Honoring Stories and Integrating Curriculum®: How To Build and Sustain Communities, Episode 1, Part 2

Listen to "E1:2 Bridge-Building as Regional Coordinated Action: Jarrett Kendall, Director of Employment Services" on Spreaker.

Recruiting and Retaining Diverse Talent: Jarrett Kendall, Director of Employment Services

Contact and Bio
Email: jkendall@fatherssupport.org
Website: www.fatherssupport.org
Twitter: jroc357
Facebook: Jarrett Kendall Facebook
Instagram: jroc1906
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jroc357
What are specific requests you have from St. Louis? Our doors are open to men and women and all gender identities, and we have the resources to assist you with (child support, resumes, mental health, and trauma). We need your support and we are here to support our community.

​Jarrett Kendall is a native of St. Louis who graduated from Lutheran High School North. He went on to earn a Bachelors of Arts in Computer information from Concordia University in Chicago. As a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc., Mr. Kendall enjoys serving the community by getting involved with several organizations as a volunteer. 
 Some of the organizations that he is a part of include: Faith Community United as a Vice President where he educates clergy and youth about STIs and HIV in the church; 100 Black Men where he serves as the Co-Chair on Health & Wellness, assists with the prostate walk for community health day, and assists with the barbershop tour; and Lutheran North High School as a football coach and one-on-one mentor to the students.
For the past 3.5 years, Mr. Kendall has served at the Fathers and Families Support Center in various roles. Currently he serves as the Director of Employment services where he uses this role to connect with other agencies to create a positive, financial impact in the community. Mr. Kendall is invested in using his connections from various areas of his life to help add value to the local community.

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Episode 1, Part 2: Jarrett Kendall, Director of Employment Services, Fathers and Families Support Center

• Jarrett Kendall explains what businesses may not know about the talent and resourcefulness of individuals coming out of the justice system
• Jarrett invites more businesses to come and learn the stories and the talent of the individuals FFSC is preparing for the workforce
• Sarah shares what happens for companies and schools when employees and students get to teach other people their language and cultural knowledge
• Jarrett and Sarah talk about how they experienced segregation in St. Louis and how they navigated and continue to navigate the challenges of bridge-building
• Jarrett and Sarah talk about commonalities across demographics that bring us together
• Sarah paints a picture of what regional coordinated action on behalf of all St. Louis youth and families would involve

Honoring Stories and Integrating Curriculum®: How to Build and Sustain Communities
Honoring Stories and Integrating Curriculum® methods podcast Episode 1, Part 2 features

• Communication as a two-way street in every relationship, industry, sector, and field
  • When we ask people to assimilate, we miss out on every cultural, language, and identity asset they bring to our organizations – assets that help us connect with broader demographics, innovate better solutions with communities, rediscover ourselves and our organizations and expand markets
  • When we ask people to assimilate, we limit ourselves to rigid systems that often aren’t working for us either – we miss out on the agile change-making systems that come with connecting meaningfully with the full knowledge, cultural expertise, and disciplinary knowledge people bring
• Bridge-building communication
  • We exist in societies and a world that has created opportunity similarly and differently for people based on certain combinations of race, class, gender, sexual orientation, religion, ability, ethnic identities. Our societies have also used methods of social control through media narratives, surveillance, violence and discrimination to secure access to resources for some while denying access to resources for others.
  • Every person and every family, every generation from the beginning of time has experienced these injustices. Some have seemingly benefitted and still today have the most access to resources. In reality, everyone has been deeply impacted and scarred. When we don’t know or understand how our family scarring by society has worked, we are at risk for perpetuating it.
  • Every single person from every race, class, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, ability needs personal, family, organizational and societal relational healing.
  • When we limit ourselves to the silos we have been trained to normalize, we don’t encounter the relationships that generate the kind of healing we and our families need to get back all we have lost as a result of the falsehoods we have been trained over multiple generations to believe are normal.  
• St. Louis is a holdout for affordable housing and has the opportunity to create a national model for coordinating action that strengthens our regional economy
  • To get there, we need to operate as one family as a region
  • We need to be the village around our youth and families
• We need real relationship and coordinated regional action to show our youth and our next generations we have their backs
  • Every person, family, neighborhood, organization and sector has work to do
  • Every person, family, neighborhood, organization and sector needs healing too
  • Every person, family, home, neighborhood, organization has a crucial part to play
• There are bridge-building organizations that are the village around our youth and families we can join and learn with and from