Jason Lee's 'I Am Ready' initiative supported by community, fails to take home $1m

Cheers, applause, and support overtook Stockton City Hall Tuesday. The rooms busted with people. The line snaked outside the building. The discussion was lively and pointed.

It wasn't enough, though, to save a controversial $1 million program.

The community came together at the Stockton City Council meeting in support of one specific agenda item, the voting of the “I Am Ready” initiative, a youth pilot program under the Hollywood Cares Foundation. The organization is headed by media influencer and Stockton native Jason Lee.

“This is a pilot program that we want to launch in Stockton and then they’ll continue to expand around the country,” Lee said on Monday prior to the vote. “It reads on paper as an afterschool program but behavioral change is a 24 hour, seven days a week thing, not a summer thing. It’s a movement requiring lifestyle changes.”

This project was just one of 17 total priority projects that were discussed and considered by the council members on how $5.7 million in general fund dollars would be distributed between them all.

The “I Am Ready” initiative was the project with the highest fund recommended by the council set at $1 million.

“I think that oftentimes, kids are driven by pop culture and celebrity (life), especially with social media being a thing. So if we can use the relationships that I've been able to garner over the last 30 years, people that these kids follow more than they follow their local politics, or their local school initiatives or local measures to enhance their everyday life,” Lee said. “Why not use that as creative bait, to bait them into programming like financial literacy or peer-to-peer counseling or ways of building leadership? And so, I know that I have to use what helped me and I have to use the skills that I have to be able to be effective. And that's, that's what we're doing.”

Community leaders, students and teachers gathered at city hall to share their support for the initiative wearing white T-shirts with blue letters that read “I Am Ready!" on the front and “I’ve been Ready! Are you?” on the back of the shirts.

A 5-year-old captured the crowd's attention when he asked council members for their support. He said the initiative would allow him and his friends to be mentored by famous people.

His closing statement “I Am Ready! Are you?” had the crowd cheering for him in awe.

Vice Mayor Kimberley Warmsley applauded Lee.

“I know and I feel the passion in this room. Jason, you are an organizer, you are an influencer, you have connections, you created a movement and that is outstanding, and I thank you for that," she said. "I don’t think we’ve ever have had this much civic engagement since I've been on council, period. End of the story."

Manuel Reynaga, father of Alycia Love "Lala" Reynaga, who was killed on the Stagg High campus by a trespasser on April 18, also expressed his support for the initiative.

He asked Mayor Kevin Lincoln and City Manager Harry Black to support the Stagg High alumni.

“The council is making it very clear that we want to do everything we can to invest in the youth,” Lincoln said. “But the council has also made it very clear that we also want to respect the integrity of the process."

A tremendous amount of community leaders and parents expressed their shared concerns about gun violence and the deaths of children due to it. They said children don't have things (to do) and places to go in the city. This initiative would give a purpose, a safe place and mentorship to those who need it the most, the children.

The discussion, which had more support than opposition, lasted three hours. The public comment itself lasted more than two hours.

Some in the crowd stood up to ask for a deeper look into where the money would go.

Local organizations also raised concerns about the initiative not going through the regular bidding process which is the “standard city process for funding," as stated on page 1,005 of the meeting agenda packet.

"The council has made it very clear that the $1 million dollars could potentially turn into $1.4 million dollars or 2 plus million dollars for a standalone NOFA," the mayor said.

Lee told the council members that investing is key to curbing violence.

“For me, there is no such thing as a Superman, the Superman is not coming to save the city, Superman is not going to stop school violence,” Lee said. “Superman is not going to stop the murders of young people like they just had about a week or two ago. The city has to invest in its future and the future of community of Stockton is its youth.”

Ultimately, Stockton City Council voted 7-0 against handing out the money Tuesday. They asked Lee to go through the Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) process and apply. He was welcomed back to the Oct. 17 city council meeting once that six-month process is completed.

If approved, the "I Am Ready” initiative could receive up to $2,086,000.

“We have a responsibility to the taxpayers that’s end of story. There has to be a NOFA, there has to be a process," Warmsley said. "There is power in this room right now today but we are going to need you to bring that power to gather and deliver us a meaningful program design.”

A Youth Service Program through the NOFA process could add $461,00 to its amount and a total of $625,000 originally planned for Crime Stoppers was also recommended to be relocated to the “I Am Ready” initiative.

“I hope that the city council, you know that new young people say keep that same energy, keep the same energy as they had last September and that they see this as an amazing opportunity for them to execute their leadership in bringing change to the city,” Lee said. “I hope that beyond the vote, yes, that says that they're ready, that they play an active part in getting access to leading the organization once it’s launched, and to be able to work in partnership with them.”

Record reporter Angelaydet Rocha covers community news in Stockton and San Joaquin County. She can be reached at arocha@recordnet.com or on Twitter @AngelaydetRocha. Support local news, subscribe to The Stockton Record at https://www.recordnet.com/subscribenow.

This article originally appeared on The Record: Jason Lee's 'I Am Ready' get community support, fails to take home $1m