{"id":2226,"date":"2021-08-12T15:11:47","date_gmt":"2021-08-12T15:11:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/?p=2226"},"modified":"2021-08-12T15:11:47","modified_gmt":"2021-08-12T15:11:47","slug":"community-and-collaboration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/2021\/08\/12\/community-and-collaboration\/","title":{"rendered":"Community and Collaboration"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Rev. Donald L. Perryman, D.Min.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By Rev. Donald L. Perryman, Ph.D.
\nThe Truth Contributor<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0If you want to go fast, go alone; but if you want to go far, go together.
\n<\/em>\u00a0 \u00a0– African Proverb<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

Harvey Savage, Jr. possesses a prominent name in a jam-packed race to fill just six at-large city council seats.<\/p>\n

The executive director of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Kitchen for the Poor, is the son of the late Rev. Harvey V. Savage, Sr., the Kitchen\u2019s esteemed founder and namesake of Toledo\u2019s historic Savage Park.<\/p>\n

The MLK Kitchen was founded in 1969 after the elder Savage spotted a gentleman eating out of the garbage can at the rear of the Savage residence. The man was invited in and fed, beginning a ministry of community service that has continued for over a half-century.<\/p>\n

Savage brings a philosophy of collective social responsibility to the September primary election after previously just falling short in a November 2017 bid for city council.<\/p>\n

I had an opportunity to speak with Savage about his campaign and political worldview. Here is our conversation:<\/p>\n

Perryman<\/strong>: You continue a great legacy of service and humanitarianism that began with your father, the late H.V. Savage, Sr. Through his founding of the MLK Kitchen for the Poor, he showed that he believed that a whole community of people is needed for its citizens to have a healthy life experience.<\/p>\n

Savage<\/strong>: We were taught, as a family, to love your brother and pass it on and help people, not let people in the neighborhood go hungry.\u00a0 We had a village back then and always looked out for each other.\u00a0 My friends could eat at my house anytime.\u00a0 One of my brother\u2019s friends recently approached me and said, \u2018Man, when I was a kid, I walked 10 blocks to you guys\u2019 house each morning before school to eat breakfast because my family did not have a lot.\u2019\u00a0 He said, \u2018There were 12 in our family.\u2019 So, that inspired me because this whole village concept has been going on for a long time, and we need to get back to it.<\/p>\n

Perryman<\/strong>: How would you describe what the MLK Kitchen does?<\/p>\n

\"\"Savage<\/strong>: We provide meals, distribute clothing and other things.\u00a0 We support the community.\u00a0 We provide food to Pinewood Tabernacle for their Tuesday giveaway. We provide food for the Believe Center\u2019s children\u2019s program. We also contribute meals four days per week at the Friendly Center.\u00a0 So, we\u2019re pretty involved in what\u2019s going on within the community.\u00a0 We also work with Grace Community Center, Frederick Douglass Community Association and spend some time with the Junction coalition. So, we are busy.<\/p>\n

Perryman<\/strong>: Why are you interested in this city council position, and why should residents vote for you?<\/p>\n

Savage<\/strong>:\u00a0 I can make a difference. I have a wealth of knowledge of our community. I possess management skills that would enhance city council\u2019s role in our community.\u00a0 I\u2019ve worked a couple of decades in the nonprofit world and have been successful.\u00a0 I am involved with the Department of Neighborhoods and their programming, and I understand the management of federal funds.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m able to look at an issue and peel it down to the root cause.\u00a0 We have many things in our community that we need to be working on the root causes and not just the symptoms. I did 13 years as a Human Research manager, and worked with people that had felonies.\u00a0 I also worked with halfway houses, so I understand what is going on right now in the community.<\/p>\n

Perryman<\/strong>: You also have management experience in the private sector?<\/p>\n

Savage<\/strong>: Yes. I have 20 years with DuPont.<\/p>\n

Perryman<\/strong>: What did you do for them?<\/p>\n

Savage<\/strong>: I did a lot of employee development.\u00a0 I maintained wage and salary administration and coordinated collective bargaining activities with the local unions.\u00a0 I administered employee benefit programs, supervised secretaries and security for one of the plants.\u00a0 I also served in communications and public affairs.\u00a0 In addition, I monitored the affirmative action plan and EEO compliance. I was also a corporate facilitator for the Drug Abuse Program and our sexual harassment program.<\/p>\n

So, that was some of the stuff I did over my career with DuPont.\u00a0 I\u2019ve been involved with the Employee Assistance Program (EAP) and understand that area well.\u00a0 I did a lot of continuous flow manufacturing work, including training of employees.\u00a0 So that was a lot of what I did at DuPont.<\/p>\n

Perryman<\/strong>: All of that experience is relevant to this city council position, wouldn\u2019t you say?<\/p>\n

Savage<\/strong>:\u00a0 That\u2019s what I\u2019m saying. Those skills are currently needed on council. But, again, I\u2019m not here to criticize, but they haven\u2019t been able to look at current issues and ask the right questions of the administration. Knowing how to ask the right questions gets you started in the right direction.<\/p>\n

Perryman<\/strong>: One of the top issues in the City of Toledo is violent crime. What is your position on this issue?<\/p>\n

Savage<\/strong>: My position on crime is we need to get a handle on it. I don\u2019t think that you\u2019re going to get a handle on it without more robust policing.\u00a0 Just like we just had the shooting at Savage Park, where we had 400 or 500 young people playing ball and kids are in the park. We should have a police presence right then and there as a preventative measure versus waiting until after there\u2019s a shooting to show up.<\/p>\n

I was at a separate downtown event and saw police officers just walking around; that makes a big difference.\u00a0 You think a little differently if you\u2019re going to start some trouble, but you see police officers there. So, we need to have a more significant police presence where we know there are high crime areas.<\/p>\n

The other thing, these young people are not our enemy. We need to understand that these are our kids that are out there.\u00a0 They come from families that I know or grew up with. I know the grandparents. We have not done our job in raising our kids, so we need to get busy getting our community back.\u00a0 We need to put the village concept back together. You still need to raise a child.\u00a0 We need to invest in them.\u00a0 I\u2019m a believer that we can break this culture of violence.\u00a0 We have to just step up to the plate and do what we need to do.<\/p>\n

Perryman<\/strong>: How about affordable housing?<\/p>\n

Savage<\/strong>: Affordable housing is something that has to happen. We are a country that has really been down on people that don\u2019t have resources. We have misused and abused them and don\u2019t see them as equals. We need to come to grips with that.<\/p>\n

Toledo doesn\u2019t have adequate housing for the people that are here. Our people have to live in slum housing a lot of times. So, they don\u2019t have anywhere else to go, and we need to work on that.\u00a0 I think that every assistance that we can offer, we should make available. And, talking about affordable housing, jobs are a part of that. We need to have jobs that pay people not just a living wage but also a wage to purchase homes.<\/p>\n

Perryman<\/strong>: As someone with corporate management experience, what is your position on the need to audit the City\u2019s procurement practices with minority-owned businesses?<\/p>\n

Savage<\/strong>:\u00a0 My position on that is, Yes!\u00a0 We have minority companies that are available to do the work. So, we need to do that.\u00a0 The other piece of that, though, is that the minority needs to be ready.\u00a0 We need to be in a position that we can perform. I think the other thing that the cities need to understand is that being a minority, you will have some structural disadvantages. So, Toledo must prepare to pay a little bit more because, as minorities, we\u2019re not in a competitive position as others.<\/p>\n

Perryman<\/strong>: How do you think the City should spend the $181 million American Recovery Plan Act funds?<\/p>\n

Savage<\/strong>: We need to invest in programming for the individuals and families in the neighborhoods.\u00a0 I\u2019m even looking at a program where we go house to house and spend time with the families that allow us to determine where we can support and help them.\u00a0 Right now, a lot of single parents are struggling with childcare.\u00a0 I\u2019ve seen within my family where a single female with a couple of kids, working long hours in these plants, and the children are, essentially, raising themselves. So, we need to be able to offer some assistance.<\/p>\n

Perryman<\/strong>: How do we address the fact that a mere 28 percent of African Americans in Lucas County are vaccinated for COVID-19?<\/p>\n

Savage<\/strong>: We have to talk to people and not talk down to them to really see where we can assist them, listen, and get an understanding of where their minds are.\u00a0 It can\u2019t be strangers. It would be best to talk with a family member, your doctor, or places like the Neighborhood Health Association. Please take the opportunity to spend some time with them and explain why they need to be vaccinated.<\/p>\n

Perryman<\/strong>: Finally, what message do you want to get across to the public about your campaign?<\/p>\n

Savage<\/strong>: My campaign message is that we have to come together.\u00a0 We are the United States of America.\u00a0 We\u2019re the City of Toledo.\u00a0 We can sit down, get together, develop plans that take our city to the next level.\u00a0 We have not done that; we are a divided city; but my goal is for us to come together.<\/p>\n

I plan to represent all the people.\u00a0 I don\u2019t care what your political persuasion is; I don\u2019t care what your skin color is; Everyone has opinions about what\u2019s going on in this city. So anytime someone wants to have a conversation about an issue, I\u2019ll make an effort to listen and talk to them because we as a city need to come together and stop any division.<\/p>\n

I plan to bring the strife down and put everything back together, and manage our money a lot better.<\/p>\n

Then, we will invest in people and make this thing work.<\/p>\n

Contact Rev. Donald Perryman, PhD at <\/em>drdlperryman@centerofhopebaptist.org<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Rev. Donald L. Perryman, Ph.D. The Truth Contributor \u00a0\u00a0If you want to go fast, go alone; but if you want to go far, go together. \u00a0 \u00a0– African Proverb   Harvey Savage, Jr. possesses a prominent name in a jam-packed race to fill just six at-large city council seats. The executive director of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[],"wf_post_folders":[69],"class_list":["post-2226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editorial-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2226"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2226\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2228,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2226\/revisions\/2228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2226"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=2226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}