Richard Webb

• Connect with Richard on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardwebb16/
• Learn more about Boys & Girls Clubs of the Midlands: https://www.bgcomaha.org/

 

Richard Webb:

You never stop doing something until you hear the bell, or you knock it out.

Announcer:

Welcome to Agency for Change, a podcast from KidGlov that brings you the stories of changemakers who are actively working to improve our communities. In every episode, we’ll meet with people who are making a lasting impact in the places we call home.

Lisa Bowen:

Few organizations are more recognized or respected than the Boys & Girls Clubs of America. Its beginnings can be traced to Civil War times, when four women in Hartford, Connecticut, organized a club to support the boys who roam their streets and give them a positive alternative. Their cause became a nationwide movement in the early 1900s, and today, more than 5,000 clubs serve young people through membership and community outreach.

Hi, everyone. This is Lisa Bowen, vice president and managing director at KidGlov. Welcome to another episode of the Agency for Change Podcast. The history of Boys & Girls Clubs is inspiring to say the least, and today we’re talking with Richard Webb, president and CEO of the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Midlands. They serve youth in the greater Omaha metro area. Richard, I’m so excited to talk with you today and learn more about the great impact you’re making on the community and our youth.

Richard Webb:

Well, thank you for having me here. It’s always a blessing to be able to talk about our next generation of leaders.

Lisa Bowen:

Awesome. So, let’s start out by, for our listeners who are unfamiliar with the work you do, can you give us just a brief overview of what Boys & Girls Club of the Midlands does and share a bit about the population that you reach?

Richard Webb:

Yeah. Well, put in the simplest forms, our ultimate goal is to inspire and enable all youth, not just the youth that need us the most, but all youth, to reach their fullest potential. And it’s not really determined by us, it’s determined by the population of kids that we do serve. So, helping them to understand, hey, what opportunities are out here for them? And then us being able to programmatically give them the things that they need to reach those outcomes that they want to come up with, what looks like their greatest potential. For some, that may be going and be a lawyer or a doctor. For some, that may be a business owner. For some, that may be a podcast presenter. We have a couple of our clubs where we do podcasts now, and even our scholarship team is doing a podcast series, so it looks a little bit different, but ultimately, if you simplify it, it’s helping our next generation of leaders to reach their greatest potential.

Lisa Bowen:

That’s amazing. I know that when the clubs were started way, way back in the, I think, 1900s, there was a reason, there was a need. In your experience, why is there still such a great need for this youth programming you are offering?

Richard Webb:

Well, I think even now, more than even the 1900s when it was established, kids need direction. Kids need motivation. Kids need role models to bounce ideas off of to help them go to a straight path. We always say, even growing up, and I feel I’m a young kid at heart, so that’s who I am. Every single day I get to be a big kid with all the kids in the clubs and inspire them to reach greatness. And specifically, when we think about the last couple of years and how challenging they’ve been, without the experiences of age, for a lot of our kids right now, they’re trying to figure out what’s next for me? How do I find the right path? How do I not let my parents or my support systems down? I’m almost about to graduate, and in the last three years, school has looked real crazy for me. How do I get back on track?

All of these different things that our kids need, that they needed back in the 1900s, that they need now even more today, they need clarity. They need someone to make sure that they feel supported and elevated in the right ways to really help them, go back to our mission, to help them reach their greatest potential.

Lisa Bowen:

Wonderful. You mentioned you’re a kid at heart and you seem like a fun guy to hang out with. So how often are you in the clubs interacting with the youth?

Richard Webb:

Well, I will tell you, Lisa, I wish I was in the clubs more. And I tell other senior leaders this all the time, or just a couple of individuals who I mentor and just tell them about the experiences that I have, that’s sometimes the hardest part of being in a leader position. You’ve probably heard before, it’s lonely at the top and in these positions, because I wish I could spend all the time inside of a club. And where I’m housed out of here at Florence Elementary School, we have built on a club because we have three different types, and this one is built onto a school. And so, in my office, I have windows that go to our innovation center. And so, every day, the kids will come, and they’ll knock on the windows and look at my office and say, “Mr. Webb, come out here and play ping pong, come out here and play with the robots.”

And it just hurts because I’m doing the work that I need to do so that I can empower the rest of the leaders in our organization to engage with our members. But it hurts sometimes that I can’t be engaged in every single day, every single minute that our club kids are here because they’re awesome. So, what I’ve done since I’ve started working here at the Boys & Girls Clubs is even though I’m inside of a club, two times a week, I’m at one of our clubs engaging not with the staff. And believe me, when I first came on board, Lisa, it was, “Oh, got to be careful now. The CEO’s in the club. I have to do these things.”

And I had to let my teammates know, build the culture that, hey, I don’t come in to say this is what should be done, this is what shouldn’t be done unless it’s a safety issue. I come in to engage, to build a relationship, build a relationship not only with my teammates, but build a relationship with our members to make sure they’re aware of, they have a lot of people in our movement that really love and want them to be the best that they can be, and our job is to help them to do that. And so, I go to two clubs a week just to engage in the evening hours with our members.

Lisa Bowen:

Wonderful. We’re going to shift focus and talk a little bit about you for a minute, Richard, if you don’t mind. I know that you have a unique connection with Boys & Girls Clubs that goes back to your own youth. Can you share how you first became involved with the clubs and how your career path guided you to this organization?

Richard Webb:

Well, Lisa, I will tell you, I never thought I would actually be in youth development. I just never thought that that was going to be who I was. But engaging with the Boys & Girls Clubs as a young man, I was a part of a group that was called Pacesetter Academy, and so that was a program that a lot of people knew around this area where, as you got engaged in the second or third grade, if you stayed through the sixth or seventh grade, then you would be almost guaranteed an allocation of dollars for college. And so, I got in the program, and originally, we were at Skinner Elementary School, but then in my third or fourth grade year, we came to the Boys & Girls Clubs. And so, Mr. McPherson was over the program at that time, and so we came to the North Omaha Boys & Girls Club and Dave Felici and Adrielle, all of those individuals who are of course a part of the Boys & Girls Club.

And so, during that program, we were upstairs, but then after the program was over around five o’clock, we were able to come downstairs, eat at the Boys & Girls Club, and then engage with the kids there, whether it was sports or some type of programming. And so that was my initial engagement with the Boys & Girls Clubs. And then as I grew through the Boys & Girls Clubs, I stopped coming a lot in the middle school, and then start of high school, I started coming a little bit more because I was an athlete playing basketball. And Boys & Girls Clubs used to have a Hall of Fame game essentially, or an All-Star game, and so I used to always come and do leagues and things of that nature at the Boys & Girls Club, so it would have me consistently being there.

And so that was a little bit of my youth, Lisa. But then after that, I graduated, and went to the University of Nebraska at Omaha. And when I graduated there, I’m just like any other college kid. I’m excited, I’m coming out, I got a good GPA, I got a business degree. I said, “I’m going to take over the world.” And right away, I got the head stop. Well, let’s find a job first. And so that took me into hospitality where I worked for Hotel Deco, I worked for Sheraton, and then ultimately, I was with Caesars Entertainment where I oversaw the MidAmerica Center and Horseshoe. I loved it, but the challenge was where my bucket was being filled was not in sales, was not in the hospitality industry. And with my wife being an educator, it was just something we were never really able to connect on when it comes to work.

And so ultimately, through service in the community, because during that time I was on boards with the Urban League, with Empowerment Network, with the 100 Black Men, and I was also a mentee of the 100 Black Men, and the job came available for president, CEO there. So, I left Caesars in 2017, took the role of president, CEO of the 100 Black Men, served there for about four years. And then ultimately, through the relationships, this position came available, and I love the 100, but the challenge was is I couldn’t engage with kids every day. The 100 was more of a community-based mentoring, where the Boys & Girls Clubs, I knew every single day I came to work, even if I couldn’t engage with the kids, I can see the fruits of the labor. I can see all the hard hours put in, the benefit our kids are having, the smiles, the joys, and the opportunities. And so, two and a half years now I have been here with the Boys & Girls Clubs, and Lisa, it was literally the best decision I made outside of marrying my wife. It’s been great.

Lisa Bowen:

I’m glad you covered yourself by squeezing your wife in there. I don’t want to get you in trouble today.

Richard Webb:

There you go.

Lisa Bowen:

And I can tell just by looking at the smile on your face how much you love your job, and there’s nothing better than really loving what you do and knowing you’re making an impact. And I love that you can see the fruits of your labor every day right there in the kids, so it’s amazing. Let’s talk a little bit about the clubs and how they operate. What is an experience like for kids when they walk through the door the first time? And I think the other thing that would be helpful to know is who can utilize the clubs. Can any kid participate? Are there certain criteria?

Richard Webb:

Yeah, so when we look at who can utilize the clubs, this has been something not only here locally, but even nationally, we’ve also wanted to make sure that it was open to everyone because in our mission statement, even nationally, especially those who need us most, but the way we’re trying to make sure the brand is out to everyone who needs us most. Everyone can use the club. So, it’s not for kids that are having challenging situations. It’s not for kids that have a 4.9 GPA. It’s for all kids because the opportunities, whether it’s the character building, whether it’s the leadership development, whether it’s the scholarship attainment, whether it’s just the socialization going on, all of those different things are very important to the development and growth of our young members that we have the ability to serve.

And so, when we look at age requirements, we start traditionally around six years old and go through 18 as far as our direct programming service. And then after they graduate, there were some things that went on probably 10 years ago, seven years ago now, then it was essentially when they were graduating at 18, it was like, well, what do we do for after that? And so that’s why we started our scholarship program that we’ve had over 90% retention rate in, so it’s been really good there, too, whereas now we do serve kids after if they’re a part of our scholarship program. And so now it goes up to 24, 26. We actually have our first couple of white coat doctorates that are graduating coming up here in the next two weeks, May 20th, they graduate, and so we’re very excited about that.

And so, if you had to say what kids do we serve? We have 14 different locations in the Omaha Metropolitan area. They go as far west as Miller Central. They go as far east as Council Bluffs, as far north as here at Florence, and as far south as the Bryan Middle School Club. So, we have a large footprint in this area, and our goal is to serve as many kids as we can to help them reach their greatest potential.

Lisa Bowen:

Awesome. What’s that experience on a daily basis for kids in the club?

Richard Webb:

Well, the unique thing about the Boys & Girls Clubs and the cultures that we have at all 14 different ones is the programming is consistent, but the experience may be just a little different. And I’ll explain what that is too, Lisa. At our South Club, there’s a unity of family, and it’s deeper than all other clubs and all the clubs do have a family atmosphere. But at the South Club, it’s all South Club, South Club, South Club. So, coming in, warmly welcoming anyone who comes to that club, opening to the different activities, opening to the different games, the kids, it’s just that there’s essentially a big family. They accept everyone to come in. You go to our North Club, it’s very competitive. So, when you come in, you got to make sure you’re ready for whatever that sports, whatever that gaming, whatever that program initiative is. All of those things you have to be prepared for.

But essentially, coming in, you’re guaranteed a meal for that day. You’re guaranteed to have some type of mentor or someone if you need to talk to there to be able to support you. And you’re guaranteed to do some type of programming, whether that is learning through fun through our healthy habits or through our passport to manhood or smart girls, learning what good character looks like, what good hygiene looks like, art projects and things of that nature.

Lisa Bowen:

I love that. Are you at the Florence location because of your competitive nature?

Richard Webb:

Yeah. Listen, I had to be here, too.

Lisa Bowen:

I can imagine that the pandemic completely changed the way that you approach your work and serving kids was probably really challenging over the past few years. Can you talk a little bit about that shift and how you had to change things up?

Richard Webb:

It was. The pandemic, just like any other organization, it hit us hard. For three months, and this was prior to me coming on board because I started November of 2020, and so prior to me coming on board, they did have to shut down the clubs for three months. Height of it, it was in March of 2020 that they had to shut down the clubs. And because of that, of course, the connections, the big thing that all of our clubs have is we’re huge on relationships between the support systems, between the workers and our teammates, and between our members. And so, when we were having to shut down the clubs for three months, we tried to stay in contact virtually with our members, and some of the clubs because they kind of owned their own little areas, the club directors and teammates were going door to door to drop off packages, and we were trying to do programming virtually. And then even after we came back in a safe manner, we weren’t allowing the support systems or the parents or the guardians inside the club.

And Lisa, now that we’re looking back at some of those things, we’re understanding that support system or guardian connection is very important, and so I’ll give you just a prime example of that. Pre-pandemic, support systems or guardians had to come in to get the members out of the club, so it wasn’t like a kid could just walk out. Well, during the pandemic, because of some of the challenges, of course the parents would just call in or support systems would call in and say, “Hey, I need little Richard to come out.” And we would let little Richard come out. Well, that small percentage of time every single day that that support system or that guardian or that family member had to come in and get little Richard was time for the front desk manager or the club director or YEPs to engage with that person and build that relationship even stronger.

And so, because of that, we’re still trying to recover with some of those relationships, and we’re still trying to recover to get back to pre-pandemic numbers. Now, the pandemic was one part. Then of course, the shortage of labor right now is a big part specifically when it comes into youth development across our communities. And so all of those things had hit us hard, and so our goal this year, Lisa, is to get to about 1,700 kids per day coming through our doors within our 14 different clubs. And to put that into perspective, we were at a little over 2,300 per day pre-pandemic.

Lisa Bowen:

Wow. That’s a lot of kids. And that is a setback for you, and are you getting close to that goal?

Richard Webb:

We are. So, with our latest reports, we’re just around 1,300. So, to put that in perspective, in January of 2021, we were at 320 coming through our door, so we’ve had a lot of-

Lisa Bowen:

Wow.

Richard Webb:

But the need is even much more. And so, getting the 1,700 kids, most of our centers are daycare licensed, so we have to remain to that one to 15. So, it’s the list, we want to keep on getting more kids, but we got to get the staff to also do it. And so, we’ve been playing that balance, and about 60% of our workforce is part-time. And so, you’re already going to have a larger amount of turnover and part-time workers when a large percentage of your workforce is part-time. But we’re continuously investing in culture, continuously investing in the experience that we’re creating even for our teammates too, whereas you want to come to work. You don’t have to, you want to come to work, you want to engage with our members, and our members want to come and engage so we can get to that 1,700 goal by the end of this year.

Lisa Bowen:

I have no doubt that you’ll get there. I expect a report though.

Richard Webb:

There you go. We’ll make it happen.

Lisa Bowen:

All right. So, you talked a little bit about programming and how important that is to what you do at Boys & Girls Clubs. Academic success, character and leadership, and healthy lifestyles were three that pop out as things that you do. Can you talk a little bit more about those programs and how they impact youth?

Richard Webb:

Yeah, so a couple I might have mentioned already, but let’s just talk about academic success. Our Power Hour has been key, and this is Power Hour even across the movement. So, when we look at a movement, it’s not just the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Midlands, but it’s Boys & Girls Clubs of America. And so, Power Hour is when the kids first come in, getting assistance with their homework, getting assistance with reading and what that looks like for them to be successful. But we traditionally do that Power Hour right after they come in, they get just a little time of freedom from school. And then we go right into our Power Hour, or we go into our character and leadership, different programs such as I mentioned earlier, our Passport to Manhood or our Smart Girls. And in those, it’s really centered around the decisions that you’re making and the actions that come and the consequences that come with your decisions, whether they’re positive or negative, and making sure that our young men and our young ladies are understanding how all of these things play into who you are.

Who you surround yourself with, the choices you decide to make, doing the right thing, even whenever it seems like no one’s watching. Specifically, what we tell our kids is you’re in the 21st century, there’s cameras on almost every light pole. Everything that you’re doing, you have to act as if it’s being recorded. And so not from a scare tactic, Lisa, but also just the mindset and the character building, because ultimately the more you pour into building, if it’s building good character, you’re going to have better character. But if you pour more into building mischievousness, you’re going to have more challenges through your life. And so, we learn a lot of those things through Smart Girls and then our Passport to Manhood.

And then of course, Healthy Lifestyles is more centered around our triple play where we not only focus on healthy moving around, so that may look like activities in the gym as far as bumper pool or that may be basketball or football or soccer and things of that nature, but also from a mind perspective. So how are you not only healthy in your body, but also healthy in your mind? And once again, going back to even other decisions as far as the hygiene as we talked about, and then also just your mental capacity. In the time that we’re living in right now, there is a lot of emphasis on mental health support, and that’s something that we’re doing with our members also, not just being able to acknowledge when they’re going through a breakdown, but also what steps can we take to make sure that you can get through this mental breakdown to where you can understand that you’re not by yourself?

And a lot of times we think about from a healthy lifestyle, am I eating better? Am I exercising? Well, what about the spiritual component? What about the mind component? What about just the ease and the peace component? And those are the things that we work on when we’re talking about those three different pillars of programming.

Lisa Bowen:

Awesome. So, I have a teenager, and I know sometimes, just sometimes, they’re a little bit challenging. And I know that you’re trying to recruit kids and you have this great programming. How do you get in front of those teenagers and really get them involved and show them the benefits of what you’re doing?

Richard Webb:

Well, I think you have to leverage carrots. We’re learning more and more of teens, and specifically, going back to your question when it comes to the pandemic, during the time that we were out or during the time that we couldn’t allow more kids because we had to get more staff, our support systems, our parents or guardians, they had to find ways to engage or to take care of their children or who they oversaw while they were at work. And the challenge there, Lisa, was it used to be too, whereas, okay, my kid is 14, 15. Okay, now my kid can start staying at home by his or herself. Well, during the pandemic, some of those kids were 10 and 12 staying at home by themselves, so the age had decreased on that.

And so, to be able to get these kids back into the club, it’s been a challenge. Not just the club, but like I said, any youth serving organization after school, because that new bar had been set that, “Hey, my kid can stay home. He’s 10 years old, she’s 12 years old, they can stay at home and take care of themselves. They got little cameras. I can watch. I can hear. They got a phone, so it’s okay to do that.” Well, the thought process, what we’ve been telling our community and making sure to be in the spaces where these teens and young kids are, whether that’s going into the schools and middle schools and the high schools, or whether that’s going to after school activities or just at the parade season’s about to start back up – you’ll see us a large presence in the parades for recruitment – is telling them all the benefits of being in the club.

For $30 for the entire year, you can have a membership for the club. You can get a meal, you can have homework help, you can have mentors, you can have programming, you can redevelop some of those social skills that are kids are having some challenges with because they hadn’t been in a consistent school building for the last couple of years. All of those different things. And the key is we’re trying to continuously go where the kids are because you got to go get them. They’re not going to just come. And that’s what we’ve been putting a lot of emphasis on.

Lisa Bowen:

$30 for the whole year. That’s an incredible deal, especially with all of that programming, so we need to get the word out about that.

Richard Webb:

There you go. Appreciate it.

Lisa Bowen:

So, tell me about some of the misconceptions people have about the Boys & the Girls Clubs. And I know one of them that I had was I didn’t know that anyone could come to the clubs. I thought you served more of an underserved population. But what other misconceptions are out there?

Richard Webb:

Well, that’s the biggest one right there is of course the clubs are only for kids that are having some challenges. Another misconception is you have got to come to the club every single day. We ask, and there’s a lot of data that shows even nationally, that members that come to the club at least three days a week, the benefits that they are seeing in school, the benefits that they see in their community, the benefits that they see in their educational attainment, and even career success afterwards. Because once again, as you noted, the Boys & Girls Clubs started in the early 1900s, and the Boys & Girls Clubs here, of course, started in 1962, 1963 officially. And so, when we think about having all of those years of data to showcase the success of just coming to the club, you don’t have to come every day, but it’s just in anything in life. The more engaged you are in something that is good, the more you understand how to leverage some of the resources to be able to support what you want to do.

Prime example, our scholarship program, because another misconception is I only need the clubs for childcare during these hours until my kid gets 12 years old or 13 years old, and then there’s no benefit for the club after that. There’s no benefit of my kid attending at 14, 15, 16, 17, and 18. They’re in sports and all of this. Well, our scholarship is second to none. And I can say that clearly here that it’s second to none, because even if our scholarship, it’s not income based. It’s do you attend the club regularly? And that can be in 16, 17, 18. It could be one time a week, two times a week. Do you stay in constant contact with our scholarship department?

And from there, if you have a full ride, Lisa, let’s, prime example, say you get the Buffett Scholarship like I got, they pay for all of your books and all your school. But we know we have to have a guardrails approach to help them be successful. So, if they got Class A paid for, we can go down to Class B, which could be a vehicle, transportation, could be your housing duration, it could be your food, could be all of these different things, a laptop. Your tools, if you’re going into a trade. These are the things that we want to make sure that people are aware of. It’s not just for kids. This could follow you all the way through and the support can be there where if you’re coming to the club, you’re going to get a scholarship. And even if you get a full ride, we don’t take our scholarship away because we understand there are things outside of school and books to help you be successful. And because you’re a club kid, we want to make sure and ensure that we give you everything you can have to be successful.

Lisa Bowen:

That’s amazing. And I know that those teen years are really when those kids need you the most, so anything you can do to help them understand that is just going to be so helpful.

Richard Webb:

Yeah.

Lisa Bowen:

So why should the general population, even those without kids, invest in and care about an organization like Boys & Girls Clubs of the Midlands?

Richard Webb:

Well, I think now more than ever, our kids need it. Lisa, I have the opportunity to see it every single day at our club, then I go into the different school districts, and I see some of the challenges that our kids are having. You hear about it on the news all the time, and I don’t just mean all the negative challenges. You have a lot of kids out here that are wanting to do the best things, but their roads are just so bumpy now because of all of these barriers and all of these challenges that have presented themselves over the last couple of years. And what I encourage anyone to do is to just come to a club, see what goes on at a club, come take a tour of the clubs.

Because ultimately, our kids, our next generation of leaders, they need us to be supportive of them in order for them to be successful. If not, five, 10 years from now, we’re really going to see some challenging situations in our workforce. We’re really going to see some challenges in leadership within our communities. And so that’s why we are not doubling, we’re tripling, quadrupling down on making sure our members have the tools and the resources they need to be successful.

Lisa Bowen:

That’s wonderful. So, I’m inspired by motivational quotes, and I can tell you’re a motivational guy. Can you give us just a few of your own words of wisdom that you live by?

Richard Webb:

Yeah, so I got a couple of different things that I do live by. My first one is always centered around grit. And so, my father had told me as a young man, “You never stop doing something until you hear the bell, or you knock it out.” We’re boxing fans in my house. The thought process, and this is what I’ve lived by to help me always move forward, is if it’s not done, I’m going to keep on at it until it gets done. Because 90% of it is just showing up. The 10% is the work you’re going to do to get it done. But 90% of any topic or any job is showing up. And in my previous role when I was president and CEO of the 100 Black Men, Johnny Rogers was my board president at that time. And he used to always say, “If you can do something by yourself, it just ain’t big enough.”

And so, the leadership that I have is the mindset, if I’m doing it by myself, it’s going to fail every time and it’s not big enough. But if I’m doing it with the leaders I have around me, which is where success creates a team, that’s whenever you will have the ultimate success. And there is another one that I just heard that I do want to share, and that’s why I had to get my phone out. And I just heard this the other day. I’m going to use this a lot more. They said, “I have a master’s degree in failing and a PhD at getting back up.” And so, the thought process of showing up because you’re going to fail. No one ever has a hundred percent of every answer correct, but if you have a master’s degree at failing, but a PhD degree at getting back up, success is in your near future.

Lisa Bowen:

I love that. I love it. So, for our listeners who would like to learn more about the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Midlands, maybe how they can support you, volunteer, anyway, someone who’s interested in a child participating, how can they find out more about you? What would be the next steps?

Richard Webb:

Well, there’s a lot of different ways to connect. I think we pride ourselves on making sure we’re accessible to the community. And even in my specific position, of course, you can reach out to any one of our clubs or come into any one of our clubs to get information. You can find us at bgcomaha.org or you can find all the information when it comes to our different clubs, the club directors there, the membership applications, or once again, you can reach directly out to us at our admin office at (402) 342-1600, and we’re always available to answer any questions or be of any support, specifically when it revolves around helping our next generation of leaders.

Lisa Bowen:

That’s great. So, as we wrap up our time today, we’ve talked about a lot of things that are really important, but what’s the most important thing you’d like listeners to remember about the work you’re doing?

Richard Webb:

I think the biggest thing, and it’s not even just for the Boys & Girls Clubs, but it’s for our community, the amount of need our kids have for direction, for guidance. And I was at a conference last week where they had stated that teens don’t want to be left alone, and kids don’t want to, even though they may share, they may show it, they may say they want to be left alone, they really want love. They really want guidance. They really want someone there to believe in them. They really want someone to be their cheerleaders. And ultimately, as I wrap back up, as we talked a little earlier in this segment, a big kid at heart, I love being cheerleaders for our next generation of leaders. It’s just something about when you’re a cheerleader for them, you see the light come on for them. You see the effort go up, you see the intensity, you see the energy.

All of those things fall into place because now they know they have someone who believes in them and who’s going to support them. And so selfishly, I can say for the Boys & Girls Clubs, we need people to believe in us. We need people to support us. Thankfully we have a strong brand after 61 years, but our community needs that. Our next generation of leaders need that, because ultimately, these next couple years will be telltale years for what success looks like 10, 15, 20 years from now in our communities.

Lisa Bowen:

Absolutely. Well, thank you so much for joining us today, Richard. It’s really been a pleasure to get to know you better and to learn more about Boys & Girls Clubs and all the great work you’re doing, and I hope you keep it up. And I do expect a report on if you’ve met those numbers. Like I said, I’m confident you will, because I can see the competitive nature and the love you have for your work.

Richard Webb:

Well, I definitely appreciate the opportunity and I’m going to tell James once again from CSI that we had the best episode. He’s a good friend of mine.

Lisa Bowen:

We’re going to watch the numbers and I’ll report back to you and James.

Richard Webb:

Sounds like a plan. Well, thank you for the opportunity to be here today, Lisa.

Lisa Bowen:

Thank you.

Announcer:

We hope you enjoyed today’s Agency for Change podcast. To hear all our interviews with those who are making a positive change in our communities, or to nominate a changemaker you’d love to hear from, visit KidGlov.com at K-I-D-G-L-O-V.com to get in touch. As always, if you like what you’ve heard today, be sure to rate, review, subscribe, and share. Thanks for listening, and we’ll see you next time.