Announcer 1: The views and opinions expressed in to the point are those of the host of the program and its guests.

They do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of WGTE public media.

Welcome to the point.

I'm Doni Miller.

Today we're focusing on one of Toledo's most inspiring community revitalization efforts.

The Art Tatum Zone, named in honor of the legendary jazz pianist who grew up right here in our city.

The Art Tatum Zone is about more than honoring a musical icon.

It's about transforming a neighborhood, strengthening families and creating opportunities and a place with deep historical roots and even deeper potential.

Joining us for this important conversation are two people at the heart of this work.

Doctor Calvin Sweeney and Christine Sweeney.

Their leadership, vision and commitment to neighborhood transformation are helping shape what the Art Tatum Zone is and what it is becoming.

We'll explore how the zone is making a difference.

What's happening on the ground and why this initiative matters for the entire city of Toledo.

Let's get to the point.

connect with us on our social media pages, but you know that, you know, you can also email me at Doni underscore Miller at WGTE dot org.

And for this episode and any others that you'd like to see, go to wgte .org.

To the point this is an amazing, project or calling.

As I was talking to our guest before the show, I said, once you start doing the research or the research, you realize that it's not a project.

It is a commitment that you all have made for the long term.

I'd like to introduce you to, the doctor, Calvin Sweeney and Christine Sweeney, who are the innovators who decided to make the Art Tatum zone, a key focus of its neighborhood and are doing amazing work in that community.

Thank you so much.

You guys are literally changing lives in that community.

Thank you so very much.

And for folks who may be hearing about this for the first time, would one of you explain what the Art Tatum Zone is?

Absolutely.

Well, first of all, thank you for the invitation.

You're so welcome.

We're very honored to be here and to have this conversation with you, the Art Tatum, as you mentioned, is not a project for us.

It's a passion.

It is a calling.

I grew up in the neighborhood on Jackson and Belmont.

It is the, neighborhood where my mother still lives.

It is the, the neighborhood that we feel called to, We believe that the neighborhood is full of tremendous potential and history.

Tremendous, individuals that are full of potential as well.

And they just need the support to be actualized.

Everything that's on the inside of them.

And to see the neighborhood transformed.

So the Art Tatum Salon has a neighborhood revitalization organization, that has really focused on serving children and families in the junction neighborhood to really ignite a passion for transformation at the individual and community level.

Why the Art Tatum zone?

Why do you call it the Art Tatum Center?

Yeah.

That's interesting question.

We end up naming the organization, and even our efforts, the Art Tatum Zone.

Some years ago, we were doing a neighborhood cleanup project and 500ft from our church to Tabernacle Church there on Pinewood and City Park, we noticed Art Tatum's house.

We saw the placard in the yard, and, we just started cleaning up around the house and cutting grass and planting.

I remember that that's way.

Yeah.

And so we just, you know, we like this is a neighborhood treasure.

And at, a particular point in time, we had an opportunity to meet his, his niece, Miss Lucille Johnson, who was born on the second floor in the back room of the house.

Oh, wow.

And, she just told us all kinds of stories about uncle Art.

Here's the funny thing, though.

We had to bring her to Molly's and Pepsi to every visit.

Our only requirement.

She's out.

Talk about it as much as you want.

Just bring out hot tamales.

And she was, like, 84 years old.

But very spry and very conversational.

And, she said, you know what?

I think you guys would do the right thing with this house to inspire kids, to let it be an inspiration for kids that my uncle Art was able to come out of this neighborhood and be successful, that they could, too.

And so when she said that, I said, you know what?

This neighborhood is where he grew up.

What better name to honor his legacy?

And that was a charge she gave when she said honor, Uncle Arch legacy.

And we couldn't think of a better way to honor his legacy than to name the work the Art Tatum.

So, absolutely.

What is the most what is the most amazing thing that you can think of about Art Tatum?

That people probably don't know.

I just think when they think about his art history, it was a combination of classical and jazz.

It was like he wasn't just one dimensional, he was multi-dimensional.

And he wasn't just the greatest jazz pianist.

I really believe he's the greatest pianist of all time.

And he took all of his challenges and he overcame every single one of them just through tenacity and innovation.

And I think those are the things that we really want to input and impart into the students and families that we serve.

It doesn't matter what obstacles you encounter, as long as you have grit and tenacity and community to support you.

Yeah, yeah.

I remember seeing an interview about, Art Tatum and he was he could play so fast, he could play so fast.

And another pianist mother said, you can't play like him.

That man plays too fast and plays the piano way too fast.

What were you going to say?

Yeah, I was just thinking about the fact that we were aware of.

But we learned really quickly is that he's world renowned to this day.

We would receive calls from Germany and Dubai, and we learned that Toledo used to be called Tatum's Town.

And so you think about the Jeep and you think about the Glass City.

But back in his day, you know, if you said you were from Toledo, they go, oh, that's Tatum's pal.

That's amazing.

What challenges have you guys faced in pulling together and pulling together this project?

It is so important.

And, you've been working on it steadily.

You are the face of of this particular initiative.

What challenges are you running into?

So I think for us, we really want to make sure that we acknowledge the history of the home.

First of all.

So as we're rebuilding that and thinking about what it will be in the days to come, we recognize that it's not just an asset of the art.

Tatum is on the organization.

It's a community asset.

And so we want to acknowledge that.

We want to gather community voice and hear from the community about what should happen with the home and then release Stuart that well, we also are aware that there are a lot of different challenges with the students and the families that we serve, and so how do we begin to meet those challenges without feeling like we need to be the be all and do all?

How can we partner effectively with other organizations in the community so that we're lifting the community together with the community members help, the challenges, making sure that people don't think that, we're trying to do it all.

Yeah, yeah.

You know, one of the challenges, I think, with the kind of work that you're doing is that you want it to be sustainable.

You want it to live long after you're no longer able to focus on this work.

Are you getting much help in making the programing and the impact that you're having stick?

Yeah, I think we're doing a good job of making the program sustainable.

We're involving people at all levels, of demographics and levels.

Seniors, we're involving, adults, teenagers, children in the process, which I think is going to be important.

You know, the, the they call the old because they know the way called the young because they're strong.

I think whenever there's a combination between wisdom and strength, you put yourself in the place to have something that's sustainable.

A lot of people in Toledo, in our community, know of Art Tatum, and, they want to see that legacy and the younger generation are learning about Art Tatum, and the importance of keeping his name and legacy alive and, and what he meant to the city.

And I think so in those seeds early on, will help the legacy continue on for Art Tatum not to be forgotten and I think beyond that, making sure that that house, which is kind of a picture of, you know, his child represents his childhood but also represents what the community can do.

It can it can be restored to just like the house can.

And I think that will continue to keep the motivation, inspiration and the momentum going toward honoring the legacy of of Art Tatum.

I would also add to that not only are we dealing with community members, which is really at the heart of the work, but we also are engaged in cross-sector leadership.

So we're engaging in government.

We're engaging business, we're engaging nonprofit, we're engaging all of those different sectors and not just here in the city of Toledo, but also regionally.

We're connected with other cities like Dayton that are doing amazing work.

We're connected with national partners like Harlem Children's Zone and Harvard University and other individuals that are doing place based work across the nation and gathering.

What are those best practices and how can we bring that to bear here in Toledo?

What what's your favorite initiative in this huge amount of work that you're doing?

I know you're, you know, my favorite.

So I so much so our work is cradle to career pipeline.

Yeah.

And I enjoy the the littles, the preschoolers.

That just brings me joy knowing the the challenges that many, kindergartners have face in our community with being prepared from kindergarten and many of them not being prepared.

And so to offer preschool, education to these children and understand that we are sowing the seeds in at the right time for the to bear fruit when they go to school, so that they can learn and be on the right track and have a trajectory, to be career ready.

So that that excites me to see the littles learning.

Yeah.

What about you?

I would say my favorite part is probably our afterschool program and the they enrich enrichment component.

So all of our out-of-school time programing has academics.

Embedded has social emotional learning because we think it's really important for our students to know how to manage their own emotions, but also to know how to positively interact with their peers and with their community members, but also exposure and enrichment.

And so all of our programing and we have amazing partners that help expose our students to this wonderful opportunities, from yoga to instrument lessons, dance.

I think my favorite one right now is golf.

We just want our students to experience everything that the world and Toledo has to offer, and we bring it to them right where they are.

How do how does someone become engaged in the programing?

So there's multiple ways we are.

And many of the schools in the zone, from Pickett Academy to Ella Stewart and MLK, so they can engage right in those buildings.

If they're not attending any of those schools, they can engage with us online through the Art Tatum's own website and enroll in any of our programing.

And then we always say, we're always a phone call away.

Calvin and I are a part of the community.

We don't just serve the community.

We live and we work and we breathe here.

And so we're always accessible.

All right?

We have to step away for a moment.

But will you stay with us?

Absolutely.

Thank you so much.

We'll be right back.

To me, community means connecting to others.

I'm Doni Miller and welcome to the Point.

I love PBS kids.

We're a community committed to education.

Discover new ideas, dive into exciting subjects, and engage with the world around you.

I would send them personally a t shirt.

Crime doesn't pay in the old West End.

Pass it on.

That's how we cleaned up the neighborhood.

Vision loss for people is not the end.

It's the story.

It's the next chapter.

WGTE Public media invites you to get out and play day.

Monday through Friday.

It's the 419 powered by WGTE with Matt Killam, Gretchen DeBacker, I'm Kevin Mullen.

What can people expect on the show?

Give me an hour.

A reminder of why this is a great place to live, work and play.

Where you come to watch, listen and learn.

Connect with us on our social media pages.

Also, don't forget to email me at Doni Underscore Miller at wgte dot org and if you'd like to see this episode again, or if there are any others that you are interested in seeing, just go to wgte.org.

To the point we are talking to Doctor Calvin Sweeney and Christine Sweeney about the Art Tatum zone.

It's this amazing passion.

I'm I'm struggling.

I don't want to call it a project.

We talked about that in the beginning because this is actually so much more than that.

It's life affirming.

It's, it's just designed to change that neighborhood.

And those children and those adults who are in there all the time honoring Art Tatum.

Yeah, it's pretty creative.

Pretty pretty ingenious.

Well thank you.

I think it's important that we recognize that we are literally trying to change a neighborhood.

At the end of the day, you know, our mission, our vision on North Star is to see children escape poverty, break those cycles of poverty.

But we understand you can't do that unless there's a continuum of care from cradle to the career.

So to every point in the pipeline, we want to make sure that we're supporting those families and those students so that they can experience that social and economic mobility.

But we understand to really do that, that the community has to become part of the solution, that really it takes a village.

We say that, but we want to demonstrate that in a way that we demonstrate that, you know, you got a minute and then you got to embed the community in the work.

And so to do that, you know, we're reaching out to all sectors and segments of our community because everyone is valuable and everyone has input and something important to say and to contribute.

And once the neighborhood starts to change, the outcomes change.

We also recognize you can't boil the ocean, right?

But we recognize if we can change a neighborhood, then maybe we can go to another neighborhood and another neighborhood and then the city.

So we're really hoping by focusing on a two mile by one mile area, that we can prove some things that work, that we can literally begin to hit a tipping point where we hit a critical mass, where when those those babies are bumping into different people in the community, we're all speaking the same thing.

We're all pointing them to the same North Star, right?

And everyone is involved in that.

And so we create momentum, we create critical mass, and ultimately we can literally see this very challenged neighborhood.

We can see it become something very, very powerful.

Nice.

I said, yeah.

And I think that happens really powerfully, the relationship building.

We understand that relationships are at the heart of the work.

We can build it, but they won't come.

They come because they understand the true nature of love that's behind the work that we do.

Our mission has embedded in it to transform this community through bold acts of love.

We're not talking about that flower power type of love.

We're talking about actionable love that sees what people need and then does a deed to meet that need.

Bold acts of love, bold acts of love.

I love that that's that's how we operate.

Compassion is the foundation for the work that we do.

And so in every component of the work, whether it's the educational work that we do, whether it's health and wellness, whether it's stabilizing neighborhoods, and some of the housing work that we do, it's really focused on providing that loving support for every child and every family in our community.

I think that's really important.

Yeah.

We have some things around that, around the zone.

We'll say love finds a way like love just does.

Like every parent knows that if you don't have everything that you need, you'll find a way for your children.

You know you'll make a way.

And that's how we feel about the families in the zone.

Love is going to find a way.

Another one of our sayings.

And so to that point, though, that means that we're going to be innovative.

We'll do more with less.

We'll do what we have to do.

We won't give up.

We'll be relentless and tenacious because love finds a way.

Another thing we see around the zone is love unselfishly seeks the best for others.

So we have a food pantry that serves thousands of people a month.

But we ask ourselves, that's good, but love seeks the best.

Why are they here?

How can we connect on the jobs?

How can we connect them to education?

How can we make sure single moms have a child care center to put their kids in so they can pursue, educational opportunities or work opportunities?

So we continue to say love unselfishly seeks the best and we celebrate the good that we're doing, but we're always trying to pursue what's best for that family, what's best for that child?

The preschool exists because we said, you know what?

We can't, you know, we're helping in the K-12 schools.

We're going to all the K-12 schools in the zone.

But we continue to see kids come to kindergarten not ready.

And we said, we just can't like love seeks the best.

So we said, you know what?

Let's do something about that.

Let's go further back down in the pipeline, and let's begin to try to help the kids before they get to school.

And so that's one of our mantra.

So it's really wrapped around love.

We think that love, it answers all of the needs that are there, you know, that will help us to begin to even find out other resources that may not exist.

So that's why we will partnered with the Harvard University, and we'll partner with a Harlem Children's Zone, because we're trying to bring the best practices that exist around the nation to this community so that we can see the outcomes that we've heard our friends are having around the country, right here in the junction neighborhood in Toledo, Ohio.

We love the people.

Yeah.

Oh my gosh, that's so powerful.

I want to talk about the Harlem Children's Zone in just a moment.

But what changes are you seeing, in this relatively short time that that you've been operating?

What changes?

It is amazing.

We have seen tremendous academic outcomes with our students.

So with the students that we've serving for these last few years, 95% of them are at or above grade level.

And reading.

No kidding.

75% are at or above grade level.

In math.

Their attendance is skyrocketing.

Their behavior is changing.

Their outcomes, their interactions with their families and with their peers is changing.

Parents tell us all the time, like my child was shy when they came in to give a program, they didn't like to talk at home.

Now they're opening up.

They're talking to us in the family.

They're making new friends.

They didn't know they liked theater, they didn't know they liked archery and all the different things.

And so we're watching our students and our families change, and that's something that's really important to us.

That is an intergenerational approach.

We don't just serve children, we serve children and families because we think in order for children to do better, our families have to do better.

In order for our community to do better, families have to do better.

And so we're we're helping parents.

We're helping children.

We're asking them to help us change this community together.

Wow.

That's it's just amazing.

Okay.

If I can put that in context, like the the students that are at or above grade level, the national average right now is like 32% of students across the country are at or above grade level.

In Toledo was 22%.

And in some of the schools in the neighborhoods where we are, it's even less than that.

So to have 95%, 98% and 75% like that is amazing work that these children are doing.

But we understand as they're putting in the work, we're just put putting together a plan and a program that we know of.

The children's put in the hard work.

If the families put in the hard work, then it's going to be success.

And we're starting to see that.

Harlem Children's Zone has been into town as guest speakers probably a dozen times, that a dozen times, and I've always been impressed with the way they approached education.

And the outcomes that they had.

And your big picture process is very similar to their big picture process.

Is that, are there other best practices that you're using from Harlem Children's Zone?

So yeah, we are directly connected with, Geoffrey Canada and his team.

They are coaching.

They are working with us.

So when Calvin talks about us being learners, we're not just studying online what they're doing.

We are actually in contact with them.

And so as we're implementing the work here in Toledo, we're not just doing it on our own.

We're doing it with support from their team.

In fact, they're coming here in March to do another site visit and help us decide what things we need to be working on next, because they recognize that if it works in Harlem, why shouldn't they bring it to other cities around the nation?

So your model is actually a Harlem Children's Zone model?

Absolutely I know that.

Absolutely.

Okay.

And so we're excited.

We recognized that we wanted to create that pathway so that families don't have to guess.

Where do I go next after I finish early education.

What's next?

There's a there's a definite step there.

After I finish K through six.

What's next?

There's a definite step so that our families have a clear pathway of support.

And we've looked at the outcomes in Harlem, and no one can refute what they've seen in their community and with the children and families that they serve.

And we think the junction neighborhood deserves nothing less, nothing less.

Can you briefly give people an idea of the core of that model?

Yeah, the core of that model is literally, I've mentioned it a little bit today.

Is that cradle to career like the the idea is the most dosage.

You know, we talk they kind of talk medical terms.

You know if someone gets enough dosage of, a medicine, it will help change things in their body and or mentally.

And same is true in education.

We just have to increase the dosage of what the kids need and start earlier.

So start early, increase dosage.

So that means extended hours.

So after school program our in-school supports.

So kids are not being sent home for suspension.

But they go into our classroom.

They're not losing those instructional hours.

The after school program.

So when the normal school day ends, they step into an extended day through our afterschool programs, summer school, we offer summer school.

All the learning that Christine talked about earlier is taking place.

Intentional learning opportunities.

And objectives exist.

And so they're constantly getting that dosage of what they need.

And considering Covid, they lost like trillion hours of learning time.

Right.

And so we've got to account for that.

And so we've been able to to take the Harlem model and really build this cradle to career opportunity with extended learning opportunities, so that our students are being immersed in what it is they need to be successful.

And then when you think about the integrated services that go along with the educational output.

So we have family coaches.

So if we have a parent or caregiver that needs help in meeting some of their educational or life goals, we have people that work and walk alongside of them in that.

In that method, each of our students is also assigned a personal mentor called a success Coach, that helps them identify what barriers they're facing.

It also helps them identify what supports they need to strengthen their areas of interest and passion.

In addition to that, we help with housing and support.

We help with family and mental health and all of the things that kind of become the reasons that were not successful.

And so Harlem really has mirrored that across the board, from the cradle to career pipeline that Calvin was talking about.

So the integrated wraparound supports that are possible for all the children and the families that are part of it, and then to the partnership outside of the organization to make sure that students have a well-rounded exposure to what's available for them beyond the neighborhood.

And I would say the secret sauce is, is data driven, like we have data meetings all week long.

We're constantly looking at real time data.

What our students are dealing with in terms of their academics, their attendance, their behavior, and making those real time adjustments so that they have the best opportunity to have the best outcomes possible.

So we're not waiting for the end of a quarter end of a semester like we're there.

Our team is, you know, Harlem is coaching us and we're like, what do you do with that data?

How do you pivot?

You know, how do you address things?

And I think that's part of their secret sauce of being successful as well.

So we have one minute left and there's so much more I want to talk to you about.

So you're going to have to come back.

Promise you're going to be all right.

Five years away.

What do you see in five years?

What's your vision for where you will be in five years?

How?

Lots of graduations, first of all.

Yes.

Lots of high school and college graduations, lots of families making that next step in their, jobs and then their, economic mobility.

We see the transformation, housing wise, educational wise and socially for our community.

And that just being the tip of the iceberg, we think junction is going to be the place to be.

And the city of Toledo, I absolutely agree.

You promised to come back.

I'm going to hold you to that.

You all.

Thank you so much for joining us today.

I hope to see you next time.

On to the point.

Enjoy the day.

Announcer 1: The views and opinions expressed in to the point are those of the host of the program and its guests.

They do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of WGTE public media.

Announcer 2: To the point is supported in part by viewers like you.

Thank you.