BE A BALLER -"Building a lifelong legacy"

John Gregory and Kenny Hampton: African-American Male Wellness Legacy & Igniting Urban Renewal

• Coach Tim Brown, Uncommon Life

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John Gregory, CEO of the National Center for Urban Solutions our esteemed guest, shifted his sights from corporate ambitions to the heart of urban revival. He and Kenny Hampton, President of the African American Wellness Agency, share how the center's initiatives, including the groundbreaking African American Wellness Walk, have become pillars of hope and practical change. Our guest inform the audience the narrative behind the National Center for Urban Solutions and its relentless drive to uplift communities from economic hardship. T

As the conversation deepens, we traverse the life-affirming paths of the African-American Wellness Walk, casting light on its evolution into Black Men's Wellness Day. Kenny Hampton walks us through the event's origin, rooted in the spirit of brotherhood, and its blossoming into a national movement dedicated to dismantling health inequities. The day's far-reaching impact is felt through fatherhood programs, financial advice, and mental health resources, underlining the pivotal role community networks play. This tapestry of support, interwoven with free services and trust, is an emblem of the transformation we're witnessing.

Our conversation centers around mentorship and personal development as linchpins for community enrichment, echoing our mantra, "We do what we say we do." The episode culminates in a contemplation of legacy and the imperative to act, to be the living embodiment of service, motivated by spirit rather than wealth. This powerful dialogue is a tribute to those who have paved our way and a rally cry for listeners to forge their own legacies of integrity and leadership.

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Speaker 1:

So from that point on I saw my mission is to engage myself in the community and give people an opportunity for hope, and so one of the things that I recognized was that one of the ills of the black community was welfare and free housing.

Speaker 2:

Welcome to Be A Baller podcast. We discuss how to build a life on legacy. I'm your host, coach Tim Brown. Today we'll be talking about building a legacy and serving the community with our special guest, community leader and visionary, john Gregory. Also joining us on the show is Kenny Hampton, who's president of the African American Wellness Agency. Today on the show, john will share his commitment to helping raise awareness of African American men, physically and mental health. He is the founder of the African American Wellness Walk hosted in cities all over the country. Brother Gregory, welcome to the show. Hey, it's a pleasure to be in here. Yeah, I've been waiting on this a long time. I've been following you and watching all the great things you guys are doing and it's just a joy for me to have you to be a part of this. You know, john, as we think about this, can you talk about your childhood and your heart to serve the community?

Speaker 1:

Huh, the childhood part is interesting. I grew up in a town called Xeniais, where I was probably one of very few African Americans that lived in the city. But my father taught at Central State University, and so I grew up with a desire to go to college, go to law school, be an lawyer and be a corporate guy and make money and just have a good time.

Speaker 2:

Yeah make money and have a good time. So from that experience you know, with your dad being a professor at Central State, what did that? I'm sure that inspired you to go to college. You know I want to be successful, but what is it you saw your dad doing or things you saw in the community that wanted you to get involved in community service?

Speaker 1:

Well, when I was in high school. I've always had a desire to be an example and be a leader in the community. So when I was in high school I used to run a program with the police department called a police program, where we used to take the kids younger kids and take them bowling. I worked at the YMC as a Y counselor. I worked in the summertime as a summer counselor, so I always was engaged in the community to be a service, to be a positive influence into the community, particularly for black boys.

Speaker 2:

You shared. Kim, can you talk about that moment that inspired you to get involved in improving the community?

Speaker 1:

Well, I was working in corporate America in Cincinnati, ohio, and I was in my office and I was watching this TV program and they were doing it especially at that time is that crack cocaine was really huge and they were showing these crack cocaine dealers that were hanging out in the corner. And I prayed and I said, god, if there were churches on every corner, there wouldn't be a need for crack cocaine dealers on the corner. And then I tell people at the time don't pray this prayer. I said, well, god, use me. I don't want to be used in a capacity that I could help make a change. And then what happened was my job gave me an opportunity to be promoted to another place and I was like, eh, I don't think I'm gonna do that. So then what I did was I decided to, I had an opportunity to leave that job and I quit the job and started another business and that's how I got started in the community.

Speaker 2:

You know, in 1993, you founded the National Center of Urban Solutions and it's been serving the community since then. Part of that was moving individuals more than negative impacts of urban poverty, the social, economic, self-sufficient. Can you talk about the vision behind the National Center for Urban Solutions?

Speaker 1:

Well, you know, I was going to meetings and all I ever heard about was problems and problems. And you know I didn't really know Christ. But when I was going to the Ohio State University I remember walking across the campus and saying to God that if there was a God up there, I wanted to meet him. And God introduced this up to me. So from that point on I saw my mission is to engage myself in the community and give people an opportunity for hope.

Speaker 1:

And so one of the things that I recognized was that one of the ills of the black community was welfare and free housing and that kind of stuff. And we were on getting public assistance, a system that really was designed to keep us in a mental state of dependence on a system that really didn't care. So I was saying, hey look, why don't these people go to work? I own the security company we were doing security investigation we were working in these communities, called Uzi Alley, and God revealed to me he said these people don't need police, they need a job and they need employment. So I set out to get women off of public assistance and so they can go get a job and take care of themselves. And after doing that did that work in this community for about a year and we reduced crime about 80% and gotten about 30,000 women off of public assistance. And so to me it was really about providing solutions in the communities, not focusing on what the problems were.

Speaker 2:

Wow, and along those same lines, you've been quite the visionary. You started out with workforce development. You've opened up schools and African-American wellness walk and many other initiatives. What is the driving force behind all these initiatives?

Speaker 1:

I really believe that I probably could never be a good pastor. So I really believe this is my calling from God, and what I tell people all the time is that I prayed this when I became a Christian. I said, God, I want to do. There was a book I read by Tom Skinner and he said that if you ever find yourself doing God's work, it will be working in the community. And so I always prayed until God, I really want to do your work and I want to do it in the community. So my inspiration comes from my calling from Christ.

Speaker 2:

You know the word out there that you're known as a solutions man. Where'd that come from?

Speaker 1:

That came because once we were in this community called Uzi Alley and we were able to reduce crime 80% and get $40 million investment in that community, then people started calling me from all over different kind of cities to come in and work with their community leaders, work with different organizations. We worked with gang guys who were supposed to be in gangs, who had turned their lives around, went back to got a high school diploma, got employment, helped them start companies or a corporation's call and asked us to help them identify and get a workforce. So through all that, wherever there was a problem and our motto is that if you got a problem, we got a solution- hey there Clark Kellogg here.

Speaker 5:

Building a legacy usually involves meeting the unique needs of others and being part of something bigger than yourself. That's why I love First Merchants. First Merchants believes that helping communities prosper means more than just providing banking services. It means offering accessible financial education, expanded access to home ownership and partnerships with local nonprofits to help raise up neighborhoods and live families out of financial hardship. For resources and tools available to you, visit wwwfirstmerchantscom. Member FDIC Equal Housing Lenderman.

Speaker 2:

And you have provided a solution. Yeah, you definitely are the solution, man. Let's talk about the African-American health and wellness walk. I know that's a big concern for you. How did the walk begin? Did it start with thousands of people knocking on your door and saying, hey, I want to be a part of this.

Speaker 1:

No, actually it was a workforce program. I was trying to figure out why Black Boys wasn't going to work and I said are they lazy? Is there mentally something going on or are they unhealthy? And so what I did was I went and partnered with the doctor and Riverside Hospital and said I'm going to give these guys, guaranteed them, a job. And part of them getting their job was that they had to get a checkup when they pick up their paycheck. And after doing this for about 120 days, what we found out was these guys from 18 to 30, 90% of them had high blood pressure, they had high cholesterol, they had high glucose numbers and three or four of them had heart ailments that they had to go to the hospital immediately. So from that somebody asked me. They said hey, black men die way longer, sooner than other men. What are you going to do about it? And I was like I don't know why you're asking me. I was like what we knew was that men weren't going to go to workshops.

Speaker 3:

They weren't going to go to seminars.

Speaker 1:

They weren't going to do none of that. I said, I know what I do, I'll just do something that's competitive. So I looked to see where there were walks. They were health walks, Cause I look. I said what do white people do?

Speaker 1:

And I was like well they do the breast cancer, they do liver walks, they do. They do walks for food cats. I was like we need to do a walk for health, and so I just called up a bunch of guys and said hey look, I got the amount. All of the Baptist churches walking. Are they gonna send 50 brothers? New Salem's gonna send 50 brothers? I really hadn't talked to any of them, right, and so the first walk 700 men showed up to do the walk and after we had did it for two years, we said let's put some health screens to this. And from that point on it just grew.

Speaker 2:

Just grew, kenny, let's bring you in on this conversation. You're president of African-American Wellness Walk. Can you talk about the growth of some of the cities that you guys are growing to and how that came about? Are cities receptive to it or is there a pushback? How is that working?

Speaker 6:

Yeah well, it's definitely a pleasure and an honor to even be in a space where I can lead this national organization into these markets, but we haven't gone into a city that we weren't invited into. The African-American Wellness 5K Walk and Run, which is now known as the Black Men's Wellness Day. It has been something that individuals have either participated or they saw it from afar and said wait a minute, you talk about being a solutionist. This is the answer. This is the solution to some problems back in our home, our city, right, and so we've been able to organically expand into these new markets, such as Louisville, Kentucky, or Memphis, Tennessee, or Detroit, Michigan those types of places, Los Angeles, California because someone has identified an opportunity to bring this impactful event to their city. Because we are, yes, we're changing lives, but ultimately we're saving lives One free health screening at a time, and that's what makes the African-American Wellness Agency and that event that we do, that's what makes it so impactful and unique in those communities.

Speaker 2:

One thing that I've noticed that this is more than a walk. It is, it's more than a walk. You guys not only do the walk. There's a fatherhood, there's a to it, there's a financial health you guide us. There's a mental wellness. It's our problem too. And then you add a women's piece as well. Uplift her. What? How does all that work together? Why is that so important? For just not a one-time deal in August, right?

Speaker 6:

Well, the African-American Wellness event that we have, that walk is just the introduction, it's just a hello. We unapologetically, holistically, support African-American men and their families. Our event is the most fun you'll ever have at a doctor's appointment, is what we say because, you're able to bring the entire family.

Speaker 6:

There's something for the kids, there's something for seniors, there's things going on, there's live entertainment, but it's an opportunity for us to engage with the community and let them know about other things that we're doing. So, for example, our fatherhood program is really making an impact in the community because we understand that 79% of African-American kids are not kindergarten ready and we are working closely with our fathers in the community, helping them spend more time with their children. But we're also doing it in partnership with the child care centers, because we understand that that's a critical season of that child's life and we're doing it so that we can get them prepared to be successful within their academics right, and so we're able to do things like proud dad cook out every year, where we bring hundreds of dads together and we also do a cooking with dad, where we bring dads together and they're able to learn nutritional, free nutritional meals. Everything that we do is free to the community because of the partnerships that we have and support that we have from organizations that are passionate about this equity work that we're doing and they're not just talking about it. They're really engaging with us and joining us in this mission.

Speaker 6:

We're able to do things such as, like you said, that you got this, that's a research project that we're doing right now in partnership with organizations such as, you know, the American Diabetes Associations or Abbott Labs, where we're bringing the Continuous Glucose Monitor, which is helping individuals live with diabetes in our community. We're helping them monitor their diabetes and manage it with the use of technology, which is one of the issues that our community is facing right now, where not many African-Americans have access to technology, and so our organization pride ourselves on standing in the gap in between the African-American community and organizations that are trying to get a product or information into our community, and because of our grassroots engagement, our door-to-door approach and the trust that we have with the community, we're able to make that impact together.

Speaker 2:

John, can you talk about this? I've been really curious about this. Uplift her. I know your wife is very much involved with the organization. Can you talk about that? Uplift her.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, we holistically want to impact the family and we had come up to this idea to do a week-long program and we were like, well, let's make Thursday a day that we screen women. So we partnered with Ohio State University's PIN program and we went to them and said, okay, we want to screen women. And out of nowhere they said, well, okay, what are we gonna call this? I said, well, let's call it uplift her. It's men, uplifting women for the purpose of black women are four more times likely to die of heart disease, three times more likely to die of breast cancer, even though the instances of breast cancer has been death has been reduced. And then black women are four times more likely to die from maternal issues. So we were like you know what's the reality? Is that a male equity gap? But there's also a female. And so this is our attempt to reach black women so that they and it's not black women, it's women of color so it's our attempt to reach out to those women so they can have a longer living life.

Speaker 2:

You know, as our conversation continues, I hear a lot about partnerships, you know, and how are you guys been able to bring all these partners to the table, where they, all you know, do their part, so to speak? You know, that's probably one of our biggest things in our community is people working together, right? So how do you guys have been blessed to bring all these partners, how are you guys able to do that?

Speaker 6:

Well, there's a lot of organizations looking to go into the African-American community. Unfortunately, there's just not enough vehicles for them to drive what they're trying to drive into our community. And that's where our organization we pride ourselves on being in the community. We bring the clinic to the community. We understand that if we're really trying to extend the life expectancy of African-American men and also their family, we're not just gonna, we're not just gonna volunteer to go to the doctor. You and I can relate to that right.

Speaker 6:

Sometimes it takes a tragic event for us to even wanna entertain what's going on with our bodies.

Speaker 6:

We know more about what's going on inside of our vehicles than what's going on inside of our bodies, and we're trying to help change that paradigm.

Speaker 6:

And so the partnerships that we have with organizations that are trying to go into the community it's very important and it's critical and the way that they find themselves partnering with us, because they see the success, they see the results Mr Gregory is big on their own results so as we're providing these solutions, we hit our numbers.

Speaker 6:

And so there's some outcomes that our partnerships are able to yield, such as being able to the campaign that we have going on right now with the my Health Can't Wait. With Johnson and Johnson, you know, we're on path to impacting more than 5 million people, over 5 million African-Americans, over the next five years. But we're doing it with our Save the Black Men's Lives tour that we're doing, where we're walking in 16 plus cities, in 23 and also in 24. And organizations are able to extend the reach of what they're trying to convey to our community, and then also we're able to help them with their messaging too, so that they're putting out information that is actually gonna make an impact and we're gonna receive it, so that we can ultimately learn what's going on, so we can extend our life expectancy.

Speaker 4:

The team at the Financial Solutions Network is proud to partner with Tim Brown and bring you this episode of Be a Baller. Our mission is to share generously of our time, talent and financial resources to help our clients develop financial plans and wealth management strategies that allow them to live the lives they imagine, while connecting them with experiences and people that enhance their quality of life. Fca is one of those organizations, by helping young men and women through the development of their personal faith. The Financial Solutions Network is an independently owned and managed wealth advisory firm based in Worthington, ohio. We are a multi-generational professional team of advisors with a combined 83 years of experience teaching and managing financial strategies for individuals, families, businesses and institutions. We will be honored to help you plan your financial journey. Contact us at 614-505-3025 or visit our website at TFSNnet.

Speaker 1:

And now what's going to add to that is that I think that because we do this, because we believe this is what God has called us to do, we really believe. That's the attraction. People see that we're not doing this to make money, we're not doing this to lift our names up, and we make sure that everybody we work with we have an equal buy-in to what we're doing. And I think that makes it really receptive for different organizations apart from one of us, because they know that whatever success we get, they get to share into that success.

Speaker 2:

That share of success. You know, I was reading that your organization has a model. We do what we say we do. We do what we say we do. I've been doing research on you, Dad.

Speaker 1:

You've been doing a lot. Oh yeah, yeah. I'm like where did he get all this information?

Speaker 2:

from. You do what you say you do. I've been talking to some people now. Can you tell us what does that mean to you? What does that mean to you?

Speaker 1:

You know, it was really important to me and I really appreciate Kenny coming to work with us. It's kind of like if you know the story of Jonathan and David in the Bible, jonathan was 30 years older than David, so we got some real balance there. And so what Kenny would probably say is that I'm really big on if we say we work with at-risk kids. That's what we do. We work with at-risk kids. We don't throw them away. Our schools. We take kids who have dropped out of high school, we bring them back and no matter what they say to us some days they may not say nice stuff to you and we hug them and say, hey, you're gonna try this again tomorrow.

Speaker 1:

So our motto is is that we say we knock on your doors, we go into communities. Then we go into the communities and that is really. I mean, I'm just saying we're gonna do. When people come to work with me, I go like, hey, we're gonna do what we say we do. We're not gonna just collect the check and not go out in the community. I mean, what do you think, kim?

Speaker 6:

No, it's fine. The reason why I laugh when you said that and you asked that question is because one of our staff members actually has like the seven principles of John Gregor. I think it's actually called seven commandments of John.

Speaker 6:

Gregor and one of them is actually do what you say you're gonna do right, and that is so important because that's one of the lessons that I learned, and he touched on the idea of how Jonathan and David had that amazing relationship.

Speaker 6:

Well, mentoring is one of our initiatives as well and where we are working with, you know, address kids and young men and trying to just really build them up, but mentoring is something that actually is happening at our level as well. So I'm able to get some amazing advice from Mr Gregory, and he is. He'll tell you what you need to hear, but not what you want to hear, and he will encourage you, because it's your choice, but he'll encourage you to mature in the space of being accountable and delivering results, and so him pushing that message of do what you say you're gonna do really helps us as men, be men of our word and being able to produce results, because, at the end of the day, that's what matters. These organizations, these partnerships we're talking about, they don't care anything about all this fluff. They want results, they want impact and they want numbers, and that's what we're providing. Yeah.

Speaker 1:

No other questions. Didn't you find out about it? No, no, no.

Speaker 2:

If you want me to tell you, I can tell you. There's six rules. Man, you want to know?

Speaker 1:

about that. How did you get those?

Speaker 2:

No, no, no. Don't worry about all that Bad man. Don't worry about all that, Don't worry about all that, I guess.

Speaker 1:

so I got people.

Speaker 6:

You got some sources for sure.

Speaker 2:

You know, as we talk about the word legacy, this is a legacy broadcast. What does the word legacy mean to you, brother John, and how are you building a lifelong legacy?

Speaker 1:

You know, that's a really interesting question because I just, probably this year, connected with the word legacy. I ain't never really thought about this. I mean, my legacy is. The Bible says where your heart is, that's where your charges are. So I've always thought in terms of I'm just trying to get to the kingdom of God.

Speaker 1:

But you know, when you get older and you become the old people that you used to talk about, you realize that your days are numbered and you think in terms of okay, when I leave this universe, what will I have contributed for the power of change and people's lives and their mind?

Speaker 1:

And so what legacy says to me is that I know, as a young man, that I know the person you're talking about now who went to Africa, karen Grooms, her daughter. I saw her daughter and her daughter came up to me and she said Mr Gregory, you remember when we was little kids and used to make us tell us, say we were winners? She says I teach my little son that he's a winner. And I said and then when he grows up he will tell his kids you're a winner. And so that to me is legacy is that when I'm gone, it won't be the things that I had, which I don't really have a lot, but what will be is that people was lives have changed and people's perspective of who they are has changed and people became self-sufficient and they were able to provide for themselves, and that will have changed that whole generation of people.

Speaker 2:

That's good, you can grooms. That's serious and that's a daughter. Yep, as we wrap up, if you come around the corner there can each of you issue a challenge to the community, the importance of being involved in this community work. You know a lot of people watching. You know can you challenge persons, that challenge to get involved, how important that is and the need.

Speaker 6:

Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 6:

The challenge that I would like to throw out to the community in terms of getting involved is there's too many people standing on the sideline with a lot of opinions and a lot of suggestions, but there's just not enough action, there's not enough willingness to just get into the work and just do the work, and so that's one of the lessons that I've learned over the last couple of years working with Mr Gregory is that the community wins when we actually engage and we activate.

Speaker 6:

The talking is not gonna get it done, and there's lots of conversations in the barbershops and in the churches, everywhere we go. Someone has an opinion and has a great idea that can really change our community, but what are we doing? And at the end of the day, it's going to come down to actually doing the work, and I wanna challenge everyone to be real with yourself and ask yourself are you really assisting in this I would say mission to really change our community, or are you just on the sideline talking? And if you're not in the game, I invite you to come and join us in the game.

Speaker 1:

I would say this, and I'm just saying this yesterday to my own kids somebody died so that you can have a right to get an education. If somebody dies, you can drive that nice car. Somebody died so that you can live in a nice house. Somebody died so you can go to work and get that check. And you think in terms of how those people sacrifice their hairy tubman, how she sacrificed her life to make sure that we have an opportunity to have freedom.

Speaker 1:

You think in terms of Martin Luther King or Malcolm X or Meg Evers. Those people gave their lives so that we could sit and have a meal in a restaurant and not have to go to the back door. And so I'm asking myself, or you should ask yourself, what are you doing to make sure that the next generation of people have an opportunity to be who they are gonna be? And so if somebody died for me and Christ died for us, then how much more should I give my life to make sure that I'm a servant of the people? So my challenge is that all the stuff that you wanna get, the riches and stuff I tell everybody in one of those last principles is chase spirit, not money.

Speaker 2:

Let the church say amen. Everybody's a little past the plate. You took us to the cross, so you ain't no preacher, but you took us to the cross. But I wanna thank you for being a part of the show and I wanna thank you for answering that call.

Speaker 1:

But I wanna thank you too, cause you've been around for a long time. I can't see you, so I don't know if you still look as good as you.

Speaker 1:

You're still here, brother You're sharp, but you was always and the thing I really liked about you and I never said this to you, but I wanted to tell you this. I so appreciated you. You challenged me to step up and hold. That's why I say do what you say you do. I always saw you do exactly what you said you was gonna do and you never wavered and you did what the Bible says that you're yay, be nay and whatever that scripture is and you've done that, and so I still appreciate you being an example. So you was an example to me, and every time you came around I always get nervous. I was like, all right, god don't want him to see me doing that wrong. So I appreciate you and thank you, thank you, I appreciate that this brings to the end of this episode.

Speaker 2:

Thanks to our special guest, our brother John Gregory, and Kenny Hampton for sharing their passion for helping man, women, just the community, uplifting the community. I love your story about getting women from sectioned in. Whatever the work, the work and you can see the impact of that. So but thank you all for joining us doing this enlightening and informative discussion on building a legacy in service to the community. Hope this episode was beneficial to you. As always. Thanks for listening to Be A Baller Podcast.

Speaker 3:

Thank you, guys. If you enjoyed this episode, please share this podcast with family and friends. Be A Baller Podcast is available on all major podcast stations. Be sure to come back next week as we continue to discuss on how to build a lifelong legacy. Until then, don't forget to be a baller. This podcast was created by coach Tim Brown. It was edited by Tehran Howe and produced and recorded by the video production class of Worthington Christian High School.