportunity to do something new and i think we have to continue providing those opportunities. >> and there is still time? i know we're right on the doorstep of summer here. but there is still time to get involved in some of these programs? >> there is. a lot of the programs, i think a lot of the dpr programs still have some spaces. the lacrosse, winners lacrosse program has space. the dc youth rugby league has space. there are tons of op

them. >> yeah. there is there's definitely room. we have a couple camp slots available. we are always hiring for lifeguards. we have jobs available for lifeguards. and if you know how to swim, we will actually pay you and pay for the fee for you to become an official lifeguard. >> just expanding out from summer a little bit, what about programs that are running, say, throughout the year? >> so, at dpr, our slogan is move, grow, be green. move which means we provide safe physical activities for folks. grow means we provide self-awareness and self-development type programs. and to be green, environmentally conscious programs. those programs run throughout the year. sports doesn't stop throughout the summer. we have 73 recreation centers so we have lots of programs indoors for our grow segment, again, it's like young ladies on the rise, or young men future leaders. so, again, we get our kids and adults and seniors.

we have little kids 3 years old to senior events, seniors 55 and plus. so, we have hundreds of programs year round. so, there is never an opportunity to say there's nothing to do, i have nothing to do. you can always find something to do at dpr. >> i've got to get you to talk to my kids. i have to say thank you so much to councilmember, you know, robert wright, to john stokes from d.c. parks and rec. you gave us a great perspective on not only the programs available this summer and the wide variety that are available, but also some of the programs that extend throughout the year and that are available to young adults as well. so, thank you again. if you're out there, if you are looking for something to do this summer, i've got to tell you, it's as simple as going to d.c. parks and rec website. you can find them on facebook. investigate these programs and have a great, great summer. thank you.

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"news 4 today" begins with breaking news. in this life and the life after. >> strong words from the father of one of the montgomery county teens killed the night before graduation. we have details on the arrests made in this case. kids among the victims in this two-car collision from overnight. what we're learning now about the head-on crash and the conditions of those involved. mistrial. what is next for bill cosby after the jury was not able to come up with a verdict for the stained comedian accused of sexual assault. well, good morning. welcome in on this sunday morning. hope you're having a good one. i'm adam tuss. >> and i'm angie goff. to