Woman:

We have a special delivery for you here. We have 200 masks.

Frederica Freyberg:

Crews from the Boys & Girls Club of Dane County spent the week giving away 15,000 masks that were donated by a safety equipment company in Nevada. The effort is the latest example of the organization’s community outreach during this difficult time. Michael Johnson, the president and CEO of Boys & Girls Club of Dane County joins us now. Michael, thanks very much for seeing you.

Michael Johnson:

Thank you so much for having me on.

Frederica Freyberg:

So with Dane County’s mask ordinance or order now in place, was it your sense that people don’t have good access to them?

Michael Johnson:

Yeah. I think anytime you have a crisis like this, you have people who live in challenging circumstances. And we’ve given almost 100,000 masks out since this pandemic. We continue to get phone calls, Facebook messages from people saying there’s a lack of access for their families. So we’ve been trying to make sure those who can’t afford it have access to them.

Frederica Freyberg:

What are your other major concerns for the communities that you serve as we see spikes in COVID-19?

Michael Johnson:

I think when you have a lot of unemployed people or people who are underemployed or teenagers who may not work — may not be working at this time. We’re seeing a lot of internships being cut by young people. That’s why we decided to put 150 teenagers to work in the last couple weeks to keep resources in their pockets. And then when you live in marginalized communities, being able to pay your bills and being able to support families in need, that’s why we’ve done nontraditional things that you typically don’t see Boys and Girls Clubs doing. We paid the bills of over 8,000 people. We have 61 kids who were in college. We helped to pay for them to get back home. We fed thousands of people, including kids and senior citizens, over the last 90 days, making sure that no young person go home hungry at night. These are things that traditionally Boys and Girls Clubs don’t do and we just want to continue to think out of the box to make sure that we’re supporting our children and families and seniors who need us the most. We also raised money for downtown businesses. I’m getting letters from businesses downtown thanking us for helping them to stay open. So there’s just so many challenges going on right now that we’re trying to leverage our resources to help those who need us the most.

Frederica Freyberg:

All of that is happening, of course, as communities across the nation and here at home grapple with and demonstrate over racial justice and policing. On that score, a lot has happened since we last spoke in the direct aftermath of the George Floyd killing, including moves toward police reform and lots of dialogue and reckoning over racism. With all the work that you do around building bridges, have you seen progress in these intervening days?

Michael Johnson:

You know, there’s a lot of discussions. We’ve been having discussions for years. I think it’s time that we have a substantive plan that’s aligned with the financial resources to be able to back it up. You know, there is the discussion about oversight, police board with civilians. And while we’ve been talking about these kind of issues for decades, I think now is the time that we go beyond the studies, we go beyond the town hall meetings and we actually execute a plan with the financial resources to be able to back it so those communities that feel the most marginalized see that action actually taking place. So I’m going to say it’s to be determined.

Frederica Freyberg:

You have met, I understand, with Governor Evers. What do you want to see from him or the state?

Michael Johnson:

I would say when you look at the use of force guidelines, I think that’s something that needs to be addressed across every municipality in Wisconsin and to make sure that the police chiefs and the fire and police commissions and their boards are reviewing those policies and having dialogue in their individual communities. I think that’s very, very, very important. I also think there needs to be more resources towards community, you know, policing. And so while I want to see — while you hear people use the word “defund the police,” I think the funding needs to be restructured to be able to support community policing, include the community in that process. I also have talked to the governor, the lieutenant governor and also the secretary of the Department of Administration. I think we need to have representation of people of color at the state Capitol. There’s no representation right now. So we propose a bill that a Vel Phillips statue go up. I had a conversation yesterday with the Department of Administration. It’s going to cost about $100,000. We’re going to submit a proposal to the executive board and hopefully they’ll approve it and representation will soon be at the Capitol to reflect all the great work that African-Americans have provided in this state over the last 150 plus years.

Frederica Freyberg:

That’s good news. Any idea when they might erect that statue of Vel Phillips?

Michael Johnson:

Yeah. So there’s a vote that has to take place with the board. Senator Risser is the chairman of that board. We’re hoping within the next 60 days to have some renderings done. Once those renderings is done, it will take about a year for it to happen. I’m optimistic given that Vel Phillips was the first African-American judge in the state, the first African-American woman to be elected to city council, the first African-American woman in this country to be elected to a statewide office. And she was raised and did all her great work in this state, and I think white kids, black kids and kids of color need to see representation at our State Capitol. And I’m optimistic and hopeful that that will happen within the next 12 months.

Frederica Freyberg:

Great news. Michael Johnson, thanks very much for joining us.

Michael Johnson:

Okay. Thank you so much for having me.