M'Banna Kantako II from BLBL4K, Better Life Better Learning 4 Kidz is Empowering Kids and Building Futures

Jeff Williams:
Welcome to Community Voices, a production of NPR Illinois. I'm your co-host Jeff Williams. In the studio with me today, M’Banna Kantako II. That's right. on. It took me a minute to get that, dang it, but So how are you doing today?
M'Banna Kantako II:
I'm doing all right. How about yourself?
Jeff Williams:
I'm good. And so, would you want to let everybody know what brings you into the studio today?
M'Banna Kantako II:
I guess we want to bring a little attention to our organization… Better Life Better Living 4 Kids.
Jeff Williams:
Yeah. Well, first off, can you kind of explain to people what your organization is?
M'Banna Kantako II:
Okay. So, we started back in 2015.
Jeff Williams:
Okay.
M'Banna Kantako II:
You know, it was really just me and two of my cousins. was sitting around having a conversation about how there's all kinds of news coverage about what the youth on the east side of town were doing or not doing, violence, rising crime. And we're sitting there talking about, but there's nothing for them to do. Like, what do you expect if you got all these idle minds just sitting around all summer waiting on school to start back? So we decided we needed to do something about that. We can't sit around and keep on waiting. Let's just come up with something. It's like, what are we going to do? And then we mutually decided we were going to ask for donations of water and take 30 youths and we was going to walk them to the Capitol building just to do a tour of the Capitol building, just to do something with it. We were going to meet at Cox Park, but by the time we got to Cox Park on that designated day, it started just raining.
Jeff Williams:
Oh yeah.
M'Banna Kantako II:
This is how the organization got started. My cousin, one of my cousins, was like, what are we going to do? And we decided, well, we'll just stay at the park, and we'll call it Sunday Fun Day. And we'll just, since we already have the kids, everybody's bringing their kids here anyway. Let's just not say we're not going to do anything. So, we decided we stayed at the park, we barbecued, I think the first day we probably had 25 kids show up.
Jeff Williams:
Yeah, right.
M'Banna Kantako II:
So, we just stayed out there till I think it was probably noon till around 5pm. Then we were like, that was pretty cool. Y'all want to do it again next Sunday?
Jeff Williams:
Oh, next Sunday. And this was in Comer Cox (Park)?
M'Banna Kantako II:
Yes, in Comer Cox Park, yes, Springfield, Illinois. Then that following Sunday, we did it again and the numbers doubled. We went from 20 something to 50 something. So, then we was like, we might as well keep going. It's like, yeah, we are on to something. The very next Sunday, we had over 100 and something kids in the park. Now we had to start thinking a little bit more in depth, like, okay, we got something here.
Jeff Williams:
Yeah.
M'Banna Kantako II:
What was our goal? And the goal was to establish a better life for the kids. So, we were like, let's try Better Life Better Living 4 Kids... and that's how it came about.
Jeff Williams:
Online presence?
M'Banna Kantako II:
BLBL4K.org is our website.
Jeff Williams:
Okay, let me get that down here right on. BLBL4K, the number four, K.
M'Banna Kantako II:
Yes, that's Better Life Better Living 4 Kids. Yep, And we're on Facebook as well.
Jeff Williams:
Okay.
M'Banna Kantako II:
So we've done that. nine years before we were able to get actual funding, everything was community-based. Everything we did for nine years straight was off peer donations from the community. Every program, we would do a field trip every now and then, but that was 100% funded by the community. So, this is when we say we have a grassroots organization, it's 100% grassroots. It was brought, it would have never happened without simple things like You may have somebody riding down the street and see us out there and he like, I'm going to go to Walmart and grab y'all some bikes to give to kids. We have got somebody to call and say, do y'all need more hot dogs up there? Just simple things like that brought us to where we are today.
Jeff Williams:
Love it. has to feel pretty good. All of a sudden, you kind of all of a sudden feel this in the community, the outreach for everybody that starts there. Exactly, in the community. So love it.
M'Banna Kantako II:
So can you talk like some of the mentorship programs, things like that? to get us a facility, a brick and mortar facility. And we just got that last year. Oh, did you? So, we had our 10 year anniversary and a brand opening of our facility on 1507 East Cook Street.
Jeff Williams:
Okay, congratulations on that.
M'Banna Kantako II:
And since then, we've expanded into, we do an after school program and we do a summer program. The after school program is Monday, Wednesdays and Fridays from 5 to 9 P.m. And that's what we strictly focused on. helping these kids raise their grade standards. We do assessments with the children to see where they're at education-wise, and then we target that particular area where they most need help at. Like we also have youth workers that come to help with the kids themselves. To help mentor them also. We have high school kids helping with the grade school kids. And that's a beautiful thing because a lot of those high school kids were grade school kids in the program when we first started. Even some of those children that even have graduated high school now that went through our program, been with us through the whole 10 years, they now are there as youth workers. They actually pay workers to work there. So they are invested in it for years and years of even being there.
Jeff Williams:
And they've got that memory, that history, that connection with it, know what I mean? From when they were young, even younger.
M'Banna Kantako II:
And it resonates with the little children more because of those kids have those stories be like, yeah, I remember when I was your age. Or they see their picture on the wall. This was me 10 years ago.
Jeff Williams:
Yeah.
M'Banna Kantako II:
So we profoundly believe that in order to change a condition, then we have to participate in breaking the cycle. So that's why we raising new kids to think differently. We may not be able to change the mind of a 35-year-old, but we can definitely work on a 5-year-old.
Jeff Williams:
Absolutely.
M'Banna Kantako II:
We do birth to 17. So we do all kids, but we don't leave them out once they turn 17. We bringing them back in as workers now.
Jeff Williams:
Love it, love it, definitely.
M'Banna Kantako II:
Yeah, so you was mentioning, like we do the after-school program, which is mostly focused on education, but we also do the summer program where we try to, in our facility, we have audio video studio. We have podcasting room. We have a gaming room. We have computer lab. We have arts and crafts. We have a recreational room. So, we didn't want to narrow it down to say, okay, when you come in our facility, there's just one thing for you to do.
Jeff Williams:
Exactly.
M'Banna Kantako II:
We got multiple things for you to do, so you find what's best for you. Right, so we're showing them that they're giving them the opportunity to say, oh, I like this, or I may like this. Okay, well, let's explore that. We also do field trips that take them, like we've taken them horseback riding. We've taken them fishing. We've taken them to the zoo. We take them to the Mark Twain cave.
Jeff Williams:
Oh, yeah.
M'Banna Kantako II:
Just getting them out of Springfield. Just remember that the world is open to you.
Jeff Williams:
Exactly.
M'Banna Kantako II:
Don't just think because once you get out of school, you just have to figure it out for the summer. Because we generally, like 90, I think our number is like 93% of our children are 50,000, come from households of 50,000 and below. A lot of the parents don't have the funds to have something for them to do over this. So, we consider that in our mission plan. That's why we charge. It's only $5 a month. And we tell them that the $5 a month is just to keep preparing invested.
Jeff Williams:
Sure, that's what I was going to say.
M'Banna Kantako II:
It doesn't necessarily cover any. It's just an investment in the program. So be like, yeah, okay. So, what do they say? So, what do I get for the $5? Your badge. You come in, your badge is worth this $5. All the children inside the facility have to wear a badge the entire time.
Jeff Williams:
Sure, yeah.
M'Banna Kantako II:
Because it's a members only thing. So you don't just have an open revolving door. We're always accepting applications. But to be inside the facility, you have to fill out the pass. paperwork. We have to know who you are. We have to have the emergency contact.
Jeff Williams:
Sure. Which just makes sense. You know what I mean? You just have to do that sort of a thing. Is this, are you now like a 501c3 or something? Now, okay, gotcha, gotcha that. You've established yourself where you're able to then reach out and get that grant, the funding for things like that. I mean, doing that. It's also key, like 5 to 9 each night on those Monday, Wednesday, Fridays or the Monday, Fridays. I mean, that's huge too, you know, because sometimes, you know, if people are working and to go a little later like that's really very, very huge.
M'Banna Kantako II:
Once we get into a better financial situation question, we're looking to be five days a week on that after school program. Our summer program is four days a week. So, we have on Tuesdays and Thursdays, we have class day and that's from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Jeff Williams:
Okay.
M'Banna Kantako II:
But on Wednesdays, we have in-town field trips and on Fridays we have out of town trips. But it's a requirement for you to come to class in order to take take the field trip.
Jeff Williams:
Right.
M'Banna Kantako II:
We have them for four days a week during the summer and three days a week during the fall and spring.
Jeff Williams:
As you mentioned, you have like equipment like for like you mentioned podcasting for one thing and so was that you can't get everything at once, you thought, Well, this will be good to get for the kids, and then were other times where it's like, Well, a lot of kids have been asking about this, we maybe need to, even if we, even if we're not sure, we're.
M'Banna Kantako II:
Still looking, yeah, we're still looking to keep on growing.
Jeff Williams:
Growing like that, exactly.
M'Banna Kantako II:
So, we like the podcasting was just the latest thing that we did. Then you kind of just, we're not like we don't want to… we want to be like a roadmap, but not necessarily the destination, figure it out your own. We're just here to keep you in the street. Right, yeah, We don't want you veering off into the alleys. Especially like some of the kids, the youth workers now, they come to us and ask us about longer term planning. I want, I'm thinking about being a nurse, would you think? I want, I'm thinking about going to the army, would you think? Yeah, well, let's just sit down and have those conversations twice a month. We sit down with them and we go over like community development, financial literacy, emotional intelligence, just giving them brain food to move when they moved along through life. And it's not like we just only here for the little kids. We here for y'all too. Right. Because a lot of the things that y'all have gone through, we've been through already. So we try to eliminate some of those obstacles along the way.
Jeff Williams:
Man, I love that. I love all of that. And then it kind of does where, well, like you mentioned, I mean, sometimes it might be something that's 180 degrees from what you were even thinking.
M'Banna Kantako II:
Right.
Jeff Williams:
If they. if they can kind of come to you and you realize this is something that they're, I mean, that gives them like a sense of ownership, in a way, because it's not just, it's not just getting told, well, this is the thing you need to do and this will be good. Of course, there's got to be some, of that with certain things, but they're able to have that feeling of being part, part of the whole. So that's, I love that.
M'Banna Kantako II:
Yeah, we keep them aware of it. Like I even tell them sometimes, like even with me going to college, When I first went to college, I went to college to get a nursing degree. I finished with a master's in public administration. You never know. You just get in there, you start figuring out different things. You be like, wait a minute. I didn't even know that even existed.
Jeff Williams:
Right, exactly. But you got to do those first steps are what then all of a sudden let you realize that this could be some other thing that you weren't even planning on at all.
M'Banna Kantako II:
And my dad was the Founder of Pirate Radio in America.
Jeff Williams:
Oh, really?
M'Banna Kantako II:
Yeah.
Jeff Williams:
Oh, man!
M'Banna Kantako II:
First one was an illegal radio station. Right, The basis of that Berkeley case.
Jeff Williams:
Okay.
M'Banna Kantako II:
That's what they use. John Hay Holmes in Springfield.
Jeff Williams:
Oh! That? I totally remember that! … They like shot at him and stuff, didn't they? Tried to...
M'Banna Kantako II:
Yeah. So, I've been around this for...
Jeff Williams:
Oh, yeah. Okay. Did you want to talk a little bit about... Pirate radio and go back into that or do you want to keep that?
M'Banna Kantako II:
I mean, so that's totally up to you if you're it's fine because it all circles back to my father had one of these programs before He was actually partnered with a professor, associate professor from UIS back when it was saying a mistake, Mike Townsend.
Jeff Williams:
Yeah, they just ran a thing, talking about him some, so yeah, just last week.
M'Banna Kantako II:
Yeah, so they were doing like we were using the vans from Sangamon State when we were kids taking those field trips. So that's all a part of it. Like we didn't just come up with this out the blue. We all three of my cousins that had that conversation, we've been through that program. So we even reached back to my dad and be like, so what did you do when you ran into this obstacle? So even when we was in those summer programs, we was doing radio programs at that age as well. Like that was part of the thing we would do. He had a summer school program. He had an after school program. And the radio was one of the classes that we had to take. Right, So it's all, it's not, you can't really leave it out because then you'll be like, so where'd you get the idea from? I didn't come up with it. My dad did it. I'm just, we just modernized it to fit this generation.
Jeff Williams:
Take it because the idea was there and it was planted way back. And though at that time, there was obviously no way you could know that it, and then all of a sudden it circles back and it's like, oh man, we can do this, you know?
M'Banna Kantako II:
He'd been taking children, low-income children, on field trips. Like, we even used to do classes here, on campus here. They used to bring us out here, 50 kids from the John Hay Homes coming out to here. And when we was kids, we was looking around like, this is crazy. This is some college campus, you know? Oh, yeah. So all of it matters.
Jeff Williams:
All of it matters. Exactly, man, oh man. Once again, we are in the studio with M’Banna Kantako II talking to us about Better Life Better Living 4 Kids, which is a program, and you can look online, BLBL4K, and that four is the number four.org. BLBL4K.org. It was great talking to you about all this. Is there anything else you wanted to add, let people know.
M'Banna Kantako II:
We're always accepting new members. We don't turn people down. We currently serve about 55 children, but we're looking to expand. We probably got like double that amount on our waiting list. But the more funding that we receive, we'll bring more kids in. We have the capacity to handle it, but just not the finances to handle it. And we don't want to stretch ourselves so thin that we're not giving the kids that are there the attention that they need. So the more funding that we receive, the better off we'll be, the more kids we can serve.
Jeff Williams:
Once again, M’Banna, thank you very much for coming in. It has been a great conversation.
M'Banna Kantako II:
I appreciate you even inviting me. Right, That was pretty easy. (laughter)
Jeff Williams:
Not too bad. Not too bad! Community Voices is a production of NPR, Illinois.