Youth in the City

[00:00:08] Speaker A: This is beyond basketball, where we go behind the scenes of Calgary's newest pro sports team, the Calgary surge. I'm Heather Johnston. [00:00:17] Speaker B: And I'm Mona Bruckberger. And in this episode, youth in the city. Today we are looking at the younger generation in the city. The Calgary research is actively working on community engagement. They are encouraging youth to get in touch with basketball through various partnerships. [00:00:40] Speaker A: Our first guest is Usman Tahir Jet, chairman of the Calgary surge. Listen in as he walks us through his work with youth initiatives throughout the city. [00:00:52] Speaker C: We were very inspired by your story of growing up from modest means. Your self made. You created this basketball team from scratch, right? And it must be a big part of your childhood. What role does sports play in your upbringing? [00:01:07] Speaker D: For us, growing up in Edmonton with eight of us, some of the sports were just inaccessible. Our parents weren't going to buy hockey equipment. So the sports that we were kind of directed towards were things like basketball or cross country running where you don't really need a lot of equipment. But like any kid, you love being outside. I see my five year old today spending time outside and in the playgrounds and with a basketball or soccer ball is a major part of their life, for sure. And I think the connection between where we ended up today, kind of the upbringing that I had, it was very much driven by spending time outdoors, spending time with people, spending time playing sports. [00:01:55] Speaker C: Was that an inspiration for the Calgary surge to be so youth focused in the community and getting them in touch with basketball? [00:02:02] Speaker D: I think the future of what this city and place we live in from a community perspective, if we start to focus a little bit more attention on the next generation or the next few generations, I think we end up having a better city. [00:02:16] Speaker C: Could you tell us about a moment in time where you were inspired to think bigger in terms of entrepreneurial pursuit and community involvement? [00:02:26] Speaker D: Well, I've always believed that any business that anybody can operate, regardless of what it is, it's dependent on the community that you operate in. And there's this unique sort of connection that gets created. So to have a successful business, you need to have a community that believes in you. And I think more and more citizens and neighborhoods and communities are starting to demand a little bit more of the businesses that occupy the space that they either live in or they go infrequent. So I've been very proactive in the last 15 years, saying to people and trying to do this on a daily basis is we have to start listening to those, to those communities. It's critical that you pay attention to the community. And it's not just in the issues that you might directly be impacted by, but you have to kind of adapt to the issues that the community is facing. [00:03:23] Speaker C: Definitely. And did you notice that there was a gap in youth community involvement in Calgary? [00:03:30] Speaker D: I think if I look back at when the surge started and even kind of the months leading up to launch, the conversations that I was having and listening to was largely related to this massive catastrophic event everybody in the world went through. And it's the pandemic and it impacted everybody. It impacted seniors in a unique way. People who had jobs and lost their jobs and it impacted youth. I started to pay attention to the youth side. There was portions of their lives stripped from them. And when you look at somebody under the age of 20, this becomes a significant proportion of their adult life. So I started to say, what's something that they're missing? What's something that becomes problematic? We started to have conversations and have coffees and one thing that became very, very clear was the impact on people's mental health. So we started to say, okay, mental health becoming a major factor. What are some things that anybody could do from a baseline, which was going back to that recreation, going back to being outside, going back to finding community, some organized play. And we started doing some investments with the Parks foundation and we started building these sport courts that were really focused on that teenage age group where they could go to a park. And typically you have the traditional play structure that is great for my kids, but as they get older, you're not going to get a nine year old or a 15 year old coming down the slide or using the swing the same way a five year old would. But if we built these sport courts or these pump tracks with bikes, and you started to see a lot more of these pop up in Calgary, then we took that a step further and said, what is another way for us to continue to engage from a sport perspective, to inspire young people? And then lo and behold, we get this opportunity to bring this basketball team to Calgary. So for me, very much like a pretty decently kept secret up until this podcast, is that I was a massive basketball fan before the surge. I really wasn't. I don't think I watched a full game until the surge came out. But I think it was an opportunity for us to see, here's a sport that doesn't really require a lot to play. So we talk about the earlier part of this conversation where we talked about barriers to entry to some sports, basketball. You needed a ball and you needed a hoop and nine times out of ten, the community provided that hoop or a neighbor had a basketball net on their garage. So you didn't need a whole lot and you needed a ball. And we just thought, what an amazing way for us to bring something to Calgary. And we started to see, from day one, from our launch day, we started to see that this was really a lot more than basketball. This was an opportunity for us to meet the moment in Calgary and to be able to bring something that allowed the youth of Calgary to look up to in an inspirational way. We achieved this community love that you can only get if you're going down and you're going to work authentically within these neighborhoods. And the response we got back, almost every single week, every single day, we get some sort of interaction with somebody who talks about how we've positively impacted their life. [00:06:50] Speaker C: Could you share an experience where you got to attend a game when you were a child? [00:06:55] Speaker D: Yeah. So it was grade three, and I got called to Mister Iwasiyak's office, who was the principal at the time, and you get those little muffled, oh, what did you do? And I was like, I don't think I did anything, but I'm getting called to the principal's office. So I end up going there. And Mister E, as we used to call him, said, are you doing anything tonight? And I was like, no, I don't think so. And he's like, well, I'd like to take you to a hockey game. And I had never been to a hockey game. And it just so happened that Wayne Gretzky, who had been traded to the LA Kings, was back in town, got it all clarified and okayed, and the principal rolled around 615, and I jumped in his car and we went to this hockey game. I remember walking the concourse of the game with him being like, wow. Like, I've never seen this many people before. And I realized that this was probably not mister e taking me to a hockey game. It was probably a program exactly like kids up front. And I just remember seeing people around me. I remember the excitement. I remember me being, like, beyond excited. And when I came to realize that, hey, this is a, this is an interesting thing where I'm sure a lot of the donors at kids up front maybe have no idea what impact this could have on somebody's life 30 years later. But here I'm living proof of 30 years, 35 years later. I'm sitting here recalling this insane moment from my childhood. [00:08:34] Speaker C: Is there any feedback you received from some of the youth that stuck with you the most? [00:08:39] Speaker D: So it was the eritrean community association was contacted by kids up front and were proactively looking to bring 160 kids to the basketball game. One of the kids had come down pregame, our head coach, Nelson Tiroba, and basically asked Nelson, hey, after the game, can I go to the locker room? And Nelson, who's from Texas, very friendly guy, was like, yeah, no problem. If we win the game, come find me after the game and I'll take you to the locker room. And he's like, can I bring some of my friends? He's like, yeah, no problem. Doesn't tell any of us, doesn't tell security. We end up winning the game. Little did we know that 160 kids walked down, basically didn't walk. They stormed down to the court because their friend had said, we can go to the locker room. And our locker room is probably small for 15 guys. Like, you're not going to fit 160 kids in there. And these kids come down and security is like, completely inundated. And they're trying to hold these kids back, wondering what the heck is going on here? And one of the kids says, well, I talked to the coach and the security guard's telling them to go away. They're not getting in the tunnel. There's no way because there's like 160 of them. So I find out that there's this little, you know, commotion happening. I go over, I talk to the security guard, I talk to this kid, and this kid's like, I talk to the coach and he said, I can go to the dressing room. So it puts us in a bit of an awkward spot now, right? Like, what are we supposed to do? I look over at Nelson and Nelson is like, yeah, yeah. He confirms what he says. He's like, yeah, I told him he can come. And I'm like, well, Nelson, what are we supposed to do here? There's like 160 of them. And he's like, let him in. Security guard was asked to step aside and 160 kids go into the tunnel. Everyone wanted my choice. The players had no idea how many kids were there. And they come out and it was one of the highlights that almost, I think, ten out of the twelve players talked about when they left. [00:10:37] Speaker C: How do you think these events can influence a child's life so, so much? [00:10:43] Speaker D: I don't think sometimes in society we don't realize how impressionable kids are. And it's the most minor minute things. I actually came today from my son's kindergarten class. They had a parent volunteer thing where they were teaching, learning about healthy foods and healthy hand washing and so on and so forth. And at one of my tables in the rotation, I was helping them wash hands. There was a kid who I had previously met when I volunteered for a library field trip of theirs. And it was one of those, you know, those weird uncle tricks of trying to take your thumb off. So I was trying to entertain the kids. I was showing him that I could take my thumb off and probably lasted like two minutes. And it's probably like two months ago. And today I'm sitting there and every single kid that comes to my rotation is like, hey, can you take your thumb off? And I'm like, what is happening here? And then when the kid who I had done it with, he came and he was like, I've told everybody that Daniel's dad can take his thumb off and they couldn't figure out how. But it's even small moments like that that you think you're doing it in a moment to entertain them. So they forget about they actually sit on the bus versus standing on the bus that a few months later he's told the whole class that Daniel's dad's coming and this guy can take his thumb off. So I think with that story you can see how impressionable kids are. And I think the more positive reinforcements that they get from their community and their neighborhoods, it really allows those kids to have a running track, a wet track sort of advantage going forward. And I think the more we can do that in the city, the more we can do that in our communities and neighborhoods, the better that next generation is going to be. [00:12:38] Speaker A: That was Usman Tahirjat, chairman of the Calgary search on bringing community to youth in the city. [00:12:48] Speaker B: I'm Mona Proek Verger and you are listening to search in the city beyond basketball. And this episode is about youth in the city. As we just heard from Usman, one of the initiatives that Calgary research works with with is Kitsap front. I sit down with Hadiazim, the communications coordinator. She explains what the organization is all about and how their work with the Calgary search looks like. Hadia has been to a surge game last season herself. She tells her perspective about the experience with all the kids at the event. Stay tuned to hear how it felt for her to see the impact her work has. [00:13:34] Speaker E: So welcome. We already talked to the chairman of the category research Usman, and he told us about the kids that were able to attend a game in the last season and that wouldn't be possible without the kids upfront. [00:13:47] Speaker B: So you and your team tell me. [00:13:49] Speaker E: About the work that kids upfront does. [00:13:52] Speaker F: So kids Upfront is a charity dedicated to breaking accessibility barriers for kids and families across Alberta to access fun and enriching events like concerts, sports, games, theatre, literally anything and everything you can think of. We believe that a kid should have a right to be a kid and they don't have to worry about how they get to these places. Like, they shouldn't have to worry about financial restraints, cultural restraints, social restraints, anything like that. They should just be able to enjoy the things that kind of everybody enjoys and overlooks. [00:14:28] Speaker E: Okay, and how does the process work so that the kid gets a ticket in the end? [00:14:34] Speaker F: So in general, what happens is we get either individual donations or corporate donations. So we have partnerships with different organizations across the city. So we have one with CSAC, so the flames, hitmen, wranglers, all of them. We have one with the Calgary search and we have one with a few other, like corporations. There are also just like corporations that do good deeds. So like NMAX, different, like big companies, they'll donate large amounts of tickets to us, or individual donors will donate like four or five tickets to games or concerts or whatever. And we will take them and we'll handpick agencies. So we work with over 160 agencies right now, community agencies. So like ups and downs, AFS kids, cancer care, YYC or trains, just a whole bunch of different organizations to distribute tickets. So we get the tickets, we handpick agencies and then we call them and ask if they have any families that would be interested in attending, let's say a Calgary search game for tonight or tomorrow or this week. And they say, yeah, we'll take this many tickets and we distribute them that way. So we don't actually have direct contact with families, we just work with agencies. [00:15:55] Speaker E: Okay, so you are the step in between. You just mentioned that I as an individual, could also help and donate a ticket. Did I get that right? [00:16:05] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:16:05] Speaker F: So we get a lot of individual donations. So originally how kids upfront started was our founder John Delzile went to a Calgary Flames game in 2000 and he saw that there was a lot of empty seats in the stadium, like a lot of empty seats. And he couldn't help but think people paid for these seats, but they're not showing up. And how many kids out there would love to be here but can't for whatever reason? And so he started kids upfront, which is an organization where people can take their tickets that maybe if they can't attend, they can donate them and they can go to a kid like someone can still fill those seats and have a good experience. So that's how it started. And now it has grown into so much more where people purposely will buy tickets to give to us or like, you know, we still accept tickets if someone can't attend or if you know that, like, oh, something came up. You won't be able to go to a concert that you have tickets for and you can't find any way to go, then you can give them to us and we'll find a kid to go in their place. [00:17:07] Speaker E: Okay, that's really nice. And Usman told us about his experience with getting a free ticket as a kid and how it shaped his life and that he still talks about it today, 30 years later. When was the time where you realized what impact your work can have on a kid's life? [00:17:25] Speaker F: So we provide these experiences free of cost to the families. Like, they don't have to pay anything, but instead what they like to do is sometimes they'll send us thank you cards and they'll, like, write little messages in them and explain to us. Either the parents will explain to us or the kids will even write them themselves and be like, oh, we've never been able to go to a sports game before. You know, this was such a cool experience. My kid has loved playing basketball his whole life, but he's never been able to see it. So going to these games was such a surreal experience. And so I think the moments when we get these letters and thank you cards, that's when I'm like, oh, wow, we're actually making a difference in these kids lives. We even, like, often reflect as a staff on our first experiences. So we have in our office, we have a board where everybody's written their first ticket experience. So mine was like a sunny Gomez concert in 2000, I don't know, ten or something like that. And you think about it, and for us, I guess we're privileged in a way that I never had to think too hard about. Like, it was just normal that I would have this experience. You know, I never thought that, like, oh, there are some kids out there that don't get to go to these things and stuff like that. But then when you do this work and you see that there are so many kids that would love to, you know, even, even go to a trampoline park for their birthday, but they can't, you know, their parents, for whatever reason, like, maybe they can't afford it. Maybe it's an accessibility thing, maybe it's a cultural thing. They can't, for whatever reason, to see that we can help them and set up these programs for them to be able to do normal kid things or things that seemed so normal to me before I started working here is pretty surreal. [00:19:24] Speaker E: Yeah, that's so nice. And I can imagine it is really nice and also good to see what impact it has through those little cards and thank you cards. So you told me before that you also went to one of the category search games. It was one of the games where. [00:19:43] Speaker B: A whole section was full of kids. [00:19:45] Speaker E: And if you remember right, it was the game where 160 kids ran to the locker room. Right. So how did it feel to see those kids and knowing your work made it possible for them to be here? [00:19:57] Speaker F: It was really nice. Yeah, I think it was the July 27 game or something. We as a staff got to go just to kind of support the surge, and we knew we had this partnership with them, but none of us had been to a game yet that season, and it was one of the last games, and we knew that we had distributed 80 tickets to just one group. Like, one agency took 80 tickets, and we were like, wow, that's a lot of. That's a lot of kids. That's a lot of families. So we went and you could just see them. Like, it was so apparent where they were sitting. We were sitting right across from them, and they were just having such a good time. They had the mascot come and, like, dance with the kids, and they were cheering so loud. It was just. It was very surreal, because I think for. For me, I don't work in ticket distribution, but, like, my coworker Sierra, she does. And so she is always, like, inputting and outputting tickets, calling people, stuff like that. And I think we kind of forget that there's actual people behind it sometimes because it's so easy to just be like, oh, the numbers in, the numbers out kind of a thing, but to actually be there and see these kids having such a good time, losing their minds over the players and things like that, it was just a very real moment, and it was really nice to actually see the impact of the work that we do. [00:21:15] Speaker E: And in what ways did the game maybe change the view you have at your own work? [00:21:20] Speaker F: I think it just really, like I said, I know of all the experiences that we distribute, and I know of the work we do, but to actually see it in action was very different. The only other time that I had ever really seen it in action was when we kind of have our own programs that we run where we have kids come in, but that's stuff I'm prepared for. And I'm kind of have a helping hand in leading it or whatever. I understand. But to actually see like, that many kids in one area and see how much fun they were having and just like them not having to worry about anything in that moment, like whatever is going on in their lives, it doesn't matter. Right now, they're just here enjoying a game, having fun with their friends, with their family. It was just, it made it very like full circle and like, reminded me of like the human aspect of like, what we do. [00:22:19] Speaker B: That was the communications coordinator, Hadia Asim, about the kids up front's work. She gave us an insight of how it feels to help fill all those empty seats with excited and grateful kids. Thanks Hadia for sharing your thoughts and reminding all of us to not take the possibility of attending such events, no matter if it's a sports game or a celebration concert for granted. The Calgary search team changes lives not only for the players and basketball fans, but also for the young generation in the city. Thanks to the Calgary research and their partnership with kids up front, many children have been able to attend a basketball game and so many more will get a seat in the next season. And who knows, maybe also get the chance to meet their new favorite basketball players or dance with the mascot. [00:23:13] Speaker A: This. [00:23:13] Speaker B: Has been Heather Johnson and I'm Mona Fruckberg. [00:23:17] Speaker A: This series is a collaboration between the Calgary Surge and Community podcast initiative. [00:23:22] Speaker C: Based out of Mount Royal University. [00:23:25] Speaker A: It was produced on treaty seven territory. [00:23:28] Speaker C: And we recognize the stewards and storytellers. [00:23:30] Speaker A: Of these lands, the Nitsitippi Ayahe and Metis peoples. We are grateful to create, learn and play here, and as storytellers ourselves, we are committed to listening to their expertise and continuing to learn as we work towards reconciliation. Follow the Calgary Surge and their new season at Calgarysurge CA and at Calgary Surge on social media. Learn more about the community podcast initiative at the podcast studio CA and at Communitypod YYC. [00:24:03] Speaker B: Be sure to subscribe for the latest episodes and find out where in the city the search will be next.