Each One Reach One; Each One Teach One
Written by Tim Buckley, June 2023
Jacque, Ron, and Tammy of the Kennedy Neighborhood Family Council pose together at a 2022 Back to School event hosted for local families
“Everybody learns from the example of parents or peers. Whether it’s telling the truth or some other value you’re trying to pass along to your children, we have to do our best to model that behavior.”
The headline above was popular in South Central Los Angeles at a time when inner-city violence threatened to spread nationwide. It became a rallying cry for NFL superstar Jim Brown’s Amer-I-Can Foundation, helping at-risk youth escape gangland violence while brokering a truce between the warring Crips and Bloods.
“South Central LA was a tough place to grow up,” said Sirron (Ron) Berkley, father of four and vice president of Keizer’s Kennedy Neighborhood Family Council (NFC). Ron lived there from birth to age 25, then he and his first wife found their way to Salem. In that same LA neighborhood, at the same time, Eduardo Angulo was being mentored by Jim Brown, who then helped Eduardo move to Oregon so the family could separate his son from gang affiliation.
Eduardo brought the “each one teach one” philosophy with him, applying it for decades in his Willamette Valley nonprofit work, most recently with CBEL and their support of neighborhood family council development. Their goal? Simply to Build Community Resilience.
So, it was electric the evening Ron and Eduardo first met, when Kennedy neighborhood parents gathered at the school last year to hear Eduardo discuss CBEL’s vision and the work happening in the Hallman/Northgate neighborhood. The men bonded over their overlapping history in “the hood”, and forged an alliance as they shared their dream for neighborhood children, how the work might help our kids’ lives be better than ones their parents experienced.
Ron Berkley and Eduardo Angulo (top row, right side) pose together in July 2022 with the founding members of the Kennedy Neighborhood Family Council
“Every kid has to be taught,” Ron explained, “everybody learns from the example of parents or peers. Whether it’s telling the truth or some other value you’re trying to pass along to your children, we have to do our best to model that behavior.” That idea is embedded in the reach one, teach one model.
“So, when Eduardo came to our parent meeting a year ago, I said, ‘Whoa, now this is something I can get behind!’ He’s telling us what we can achieve together and encouraging us to join the effort. Well, he stole my heart,” Ron said.
Ron’s health keeps him out of the workforce. So, Stacy Price, his wife of 16 years who he met in Salem, fulfills that role while Ron “keeps the household going and keeps tabs on their four children (16, 12, 10 and 9). At times, it can be a full-time job,” he laughed, “as other parents would understand.”
Members of the Kennedy & Hallman-Northgate Neighborhood Family Councils gather together to plan the 2023 Fun Fridays.
The photo above was taken recently, at a planning session that included NFC members from both Hallman/Northgate and Kennedy. They were planning this summer’s Fun Friday events which, in the past two years, have drawn thousands of neighbors to Northgate Park.
Notice in the photo the diversity of the group. Newcomers and old pros; women and men, young and not so young, a mix of skin colors, shapes and sizes. The differences didn’t matter one bit, Ron said. It was the common focus, the collaboration over a shared event to bring families together, to play, learn and have conversations. “It was a beautiful thing to see, to experience,” Ron added. “We know what we’re doing is making a difference for our kids, whether it’s safety on the streets and in our parks, or whether it’s creating after school programs, or training parents how to be teachers for their young ones at home. Politics and everything else becomes secondary.”
And best of all, these neighbors are sharing the experience with those who will become the next generation of leaders. In addition to watching their parents in action, children are participating in all the events. At Kennedy’s Winter Wonderland, for example, two of Ron and Stacy’s children were there; one helping with serving food to the more than 500 people in attendance, and the other was providing music as part of the middle school jazz band. “My son told me afterwards that he thinks the things we’re doing in the neighborhood are ‘cool”.”
In addition to Ron, Tammy Kunz (President), Jacque Green (Treasurer), Eliza Moreno, Imelda Sanchez, Maribel Mora, and Roland Herrera are Kennedy NFC members. Some are also engaged in other civic leadership positions (Tammy is on the Keizer City Council’s Citizen Advisory Committee, for example, and Eliza works for the School District) so the NFC’s access to governmental, education and business leaders is quite strong. That allows the Council to get the attention for their issues and responses to their questions.
Ron said that CBEL funding is very crucial to the effort in neighborhoods. “it gives neighborhood councils a way to fund activities and events, to have support staff and also to be taken seriously by city leaders. Increasingly, we’re being seen as the eyes and ears of the neighborhood and our input becomes more important. So whether it is about getting more sidewalks, because it’s a safety issue for our kids, or whether it’s about getting a better working relationship with the police department; whether it’s about finding childcare resources or support for greater housing security, we now have confidence that our requests will be considered with respect.”
CBEL’s long term plan in the Salem metro area is to support the startup of 16 neighborhood family councils like the one established in Hallman two years ago and the one in its first year at Kennedy. Two others are now in the works. Given the experience with the first two, there will be a lot of Each One Teach One in the process.