The Horatio Williams Foundation, Wayne State University Athletics hosts Hoops & Culture weekend

It's an event you don't want to miss, Hoops and Culture Weekend. Joining us now to tell us all about it, we have Horatio Williams. Welcome to the show. Thanks for being here. Thank you for having me. I appreciate it. You have a very well-known foundation in the city, the Horatio Williams Foundation. Talk about the work that you do. Well, actually, we just give kids opportunities that they don't have in school or try to reinforce the educational piece that they didn't get earlier in that day at school. So and we're a leadership foundation. So our goal is to be a safe haven in the community and give kids the opportunity to reinforce whatever they need. Why is it so important to make sure our children have opportunities they otherwise may not have because of their situation? Well, you know, you just summed it up. You know, every kid have a different situation living in different areas. So we just want to let every kid know that they are on the same playing field. I don't care if you live in Southfield, Grosse Pointe, West Bloomfield, Detroit, Eastside, Westside. You are equal when you come to the Horatio Williams Foundation. And how do you do that? How do you make sure they know that they are on the same playing field? Talk about the things that you offer for them. Well, what we do, we try to let them know once they're inside of the Horatio Williams Foundation, we are one team. It's not based on where are you from, what school you go to. So basically, once we set that standard, everybody get on the same page. What are the ages that you serve? We go from first grade up to adulthood. Really? Yes. So when we're talking adulthood, like 18, 21? No, no, no, no, no, no, no. It go all the way to adulthood. Oh, even further? Even further. Wow. Yeah, we have different programs for the community. we have from fun activities for the seniors we have a hustle class every area step class hustle class every monday for the seniors in the neighborhood i love that we have a bingo program for the seniors um we have a program over there a cna program we have a program for random acts of kindness i mean we have several programs going all through through the week so you're providing opportunities and access across the board yeah no one left behind here no one no that is amazing talk about the response that you get whether it's from the the kids that you're helping out or our seniors what would do you see from the work that you're doing in the community how grateful they are for that well one thing i have recognized everyone that come here they're happy and when they leave they even more happy because they have another place to go a lot of people work from home now they just looking for different things to do to get outside the house and once you can give them activity they feel more comfortable and it's a place that they want to go you know it's just like anything else you used to go into the gym every day so you used to every monday go into the hustle class that's awesome and how long has the Horatio Williams Foundation been in the community um since 2005 we we became a 501c3 in 2005 but i've been doing this almost 32 years wow 32 years what's it like to see the longevity and the impact of your organization it's a blessing to just see young people that i haven't seen in years and uh and see them they become as a kid become adult and just see the things the improvements that they make in life and the great thing about they know they always can come back and ask for advice wow when they become an adult that's the most important time a lot of people say doing school well you know doing school you you got some supervision but now as an adult you kind of think trying to figure out what you want to do with the rest of your life so we always there when they're adults that's amazing that you help with that uh you're hosting a amazing event coming up for the community hoops and culture week weekend tell me what can people expect from that well on um the 23rd that friday we're going to um talk to the teams about mental health emotional health and sexual health and we're inviting all the teams to come out the players girls and boys teams and uh that evening we're going to go down to um Dan Gilbert's headquarters and do some financial literacy we have the Earn Your Leisure guys flying in town we're going to talk about and educating kids about finance and letting them know how they can get the you know the bang for their buck you know a lot of times people just keep their money in the bank and get two percent now you can invest it and get 12 percent or 10 percent so the goal is to let them know different avenues what they can do with their funding that's amazing and it's something that you know not a lot of kids their parents aren't may not be teaching them these things but these are some important things to know especially as you go into adulthood knowing that you know like you said keeping it in the bank two percent i mean you can be doing so much more with that right exactly and sometimes the parents just don't know so we're inviting the parents out too so it's not just focused for the kids but we want the kids to understand they do have an outlet another source of um educational when it comes to financial literacy. And you're not just teaching financial literacy. You're also making mental wellness a part of this event as well. Tell us how are you doing that and why was that an important piece of this? Well, you know, mental health is a big thing right now. So we teamed up with D-WIN. Mr. White would be one of the keynote speakers. And we have Pathway of Peace. Melba Clark, she worked with the kids with the IEPs and evaluating them. So our goal is to let the kids know that they have some source of help and they have somewhere to go a lot of times kids make bad decisions because they don't have nowhere no other adult to talk to yeah so i go so let them know let us give you some help and hopefully you'll be on the right track you're also making sure HBCUs are a part of this event which i love because i feel like so many of our kids they don't know that historically black colleges or universities exist because they aren't told about it so you're also exposing them to that at this event yes yes you know on on that saturday we have three games but before the games we have an HBCU expo we have college a lot of college recruiters to be around the stadium and we have um skilled trades too so a lot of kids not going to go to college so at the end of the day let's see what else they like to do if they want to be a plumber electrician heating and cooling they want to work in hospitality if they want to be a CNA be a part a CNA program then take it further and become a nurse or a doctor so let's give them some type of opportunity because everyone is not going to go to college i realized that and it's good that you have that realization and you're also again providing those opportunities for the kids who may not because you may have a kid who goes off to college and they're not successful at that but they are successful at the skilled trades, there's options and there's no one path fits all right Yes, it's a skill. It's a skilled trade. You know, once you learn a skill, you can do that the rest of your life, you know. So and that's just the morning part. Then afternoon part, we get into the game. So I had I was fortunate enough to go to Tuskegee and play basketball at Tuskegee University. So the first game would be Tuskegee versus Wayne State. All right. Now bring it home. Bring it home. Then that's at two o'clock. Then at four thirty, we have Alabama and them come in and play U of D. then the nightcap is going to be Tennessee State versus Oakland so at the end of the day it'll be a lot of fun and it's only 20 dollars, y'all come all day and watch the games for 20 dollars, um we're getting a lot of buzz for it um so if you're not doing nothing next Saturday please stop out be sure to check it out and i mean the 20 dollars it helps support all the amazing things that you've been doing for more It's been 20 years in this community, really a small fee to pay for a great impact, right? Yes, yes, yes, yes. So at the end of the day, we just want to give the city of Detroit something that people can do on that Friday and Saturday and educate them. So we got all them teams coming that never been to Detroit. Now we educate and let them know Detroit can be a hub for them when they get through playing ball. or if they get their degree, they can come in here and get a job and let them know it's a safe haven too. A lot of times we get a bad rap about things, but Detroit is a great city. Yes. And what would you say to encourage parents and their children, families to come and check out this event? I mean, you're really covering all angles here. You have the financial literacy, the mental wellness, you got the fun, especially the basketball. I see you're easing them in with the basketball ball yeah to get to the good stuff well my thing is take advantage of the opportunity because a lot of times we don't get opportunity to do things like this so let's just take advantage of it you know it's it's just like our facility is like home just come on just fellowship and we have a lot of people that come to all our events because of what we do so just come on out and enjoy yourself it's saturday i know families want to get out and do things so just come on out absolutely be sure to come out check it out where can people find more information or keep up with the Horatio Williams Foundation just go to horatio williams foundation.com and it's all on the website and it's on instagram there's something everywhere now on the tiktok instagram website but um if you want to participate just come on out and we'll make some room for you so if they say it's sold out we'll make some room for you love that all right horatio thank you so much for all that you do and continue to do in the community. Looking forward to next weekend. And thank you so much for joining us here on What's Good Detroit. Your organization is obviously something good that we have to highlight here. Well, thank you too. Absolutely.