On this monthly radio program, The Children’s Foundation President and CEO Larry Burns talks to community, government and business leaders about issues related to children’s health and wellness.
Guests for this discussion were Paul W. Smith, Morning Talk Radio Host, WJR-AM 760 News/Talk and Philanthropist; Patrick Placzkowski, Chief Executive Officer, Boys and Girls Club of Grand Rapids; and Laura Grannemann, Vice President of Strategic Investments, Quicken Loans Community Fund.
The hour-long show typically airs at 7 p.m. the fourth Tuesday of each month on WJR 760AM. Here’s a summary of the show that aired July 30, 2020; listen to the entire episode, and archived episodes, at yourchildrensfoundation.org/caring-for-kids.
Larry Burns: We started this COVID-19 journey in mid-March. How have you adjusted on your show?
Paul W. Smith: Radio is extremely important at a time like this. The first 60 days I was on the air every day, including Saturday and Sunday. I had a program each day because I felt it was important to be there for our listeners. We are all broadcasting from our homes, which offers its own challenges, as well as some good things. I enjoy not having to get in the car and face traffic first thing in the morning.
Burns: You and your wife, Kim, have helped raise more than $200 million for your philanthropic partners over the years, including the Paul W. Smith charities that you established through The Children’s Foundation.
Smith: We really appreciate The Children’s Foundation’s help. The machine you’ve put together to help people has benefited our charities and our golf tournament tremendously. We’re approaching our 17th Annual Paul W. Smith Golf Classic tournament at the Detroit Golf Club on Monday, August 3rd. It’s a lot of work to put these things together and you guys are doing all the heavy lifting and I really appreciate it.
Burns: So the 17th Annual Paul W. Smith Golf Classic is still happening. How have the sponsors responded?
Smith: The sponsors for the Paul W. Smith Golf Classic stepped up. The most difficult part is for me to call and ask for their help again, knowing how hard this year has been for them. It is a struggle for everyone in the business world. Yet they understand that the Children’s Center, Detroit PAL, the Police Athletic League, Variety Detroit, The Children’s Charity, and The Children’s Foundation all have a job to do under these less-than-ideal conditions. Those 55,000-plus kids still need our help. Our sponsors know we can’t offer that help without their support. That is not to say that every sponsor we’ve had in the past has returned this year. There is still time to join us and I hope some new folks will. It’s easy to go to paulwsmithgolf.com and see all the different opportunities for sponsorships—presenting, golf carts, registration, clubhouse—the list goes on and on, all the way down to a hole sponsor for just $5,000. That gets you four playing spots as well as a spot in the program, signage and more. I have not raised the price for any of these sponsorships in 17 years.
Burns: The Paul W. Smith Caring for Kids Club is a club with a membership and some things that go along it. Where can we find out more?
Smith: Go to paulwsmithgolf.com. This is an opportunity for those who don’t wish to or can’t participate in golf to donate to help all of the important charities I mentioned earlier. We welcome, and frankly, we need, all the help and support we can get. It’s an especially trying and troubling year for charities and fundraising. I salute those who have already stepped up and hope that more will before August 3rd.
Larry Burns: How have you been able to continue to provide programs to your members since the COVID-19 crisis began?
Patrick Placzkowski: All Boys and Girls Clubs in Michigan shut down along with the schools on March 16. We were fortunate that we were able to immediately continue a very important aspect of what we do, which is providing a nightly hot dinner and snacks for the kids. It might seem like a simple thing, but a lot of the kids we serve rely not only on our meals, but also on food at school. Many families have two or three kids who might be in our club five nights a week. We understood that it is important to continue to provide that, not only for the kids’ health, but also for their families’ budgets.
Burns: Have you seen any impact regarding the kids and their mental well-being?
Placzkowski: We definitely see an expressed sense of loneliness and isolation, especially among preteens and teens. They really miss their peers. We see the younger kids exhibiting behavioral symptoms, usually of stress and anxiety that they can’t articulate. Luckily, we are well-staffed right now and thanks to the grant provided by The Children’s Foundation, we’re launching this new program to have more tools to be able to help those kids.
Burns: How is the Boys and Girls Club in Grand Rapids going to use this grant?
Placzkowski: One in four kids nationally experience what are called adverse childhood events, defined by the Centers for Disease Control as a public health issue. These events can be exposure to addiction, domestic violence, housing insecurity, food insecurity—all those kinds of things. Our kids experience these events at a higher rate than the general population. That constant level of stress can create mental health issues like anxiety and depression, but it also can bring with it chronic diseases that show up at higher rates than in the general population.
What we’re going to do is twofold, thanks to the grant that we received. We’ll be working with another local nonprofit called Whole Child that specializes in training adults who are working with children and other adults to recognize the signs of chronic stress, toxic stress, anxiety and depression, and equip them with tools to help deal with those symptoms. In addition, we have a social worker from Grand Valley State University who will be doing her internship for a full year and a half within the Boys and Girls Club. She has a master’s in social work degree and a faculty member from Grand Valley working very closely with her and serving as her site supervisor. The supervisor is a therapist with experience with populations like ours. The two of them together are going to be working in the clubs and essentially just integrate it in with our daily work to gain trust and develop deeper relationships with the children. We’re committed to building on our relationship with Grand Valley so eventually we can always have an intern in each of our three clubs.
Larry Burns: What is Changing the Course?
Laura Grannemann: The Rocket Mortgage Classic has helped spotlight the city of Detroit on a national stage and lead toward generational, long-lasting change. Changing the Course is an opportunity to bridge the digital divide in Detroit. We know right now we have over 100,000 families without access to the internet in their home. In an increasingly virtual world, especially currently, we know that having access to the internet, digital literacy programming and technology is not a privilege anymore. It is an absolute right.
Burns: Changing the Course involves more than a one-year commitment, though, correct?
Grannemann: We know that this is a long-term problem and all of our partners know that as well. We are going to be committed to this for at least the next five years. Our goal is to make sure that everyone has access to digital literacy programming, technology and the internet within a 10-minute walk from their home in the next five years. Children are struggling to access the education they need, senior citizens are struggling to stay connected with friends and family, and job seekers are struggling to stay connected to employment. It’s an all-the-more urgent situation given the time that we are living in right now.
Burns: Tell us about the Connect 313 Fund.
Grannemann: The Connect 313 Fund is a partnership with the City of Detroit, community leaders, partners, other funders around our community, and with United Way of Southeastern Michigan to create a holistic citywide strategy around digital inclusion. We’re seeing good initiatives happening in pockets around our city but we need better access to data in terms of who has internet and technology and who doesn’t. We also need to empower our community partners: help support and stabilize neighborhood technology hubs so that our community partners are trusted places for our community members to utilize, allowing them to provide critical digital inclusion work, technology, digital literacy and internet access for all of their clients.
Burns: What would be your dream of how things are in five years?
Grannemann: What I would like to see is not just that everyone has access to internet in the traditional sense, but actually that we’re able to leapfrog ahead of some of our sister cities across the country. And instead of just working to install infrastructure, we’re really focused on bringing together our community in order to provide these communities safe spots where everyone knows they can access all of this holistic programming. The city of Detroit, because we are such a resilient city, because we have such a commitment from our community leaders, I really think that we have this fantastic opportunity right now to continue to build momentum towards this bigger vision of being the most connected city in America.
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Caring for kids: Advocating for the mental and physical care of children - Crain's Detroit Business
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