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1. Introduction and Overview to Workshop Houston
56 Plays1 year ago
Learn about Workshop Houston from their CEO, Rod "Bass" Tillman, and Program Director, O'Shea Woodhouse. Interviewed by Impaction Competition Student Board Member Ida Hailu.
They discuss the history, vision, goals of Workshop Houston and discuss hurdles Workshop Houston is currently facing that students might think about as they develop their solutions.
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Transcript
Introduction of Ida and Her University Experience
00:00:03
Speaker
All right. Hello again. My name is Ida. I'm a student here at the University of Houston.
First Impact Case Competition at University of Houston
00:00:08
Speaker
I worked with or I guess I kind of worked towards working with Liana last year on our first inaugural impact case competition for the University of Houston. So I guess that's how I'm here today. I'm also from the Maryland area. So any
00:00:24
Speaker
Projects like this in the Houston area are really important to me. I'm trying to learn more about the Houston area I feel like even though I've been almost 20 minutes away from I guess the greater Houston area I still don't know much about it. So I'm glad to be here today But for our first question, can you both introduce yourselves and your roles at Workshop Houston?
Introduction to Workshop Houston Leaders
00:00:44
Speaker
Sure, my name is base. I'm the CEO of Workshop Houston and
00:00:52
Speaker
Okay. Yeah. My name is O'Shea and I am the program director for Workshop Houston. All right. Great. Thank you. And are you both from the Houston area as well? Well, I am from Houston. I was born in El Paso, but I'm from Houston. Go back and forth, Houston, Virginia. And I'm from Louisiana. I'm a transplant here after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Okay. So I've been here for quite some time.
00:01:20
Speaker
All right, how have you guys liked it so far in your time here? I guess I'm sharing with you, you've been, you were born here, you're from the Houston area. Yeah, I mean, I love Houston. When I was younger, I always wanted to like branch out. And then when I actually left Houston, I realized that there was a lot more to Houston that I didn't experience. Now that I'm an adult, I feel like we have a lot of culture here, a lot of good food, like a hidden gem.
00:01:47
Speaker
Yeah, Houston grabbed me and it wouldn't let me go. Very true, very true. All right.
Purpose and Opportunities at Workshop Houston
00:01:55
Speaker
So tell us exactly what is Workshop Houston? Okay. So Workshop Houston is an after-school program located in Houston's Third Ward that works with youth between the ages of 11 and 18 years old. We offer programming in the arts, in areas of music, dance,
00:02:15
Speaker
fashion design, and graphic media. And we also offer employment opportunities to youth from the ages of 16 to 24 years old. And we try to give youth voice, and we work with students with a restorative justice to give them an opportunity to be heard, felt, and seen. And we recently also began working with students in the juvenile justice system
00:02:44
Speaker
to give them opportunity and alternative to going through that system to use the arts and culture to be able to get themselves out of trouble. Okay. I guess that kind of touched on our next question, but we'll go on. But can you guys walk us through the mission, the vision and the goals of Workshop Houston? Sure. So Workshop Houston's mission is to
00:03:13
Speaker
create and offer the youth creative, technical, and educational resources through the arts. And our vision is to create a just society where students can find alternative forms of success.
00:03:31
Speaker
Okay. And have you seen this mission or a vision sort of evolve throughout time? Has Workshop Houston kind of started with all these programs created or have you had to add new programs through its time?
Evolution from Bike Shop to After-School Program
00:03:41
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Workshop Houston has definitely evolved quite a bit from its conception. It actually started 20 years ago as a bike shop that was addressing the needs of not just children, but adults.
00:03:54
Speaker
The theory was that lack of transportation was one of the leading causes of poverty in the community because people didn't have transportation to go towards opportunities. So there was an Earn a Bike program where youth and adults could come through and work and volunteer in the bike shop and earn a bike that would then be able to offer them opportunity to use it for transportation to get the job they would use. That shop began to get overpopulated with children.
00:04:22
Speaker
And to address those needs for children, it organically turned into an after-school program for middle school kids, which organically then began to create other programs for those students who began to be bored with just bikes after a while. So then the beach shop was born, then the style shop was born, and it brings us to where we are today. And then also our final evolution was to transfer, well, two of our final evolutions transferred from bikes to just the arts.
00:04:52
Speaker
And now to transfer from offering programming to arts, also offering job opportunities. Because a lot of those youth got to the point where they've been with us for so long, we didn't want to let go of that relationship.
00:05:06
Speaker
And I noticed, so you said it started as a, um, kind of a bike shop and then the children were introduced and they've kind of been integrated to the program. Have you seen kind of like a turnaround with the kids who were, uh, I guess hanging around the bike shop and involved in the program, becoming mentors or, um, peer part of the peer program with peer tutors.
Mentorship and Skill Development Programs
00:05:26
Speaker
100%. Uh, that opportunity that, uh, economic opportunity for the youth that we have is actually called the near peer program.
00:05:34
Speaker
those children become mentors. The older students that have been around become mentors to the younger students and share their information with them to keep the tradition and the culture going. Yeah, and a lot of the times they end up running the shops. So the shops that they participated in as a youth, you know, they develop the expertise and in their teaching positions all throughout our four shops.
00:06:01
Speaker
And you mentioned the four shops. Can you kind of walk us through all four shops, describe them, their goals, and maybe even the typical student you see in those shops? I'll let you take those along. For sure. So we'll start with the beat shop. I figured the beat shop is probably what brings a lot of people into Workshop Houston, and they're learning the introduction to music production. So we usually get them started with FL Studio, and then
00:06:31
Speaker
You can advance from just producing beats to actually learning how to mix and master your music with Pro Tools. And then we also do songwriting. So it's pretty much every stage of creating music. A lot of the times our kids are interested in hip hop.
00:06:48
Speaker
Mr. Bass is actually a music legend. I could let him talk for days about just the really amazing collaborations and people that he's worked with. So you can just imagine people coming to Beat Shop and getting that wisdom from him.
00:07:06
Speaker
The type of kid that you would see in the beat shop, really a kid that likes music. Sometimes the kid will come in here with a little bit of knowledge on how to make beats. Sometimes they'll be completely unaware of how to do it, but what's beautiful about Workshop Houston is it's a college-level curriculum.
00:07:28
Speaker
to where the things that they're learning here, you would have to pay a lot of money to learn anywhere else, but we provide that for free. So that's, you know, that's the beach shop. Then we have the media shop, which is the newest addition. As Mr. Bay said before, graphic design through Photoshop, the complete Adobe Creative Suite, learning photography, learning videography. And then you have the dance shop where we actually have a, you know, a professional dancer in there that does ballet.
00:07:57
Speaker
It does modern dance, and then we also mix in hip-hop. They learn choreography. And then last but not least, you know, one of my personal favorite shops is the Style Shop, where they actually learn how to cut and sew garments. They actually are on the sewing machines, the thread, the fabric. Everything's free, so they get to actually go in there, work on clothes, and leave with new outfits that they design themselves. Those are our four shops.
00:08:26
Speaker
That actually sounds amazing, you know in the simple crook like curriculum you see like in schools you kind of have that more I guess technical Academia side and you go into the creative side. That's not really taught Which is really important for kids especially, you know, I guess a lot of these fields that they're teaching in schools aren't necessarily what's I Guess best aligned for everybody. Absolutely
00:08:50
Speaker
But so I guess with those design shops, what is the typical student coming into those shops looking like? And then once they leave those shops or leave the program, how have they changed over time? Well, I mean, I'll let Mr. Bass start this off and then, you know, I'll follow up. Sure.
Building Confidence and Showcasing Student Work
00:09:08
Speaker
So what our goal is and what we tend to see with these students is that through the experiences that they have through the shops, they typically come in thinking that it's something that's going to be difficult
00:09:20
Speaker
unattainable or something that they're going to observe but not participate in. Through time and through effort, we actually introduce them to the concepts in the shops, let them be hands-on with it, give them time to explore these things and build their own relationship with it and work through it to the point where they actually realize they can accomplish it as well. So through that process, they build confidence, troubleshooting skills,
00:09:51
Speaker
And also a sense of pride from the things that they've created that, you know, they may or may not have felt they could, you know, before they participated. And also a big part of our program is what we call a six-week showcase. You know, each one of our cohorts and each shop is in six-week cycles. So at the end of the six-week cycle we have a showcase, which is an opportunity for the kids to show off their work.
00:10:16
Speaker
So these have proven to be points where we realize the confidence that's built, you know, within the program with these students because they're able to show the world what they've done and it gives them a sense of pride that they're ready to share with everyone and post online and, you know, bring their parents through the CE. And of course, the biggest reward payoff that we look for is when they start inviting their friends to participate as well.
00:10:42
Speaker
Absolutely. And then, you know, I would add and I would say a kid will usually come in here, you know, their own solo individual. And then we have something called The Circle at Workshop Houston. So our culture here.
00:10:57
Speaker
is each one teach one. We like hold each other accountable. We look after each other and we take care of this space. So you'll see a kid coming in here, maybe a loner or maybe they have friends outside of here, but then they leave here with the family. They leave here with friends and people that actually can relate to them on a creative level.
00:11:19
Speaker
and a very positive level because Workshop Houston is a very positive environment no matter what you go through in life. Because we're in Third Ward, so you can just imagine the struggles that happen in life, but we extend our love and our family environment to each other to where if a kid needs something, the staff is there for them, the near peers are there for them, their fellow shopmates are there for them.
00:11:49
Speaker
That's amazing. I love that. Especially that kind of transition from O'Shea, like you were saying, I guess like the kid being a loner to have them having like a family or a network environment. Kind of going along with that. Would you say you're finding students kind of through these other students? Are they bringing their friends in or are you guys finding students? How is that kind of, I guess, networking or marketing strategy for Workshop Houston? Yeah, it's definitely hybrid. It's a lot of both. It'll start off
00:12:18
Speaker
We do, at the beginning of the school year, try to go to school campuses and invite students to come, kind of recruit. And then those kids usually start inviting their friends, putting the word out to other students. But there also is a mixture of students from different areas here, because we have students that come directly from schools. We have students that are,
00:12:46
Speaker
in a group home that we work with. And then there's also students that are being referred to us through Harris County that are in the juvenile probation system.
Finding Passionate Teachers for the Arts
00:12:59
Speaker
So those mixtures of kids kind of make up our whole community. And I know we've been talking about the students, but how are you guys finding the teachers for the shops as well?
00:13:12
Speaker
Now that has been organic as it could be. Over time, there's ads that have been put out. It was actually a pretty competitive process when I came on, for sure. Whether it's United Way job site, Craigslist, Indeed, there's job descriptions put out for that. And what we tend to look for is
00:13:41
Speaker
someone is serious about their art, that also has a unique care for kids. You know, that's serious about that. And, you know, patience to be able to teach. And, you know, through the years, we've had some very talented mentors come through with us. Of course, the nature of the position. We've had a lot of different people come through and leave, you know, because
00:14:09
Speaker
they're artists at heart. So everyone has to chase their heart. So a lot of the artists they come through, they're here for a good time and not a long time. But everyone is always, every member of our cohort has always left a large impact on the lives of the relationship with our kids. Absolutely. Yeah, I would emphasize that being like the artist that'll probably work here is someone that's actually
00:14:36
Speaker
a master of their craft that really takes their art seriously. And then Bass has that eye to where he's going to pick out someone that he believes will be a good fit. But based off of the work that you put in outside of here, that'll help you be your own resume. You walk your shop, you live your shop.
00:15:01
Speaker
And I guess what these teachers are, they mostly from the Houston area, Third Ward area. Do you find applications for teachers coming from, I know Basie said you're from Louisiana. Do you find applications even coming from out of state? Oh, they have been from all over. I mean, they are residents of Houston, but they all originate from all over. I mean, we've had staff members from Chicago, Los Angeles, India, North Carolina,
00:15:32
Speaker
of the parts of Texas. They come from all over, and we love the diversity. But everyone that works here is a resident of Houston, just from the nature of the position, of course. Yeah, absolutely. Funny, quick story. I found Workshop Houston when I was in college in Virginia, University of Virginia.
00:15:49
Speaker
I was looking for an internship and I was basically looking for a creative internship, found Workshop Houston Online, applied, met Mr. Bass, and that relationship kind of stayed intact for years. And then when he changed the model to Youth Lead, he reached out to people that he wanted to build this new Workshop Houston with, and that's kind of how I even got back here.
00:16:23
Speaker
Sorry, I have a question from the side. I know I'm not a South person. Can you explain, I'm curious about this pivot and why you pivoted to youth-led. It sounds like it was a major shift and it's really changed kind of like your operations and it's kind of added this additional goal. So could you maybe walk us through why you changed and the repercussions and how this fits into like your larger, like maybe five-year goal and plan with Workshop Eastern? Oh yeah, yeah. Well, the major pivot came from just the maturation of us as an organization.
Transition to a Youth-Led Model
00:16:53
Speaker
I think when we first started working with kids in general, much like the staff I described, the kids, when the workshop used to first begin, it only worked with middle school students. So those students would age out and then they would just continue to be new groups of students. But that was the point, 2015-14. We began to work with high school students. So there were students in that group
00:17:22
Speaker
a group of students that we have been working with since sixth grade, that we worked with all the way through graduation. And so naturally, you can see the desolate relationship that developed there. So that was part one that created this. Part two was the fact that as we started to work with high school kids, we started to notice that there was a retention gap with kids once they turned around 15 to 16 years old. Well, even though they had interest in the program,
00:17:52
Speaker
They didn't want to participate anymore because their pursuits changed from being creative in the arts to more of chasing money. They needed economic stability. They wanted to help out in their households and they wanted better things for themselves. And the job opportunities at that age aren't the greatest. So it would then force them to turn to working in fast food or working at a car wash or working at a grocery store.
00:18:21
Speaker
which kind of had not the best hours and kind of not the best results on the rest of their life, quality of life. And also, some of those kids would also turn in the various means of seeking economic support. The streets. Yeah. People going to the streets, sorry. So to address those needs, we, you know, we came up with, why don't we
00:18:48
Speaker
becoming a source of employment for those kids to give them an alternative. And again, towards our vision, an alternative to visionless success. And also in our model, we try to show that with our staff, with our mentors. Each one of our mentors are also professionals outside of Workshop Houston. So it's kind of painting the picture like, hey, you can choose whatever direction you want to do in life. And you can also use your mentorship and your sharing of knowledge
00:19:18
Speaker
as a means to support yourself. You know, the same thing that Belcher can make you. You know, so that's how our model was birthed. And also COVID paid a big part in that as well. It gave us time to kind of reflect. And because we, during COVID, we switched to a virtual model. We continued to program virtually. And we worked with kids that we recruited from online means.
00:19:47
Speaker
And so, like I was teaching beat shop from a camera much like we set up now with screen shaders. And it gave us time to kind of reflect and think about how we wanted to hit the ground running, coming back into an in-person world. And that was the change that happened from that reflection.
00:20:08
Speaker
Yeah, I'm a brag on bass real quick, man. I feel like bass is a visionary. I feel like this concept for Workshop Houston is a really big idea. And the fact that kids are able to get employment in a creative
00:20:25
Speaker
career path and get that experience. This is real job experience. That'll launch them into these really niche, you know, like career paths that are actually really fun and I think lead more to a happier life. So you don't see this often. So the fact that Bass has put this together in a collaboration like this is huge for us because it could help us execute these big ideas.
00:20:53
Speaker
want to give him his flowers on this platform. If this was a cartoon, then you can see what I'm envisioning right now. It'd be like a subway sandwich. I'm really hungry.
00:21:04
Speaker
I think there's probably more than a sample. I've been eating a lot of Subway, but they need to sponsor this. They need to sponsor this. This is not going to be included in the podcast. You're right. Getting these jobs, just like in general, if you're out in the real world, it is very difficult because
00:21:25
Speaker
a lot of this labor you have to do for free and so like kids that have parents that support them um like in the arts like they they are the ones that make it it's not always the students that have to work on their own and like you just can't get these jobs as a kid in the creative industry so i mean truly truly like an incredible opportunity and what a cool vision and so amazing okay i'm sorry i'm gonna let you go back to the data thanks thanks
00:21:51
Speaker
No, you know, that was actually a great question. I personally think you should be including the podcast. But I guess kind of going off of that, you know, as you said, we see kids, I'm gonna say even my age, when I was in high school, I was looking for ways to make money, you know, I went and worked retail at Hollister.
00:22:07
Speaker
Again, did not have the best hours, didn't have the best pay, but at least it was something to, I guess, get McDonald's after a tennis match or something. Kind of going back to that, I guess, means to make salary, money coming into the program.
Funding Sources and Financial Support
00:22:23
Speaker
Can you kind of describe the financial structure and the funding that goes into Workshop Houston? That's a bit of a rubric skew. The biggest part, of course, is foundational support.
00:22:35
Speaker
traditional nonprofit means, seeking foundations that are willing to support our cause. I would say that makes up the largest sum of our income. Then, of course, there's corporate support. We go at companies. Recently, we've got support from Hewlett Packard, Hershey's Chocolate, HEB,
00:23:00
Speaker
You know, they all have funny programs. And right now we're working on the NBA. Shout out to the Rockets. Yes, sir. And also there's individual support, which are people in the artistic community of Houston who, you know, much like what you just pointed out, really believe in our vision and want to help us see it through and have the means to support us. And I should point out, part of it,
00:23:29
Speaker
The civic support we're receiving right now is actually through Harris County. So it's more of a governmental support, but it's through our intermediary with Civic Heart, a Third Ward organization. So they're actually giving us a large sum of our funding right now to address the piece where we work with children in the juvenile detention system. But I mean, juvenile probation system.
00:23:59
Speaker
You know, it's kind of a mixed bag of all those things. Oh, one more piece, I'm sorry. Sorry, go ahead. There's also independent contractor work that we do through the near peers. We have a piece of the program where our curriculum is contracted out to schools, and the office has an opportunity to offer even expanded employment for the near peers.
00:24:28
Speaker
And I know you said, you mentioned a lot of big companies. I heard Hershey's, HP, you know, can't miss the NBA. For the future of your funding or the future of your financial model, I know you said it's kind of a Rubik's Cube. So I guess moving forward, are you still thinking more local companies or not local companies, more local organizations for funding? Are you thinking of branching out? What's kind of the future? Oh, yeah. And the big, big feature, of course, our pie in the sky goal.
00:24:56
Speaker
will be to have a workshop every city, you know. We like to expand, you know, Workshop Dallas, Workshop San Antonio, Workshop New Orleans, you know. We definitely, we're definitely interested in expanding this idea for it. Even having workshop on different styles of town, because workshop is, I mean, Houston is huge. And then of course, that'd be the first part. Yeah. Satellites.
00:25:24
Speaker
You know, that's even a better question. I was about to say, I think I forgot to ask this before, um, how many kids are in your program and then how many kids are divided into each of the four shops? So that's about 30 kids. Um, we try to keep the numbers small on a daily basis. Uh, but we like to work with as many kids as possible throughout the week. So we, we kept the number of kids that work at any given shop at a time as five kids at the time.
00:25:55
Speaker
But we spread those numbers out throughout the week to make sure we address our kids. One of the key components of seeing our program work well is that kids feel well attended to. You know, we're not interested in working with such a large group of kids that, you know, they don't actually get the most out of the information. So, I mean, I, myself personally, was educated through a magnet school system.
00:26:25
Speaker
that had small numbers of students in the classroom. I always felt like that was very useful to actually having a strong relationship with your instructor so that you have a lot of one-on-one time to kind of see things do. You're more apt to ask deeper questions to get a deeper understanding. I'm always interested in making sure that the mentor-to-student ratio is very low.
00:26:54
Speaker
Yes, and I like to always emphasize that, you know, five kids per shot per day, but the near peers, they're still kids because some of our near peers are in the ninth grade, they're in the 10th grade. Oh, yeah, they're definitely part of the program as well. Yeah, so like we're not only working with, you know, kids, we're working with these kids that also are our staff. Okay.
00:27:23
Speaker
I'm so sorry, I'm gonna have to skip back to the financing and fundraising. So going back to that fundraising question, how much time on average are you all spending on fundraising? Yeah, that would be all of my time. So we definitely have a system in place where, you know, everything is tethered, responsibility is spread out, you know, evenly across the organization. I probably spend
00:27:53
Speaker
most of my time on fundraising piece, whereas let's say O'Shea is spending most of his time on programming piece. I do work with a bookkeeper. I work with a grant writer that works with me to put together some of the literature. And I also have a development assistant that works with me to hunt down grants. You know, look for targets. And
00:28:21
Speaker
I would say, yeah, that's a full-time thing for me. Yeah, it's a small team. It's a very small team, very big ideas. Partnerships like this can help that. Exactly right. And I know we've been talking about kind of that organizational structure with the kids, the shops, the peer program. We're going to kind of move more into a different side of it.
Challenges: Transportation and Funding
00:28:46
Speaker
From y'all's point of view, what are some of the biggest problems facing Workshop Houston?
00:28:53
Speaker
Okay, so, Bace, you start this off and then I'll put my two cents in there. Okay. I wouldn't call it a problem. I would say areas of concern or areas of that could use bolstering. Maybe problems with the right word. Maybe what's the biggest hurdles towards like- Challenges, right. Maybe what's the biggest hurdles towards like- Challenges, right. maybe what's the biggest hurdles towards like- challenges, right. maybe what's the biggest hurdles towards like- challenges, right. maybe what's the biggest hurdles towards like- challenges, right. maybe what's the biggest hurdles towards like- challenges, right. maybe what's the biggest hurdles towards like- challenges, right. maybe what's the biggest hurdles towards like- challenges, right. maybe what's the biggest hurdles towards like- challenges, right. maybe what's the biggest hurdles towards like- challenges, right. maybe what's the biggest hurdles towards like- challenges, right. maybe what's the biggest hurdles towards like- challenges, right. maybe what's the biggest hurdles towards like- challenges, right. maybe
00:29:22
Speaker
So maybe that's a problem for the record. What are your hurdles? Okay. I would say definitely transportation would be one. A large piece of our funding goes to addressing transportation. Our near peers are scattered out in different schools, in different parts of the city. So to make sure we get them here in a timely fashion, we buy a lot of Ubers.
00:29:53
Speaker
and we send them home maneuvers. And then we have a van that requires maintenance, but that van is 12 passenger van. So it makes a lot of trips to pick kids up and to bring them home. So that's definitely one barrier. I mean, one problem for us is just being able to address the demand of students that may be interested to get them all here and send them home in the time of day
00:30:23
Speaker
that we program. We program basically during rush out. We're after school, so that's literally when all the schools are taking over all of the highways. So maneuvering back and forth through that time is kind of difficult. I had to say a second thing is, of course, with any nonprofit is always funding, right?
00:30:48
Speaker
And it's not so much that we're having problems meeting the goals that we set. It's that we set attainable goals and then make it work within those attainable goals. But it'll be nicer to be able to create bigger budgets so that we can expand more. Because one of the things we'd like to be able to do to address the transportation piece is to have enough funding to be able to staff weekends.
00:31:17
Speaker
But in order to do that, it can't be the staff that's working during the week. We have to have the inexpensive point where we have a second tier of employment. So we have an employee that can work in shifts and be able to program every day of the week and in different hours of the day. So that's definitely one of the barriers. And yeah, that's what I have.
00:31:45
Speaker
And then for me, what I would say is two of the barriers that I think we have, just that increasing demand to have upgraded technology. So we do a lot of great work with what we have and what we have we have to take care of. But I feel like our computers in the media shop, they need more RAM so we can edit bigger projects.
00:32:14
Speaker
I would love to see us having more cameras. In the beat shop, I would love to see us having newer computers so we can, you know, never have a situation where we have to, you know, double up on a computer just because maybe one day we have more kids than we had the previous day. So I feel like technology is a challenge that we always overcome, but, you know, it would be nice to
00:32:39
Speaker
to never run into a problem with technology. And then I'll say, just the general aesthetic of Workshop Houston, if we had curtains in the style shop, maybe sometimes it wouldn't be as hot. If we had a couch instead of just the chairs, maybe the kids could take a break, have carpet. I think general aesthetic things, that's where my eye goes because
00:33:08
Speaker
It's just a day-to-day thing. I think there's tears for challenges. This just turned into an agreement, by the way. Yeah. Yeah. But the cool, funny thing about this is I feel like it's a generational thing because I feel like if you have an old school mentality, which is good, there's a lot of values with it.
00:33:36
Speaker
you take what you have and you make magic out of it. But a lot of our students, you know, in a technology era, they always want something new, something faster, something better, you get what I'm saying? So that's just kind of how I think the balance of what you're saying. You just call me old. I'm old too. I'm with you. Hey, I'm nerdy. Hello.
00:34:00
Speaker
That is not old. I'm still cool. I'm a cool dad. I'm good. But yeah, so I would say good balance of base and what I said, I think those are our challenges. Okay, I'm going to go back. I got a question for base and I have a follow up for O'Shea. So base for you, you were talking about kind of the program hours and the transportation. First of all, what are the program hours? And then I'll have a follow up for that one.
00:34:30
Speaker
So program hours are after school until 7 p.m. Schools typically get out of like 415 here now. Although we open up programming at 3 p.m., in case any students have untraditional schools like homeschooling or there may be the Harris County students, some of them aren't in school. So we open up from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.
00:34:59
Speaker
And do you kind of see like waves coming in for students? When do you kind of just say, I guess in the middle of the program day, like we have the students that we have for today? Because I know some schools are going to know, for example, my school got a 215, the high school down the street got out at three. Five p.m. At five p.m. we have our circles. And that's the time that we estimate all the students will be here for the day. And at five p.m. we have a community circle, check in circle, and then the day officially starts.
00:35:29
Speaker
Yeah. And to follow up on that, we definitely have waves. We have a small group that might come at 330, a small group that might come at 430, and then an even smaller group that might pop in at 530. Some kids get their own rides here. Some kids participate in after-school activities. So the van might double back and pick up
00:35:50
Speaker
you know, a couple of kids that stayed after school. We just try to, we try to be flexible. Yeah, we try to be flexible just to get kids here that want to be here. So you guys don't know who, how many or who's going to show up really till if they show up, like you kind of have. We have a general idea of things, we have an expected group for sure.
00:36:16
Speaker
The regulars, sometimes I'll have to, sometimes we'll have to make phone calls just to check in. Yeah, that's a registration. Yeah, registration for sure. We have to register to be a student, so we don't even know how many kids to expect. What does the registration process look like? There's a registration link on our website. moshopustin.org. Right, and then we send that link. If a kid is interested, we text it to them or we send it to their parents or what have you.
00:36:45
Speaker
They fill it out a little straight to our spreadsheets, and once they're registered, they have permission to come. What's in the registration? What kind of stuff y'all ask? Emergency contact. There's also language as far as them giving us permission to use their image and likeness, and then there's forever permission for them to attend. Absolutely.
00:37:09
Speaker
Like for instance, sometimes we'll have yesterday, you have certain kids that are really excited about workshops. So they come in with like some friends. And then I'll have to, on the spot, I have to be like, are you registered? Which I know they're not. And then I'll be like, well, can I call your parent? Call their parents up. Let them know that, you know, hey, this is such and such at Workshop Houston. Please fill out this registration form.
00:37:38
Speaker
And then sometimes it's like, oh, come back tomorrow or we sign it up on the spot. So it's sometimes kids just walk here. We just got to get that. We have to make sure that they're actually accounted for. Right. Yeah.
00:37:55
Speaker
And especially with, I guess, ensuring, you know, their parents are okay with them being there. The kid knows, I guess, they're registered, what they're signing up for. Going back to those programming times, I know you said you all get out at seven or the program ends at seven. It's winter almost, it's getting kind of darker. How do you ensure those kids are safe when they're going home? They are all providing the rides on vans and calling their parents. What about the kids who walk home?
00:38:21
Speaker
So at least for me, I make sure that whatever kids hear, that I wait for them so their parent can pick them up. The van that we drive takes a lot of the kids home. So it'll be a few of our staff members that drive the kids home.
00:38:41
Speaker
And then some staff take Ubers. So it's pretty much that three-way method. Van, Uber, or... They are no walkers. No walkers. The van is specifically so there won't be any walkers. 10-mile radius, you're gonna get a ride from us. And how long have you usually have to wait for, O'Shea? I mean, it's not. It's never late. It's like 7.30 at the latest. But you know,
00:39:10
Speaker
It is what it is. Whatever it takes to make sure that the kids are safe, there is no, as base said the other day to me, there is really no time limit on the safety and the wellbeing of the kids. You go above and beyond to make sure everybody's okay. And that's just what we do. I have another question about the weekends.
Staffing Issues and Limited Weekend Programming
00:39:37
Speaker
Like, can you kind of walk us through
00:39:39
Speaker
why you prioritize the weekdays over the weekends and like, what are the biggest hurdles beyond? Is it just a staffing issue to do the weekend? Have students expressed that they've come kind of what? Yeah, well, it's very easy. We are artists. Almost every artist makes their real living during the week. It's very hard to staff artists on any weekend.
00:40:08
Speaker
It's very impractical to play an organization of artists around their weekends. And the only way that will be able to happen again is, like I said, if we have enough funding to be able to staff two shifts, because there will almost inevitably be a time where one of those artists, teaching artists, is going to have a gig that's going to take them away from obligation. And you're going to need somebody that's there to be a backup.
00:40:38
Speaker
So the nature of us being an arts-based organization is definitely a big hurdle in working weekends. Also, just the nature of the tradition of the organization, it being after school, like in this most traditional sense, meaning you work with kids directly after school. When this organization was founded, it worked with Ryan Middle School, which is in proximity
00:41:07
Speaker
literally a block away. So almost all of those students literally just walked over as soon as they got out of school. So from its conception, you know, all of the planning that's in place was built around that concept of working with kids, catching them directly out of school. You know, just also those, you know, just scientifically,
00:41:35
Speaker
Those are the most dangerous hours for students. The hours between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. is when they get into the most trouble. Typically on weekends, parents aren't working. Someone's at home to be able to monitor the activity of the kids. It's less of a dangerous period. Maybe not completely out of the woods, but it's a lot less dangerous.
00:42:03
Speaker
So that's why weekends haven't been privatized over the week. But I think the biggest piece is the artist part. Backs. I was ready for that one. I guess it's kind of, so to me, it's kind of like a, kind of like a two part thing for the kids, like for the creative side, for their enrichment, for the parents, it's more, it's like a,
00:42:33
Speaker
After school program, you know, parents are getting off of work at five. I was put into an after school program because my parents could not come pick me up from school at three o'clock most, like most parents. So that guarantee that they're safe is what's great for the parents as well. O'Shea, I'm going to come back to you. Yeah, yeah, no, take your time.
00:42:52
Speaker
You talked to the big dog right now. I'm waiting. I guess this is actually a question for both of y'all, but what feedback are you getting from those students? I know, Ashay, you were talking about the technology. They're always asking for new technology. Whereas I guess for other generations, you're given what you have to work with and you make the best out of it. So what other feedback have you been getting from the students?
00:43:17
Speaker
I mean, honestly, the feedback that we get from the students the most is just how comfortable they feel here because it's really hard to describe. It's something you have to come and witness for yourself. It's really just an environment where everyone here is creative. And whenever you express yourself in a creative way, you kind of make yourself vulnerable.
00:43:44
Speaker
um and then when you see other people around you are like conscious of the fact that like oh you're trying you're being creative you might be a beginner you might be an intermediate there's no judgment so the kids are just nine times out of ten happier when they're here um and that's the feedback that i naturally receive from some of the kids because they're like wow like
00:44:08
Speaker
I have so much fun here and I love this shop. I want to try this shop. I want to try that shop. So that's the feedback I get on a day to day basis is just how much they love it here. And that makes me even happier to be a part of it. And then what about the teachers and the mentors or I guess even like with the peer program, what have you heard about that?
00:44:32
Speaker
I mean, so as far as the actual shop coordinators, I feel like it's an opportunity for them to, I guess, if you're an artist, there's this part of your art that you wanna always feel like you're, I guess, giving back in a sense to where it's like, okay, what is the purpose, my why? Yeah, what is my why behind the art? And for an artist such as myself,
00:45:01
Speaker
This makes me feel like the best way I can put it, I feel like I made it because it's not making it in the sense to where it's like, oh, like life is going to be easier. I'll never have to work again. It's more like, man, I chose this path and I feel like I have a deeper purpose and I'm fulfilling that purpose and I see and I feel that from the shop coordinators.
00:45:24
Speaker
them being able to connect the dots, grinding hard, working long hours, but then coming here and being able to like share your experiences, your Ls, your Ws with the youth so you can see them become better than you. Because a lot of the kids here are doper than me. They're just cool. And I'm like, man, I wish I had somebody like you when I was 15 in my life, you know? Yeah.
00:45:52
Speaker
As far as the near periods, we also noticed like the purpose that we did, they have an enhanced quality of life. You know, they're able to buy the clothes they want to buy. You know, they're able to, you know, grab the lunch they want to grab after school on their way in. You know, we got a kid save, you know, we always make a joke. Like, yo, you need to get a sponsorship from Subway. Like every day after school, he's going to be able to put in law.
00:46:21
Speaker
Because there's a football right by his school. I mean, a football. There's a subway right by his school. And that, to me, that also sends that example to the other kids, like, yo, I want to be able to buy a Subway sandwich every day after school. I'm going to work hard to make sure I'm able to become a near peer, too.
00:46:43
Speaker
And I really say, because I like getting to the point, cutting to the chase. It really keeps kids out of crime, out of the streets. The kids come here, they have a way to make money, and then the nine times out of 10, that'll keep them out of trouble. And I feel like they even say that. Like, man, if I wasn't here, I'd be such and such. I'm glad I'm here. And I'm like, me too. Yeah, keep coming.
00:47:13
Speaker
keep coming here. Do not go left. I have another quick question. I'm sorry. So, uh, y'all obviously you guys are a small organization.
Learning from Program Failures
00:47:22
Speaker
You've been around for 20 years. You've tried a lot of different things. Um, and obviously some stuff has like worked incredibly well in your career program. Have you ever had something that just like totally bombed and
00:47:37
Speaker
I played the fifth. Yeah, the Discovery Shop was not it. We had a robotic space shop that we attempted to do for about two years. Yeah, that was a failure. It wasn't really well thought out. We kind of overestimated the cool factor of science.
00:48:04
Speaker
That was us being old and disconnected. We thought we had the idea that kids would be so excited about building robots and working in science.
00:48:19
Speaker
Well, I'm just asking because as I think of students as they are trying to think of ideas, it's helpful to know why something maybe didn't work, knowing like, okay, a science lab is just not cool. Oh, no. It doesn't work. Just get back from the other side of it because from a fondant standpoint, the whole world was throwing money at STEM. Yeah, yeah.
00:48:44
Speaker
Now, if you want to do something in that area, it's got to be practical to what kids are interested in. So, had we tailored it, which is what birthed our media shop, however, because the media shop is catered towards making your TikTok cool or making your Instagram pop. You know, it's teaching you how to take better pictures and how to do cooler graphics. That's something that's useful if you want to be an influencer.
00:49:09
Speaker
You know, and what kid doesn't want to be influenced? It's like literally something I talk about all the time with my college students here. Right. Like free stuff. I'm down for that. Right. Right. Right. Right. So anything else that like just didn't work out in any lessons that maybe would be useful. Other than that, I think it wasn't so much as failed just phased out, which would be the bike shop. You know, the bike shop was a large component of our program when we first started.
00:49:38
Speaker
You know, again, organically, two-time bikes just aren't as cool as they used to be the kids. You know, they can Uber now. You know, so, and plus they don't have to go as many places as they used to go because things come to them now. Thanks to COVID, you know, they know how to order their own whatever, they know how to get on Uber Eats and they can make a whole snack come to them. So, you know, they're, you know, they're sending it all over the controller in the head all day.
00:50:07
Speaker
Uh, here on the campus, we have these creepy little robots, um, called Starbuck. Uh, they're hearing about these robots. They're like bringing food to people's tables and restaurants and stuff. The students love them. They're like getting Starbucks. It's crazy. They're a little crazy. You ever saw Wally? Yeah, it's like Wally, but it's what it is. Yeah, yeah. They're gonna look like me in a minute.
00:50:32
Speaker
Yeah, and Liana mentioned a good question earlier. What kind of lessons have you learned from these, we'll call them hurdles, with the bike shop, the Discover program, what kind of like, I guess like what kind of lessons have you learned and how have you applied them to your different programs now? I mean, I've learned to listen more and talk less.
00:50:56
Speaker
because sometimes the kids, your coworkers will tell you exactly what they want and you kind of have to like be willing to understand them and try to just not always assume you know what people like. I think the biggest baseline of our program here that may be different from others is that we believe in
00:51:26
Speaker
like experimentation. You know, we were like, oh, I'm gonna leave it like leaving time in space for students to experiment on their own as opposed to constantly over structuring them with information and trying to drive things down the road. I think a lot of programs that work with kids, particularly kids from these communities are very authoritative and they're
00:52:04
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah.
00:52:39
Speaker
Yeah. Be quiet.
00:53:16
Speaker
Mm-hmm. That creative environment. Yeah.
00:53:44
Speaker
Every sensitive word, literally, that's the life. Yeah. Yeah. And I guess to close out, what has been y'all's favorite moment at Workshop Houston, whether it be with a student, a teacher, just a fun little thing that's happened with the rest of the staff?
Celebrating Success: Student Showcases and Growth
00:54:38
Speaker
Oh, wow. How cool. Yeah, he stole mine. That's how awesome that was. I'll say my favorite moment recently was, I think it was, was it two days ago? I did an interview with one of our kids. His name is Yancy. He's 11. And he's so young, but he's so talented. He's a great producer.
00:55:08
Speaker
and just interviewing him and asking him why does he do it and what does he want to do with his music and just seeing his confidence in himself. That was just amazing to me because I'm like, you're 11 and you're this talented and you coming to Workshop Houston and just basically staying in this environment. I already know he's going to blow up and he told me that he was like, this is where I'm going to blow up.
00:55:35
Speaker
And I was like, you know what? You write. I wanted to mention the showcase. You all told me this. So students, it's open to the public. The showcase is correct. And the next one is in December. December 21st. December 21st. OK, I'm going to make sure it's in a case study. 5.30 to 7. OK, I'm going to be there. I had to miss the last one because I had a silly wedding to go to. But I'm so excited to see the one in December. Hopefully there's lots of Christmas spirit. Oh, yeah.
00:56:04
Speaker
You won't regret it. And then also, this is something you guys have offered to students as well, that they can swing by and come, that aren't interested in doing the challenge. What times are good for UH students to come into the space and meet you guys? And if they have any questions or just want to see the space? I would say, honestly, to me, if they just want to get a tour, 2.30 through 7, Monday through Thursday.
00:56:35
Speaker
I pull up. I don't know what else to tell you. Just come on. I will. Yeah, actually, we'll try to swing by. It's just up the street. It's like less. You could probably walk there from here, actually. It's really close to campus. I wouldn't. No, I'm not. Go ahead and get you an Uber. Or a little scooter, the little. There we go. There we go. That's faster than your feet.
00:57:04
Speaker
Yeah, well, thank you so much, O'Shea and Bass. It was nice to meet you guys again. Not again, I guess for the first time, but hopefully I'll be seeing you again, maybe in person, maybe again on one of these podcasts. But again, thank you so much. Absolutely. Thank you.