- [Narrator] Funding for this edition of State of Affairs with Steve Adubato has been provided by The Turrell Fund, supporting Reimagine Childcare.

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[INSPRATIONAL MUSIC] - Hi everyone, Steve Adubato here.

More importantly, it is our honor to have on Mark Barden who is co-founder and CEO of Sandy Hook Promise Action Fund.

Good to see you, Mark.

- Good to see you too, Steve.

Thanks for having me on.

- Mark, we've done a whole range of programs dealing with gun violence.

We'll continue to do that, but your perspective on this, your role in this fight, is very unique and personal, losing your son, Daniel, back on December 14th, 2012, at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

In the 10 years since, the biggest progress we've made, A and then B, let's talk about the most pressing need moving forward.

Progress is where?

- There has been progress.

I know that it's excruciatingly slow, just ask us, but we are making progress across a lot of different areas on the epidemic of, shooting epidemic that we're suffering from here in this country.

The work that we do at Sandy Hook Promise is truly the essence of prevention, where we know that almost every time there's an act of violence, there's a suicide, a mass shooting, there are warning signs beforehand.

People talk about it.

People give off signs and signals before that happens.

And what we do at Sandy Hook Promise is we train students, parents, teachers, how to look for and identify those warning signs and then give them the tools to connect that individual to the help that they need before it becomes a tragedy.

To date, we have students who have been trained in our Know the Science programs.

Say Something and Start With Hello have now averted at least 11 school shootings that we can speak to.

And that's tremendously significant if you think of the impact, the lifelong impact, concentric circles of impact that come from just one mass shooting or school shooting.

So, students trained in our programs have now prevented 11 mass shootings that we can speak to and hundreds of suicides either by self-reporting or reporting on peer through our Say Something program and or using the anonymous reporting system.

Question.

People watching right now, listening to you just say you've prevented, you and your team, the folks in the organization have prevented school shootings.

First of all, make that clear how, and then B, what can someone watching right now do all of whom are concerned about the potential in their own local schools?

Talk to them please.

- Sure.

So let me back up a little bit.

What we do in Sandy Hook Promise is that through research, we have identified that people give off warning signs before they commit an act of violence either against themselves or others.

Our Say Something program is designed to train students how to look for those warning signs and then give them the tools to tell trusted adults who could connect that individual to help or to use our anonymous reporting system, which is a live tip line staffed with trained crisis counselors who can then make an intervention and get somebody help before it becomes a tragedy.

To date that we can speak to, 11 school shootings have been averted by students who recognized warning signs, told a trusted adult, and an intervention was made and that individual was gotten to help and tragedy was averted.

So we bring these programs to schools and communities at no cost, thanks to the generosity of our donors.

Folks watching at home can come to the website SandyHookPromise.org.

Find out how you can be, you can help us.

Share the word, spread the word through your networks, talk to schools in your district that don't have Sandy Hook Promise programs and that could use them.

Our two main programs under our Know the Signs heading are Start With Hello, which trains students about the the potential dangers of extreme social isolation and how to connect with students.

And the other program is Say Something, which trains students how to recognize those warning signs and connect to a trusted adult.

- But can you tell us something about your son, Daniel, that made him so special, because we can talk about policy, we can talk about programs and all those things matter, but I wanna make sure you have a chance to say something about your son and why he was so special.

- Thank you, Steve.

Daniel was our third child and the youngest of our three children.

And I will say James and Natalie and Daniel all have wonderful capacity for being outstanding citizens.

Daniel had a beautiful way of noticing his peers, noticing others around him, even picking up the worms off the sidewalk so they wouldn't burn in the sun and putting them in the grass, taking the carpenter ants out of our house, outside, because he thought they should be with their families and looking out for his peers in school.

And it was, every parent loves to hear that their child is being a good citizen when they're away from the home.

And we heard so many wonderful stories about how Daniel would notice somebody if they were sitting alone or having a hard day that he would want connect with them.

He had such a beautiful sense of empathy.

And the work that we do at Sandy Hook Promise for me is very personal and it is that I've found, it's an appropriate way to honor Daniel, his life, the way he conducted his life by bringing those values to other people and to quite literally prevent other families from having to endure the pain of losing an innocent loved one to preventable gun violence.

- You know, Mark, there are people watching many of whom believe this, you know, government can't do very much.

They're not gonna disagree with anything you said because you're talking about prevention, the work that you and your colleagues have done.

The website will be up as I speak right now of Sandy Hook, Sandy Hook Promise Action Fund.

But here's the thing, what specific legislation, policy change, one in particular, nothing solves this, but some people believe it's quote inevitable.

There's nothing we can really do governmentally.

You don't buy that, do you?

- Oh, not at all, Steve.

You know, policy is part of the equation, part of the solutions that are available to us and an important part, but there are many, and they're not all policy and no number of laws or regulations will prevent every act of violence.

It's just plain and simple.

However, we have been able, through our policy team, they're incredibly capable, they have been able to write and pass bipartisan legislation at the state and federal level that will help students have access to suicide awareness training, suicide prevention training, other mental health services, violence intervention programs at the community level, a grant funding for us to do our work so we can continue to bring our programs to schools at no cost to the schools.

The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act that President Biden just signed into law, as many of those provisions as part of its, part of the initiatives in that language.

So there are so many opportunities for us to pass meaningful legislation.

Extreme Risk Protection Order is proven to work, save lives, closing the loophole in the federal background check system.

We know that will save lives.

It's evidence based, it works, it's constitutional and so that with Community Based Violence Intervention programs, funding for mental health programs, there are so many things we can do from a policy perspective that kind of work in coordination with the programmatic approach to have a more holistic approach to really bring the numbers down.

And then over time, especially with the work that we're doing at Sandy Hook Promise, over time, not only at scale and numbers, but as students are continually exposed to the curriculum of looking out for one another, being good upstanders for one another, observing warning signs and connecting somebody to help.

That's a cultural change.

And over time, when class, after class after class, students are exposed to this curriculum of just being a good neighbor and being observant of one another, that represents to me a culture change that's gonna be reflecting a more connected, kinder society as we move forward.

- Mark, cannot thank you enough.

On behalf of everyone in the public television and public broadcasting family and community, we thank you and everyone at Sandy Hook Promise for the work you're doing.

Thanks so much, Mark.

- I appreciate that, Steve.

Thank you.

- We'll be right back.

(grand music) - [Announcer] To watch more State of Affairs with Steve Adubato, find us online and follow us on social media.

- We're now joined once again by Tim Sullivan, CEO of the New Jersey Economic Development Authority.

Good to see you, Tim.

- Great to be with you, Steve.

- Good, we got the website up for the EDA.

Once again, I do not wanna assume people know what the EDA is.

Let everyone know.

- Economic Development Authority, part of Governor Murphy's team that drives inclusive economic growth as best we can, trying to create private sector jobs and encourage the building of strong communities here in New Jersey.

- Full disclosure, the EDA is an underwriter of our program mainly regarding innovation in our economy in the state of New Jersey.

Tim, let me ask you, the micro business loan program is what?

I've heard a lot about this and it was launched back on October, excuse me, on October the 6th, it's being launched.

We're taping on the 20th of September.

What is it and why is it so significant to the business community?

- New $20 million loan program targeting the smallest business, micro businesses, companies with 10 or fewer employees or a million and a half or less of revenue.

A really important part of Governor Murphy's commitment to small business as we come out of COVID and sort of from pandemic to recovery here.

Loans of up to $50,000 could be partially forgiven because, the smaller the business is, the harder it is to access capital.

And something like 90% of all minority-owned businesses are some form of micro business and when we're talking about micro businesses we're really talking about laser focusing on the governor's commitment to diversity and inclusion and how we support small businesses.

- Follow up on this, Tim, we had the CEO of the New Jersey Business and Industry Association, Michele Siekirka on recently.

And people can log onto our website SteveAdubato.org.

You'll see it on the screen and check that out.

She did say that in the budget, in the last budget that was struck in the last day of June 2022 by state constitution, that's when it has to be struck, that there was not enough direct state support to small business.

How do you respond?

- I think the budget that the governor originally proposed and an even better one that he signed at the end of June made an extraordinary set of investments in not just small business, but the economy throughout New Jersey.

Fifty million dollars of direct small business assistance through our Main Street programs, but also really meaningful support for small business through things like a manufacturing program that we're going to roll out this fall, investments in our film and television industry, investments in childcare, which, you know we're going to talk about on this program as well, which are overwhemingly small businesses.

All told several hundred million dollars of direct small business support, largely state appropriations, a little bit of federal money in there as well.

I think the budget the governor signed was extraordinarily supportive of small business.

You mentioned childcare.

Be specific about the connection, Tim, between accessible, affordable, quality childcare and the economy of our state and our nation.

- If the pandemic didn't hit you over the head with the reality that childcare is part of economic infrastructure, I don't know what will.

Just like if the power goes off or the water stops running, if the childcare system stops functioning, good luck getting employees to show up at work, myself included.

And so, Governor Murphy and President Biden at the national level, but most importantly, Governor Murphy at the state level have really re-oriented how we think about childcare as economic infrastructure.

It's also a huge employer.

There are three or four thousand small businesses... - That's right - That are childcare businesses in New Jersey that employ a ton of people.

But it's really an important economic piece of economic infrastructure and so the legislature and the governor allocated a little more than $50 million in the last budget and then another $30 million in this most recent budget to support childcare facility upgrades.

Not only to improve the quality of care which is deeply important.

Every kid in New Jersey deserves the best care available in the right kind of facilities.

We're talking things like the right kind of bathrooms so teachers don't have to take the whole class down the hallways when one of the little kids has to use the potty, as we call it at my house.

So, really important as a quality of care perspective, it's also really important from a business model perspective.

The federal government reimburses higher quality facilities at a higher rate for kids that get childcare subsidies.

So if we can help these small businesses improve their reimbursement rates from the feds, that's more money flowing back to those small businesses, more money flowing back to New Jersey from the federal government.

- We're talking to Tim Sullivan, the CEO of New Jersey Economic Development Authority.

You'll see their website up so you can find out more about the work they're doing.

Tim, let me ask you, you mention the workplace, well it's been on my mind so I might as well put it out there, so, the nature of work has changed dramatically.

Right before we got on the air you asked when are we going to be in the studio again.

In all candor, we look forward to that, but this is what we are doing for now.

And there may be some hybrid situations, meaning you could be in the studio and interview someone remotely.

What does that have to do with work?

The hybrid workplace is becoming more the norm.

More and more people work remotely, some in person, some remote.

What does that have to do, the dramatic radical changing of the way work gets done?

How does that impact the work of the EDA?

- It's certainly a big factor.

We're keeping our eye on it closely.

A couple of things to think about here.

I think the narrative that nobody is going to go back to the office ever again is a bit oversold.

I think the likelihood that people go back five days a week, Monday to Friday in a suit and tie is also not likely to happen.

So, I think you're right.

Hybrid's kind of the way of the future for office workers.

This is worth noting, about a third of New Jersey workers, work in what we would consider an office.

Lots of folks work in factories and in retail.

Their work life probably didn't get changed too much.

Cities like Newark or Jersey City that have significant concentration of office space, that's a real challenge for the small businesses that support those industries and those offices.

There's also opportunities there, too.

I think if folks don't want to go into New York City every day and commute, and who likes commuting, they're gonna wanna work closer to home.

They may to get out of the house and go to an office closer to home.

So, suburban office parks are a healthier asset class today than they were three or four years ago.

I think downtowns in our great small towns have opportunities for co-working space, collaborative space, because folks even if they're working from home still want to get out of the house.

They still wanna go have lunch, they still wanna see people.

And so it's distributing and changing how those opportunities present themselves.

But certainly, it's a significant both challenge and opportunity.

- What about commercial real estate?

You mentioned that there may be some opportunity for folks who may not want to go into Manhattan to work from Jersey.

But is it fair to say, Tim, that there'll be a significant number of buildings, significant amount of office space?

I mean we gave up our office space.

We're working this way right now.

And we're not alone.

And we're pro, we're bullish on New Jersey, we want the economy to do well, but is it not a fact that there are gonna be more and more empty office space?

- Well, I think lots of companies are thinking about this differently.

I think there is certainly gonna be disruption.

I think the next five to ten years you're gonna see a lot of change of how office space is used.

We're talking to some companies that want more office space than they used to have... - Really?

- Because they're not thinking about it as how many desks can you cram in, but how can you use it for collaboration and big meetings and conferences and convenings.

You know, folks can work from home a couple of days a week but get together every so often.

They might need more space for that.

They might need different kind of space, but it might be more space.

Some companies are of course looking at a lot less space.

So, I think folks are gonna have to have a reason to go to the office and it's not just gonna be free lunch or a keg of beer in the corner every so often.

It's gonna have to be real opportunities for collaboration, mentorship, innovation.

One of the things we think about, and I know Governor Murphy and our entire team are thinking about is industries where that in-place factor matters, so film and television, life sciences, laboratories, manufacturing, for things like clean energy and offshore wind.

You're not doing that from home.

You know, maybe a day or two a week some of those jobs can work from home, but the real nitty-gritty, you're making a movie, you're doing it in person.

And so... Making sure we're leaning in particularly in our urban centers that might have a concentration of commercial real estate.

What can we do to be supportive of sectors and industries that are booming by the way in New Jersey that have that real kind of in-place features.

- Yep.

You've been listening to Tim Sullivan, the CEO of New Jersey Economic Development Authority.

Again their website has been up throughout the program.

Check out the work that they're doing and why it matters in your community.

Hey Tim, thank you for joining us once again.

- Always great to be with you, Steve.

Hope you're well.

- You got it.

Look forward to seeing you in person one day soon.

Stay with us.

We'll be right back.

(grand music) - [Announcer] To watch more State of Affairs with Steve Adubato, find us online and follow us on social media.

- We're honored to be joined by Dr. Suja Mathew, Executive Vice President and Chief Clinical Officer at Atlantic Health System.

Good to see you, Doctor.

- Oh, it's my pleasure to be here, Steve.

Thanks for having me.

- You got it.

We're taping at the end of September it'll be seen a little bit later.

Where are we, A, with COVID B, for people who wanna know, COVID shot, the vaccine, flu shot, do them together.

I know I'm loading a lot of things up, but everyone in my family has questions and it's not just my family.

Talk to us about COVID first.

Where do you believe we are even though it's a moving target?

- Yeah, certainly it's a moving target.

I think that we certainly continue to see COVID.

We see it at our hospitals, in our clinics, and in our communities.

Our relationship with COVID is very different today than it was years ago.

Our patients that we continue to see are coming in with COVID, in addition to coming in with other processes as well that we care for, that we're proud to be able to give the vaccine, the booster, the bivalent booster, both Moderna and Pfizer, to our communities.

So we're ready for that and we encourage members of the community to come get their vaccine.

- You know, the question, is it over?

The President was actually asked this question recently on "60 Minutes" and you're smiling 'cause I'm sure you heard it and everyone came and asked you, "Is it over?"

Who says it's over?

Is that the head of the CDC?

Is the President of the United States?

Is that the Chief Clinical Officer?

What does over mean?

- Well, it's, I think it's different.

It's hard to say that it's over, that anything's over.

I think we're gonna be interacting with COVID for a very long time.

But fortunately, our interaction, as I noted before, is markedly different than it was two years ago, so- - We can't break up with COVID.

- Sorry, we can't break up.

There is no divorce from COVID.

No, COVID is- - I should not be making fun.

I'm sorry.

It just, I apologize, Doctor.

- No, no, no worries, Steve.

I understand.

No, we are going to need to learn to live with COVID as we've learned to live with other challenges in healthcare over centuries.

And so COVID is another one.

We're luckily in a different place.

We know what we need to do to manage COVID, don't we?

We know what protections we need to take as individuals.

As a healthcare system we know so much more today than we did when this process began over two years ago.

And we know how we can protect ourselves and the people that we care about.

So we encourage, you know, if you're eligible for a vaccine, certainly for the primary series, if you're eligible for a booster at this point, go out and get it.

You know, protect yourself and the people that you care about.

- You know, Dr. Mathew, we've done a fair amount of programming and we'll continue to do it, talking about the so-called healthcare heroes for whom the first year, you know, we recognize them.

We had parades for them.

We applauded for them, we revered them.

And then, I don't know what the heck happened.

The impact on physicians and nurses with so many people directing their anger and frustration around COVID toward them, how much burnout and frustration are we talking about in the nursing and physician profession?

A and B, are they separate or is it all part of the medical community?

And there are others, techs and others, who are very much part of the process as well?

I'm sorry, loaded question, I know.

- No, and a very appropriate question and I'm glad you asked it of me.

It's not all the same.

I think of, let me just first acknowledge, Steve, that it's not just doctors and nurses.

It's everyone that's involved in healthcare.

And we must acknowledge all of the the members of our healthcare community because they each play an incredibly critical role in the care of patients.

But pivoting to doctors and nurses, we have, doctors and nurses have unique challenges participating in healthcare today in 2022.

But there's certainly some commonalities.

Healthcare worker burnout was a real thing before the pandemic.

It was an issue.

It's hard to work in this job.

It's incredibly rewarding.

And I am so glad, you know, I have the privilege of working in this field, but it's also very challenging to deal with the issues that we deal with day in and day out.

So it was an preexisting problem and the pandemic heightened it.

Then, you know, we were able to respond quite heroically in the beginning, but like any challenge that's prolonged it takes its toll on individuals.

And so here at Atlantic, we're very mindful of that.

We have a number of processes and systems in place to help support all of our healthcare workers, our physicians, our nurses, and again, importantly every other person in our organization that plays a critical role in taking care of our communities.

- Just to clarify, Atlantic Health is an underwriter of our healthcare programming.

Doctor, lemme try this.

I'm curious about an issue that some might say, "Well that's not a medical or clinical issue," but food insecurity.

We have a limited amount of time left.

But you're very concerned about that and have taken specific actions in that regard.

Please talk to us.

- So it's a part of who I am.

I have had the opportunity to know health inequity from not only my professional experience in a public health system for a number of years before joining Atlantic, but also from deeply personal experiences.

And that shapes, you know, who I am, why I do what I do, where I do it, with whom I do it.

All of the things that make me me.

Food insecurity happens to be a issue that has just garnered a great deal of my attention and now my passion around that.

I've had an opportunity to develop programs around delivering healthy food into patients' homes.

I've participated, volunteered, you know, on the front line of delivering food and providing food in more pantry-like situations.

And then on a different realm of that battle, I've had the privilege of helping shape policy around food insecurity.

I am on the Board of Regions for the American College of Physicians, which is one of the largest, the largest specialty-based physician organization in the country, where I had an important role in shaping some of our policy.

I serve with the AMA and I also co-chair a group called Doctors for a Hunger Free of America.

Food and the other issues related to poverty play such an important role in the overall wellness of the communities that we serve.

So yes, it's something I feel very passionately about.

- Well said.

Dr. Mathew, I wanna thank you so much for joining us.

- Well, thank you, Steve.

Appreciate it.

- All the best.

I'm Steve Adubato, that's Dr. Mathew.

See you next time.

- [Narrator] State of Affairs with Steve Adubato Is a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

Funding has been provided by The Turrell Fund, supporting Reimagine Childcare.

Choose New Jersey.

PSE&G, Rowan University.

Johnson & Johnson.

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

MD Advantage Insurance Company.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

And by New Jersey Sharing Network.

Promotional support provided by Northjersey.com and Local IQ.

Part of the USA Today Network.

And by BestofNJ.com.

- Hi, I'’m Dr. Shereef Elnahal.

Did you know that there are nearly 4,000 New Jerseyans waiting for a life-saving transplant?

And 67 percent of those people are people of color.

Just one organ and tissue donor can save 8 lives and enhance the lives of over 75 people.

Let'’s come together to raise awareness in our diverse communities.

Donation needs diversity.

You have the power to make a difference.

For more information, or to become an organ and tissue donor, visit: www.njsharingnetwork.org.