NYC's Police Athletic League on Connecting Kids and Cops

Of all the area organizations that work with kids, perhaps the Police Athletic League is most tied to the fabric of New York City. The non-profit has served kids for over 100 years as a recreational, cultural, educational and social outlet—connecting kids and cops on a one-on-one basis, building bonds and mutual respect. Our guest is Carlos Velazquez, PAL Executive Director. For more, visit palnyc.org.

Episode Transcript

(00:02):
Welcome to get connected with Nina delRio, a weekly conversation about fitness,
health and happenings in our community onone oh six point seven Light FM.
Good morning, and thanks for listeningto get connected. Of all the New
York City organizations that work with kids, perhaps the Police Athletic League is most
tied to the fabric of New YorkCity. The nonprofit has served kids for

(00:25):
over one hundred years as a recreational, cultural, educational, and social outlet,
connecting kids and cops on a oneon one basis and building bonds and
mutual respect. We are glad towelcome back Carlos Flasquez, pal's executive director
back to the show. Thanks forbeing here, Thanks for having you,
Happy New Year having me. Sorry, that's all right. We all got

(00:45):
to start the New York some way. The website is PALNYC dot org.
PAL has been around a long time. But for anyone who's not familiar,
what is the Police Athletic League?What do you do every day? Yes?
Well, we provide a safe havenfor fifteen thousand young people throughout New
York City through a number of differentactivities, from early head start and childhood

(01:08):
programs to after school mentoring, collegeaccess, career access. I mean you
kind of name it, pl doesit, But really a place for young
people to come feel safe and bea place where they can interact with adult
mentors and most importantly build relationships withlaw enforcement and a place where they feel

(01:30):
safe and connecting with them. Iknow safety is of paramount importance, but
in what sense, physical, emotional, all those things. I think it's
all of it. I think especiallyyou know, in the place where we
are as a city and as anation or young people you know wake up
every day just not knowing what's next. And the one consistent thing for a

(01:52):
lot of our young people is thePAL. They know when they walk in
that door, they're gonna be greetedwith a smile, They're going to be
greeted with something they joy to do, and they have a safe space mentally,
but also a physical safe space wherethere's so much happening in our city,
but this is a place that's theirs. We really pride ourselves on.
You know. The pal is madeof the young people and the adults who

(02:15):
create the environment. So it's aspace that belongs to them that they take
ownership, and so it's a physicallySafe Space. Also pl is separate from
the New York City Police Department,but of course you're linked to it.
What kind of relationships do cops andkids build within the organization and what kind
of interactions do you promote and host. Yeah, I think it's quite amazing.

(02:37):
It's everything from just a place whereNYPD officers can come in and interact
with young people in a very informalway, hanging out with them, learning
about what they're doing, what they'repassionate about, but also more formal relationships,
whether it's a Cops and Kids cookingclass or a Cops and Kids athletic

(02:59):
activity, whether it's learning about safetyin their neighborhood, whether it's learning about
a career in law enforcement. It'sa place where both our NYPD officers do
such a great job day to daykeeping us safe, can common and do
something different with young people. Soit's it's a great site when you walk

(03:22):
in and see an officer sitting nextto a young person and cooking a meal,
or playing a video game, orjust interacting and talking about life.
So there's a number of different ways, formal and informal, but it's a
place where people know both young peopleand law enforcement that it's it's a low

(03:43):
stress environment in terms of building thatrelationship. What do you think that police
learn about the kids. We canalways talk about what kids learn about cops,
but what do you think the policelearn about the kids that they that
they care just as much as theydo about their communities being safe. We
had an amazing program this summer thatwas actually sponsored by the Manhattan DA's office

(04:05):
where we had our young people cometogether for twelve weeks and talk about gun
violence in their neighborhood and they actuallycreated a podcast around it. And for
a culminating event, we had alistening party and we had some officers come
in, but you just listen tothe young people speak about their experiences,

(04:25):
and I think for some of theofficers listening to what the young people had
to say, they realized how muchthey care and sometimes how much they are
trying to figure it out also howto keep their neighborhoods safe and how to
build relationships with younger youth to actas mentors. Our guest is Carlos Velasquez.

(04:49):
He's been in public service over twentyyears. He's worked with a wide
range of partners within the youth development, education, law enforcement, and justice
systems, including the NYPD, fdnL, Department of Youth and Community Development,
and the New York City District Attorney'sOffice. He is now executive director
of the Police Athletic League. Youcan find out more about them at pa

(05:09):
L NYC dot org. You're listeningto get connected on one O six point
seven Light FM. Amina del Rio. We spoke last right after you had
taken on this role. How's itbeen going in general? It's been amazing,
I think it is. When welast spoke, I said, this
is probably one of the organizations that'smost important for New York City right now

(05:32):
with all that's happening between relationships betweenlaw enforcement and communities, but also the
spike in violence that's happening across thecity, I think, and the opportunity
for our communities and young people tohave a voice about safety has been something
that I've been passionate about throughout mycareer, but really can see the impact

(05:54):
on the work that we've been doingover the last couple of years, and
it's just been amazing to see thateffort that's been put both from communities and
from law enforcement to really bridge thosegaps over the last two years. I
amazed every day by the commitment anddedication of our over six hundred staff daily

(06:15):
who show up with a lot goingon in their lives and in their world
that we've all been impacted by.But just seeing their resilience and their determination
to act as mentors and act asthese beacons of lights in these communities has
been very humbling, but also verymotivating to continue fighting the good fight for

(06:41):
our young people. You are alsofrom East Tarlemme. You're a New York
City kid, as you mentioned lasttime we spoke that you're a productive of
after school programming, So I wondertoo, you know, when you took
on this role, we were kindof in that moment just after the murder
of George Floyd. It was BlackLives Matter was kind of everywhere talking about
defunding the police, all these things. You know, you came to it

(07:02):
knowing so much because you're from thecity and you know these kids. What
did you have you learned or whatdid you learn during that time and what
kind of conversations sort of got youto think a little differently. Maybe,
Yeah, I've learned that the youngpeople that we have in this city are
amazing that there is a very brightfuture with the right guidance and support.

(07:24):
I've learned that, you know,probably the Carlos who grew up in the
late eighties early nineties probably have avery difficult time and in the time that
we are right now. But justhow involved and how where our young people
are about what's going on in theircity and in their world. And you

(07:47):
know, a lot of that isattributed to social media and to the internet
and the access to information. Butthe ability for them to process and to
wake up day to day and getthrough it has been just amazing to watch.
It's very interesting. I find peoplesort of you know, thirty and

(08:07):
younger, but certainly twenty and younger. They have that information and they run
with it sometimes, which is reallyamazing. Sometimes, like you just said,
like they don't know kind of whatto do with it. Yeah,
adults may not have an answer either. You also have a program that is
tailored for kids who've been involved withthe justice system. Can you talk about
that. Yeah, So we havea program to our Youth Link program,

(08:30):
and our Youth Link program is designedfor our most vulnerable youth that been system
evolved and system involved can be anythingfrom the juvenile justice system to the forceter
care system, even the educational system. Right, these are just young people
who who are in need of guidanceand support, and young people can come
and work with counselors, get careerdevelopment, develop a passion. But it's

(08:54):
a program designed to really do whatin its name, link you to read
sources, and we run those programsat all of our team centers throughout New
York City and it's one of ourIt's not a new initiative, but it's
evolved in terms of the amount ofyoung people, the types of young people
that we serve. But what wedo find is that there are a lot

(09:18):
of resources out in our communities.There are a lot of resources at the
pl but our young people need tobe guided to those resources. So we're
really focused on one connecting with someof the youth that are the most difficult
to connect with in the areas thatare the most difficult to get in and
make sure they know that they haveaccess to these resources. You're also working

(09:41):
with kids in this case, youmay not have had the best experience with
sort of the judicial system or maybewith police, and you are the Police
Athletic League. We live in thereal world. What do you think the
takeaway is for both the police inthose or social workers in that setting,
the cops the kids themselves. Yeah, I mean to be honest, it's

(10:03):
tough. There's young people who seethat name is like, now, that's
the last place I want to be. But it's about creating, like I
said in the beginning, the environmentwhere they want to be there right,
so that there's something that's getting themin that door, whether it's you know,
the staff that we strategically recruit fromthe neighborhoods that already know these young

(10:26):
people, or also the legacy andthe history of these of the PAO in
these neighborhoods where there's something familiar andthere's something welcoming about that space. But
then building that trust where if webring law enforcement and that we there's this
trust between the young person that carryingadult mentor from their neighborhood saying let's sit

(10:46):
down have a conversation. But alsounderstanding it's not one size fits all.
There's communities and centers where some daysit's not the right day for that conversation
to happen, or that conversation isgoing to be very different and it's an
honest conversation. Sometimes for our lawenforcement partners, that could be difficult also
because it's bringing them to the tableand saying, hey, you know,

(11:09):
young people aren't happy right now,and this is why, and how can
we get through this and how canwe talk about it? And like everything
else, it's it's trial and errorand it's work. And that's what makes
relationships special. Right. The morework you put into a relationship, the
better it is. The majority,as far as I know you can correct
me, of the police that workwith you are volunteers. They come in,

(11:31):
they get asked to come participate withpl activities. I would assume they're
predisposed to want to get to knowthe community, to want to do,
you know, be involved with kids. What about the cops who are kind
of like, eh, do youknow what I mean? You know,
how do you reach those folks?Because it's your late predecessor, Fred Wats
would say, you know, youknow, you get a cop and and

(11:52):
they're like, oh, they realizethat kid with the hoodies not so bad,
right, Like they weren't thinking aboutthem and now they are. Yeah.
Yeah. The one thing that Ican say about my last two years
is that you know, there wasa legacy that the officers who did work
with the po were volunteers, butthe administration of the Commissioner SEUIL and now

(12:15):
the Commissioner CABAN has been great whenit comes to really getting in on the
ground with our young people. Andit's not just volunteers. It's part of
their agendas and it's part of CommissionerMark Stewart, Deputy Commissioner of Community Affairs
and Chauncey Parker, w Commissioner ofCollaborate Policing. They've been amazing of partners

(12:37):
where it's not just that volunteer whowants to connect with a kid, it's
something that they know is paramount andsuccess of the city. So it's been
great to have that partnership. Andyes, you get you know your officer
the same way you get the kidwho's just they walk in and it's like,

(12:58):
I don't know about this, Butafter you know, a couple of
hours together or a couple of timesseeing each other, you start understanding,
well, you know, there's justanother person. There's things that I'm interested
in that they're interested in. Wecould talk about the next we could talk
about you know, what's going onin the city. We could talk about
what's going on in the community,and we see that. Like I always

(13:22):
say, we don't expect the youngpeople to leave our space and go have
a slice of pizza with every officerthey meet. But there's this level of
you're working in my community. Ilive in this community. If I see
you out in the street, youknow me, I know you, and
maybe there's going to be a possibilitywhere we have to have an interaction where
it can go different because of whatrelationship or just the familiarity that we have

(13:46):
known each other from the PAO,And I think officers have have taken to
understand the power of that in theirown work and for their own success in
terms of doing their job. Gettingto that. What evidence do you have
beyond you know, a story hereor there about the long term impact of
pl programs. Yeah, I mean, I think the amount of NYPD officers

(14:11):
that I run into that I talkedto and they say, when I was
at the PAM and when I wasa kid at the Webster Center, and
I was at Haarlem Center and Iused to go to Duncan or when I
was at the Power, you knowbasketball League, you see that there's been
an impact. But also you knowPL that that green shield is one of

(14:37):
the most recognizable LOOP Youth logos inthe city, and you hear the story.
It seems like everyone has a PA L story some way, somehow,
So you understand that there's a legacyand there's a connection to the work,
to the city, to law enforcement, to young people through the work.
So I think it's in the stories. I think it's in the familiarity.

(14:58):
I mean, you know, lookat the back of every NYPD vehicle
and there's a p AL sticker andthat means something. So I think it's
it's more than that kind of storyof this happened between this kid and this
cop, but more about people recognizethe impact that it has had. I

(15:22):
mean, we're going into our onehundred and tenth year this summer of PL
being in New York City and beingthe first Police Athletic League in the country
and the birthplace of where this ideaof you create an opportunity for law enforcement
to connect with young people, andthat's important. Where that is where I

(15:46):
understand and I can see the impactand just the amount of people who continue
to want to support our mission.You can find out more about the Police
Athletic League about volunteering as well atp a L NYC dot org. Executive
director Colors Felasquez has been our guest. Thank you for being on to Get
Connected. Thank you for having me. As always, this has been Get

(16:07):
Connected with Nina del Rio on oneoh six point seven light Fm. The
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