Vegas Circle

From Struggle to Strength: How LV Metropolitan Police Department’s DREAM Program is Changing Lives.

• The Vegas Circle

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Speaker 1:

Welcome to Vegas Circle Podcast with your hosts Paki and Chris. We are people who are passionate about business, success and culture, and this is our platform to showcase people in our city who make it happen. On today's podcast, we're going to be diving into the DREAM Program. We'll explore what the DREAM is, the officers that are leading it. So let's welcome to the Circle. Las Vegas Metro Police Department's officers of the DREAM Program. We got Mr Ben Baldessari I'm trying not to jack they babe up We've got Juan Orstoga and then we also got Nick Calisas. I was close enough, right on the money.

Speaker 1:

Right on the money, man. So let's jump in, man. So we got the Dream Program. I originally met Ben. We were talking offline earlier, I think it was about two years ago. We met at a town hall, actually Got a chance to connect and talk a little about the DREAM program. And then you invited us down, man, which I really appreciate. You invited us down to Las Vegas' headquarters, got a chance to meet you and Juan and sit with you guys for a couple hours and really just kind of dissect what you guys are doing with the program. Honestly, I'm just I'm really happy to see what you guys are doing. I think it's setting a presence here, it's making an impact.

Speaker 2:

I know, nick, I think was part of like the original part of this right, so I'll lead it to you first then. So let's say for you first what is the Dream Program? What is it all about? Yeah, so when we started Summerland Area Command this was back in 2020, you know, we had an idea and an ambition to try to see what can we do for our youth out there. You know, originally we were noticing that kids that were, you know, getting in trouble. We weren't really doing anything for them, doing the traditional justice route of going disciplinary right, of doing the arrest, doing the citation. So instead we said, well, why don't we try a more positive approach? Let's try doing fundamental, you know, motivating these kids. And for me, I'm a big proponent on you learn a lot off other people's experiences, you know everyone here in this story.

Speaker 2:

they have a story to tell. Everyone has something that they can teach and what we try to do, especially in Dream itself, you know, is part of our acronym, you know, discover, redirect, empower, advocate and mentor. That mentoring does such a big thing in these kids' lives because a lot of these kids they come from families that they don't have that positive role model. And for us, you know, I feel that's why a lot of us became police officers, because we want to try to enrich and impact the lives of our community members and try to bring back that public trust. You know, being a native, you know Vegas here. You know I always grew up.

Speaker 2:

You know parents were two old school Greek people that had diners and all the traditional, you know, stuff you have. But we always trust in our community. The traditional stuff you have, but we always trust in our community. So for us we want to try to show that same kind of encouragement. And what we saw when we started Dream was we were taking children that had the highest calls for service in our area and we noticed that when we put them through this program, we put them through mentoring, we saw a difference, that all of a sudden, the calls started to drop. We started noticing they were impacting their lives and we were seeing a difference in them. And I think for us, especially as officers, that's what really makes the thing, because you can get over 100 kids right, and maybe you reach 20, maybe you reach one, but that one you reach. If you can have him change a difference in his life, that's a win.

Speaker 1:

So for me. That's what a dream comes in Now, when did dream?

Speaker 2:

start? Was it 2021? The first class started in 2021 with just two kids, literally with two kids, and I'm proud to say we've graduated over 420 kids at this moment right now. That is awesome. So it started with literally just one area commands vision. We were able to grow it to bring it over to Spring Valley, which Officer Juan here did an amazing job taking over and really growing that himself and I'll let him kind of get into it when we go there and then we were able to grow it over to South Central.

Speaker 2:

So all this hard work all these officers were doing right, all the impact that we're making and seeing the success stories, that's what kind of caught the eye of our headquarters and, like how officer Ben was saying before about what was going on in Boston, they said, well, we're doing that here too, we're just doing it through the dream program. And that's when it was well, why don't we just have this get involved to become its own section? And that's where we're at today and we're very happy and it's a lot of work, but we all love what we do you know so.

Speaker 1:

So how did you guys all get connected? So you first started off in 2021, kind of like.

Speaker 2:

So when I first got to the section, the section we were currently all in was called the community-oriented policing section. Right, okay, when I first got there I had never worked with youth, you know I was told, hey, you're going to go join this thing called the DREAM program and I remember at first I was like, well, what's the DREAM program? They're like it's a youth thing sitting in that classroom with the original first dream officer, you know, adrian Hunt, and seeing how he talked to these kids and seeing how they connected to him. That's what inspired me to want to do this to see someone who you don't even know, a complete stranger, connect themselves with you, or even to try to share a personal history and see them grow from it.

Speaker 3:

That, that right there, I was like this, is it this?

Speaker 2:

was. It was the. That was the light that sparked it. You know what I mean. So for us it grew and we were able to get so much more out of it.

Speaker 1:

That's awesome man I'm going to pass this to Ben Absolutely. So how did you get involved? I know, when we met a couple years ago, that was like when we first kind of connected and you mentioned like, hey, man, we've got this dream program and For me, how can I get involved? How can we better help, chris and I and things? But how did you?

Speaker 3:

get involved. So Nick and I worked together at Summerlin Area Command, okay. And when I transferred over to COP, the Community Oriented Policing Section, I took over for that void when Adrian left. Okay, so Adrian and Nick were running it. And then, when Adrian left, he went up to our Intergovernmental Affairs Section and then I took over his spot as Nick's partner. So we were still doing our community stuff, which is when I met you.

Speaker 1:

Got it.

Speaker 3:

And so on our off time, in between, what we were doing on our daily stuff, we would run the dream program, and then Juan was doing the same thing over at Spring Valley and they were doing the same thing over at South Central. So we had three different programs running but only for the specific areas that we worked, got it. So now we've obviously transferred over into one giant section that covers the entire valley. But at the time when I had met you, that's how we were incorporated, with our community section and doing our community engagement stuff. So it was cool that I had an opportunity to meet you then, because I believe everything happens for a reason.

Speaker 3:

Everything's timing, man you meet people for specific reasons at a specific time. So here we are.

Speaker 1:

That's awesome, man. And then Juan bringing you in man, so you were doing the Spring Valley side of the business. What kind of made you really get involved and really sink your teeth into this program?

Speaker 4:

also. You know, it was crazy, as I had, I think, at the time I had seven years on and my entire career was street, street, street. Okay, now are you from Las Vegas also? No, I've been here 19 and a half years.

Speaker 1:

I'm originally from.

Speaker 4:

LA, that's right.

Speaker 1:

Okay.

Speaker 4:

So you know you go your entire career and you're just hustling and bustling, running and gunning, and it was this one thing. It this one thing. It's like you know you got to catch the bad guy, right, but a lot of people don't. What a lot of people don't know about las vegas is when you're a police officer, you patrol a certain area, you have repeat offenders right, which is what we call our customers right, it's literally you book them. You already know they're going to be out. Yeah, you see them again. You already know what they got.

Speaker 4:

And it was one of those things was like yeah, I felt great that you were doing something for the community, but it really didn't change much, right. So I got you kind of get bored of the streets a little bit, right, and you want, you want to read, you want to build your resume at some point and, like nick said, like you end up doing the community stuff, which is cop, and you're doing the community stuff, and then they tell you, hey, you're going to take over this program. You're like man, what?

Speaker 3:

is this program.

Speaker 4:

And the crazy thing about DREAM is that not every cop knows. I'm going to say maybe 25% of police officers know what DREAM is, and that's even our department, and it's crazy, it's not a good thing, it's not a good thing at all, at all.

Speaker 4:

So then when I got involved at Spring Valley, I know I knew Ben had just gone to Dream at the same time at Summerlin and I've known Nick and so I was like, all right, well, what are they doing? So I saw what they were doing and I was like, well, we got a lot of kids on probation that we made so much connections with the west side of Juby Probation and they were all like, hey, can we put our kids here, can we put our kids there? And then we started finding a bunch of different foundations that were like, hey, we all do the same thing. How do we get involved with you guys? Right, because no matter what the badge does, a lot of opens, a lot of doors, right, yeah, so when I took over the program at spring valley, it was one of those things where it's like we started partnering up and then what was next? Right, yeah. So we started seeing that the 12 weeks was so amazing that we changed so many kids perception of the badge itself because we're doing it in uniform, you know, um, and the biggest thing that I think we all said when we went into the academy and they asked you why do you want to to be a cop, it's because you want to change or you want to better the community that you actually work for, right, the community that you're growing up in or raising your kids in, right. I think that's the mentality that almost every cop has. We're actually doing it. You're working with you on a daily basis. Because here's my thing I have nothing against. I have family members that have committed crimes and stuff like that gone to prison. They've done their things. But once they come out, it's a lot harder for them to get back into society, right. And then starting up, starting life at 25, 30, even 40 years old, is a lot harder than doing it when you're still 18 years old, right.

Speaker 4:

So that revolving door thing is what we wanted. It's a real thing. We wanted to stop it. And crazy that we all had the same mentality. So we pushed and, pushed and pushed. I don't know how many meetings we definitely had with all the upper ups and it's like, hey, how about you just throw it at every area command and go teach every other officer? The problem is there's a ton of officers just like us, but there's a lot of turnaround when it comes to COP. So I'm like that's not going to make a change. That's not what we're focused on. We're trying to make the change and just and keep it right. Stop the revolving door, cause it's going to be a revolving door for us as well, and that's when we started pushing. We put so much effort into it that they decided, hey, we're going to test for the position. We ended up testing and luckily, by the grace of God, we ended up getting top three positions, so one, two and three, and we went up to headquarters. So it's not like you can.

Speaker 1:

Just, ben, and I have talked about this before. It's not like you can just go sign up for it. Hey, you guys get chosen. You have to get tested. What's that test like? What do you have to get? What's that?

Speaker 4:

test like what do you have to? It's basically an oral award. Okay, right, and then what you got to prove to? Um, the people that are doing the oral board they are. They want to know that you're actually fit to to hold the position. To hold the position, absolutely yeah, to hold the position okay, because it's not. This position has a lot of liability, right, you're dealing with a lot of kids. You're dealing with kids that want to be gangsters, kids that are gangsters, and they're probably going to test you multiple times throughout the day Kids that are going to test your patience at 100% right and you have to maintain a professional demeanor the entire time.

Speaker 4:

No-transcript, damn, they're gonna get us right. And I remember a couple car stops and I tell the story all the time where you know we got pulled over. It was van eyes, I was eight years old and you know my dad's driving. And then we get, um, we had three kids in the backseat, which was my two sisters and I, and then we had one little girl, a little blonde haired girl, and we were driving down Van Nuys and we get pulled over. I never forget that. We got pulled over and two officers get out. One gets out with the shotgun racks, it walks up to the car. My dad gets scared, gets out of the car and they're yelling at him. And then one cop just walks up to the door, to the the back uh, back door peeks in the window and he goes are you okay, little girl? To the little girl, that was that my mom babysat.

Speaker 4:

So I never, that, never, left my mind. But at the same time, growing up, I always said well, he probably had a reason, you know. But what was the reason? Yeah, and then I moved to Vegas and guess what we're hiring. I'm like man, let's try this out Right. If I ever want to make changes to where I want to perceive my, I want my family to perceive the cops a different way. I think I got to get myself into it and I did. You know it was a goal as a kid anyways, because I never wanted to be in gangs. You know I knew that wasn't for me, and my mom, my dad, busted their butt so hard for to keep me out of it that I think I I wanted to maintain that right. I wanted to keep that that.

Speaker 4:

My parents were proud of it, so I wanted to keep them proud yeah so taking this over, taking this program over, I think the steps that we've taken right now, listen, I think we probably don't sleep every night thinking man, tomorrow we gotta go do to go, do this, tomorrow we got to go do that.

Speaker 4:

Oh man, remember that kid. We got to go help him. We visit so many families and guess what we went from? We don't like you, we don't like the police to. Hey, can I hug you? I get calls from kids that were in my program at Spring Valley still to this day. Call me Unc, hey, unc, hey, can you help me with the job? Absolutely, I can't pay, you can't pay. You know. Hey, mom struggling with food right now, can you help us?

Speaker 1:

absolutely, I got you you got you got to be the change you want to see so so tell me that.

Speaker 1:

I'm glad you opened it up with that because that's that's very powerful. A lot of people can hear it because of the perception, like we're been and I've talked multiple times over a couple years and it and we do have a bad perception on cops. Right, I'm originally from Chicago and we've talked a lot about some stories. But what I want to talk about first is what is the ages of the program? If I remember correctly, it was like 10 years old to about 18. Okay, got it. So it's basically fifth grade all the way up to senior high school.

Speaker 3:

In reality, we don't necessarily turn anyone away. Okay, um, but an eight-year-old is not going to comprehend the stuff that we're teaching. Sure, it doesn't benefit. We've had little siblings from some of our kids and we're like, just bring them. You know, they want to sit with big brother, big sister, um, so they kind of sit through it on occasion. But for the most part we really want to focus, focus mainly on those middle school to high school kids.

Speaker 1:

That's the too cool age man. They're really trying to figure themselves out.

Speaker 3:

And you get the 16, 17, and even 18-year-olds on occasion, and sometimes their minds are already made up. And that's the tough part, because you're like man. We really got to work with these ones because we got to change their minds, because if we don't, the decisions that they're already involved in are literally going to cost them their life or change the course of their life.

Speaker 1:

So what's the quick synopsis of a 12-week program? So let's say I've got two boys Chris is not here today, he's actually hurt his back but he's got three girls. So let's say we wanted to put our five children into the program. What would that look like for the listeners? What would they experience if they were to sign up in the program?

Speaker 3:

Well, we do a lot of different stuff. We have a curriculum with specific classroom classes that we do. We teach some stuff and then we bring in. We have two specific mentor groups that we use. We use two groups. One is called Thug Life, which is true heroes under God, live in freedom evermore. Um, some amazing gentlemen that are involved in that program. Uh, their head guy is david hollis.

Speaker 3:

He is a former blood gang member from back in the day he's a real cat, so they sit down in california um, but he always tells our kids he's like, uh, I had straight a's student body president gangbanging, so you know, he's like wherever you put your motivation, you could still be doing bad stuff but you could still go to school. And he's like I'm living proof of that. Uh, but he was one of the first members of his family to kind of make a better choice in his life and to go the other route. So he decided he didn't want to do that stuff anymore. Um got into football. Sports obviously changed him for the better. He ended up being on our UNLV championship team here back in the 80s.

Speaker 1:

Oh, that's awesome Played with.

Speaker 3:

Randall Cunningham and some of the big names, okay, and he ended up taking that all the way to the NFL. Played for the Kansas City Chiefs, okay. Played for the Seahawks.

Speaker 3:

Those connect his network? That would be crazy. He's still got tons of nfl player friends that he connects with to this day, um. But then he turned that after that career he went to juvenile probation for 25 years pearl or juvenile parole, excuse me, but he was heavily involved in working with the youth back then. So when he retired um, they started a, a group and got some of their former you know friends together that were involved in the same interest and so now they they help us with our program. And then the secondary program is SOW. It's the spiritual, optimistic warriors.

Speaker 1:

Okay.

Speaker 3:

And the guy who runs, that's Andrew Trujillo. He's former head of the Mexican gangs in prison.

Speaker 3:

So you know just like Nick mentioned earlier, we want to bring that reality to these kids.

Speaker 3:

So so, even though we're police officers, we're blessed with this position right now because it's a very versatile role, because we're not teaching these kids to be cops. We bring in that street reality, we bring in the doses of life that's going to teach them that one bad decision is going to change the course of your entire life. And when you have a guy just like Juan mentioned earlier, restarting his life at 45 years old, come talk to these kids and say, hey, man, I've been in prison since I was 17 years old, I just got out and I got my first job, 45 years old, grown man, my first real job, just bought my first car, just starting my life over. And these guys are telling these kids tatted, blasted up you know what I mean with tears in their eyes because they're so sympathetic to the fact that they would go, they would give anything to go back and sit in one of those kids' shoes and start over and make different decisions. And for us to be able to provide that platform.

Speaker 3:

It's extremely unique because obviously this is not the job that most people perceive as a police officer, but like Juan mentioned, we have a specific task at hand to not only provide these kids with a different opportunity, but to give them education, a dose of reality, and then to provide that structure for them. Some of them don't have it. They have parents that really care, and they don't always know what to do with them, though, because these kids start doing so much that the parents get stressed out and sometimes they literally give up, and when they talk to us they say I've completely given up, I don't know what else to do. I've tried abc one, two, three and, and I'm at, I'm at your mercy at this point, like and I'm glad you brought that up, because I mean las vegas.

Speaker 1:

I've been here 17 years now and vegas is a place. I don't know if I could have done it when I was a young kid man. I don't know if it's just too much to just too much to do. So having a program that that you guys have man is awesome. What we noticed too.

Speaker 2:

It's um, you allow some of these kids the opportunity to actually be leaders, and not just, you know, for themselves. But there's um, we observed a lot in this last cohort we did, where even some of our kids that were on parole and probation right and they they were forced to have to be in the class due to circumstances, but allowing them that opportunity to be a leader for other kids or for their classmates, it just showed such a spark. Because it's like ben was saying you know our mentors. You know a lot of these guys were in your shoes when you were young. They were there, they, they were in that same age, they made those same mistakes and this is the outcome some of them had.

Speaker 2:

And to see where they've gotten to and what they've become, and they see how they are with us, how they interact. We're all family. You know what I mean and I'll tell these guys. I see them every day when I dab them up and I've been working with these guys. I consult with them and our biggest proponent in dream it doesn't matter what you've done in your past and it matters what you're doing now. We tell these kids, every day is a gift, that's why we call it the present, you know what I mean.

Speaker 1:

You have to be willing to be the change you want to see and make your own opinion of it. I want to step back just a little bit about the Boston Miracle. So, if I'm understanding correctly, a miracle, so if I'm, if I'm understanding correctly, it was like 150% decrease in crime, right, and because of the program that Boston put together, so. So how did you guys connect with them to be able to understand what the you know what was in that program, what worked in that program, and be able to bring that back to Las Vegas? How did that?

Speaker 3:

work Across the country sheriffs, chiefs, you know very-ups of departments. They all get together and there's conferences I don't know what it's called, so forgive me. Sure, they have their own little conventions and things that they do and they info-share a lot of stuff. So when these departments all hear about something like what Boston was doing, everybody's ears perk up and they're like yo, what are they doing? Because a 30% to 40% reduction is a good number, but when you have something like that 150 is huge.

Speaker 3:

It's unheard of. It literally is unheard of. So they start trying to find out hey, what are they doing? And then they find out that Boston has a slew of programs that they're doing and they're heavily targeting the juvenile population and it seems to be working. But, uh, you know, they have social workers and they have all these different avenues for, uh, you know, these programs to connect with. And so, um, when the sheriff uh found out that that that's how they were doing things, that he kind of said well, you know, we have something similar here.

Speaker 3:

Maybe we should exploit that and really expand on it. So that's that'sREAM program turned into a centralized valley-wide program that it is now.

Speaker 4:

Awesome, the one thing, if I can piggyback off of what Ben was saying. The one thing that I think what we kind of heard and what Boston is doing different is you end up finding, while doing the DREAM program here, you end up finding a ton of different resources that the city actually has that nobody really knows that exist, because I mean, communication isn't there. So, um, throughout doing their program, they have entities from everywhere, like their universities.

Speaker 4:

They, you know how they do their research jobs and they have, uh, their social workers that have to do their hours and, you know, even their doctors have to cover some hours and stuff like that. They all got together.

Speaker 4:

And kind of overlapped everything, overlapped everything, because everybody was trying to do the same thing. So now, instead of doing the same thing, they're all one in one big pile. It's one resource, right? And it's like, hey, I have this child, or I have this family, or I have this adult, they all need this, this, this and this. Who's got it? I got it, I got it, we'll work together. We got this, you got that. So they came together as a full community and that's how their numbers have gone down. Right, that's awesome. That's what we're trying to do, bed nick and I. We partner with a ton of people. We reach out to a ton of people, um, that are out here doing the same thing harbor, t-pop, um, parks and rec, the commissioner's office, sure, um, we and we even just find regular foundations that you know pop up on ig and we email them.

Speaker 4:

Hey, the shack foundation yeah you know all these different foundations that are doing the same thing he does, have been every year, yeah, last couple years yeah, yeah shameless.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, there you go, yeah, listen, yeah, listen, yeah, just in case you're listening, right, yeah?

Speaker 4:

but we work with all these different foundation organizations because we want to make sure we just we instead of all doing our little bit here and a little bit there, we can all come together. One big thing we have a foundation, an organization that actually has been that work with us at Spring Valley, that we're bringing up during the summer, and their biggest thing is we are a village. But we always say it takes a village. Right, so we are the village, so it takes a village to set up to help more people, to actually help our community make a difference and an impact.

Speaker 1:

So how can we get involved? Right, so I know you guys have mentors. You've got certain companies that can obviously give donations, things like that. Walk us through real quick on how we can help as Las Vegas community. How can we reach out to you guys to be part of that? Do you guys have a website that we can, just as Las Vegas community, how can we reach out to you guys to be part of that? Do you guys have a website that we can just give donations for or we can come out and be involved in a program Like how does that work?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so, being part of the office of community engagement, a lot of like our resources and how we advertise is through, obviously, social media. So you'll see postings on, you know, facebook and Instagram, and also right now, our headstrong goal is here. We're trying to have at least a fall class, a spring class and, like Juan was saying, a summer class, so it's going to be year-round A big connection on there. We all have our contact information on our flyer page that we're going to be posting out there too. So the biggest thing is we tell everyone, everywhere you go, if you feel someone wants leadership, it isn't even if you meet the criteria. If someone seeks leadership, please send them our way.

Speaker 1:

That's awesome, even as a partner itself.

Speaker 4:

if you're looking to make a difference in your community, by all means reach out. There's always space time we can make it work.

Speaker 3:

I will touch on that real quick Sure real quick.

Speaker 3:

So a lot of what our community partners do is not just refer these kids to us, which is huge because, you know, having like what Juan says, having this large group and everyone has the same goal in mind. When they find out that there's a kid that could use this program, they reach out to us, they send the information. Hey, I have a good referral for you. We then reach out to the parents, we contact them directly and then we say, hey, you were referred to us or whatever. We have a program if you haven't heard about it, but luckily our partners are kind of telling them about the program as well. But every class that we have we feed these kids. So we have some phenomenal community partners that donate food to us and so there's always food for these kids. Anna Marie's Italian restaurant, pizzeria they're phenomenal. Buffalo Wild Wings We've worked with Cane's, we're working with Chick-fil-A. Right now Smith's has been instrumental. They provide tons of snacks and things for these kids.

Speaker 3:

And then as well as Smith's was also saying when we first got involved with them, that if the kids graduated the program and they were of age and passed a background check, that they would employ them.

Speaker 3:

So a lot of these kids was helping to get them entry-level position jobs. But it helps keep them busy and active and not just sitting around getting in trouble again. So we're still constantly looking for more resources because now that the program's expanded we have to worry about. Well, smith's can't hire 120 kids tomorrow. So we do understand that it's a heavy burden to ask for something so large in that group of numbers, but some of the people can hire as long as they're 18. Or some of the people that we're working with now are like, hey, we have late night programs, like the county, they have specific programs just for teens and the older teens, they have work programs, they have summer programs. But, um, we have all these different options that we provide for the program, not just our mentors, not just the classes, but feeding them, gifts for them. We usually have our graduations at red rock.

Speaker 3:

It's formal, we wear our class a uniforms great excuse me, we have our Clark County commissioners, city councilmen and men and women that provide these kids with proclamations. So they get awards, they get proclamations. We give them trophies, they get plaques. There's all sorts of good rewards yeah, rewards yeah. We give them shirts. We usually get a lot of things donated gift-wise backpacks, duffel bags, sometimes shoes, hats, beanies. We were blessed when we first started the program. The Vegas Golden Knights issued Dream a $25,000 check.

Speaker 1:

That's beautiful.

Speaker 3:

So we're still using that check today.

Speaker 1:

Shout out to the Golden Knights man, that's stepping up, that's great, and Derek Inklin.

Speaker 3:

When we had our first kickoff party, he provided us another $10,000 check from the VGK Foundation. So we've linked up with some phenomenal people who have been there and blessed us with donations for the program, and it does it goes a long way.

Speaker 1:

That's huge.

Speaker 3:

We do get some donations, obviously, and some of the people have their own ways of donating food and things like that, but in order to sustain the program for a long period of time, it would definitely assist us.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that's great. I feel like I've said it before it takes a real special person to completely donate something, or even give something simple to a bunch of strangers they never met before. Sure, and one I have to shout them out for uh, danny mccumber with bonefish grill actually donates these kids a three-course meal for our part of the program and I know for some of these, these kids especially, you know, upbringing or however they, you know, wherever their situation is, that is an enhancement in their lives that they never will never, probably ever see again, you know what I mean and for us to kind of give that experience to them and have an individual like Danny to be able to provide that for us.

Speaker 2:

That's awesome. So we're very happy for these people.

Speaker 1:

I was curious. I never asked this before. I remember when I was in Chicago they used to do midnight leagues to probably keep people off from because a lot of stuff happens between midnight and 2 o'clock at the border Nothing good happens, nothing at all. But do they do anything like that in Las Vegas? Not that we know of. Okay, I need to figure out how to.

Speaker 3:

I do know the county has, like I said, they have some stuff that's like later in the evening Okay, like later in the evening. Okay, Because a lot of these you know the standard schedule.

Speaker 1:

It's tough to do midnight.

Speaker 3:

It's very, very tough, yeah, but I think they have like a six to 10 hour and it's like basketball stuff Okay.

Speaker 1:

And the county has some.

Speaker 3:

Okay, there are some programs out there, but we're still trying to get more information. With our summer program, we're hoping to explore that a little bit more.

Speaker 4:

Awesome.

Speaker 1:

We're literally just getting started.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, we're, we're. Our plan is to to have a dream rec center, you know, and to have all the resources, all the.

Speaker 1:

I love what you're saying, well, man that's great, all the workshops that the kids needs that vision.

Speaker 1:

Our vision is strong, it's big and I don't think we're going to stop until we actually get there. What is the vision? You answered it for me, man. Well, I got to make this fun a little bit. We always ask our guests. We don't have our traditional interviews. We have, but we talk about food all the time. I'm a big foodie, so I do got to ask you guys what is your favorite restaurant in Vegas? I'm going to start with Ben first. So, favorite restaurant in Vegas, man?

Speaker 3:

that's a tough one. Food is good. Here is so diverse for food and it's tough because I'm constantly looking for new ones. Of course, yeah, um, you know, I follow a lot of the foodie pages. But man, um, I know one of my favorites was soho, soho, okay. More on jones and warm sushi spot. Yeah, okay, it's like a, it's a sushi restaurant okay but uh, I heard they recently changed management, so okay, I have not been since.

Speaker 1:

So that was probably one of my favorite go-tos. Okay, good stuff.

Speaker 3:

I love me some sushi.

Speaker 1:

Good stuff, good stuff. They got great food. All right, that's awesome. I think somebody mentioned Soho, I think before. What about you, nate?

Speaker 2:

Well, at a young age you're always taught no one cooks better than your own mother. I got got to do a shout out to my mom's place, Vicky's Diner.

Speaker 1:

Okay, where's Vicky's Diner?

Speaker 2:

It's off of Saharan Commercial Center. Okay, quick little fact. My grandfather used to own it back in the 50s and 60s, but it used to be located off of Vegas Boulevard in Oakey. Okay, so it's the old White Cross. Okay, so to go there. Mom took it over back in 2000.

Speaker 1:

It's our little spot we go to for everything. 100% go there. I'm checking out restaurants. Old school home good diner food, you said it was Vicky's. Diner. Nobody's mentioned that. Somebody's mentioned Soho. Shout out to Vicky's Diner. What about you, Juan? What?

Speaker 4:

about you, man. Vegas is tough man because Vegas has so many good spots, it's becoming the mecca. Yeah, yeah, it is the mecca. You know, my wife and I, the biggest thing is like when her family always comes out. We always go to the cellar. Oh okay, it's always a good spot. Steaks are amazing.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 4:

I'm a steak guy. Okay, talk about sushi.

Speaker 1:

I love sushi we hit up a spot up in harris is called k?

Speaker 4:

uh kaisen, kaisen, kaisen, okay, okay, yeah, great spot we've been going. I'm gonna stop you for one second. The steakhouse.

Speaker 1:

I'm not even gonna lie to you. I just went this past saturday, the 666. I saw your post and I got oh my god, I'm not even gonna, I'm not. Even. Well now you said I gotta give him a. I was mad I didn't get an invite. That is probably the best steak I've ever had, really In the winter, yeah.

Speaker 2:

You know where it's from right.

Speaker 1:

It's one of the ranches, yeah.

Speaker 2:

Well, it's off the Yellowstone, it's like Yellowstone.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, okay, yeah, but it's a pop-up and so they're only doing it through. I think it was March 16th. They told us we were just there. Yeah, we were literally just there. So check it out 100%. I appreciate that. But what else do you want to leave us out on? I know you mentioned the vision of maybe having a rec center of dream, but what would you guys say that anything I maybe forgot to ask you guys that you want to leave us out on?

Speaker 2:

I know a biggest one too. I want people to know that the program just isn't like classroom, right um because you guys are out right about field trips, things like that.

Speaker 2:

The biggest proponent I have to say in dream is to motivate. Right, yeah, we're not sitting here in a base where it's like, oh, you have to take a test or an essay to pass some certain standard. All we ask is, when you're in our program, you participate? Yeah, it's all about participation and respect, and what we try to show these kids is our biggest philosophy, is our I over E, which is using your intellect over emotion.

Speaker 2:

You know what I mean. So we try to show them with boxing they can control that anger. So, you know, a big shout out to Richard Steele boxing, who's been working with us since we first started. You know, don Chee King is one of our trainers and coaches out there and he does a phenomenal job with these kids. And another one, I have to say, is Sergio Pena's Jiu-Jitsu house. And what's always weird I know we can all agree on this is every time we get these kids to first try Jiu-Jitsu it's a battle, you know what I mean, because it's something new and they don't know. But when they see us officers and everyone else engaged in it and they try it, yeah, and I always tell them it's a discipline.

Speaker 3:

They light up too, man, they sure do. It's strange how much they like it, but they don't want to Right.

Speaker 1:

They're like this is weird, I got to take my shoes off. Yeah, just try it, but once they get it, and they don't realize over time.

Speaker 2:

Man, it's going to help them. 100. Tyler Gaston with the Gas Station Studios is one of the coolest things I've ever seen.

Speaker 1:

I think you mentioned him when I went to the headquarters.

Speaker 2:

Because you got to think about.

Speaker 2:

Because you teach them about media and producing and sound, and a lot of times you get these kids that seek ambition A lot of them in this day and age it's all about that lifestyle, the music game or even doing simple things like podcasting. Here you build them to have that comfort, and the way Tyler can motivate them and actually get them to come out of their shell a little bit is super awesome. Because I'll be real with you, the hardest thing in the world is public speaking and we make these kids, we tell them you're going to stand up in front of your peers and you're going to introduce yourself. Hence why we have a class called who Am I? Talk to us, who you are, because you have to get comfortable in life with speaking to people, because it makes you smarter and it makes you allow you to have that more confidence.

Speaker 1:

Well, when you said that and I could talk about this for hours because of my boys is finance and communication. That's like everything and we've been doing it for years. Like with my kids is I interview them the night before their birthday and it's for us. But it's the communication style of being able to talk about yourself, speak about your vision, doing all these different things, but they can learn that. But that's awesome, that you're. You know that you're the gentleman's teaching about the studio and, like I said, I say it on record, chris. Chris had my back on this. My wife too is we want to be part of it too.

Speaker 3:

If maybe this is a field trip for the kids, for them to be able to come in, and maybe it's a guest, that no.

Speaker 1:

I told you straight up, yeah, and I'll put that on record is because we want to be involved in the community too. Is Vegas circle is a big circle and it's about culture, it's about business and making an impact and, honestly, we know you guys are making an impact and we want to be part of that, so that's awesome.

Speaker 4:

I appreciate what you guys are doing. That's how Boston did it. Guess what? That's how we're.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, 100. I mean Boston was my old stomping ground. My parents and stuff lived there. My older brother, but this is home for me now you know what I mean and we got to figure out a way to try to direct it, because Vegas is a tough city, man.

Speaker 4:

It's not a game. I don't think we mentioned one thing. Sure, the program is free. Oh, that's right. We did not mention that, that is very important. I did want to say that before we ended. I'm glad you said that it's free. There's no charge. You don't have to pay a dime or nothing.

Speaker 4:

All we ask for is a participation from the parent as well, we don't just want this to be a program because we've had it before where the parent just thinks I'm going to drop him off, I'll see you in an hour or two, and then the child isn't changing. Sure, right, because there's so much as an officer, what you can do right, or as a community, what you can do, because if things aren't right at home, then guess what? And we don't know about it and we're never going to make a change. He's always gonna. That child's going to stick to his ways. So we always ask for the parents participation. We have, we get them involved. And the program isn't only for the kids. Yeah, the program is for the families themselves. We have so many partners out there that if the parents looking for a job, looking for food help, help with housing, help with paying the rent, that's huge. We get them all that support. We have great support?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, Is there like a social handle for this site for the DREAM program? Is there anything that they can reach out to or just what's the website that I can get?

Speaker 3:

Unfortunately, we don't have a specific website yet.

Speaker 1:

Okay.

Speaker 3:

We have the LVMPD OCE page on Instagram.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so that's what they can at least see, okay.

Speaker 3:

So, office of Community Engagement, we'll get you a copy of our flyer.

Speaker 1:

Okay, perfect, so something at least can let them know. When I put this out, they'll reach directly to us.

Speaker 2:

Okay, a lot of events, too, is all through Facebook, okay.

Speaker 4:

Perfect, so Facebook can get up Any upcoming and even if they want to reach out to you and say hey, can you contact?

Speaker 1:

us 100%. We'll get you involved, you guys.

Speaker 4:

That would be great, too Awesome. That would be awesome.

Speaker 3:

That would make it work. Our next class we're looking to start February 24th February 24th. It'll run 12 weeks and I think, as we said at graduation, it will be like May 15th.

Speaker 2:

May 15th.

Speaker 3:

What we want to do giant kickoff party for our last one. It was very successful. Several hundred people showed up. Um, that was fun, but uh, you know we don't always get the kids super engaged in the beginning. But our main focus right now is switching the kickoff event to like a parent's night. So we want to shoot for february 20th as our parents night. So we want to bring the parents in and we decided based on just how we do it as cops before we start the academy, they have a parent night a couple of days before we start and they say, hey, we don't want no officers, are there, just your families. Cause we're going to tell you guys what to expect over the next 24 weeks for us, but for our uh, our program.

Speaker 3:

We want the parents engaged and involved because we need them just as much as they need us. We're very social with the families, we learn about them and a lot of parents and they're more than welcome to stay a lot of them stay.

Speaker 3:

They sit in the classroom, every single class. They're there the entire time and they're just as engaged. But we learn so much about these families and we get phone calls on the weekends all the time. We get text messages all the time Not always good, but we need to know that because we need to know the thing you said communication. So you gotta have the over communication. Yeah, and you know it's just as much a reinforcement for the families and the parents as well. Yeah, because sometimes these kids, they, they get the push over parents and then we're like yeah, yeah no, no, no, we're gonna hold you accountable.

Speaker 3:

We're gonna, we're gonna help you do this, and we're gonna walk down this path, yeah, and these kids are smart, man.

Speaker 1:

They are extremely, are Extremely smart Shifty. So yeah, I'm going to use that word, shifty, I use that. Well, I applaud you guys, man. Thanks for sitting down with us. Sorry, chris, couldn't be with you guys, man, but I didn't want to cancel. I wanted to keep this going man. Chris Beck is on fire. He's older to me. I'm going to say that We'll check you guys out and plot us and check us out the biggest circlecom. So appreciate y'all's time, man.

Speaker 2:

There's good stuff. Thank you for having us Seriously.