Equity Actions: Bringing Well-Being Back to the Neighborhood

Dr. Kade Goepferd: This is Talking Pediatrics, a clinical podcast by Children’s Minnesota, home to the Kid Experts, where the complex is our every day. Each episode, we bring you intriguing stories and relevant pediatric health care information as we partner with you in the care of your patients. Our guests, data, ideas and practical tips will surprise, challenge, and perhaps change, how you care for kids.

Welcome to Talking Pediatrics. I’m your host, Dr. Kade Goepferd. Making sure that each child and family has the unique resources and care they need to reach their full health potential is the definition of health equity. On equity actions, Children’s SVP of Government and Community Relations and Chief Equity and Inclusion Officer James Burroughs interviews guests and tackles subjects that help us work toward equitable and inclusive care for all kids.

James Burroughs: Hello, this is James Burroughs, senior vice president of government relations and community relations and chief equity inclusion officer at Children’s Minnesota. I’m coming to you live from the Equity Suite at Talking Pediatrics, where we’re going to have an interview today of a dynamic individual I’ve known for years, and he’s going to talk to us about the value of community partnerships in pediatric care.

Many of you know that the social determinants of health determine a lot of the things that happen to our families and our patients even before they walk through our doors, but Malik has an interesting take on that in the sense that he’s built something through the community, with the community, that’s going to help us address those social determinants of health, and partner with us on ending some of these health disparities along the way. So, without further ado, I want to introduce Malik Rucker. How you doing, Malik?

Malik Rucker: I’m doing great, man. I’m really happy to be here. It’s my first time in this space, so I’m excited to talk with you.

James Burroughs: Let me get straight to the point. Malik, who are you? Now, who is Malik Rucker?

Malik Rucker: I describe myself as a servant leader. I believe my purpose in life is to serve those around it, such as the people from family, friends, to the community. I’m also brother, uncle, friend, and my day job, I work at V3 Sports, which I’m an executive director at.

James Burroughs: Now, you said something that caught me, “a servant leader.” So a servant leader typically has a purpose for their service and they get that somehow. How did you get that purpose? What’s your service?

Malik Rucker: I found my purpose through curiosity. Growing up, I had one thing that I wanted to do, and that was to go to the NFL. That is it. I didn’t have any other plans until I was probably 25. I didn’t have no other choice. I played college football at the University of Iowa, Western Michigan, and once I graduated and I came back, I moved back to Minnesota, I had no idea what to do. Literally my entire life, I either played sports or went to school, and then one day I had neither one of those. So how do you figure out what you want to do in life? What really drives you? And through that time, I was just doing the unlimited amount of informational interviews and trying to learn about the things that are out here and what I could do. And I ended up really diving into the sport business, and I really started to like it and grew a passion for the business of sport.

Growing up in North Minneapolis, I’m a product of North Minneapolis programs and resources, from Oak Park Neighborhood Center, to the Police Activities League where I played football, running track for the Hospitality House. And Oak Park was the afterschool program that I was in. And all of those collectively allowed me to then get those scholarships and to think through how I can take education in sport to get to the next level. And with that, and with V3 now, I combine all of that, from the sports side, the community side, a space for families. Growing up there wasn’t spaces for families to be together in North Minneapolis, and now at the V3 Center, great grandma, grandma, granddaughter, daughter, all in the same building at the same time doing different things, and to be able to lead together.

James Burroughs: So tell us about V3. Tell us about what it is, what’s the purpose of it in the community, and then how you all partner with community to realize that vision.

Malik Rucker: Our mission is to elevate our community through wellness, fitness and education. And we do that through the V3 Center, which is the actual physical building infrastructure. And we describe that as a community-inspired health and wellness center.

V3 started off back in 2007, and we were a swim team, triathlon team. Our founder, Erika, was a coach at the YMCA on Broadway. And when they decided to become a child care facility only, around that time, they had to close it and renovate it. And the parents went to Erika and said, “We got to keep this going.”

Erika was doing triathlons, and said, “All right. Well, we’re going to do a triathlon program,” so V3 stands for Victory and three, run, bike, swim, and did the program for a decade. Ended up getting about 50 families every year. And it wasn’t just the triathlon training, it was the teamwork, the competition, the life skills that we were doing. We were going to different colleges, doing college tours. It’s one of those sports that really tests you individually and mentally. And being able to do that program successfully, we actually went to national championships. We were the kids with the free bikes and the big shorts and the swimming, versus the $1,000 bikes and-

James Burroughs: Speedos.

Malik Rucker: Yeah, the Speedos. We was able to compete at a very high level, but ultimately it came to the point where it was sustainable in the way that it was ran, but you could only get a 10-year-old to run outside for so many months in Minnesota.

James Burroughs: Yeah.

Malik Rucker: And there’s only so much access to water. What happened was, we said, “We got this good thing going on, but we cannot be the only ones feeling the lack of physical building infrastructure in North Minneapolis.” And that’s when the V3 Center idea really morphed in, “Okay, we should create a space around health, wellness, and water safety.” And that’s how the V3 Center came about, and it just continued to grow and grow and grow. We launched our first phase just this past June, and it’s a 40,000 square foot facility. In the facility we have a restaurant, it’s a 50 seat restaurant, in partnership with a Northside couple and restaurateurs, Gerard and Brittney Klass. We also have a 25-yard pool, which is an instructional pool. It’s where we do our Swim to Learn program, which we built our own curriculum around why Black mothers swim and do not swim.

We got a therapy pool, which is one of not a lot of public therapy pools in the state. We got drop-in childcare. We got about 5,500 square feet of fitness. We got a wide range, from strength training, to cardio, to dumbbells and machines and free weights. A nice stretching area and some studio spaces where we do group fitness. And then we’re a Boys and Girls Club location. So our out-of-school time, STEAM education, they’re in there every day, 2:00 to 7:00, Monday through Friday. They also get a snack, and they get dinner every day free of charge.

So that’s what we developed into from, “I know we’re not the ones filling the space,” to, “Okay, we got this first phase,” and then the second phase of the center becomes a regional and national destination and economic driver in North Minneapolis, which we’re adding about 200,000 square feet to the facility. So we’ll end up at about 240. And within that space, there’s four to six multipurpose courts, which you put lines down and you got basketball, pickleball, volleyball, you got all those different things. But then you also got the career fairs, the conferences, the convenings, the galas, the birthday parties. And then we have a 50-meter pool, which is one of three 50 meters in the state of Minnesota that you can compete in year-round. There’s 1,000 spectator seats around that. There’s 400 on the deck. It’s a 10-lane, 50 meter, and it was the pool that selected the USA swim team for the 2021 Olympics in Tokyo.

There’s other spaces too. A 330-meter track, additional fitness, a whole lot of community and meeting spaces. But that’s the sports and events center. We’re going to bring tens of thousands of people to North Minneapolis, and they’re going to go spend money with our businesses, and we’re going to fill in to the community as an economic driver. But then you also get all of the community benefit of the amenity right in North Minneapolis.

James Burroughs: Let’s talk about that community benefit piece, because as Children’s, we’re responsible for putting together a community health plan every five years, and then that plan drives how we’re serving and working with community.

As I said when I opened the show, that our social determinants of health are things we don’t control in the hospital. Some of them you mentioned. How do I get food security? How do I get some healthy foods on the table? How do I get a place where families can gather, be a part of each other? How do I make sure that the educational system is doing what they need to do, not only during school hours, but the after school programs that you mentioned as well? How do we make sure that we have wellness spaces for mental health so kids can go outside, have a safe environment to play, go up the street, be at V3, have this amazing facility, as you described it, and then come back home safely? How do they get mentors and develop that as well?

So for me, I want to ask this next question, is how do you see a Children’s Minnesota, which has a footprint over the entire state, we’re the largest pediatric provider for kids in the state, and we have a hospital in Minneapolis, one in St. Paul, have a lot of different clinics, how would you say we could work with V3 and address those social determinants of health, and be a real partner going forward?

Malik Rucker: When I think of Children’s, I think of your actual infrastructure, your actual buildings. But how do we get Children’s employees, doctors, nurses, physical therapists out into the community and meeting the community where they are? So V3 is at that intersection of, we’re in a space where we’re connecting with community every day. Hospitals and clinics, pretty scary. Our space is a little bit more welcoming, I would say, from a psychological standpoint. And when I think of Children’s, I think of, how do you take your professionals and meet the community in the community in a space that also has great asset? It’s probably a little bit newer than what you all have, too-

James Burroughs: Absolutely.

Malik Rucker: … so y’all probably have a little bit more technology and tools, but we got a pretty nice space, right?

James Burroughs: Mm-hmm.

Malik Rucker: So it could allow you to do your jobs better, but also to meet the community where they are. We have the therapy pool, but we also have some of the things that you would need to complete dry land therapy, whether it be bands, or dumbbells, or some of those other tools. And that’s the space that I think of immediately.

There’s other ways to build relationship with potential clients as well in this space and community. One of my favorite things about the V3 Center is the social capital that gets built. And it’s not forced. It’s not designed. It just happens that we have a lot of our funders that actually workout there. And those are people that are in positions of influence and power, essentially. And they’re running past kids in the Boys and Girls Club that don’t come from that same environment. We all got on workout clothes. They don’t see J.B. with the suit jacket on. They going to see you with your UnderArmour on. You know what I mean?

James Burroughs: Yeah.

Malik Rucker: Building those relationships. And they might say, “I might want to be a doctor.”
And you can say, “Oh, I can introduce you to one.” And it’s just that simple. And it’s not forced, it just happens within our space. The other thing is, we got council members that are V3 members. We have doctors, we have lawyers. And I will say that we have a membership model. We are over 1,000 memberships sold since June, and it’s 90% Northsiders. So-

James Burroughs: I love it.

Malik Rucker: … when you add all that together, you add in the social capital, I also see that as a space for children to be able to bridge those relationships because there is some distrust with the health care system.

James Burroughs: I love the story you told about working out next to somebody who may not get to see a J.B. because I don’t live on the Northside. I don’t know a lot of people from the Northside and hang out over there when I can. But working out next to them, getting a chance to know me without the suit, without the jacket, without the ID, is something real powerful. And that’s something that I had as a kid growing up in Detroit playing power basketball or meeting a lot of different cops who are our coaches. I got a chance to see them as real-life human beings, as opposed to this thing that they do or this cape they put on as their job. Why is that important?

Malik Rucker: Just existing, you got to have relationships. We know how powerful relationships are, and it’s about who you know and who knows you. But access is super important, and we talk about access in a lot of different ways, but access to people really opened up doors for community. I talked about the kids, but there’s a lot of also community members that just need opportunities for employment. Sometimes the resume just doesn’t get through because there isn’t as much resume experience as some other people may have, and they could do the job really well. So I think there’s a social capital there.

A lot of these children have parents that could benefit from these relationships as well. So they’re in there, parents are in there, just the entire family. It’s super important from an economic mobility standpoint to be able to meet folks, to be able to think big, because we only know what we know. We put our own selves in boxes, we let our own dreams limit us, but we can only dream as big as we can see. That’s where I think that social capital is just so important because it just opens new doors. We got a bunch of people that’s never been over to South Minneapolis, and their world ends in North Minneapolis. So how do we provide spaces of opportunity to expand their horizon and their thoughts? Ultimately, we’re in the business of community building, and we do that through a center. Being able to empower community from the actual architectural drawings, to who built the space, who did the art, what music are we listening to, and bringing community along with us allowed us to become a voice in community immediately. The other thing I’ll say about V3 is our location is so key. One, we have the best skyline view you can find in the State of Minnesota.

James Burroughs: Mm-hmm.

Malik Rucker: Two, we’re in the middle of two historic neighborhoods that have very differing needs. One being Lyn Park neighborhood. In Lyn Park neighborhood, it’s a neighborhood of Northsiders, and they said, “We want to live a higher quality of life, but we don’t want to move to the suburbs.” So you know what they did? They built their own suburb in North Minneapolis. They got cul-de-sacs, three-car garages, very nice, beautiful homes, and a lot of influential people, a lot of community builders, movers and shakers. They said, “We’re staying right here in North Minneapolis, and this is how we’re going to do it,” and they did it.

The other one is Heritage Park, which was really birthed out of Highway 55 taking up housing in North Minneapolis, so kind of a redlining situation. And I don’t want to misspeak, but I believe the state got sued and had to create Heritage Park neighborhood-

James Burroughs: You are correct.

Malik Rucker: Heritage Park is mixed-income. So there’s people that own their homes, all the way to low-income rentals, which now we connect in these two communities. Every day people from Lyn Park and people from Heritage Park walk to the V3 Center, and they’re in community and they’re building together. And those are the things that I’m super proud of for the V3 Center, and the location couldn’t have been better to facilitate this.

James Burroughs: I could see us doing family events around diabetes awareness, or sickle cell, or the advantage of working out, it could curb high blood pressure or things like that in the future. And just being amongst-

Malik Rucker: And water safety.

James Burroughs: …family and friends. I was going to say that.

Malik Rucker: Yeah. Water-

James Burroughs: Water safety. Exactly. We got a whole, what, three pools over there?

Malik Rucker: We got two right now.

James Burroughs: You got two.

Malik Rucker: We’ll have three.

James Burroughs: And a three. I know three was coming.

Malik Rucker: But with that, with water safety, it should be a part of the checkups that y’all do. “Do you know how to run? Do you know how to walk? Can you ride a bike? Can you write? Can you read? Can you swim?”

James Burroughs: Yep. So let me ask you this as we wrap up the interview. What do you see for the future of not only V3, but the future of the Northside community based upon the work V3 has already done and it’s going to do as well? What’s the future look like?

Malik Rucker: There’s multiple ways to look at this. One that I think of immediately is just the economics of it all. On this project, we worked with LSE Architects, we worked with Tri-Construction, which is Black-owned, both of them Black-owned, the Northside. Ideal Commercial Solutions, who provided all of our furniture, also Black-owned, the Northside. Sheldon Painting, Black-owned, Northside. I talked about Gerard and Brittney Klass, also Black-owned, the Northside, artists. That’s our build team. But we went from eight to 70 employees in a year. And with that, there’s additional jobs that people are having in their own community. So I think of that on the economic side.

And then with phase two, we’re economic drivers to the state in this region. So when the Sport Commission goes out, and they say, “We want to get the Olympic trials, and we got to go compete with Indianapolis, we got to compete with Omaha, Detroit,” we wouldn’t be able to host Olympic trials at V3, but what we could be is a place for camps and clinics. We’re a practice facility. We can do all of the community events, all within 10 minutes from the U.S Bank Stadium, where we’d be. And what that does is spark millions of dollars of economic impact into North Minneapolis.
The future of the Northside is super bright right now. It’s exciting because we’re getting this boom of development, but we just been not invested in so long that we tripling and quadrupling down, and we need so much more, but it’s a great start.

James Burroughs: Well, you’ve addressed a lot of the social determinants that we talked about and that, like I said, I see many future partnerships between V3 and Children’s, and ways in which we can solve this and build a stronger, more cohesive community. Malik, I want to thank you for taking time to come on the Talking Pediatrics at the Equity Suite. Is there anything else you want to leave our audience with about V3 or about you?

Malik Rucker: Yeah, just check out our website, v3sports.org. Click the donate button for sure, I got to say that.

James Burroughs: No problem.

Malik Rucker: I got to say that. Check us out. Come to the facility. Come over, have a bite to eat. Do some meetings there. Get some coffee, get some tea. Come over and see the facility. It’s a beautiful thing. There’s no words that I can say to do this space justice. You just have to come see it. And I’m excited to welcome you all into the V3 Center. Check out our website for all of our offerings and ways we impact community.

James Burroughs: Ladies and gentlemen, Malik Rucker, president and CEO of V3. Thank you for coming on.

Malik Rucker: Thank you.

Dr. Kade Goepferd: Thank you for listening to Talking Pediatrics. Come back next time for a new episode with our caregivers and experts in pediatric health. Our showrunner is Cora Nelson. Episodes are produced, engineered and edited by Jake Beaver and Patrick Bixler. Our marketing representatives are Amie Juba and Krithika Devanathan. For information and additional episodes, check us out on your favorite podcast platform or go to childrensmn.org/talkingpediatrics.