NFL legend Darrell Green joins “Workforce on the Mic” to share his journey from the field to workforce advocate. Hear how he’s empowering youth and bridging communities through Eckerd Connects, reentry work, and lifelong dedication to opportunity.
Podcast Transcript
ALEXIS FRANKS: Good morning, good afternoon and good evening, all you workforce warriors across the country. My name is Alexis Franks, and I am your director of membership with the National Association of workforce development professionals, and today we are still live at the 2024 NAWDP youth symposium here in Phoenix, Arizona. We are glad to be here today. The energy is continuing to be electric, and we are sharing it. So we’re happy to have with us today, Darrell Green, one of our key speakers of this week’s conference, Darrell, welcome to you.
DARRELL GREEN: Well, I’m glad to be have been a part of all of this and to be with you as well today.
ALEXIS FRANKS: Yes, we’re glad to have you. So, we have some great conversations that have happened this week. This morning’s panel was absolutely inspirational with all of those key players for how you’re really looking at bringing workforce services together to impact youth across the country, specifically the work you’re doing down in Georgia. So we were grateful to hear about that. So I just have a couple of questions for you, again, not going to take too much of your time, but can you share a little bit about your journey from the NFL to the workforce development arena?
DARRELL GREEN: Well, in the NFL, which I played quite a long time, and I was only played in one city, 20 years in one city, and now 41 years in that same city, Washington, DC. DC, which we call the DMV.
ALEXIS FRANKS: Yes sir.
DARRELL GREEN: But early on, I began to work with youth. Started off with the recreation department, went on to create my own learning centers, my own foundation, which still exists today. And so that’s been my world. But when I retired from the NFL, I wanted to kind of grow up and be a big boy one day, and so I started what a company called trusted Solutions Group and I was working with. I wanted to focus on the adults I was working with, and I still do today. I work with children. I mean, kindergarteners, first grade, all the way through college, but that was mostly spiritual, social, academic, all of those aspects of what I call the revelation that I had was that every kid needs love and nurture, they need provision, they need education, and they need to know the right the golden rule. And that’s basically home, school, church and government. That’s basically what that boils down to and and that’s been my experience. I was on the food stamps. My mom gave the love and nurture, and the church taught us what was right from wrong, and we went to public school, so it wasn’t some brain surgery stuff, but that’s what really got me in it. But when I retired, I wanted to get into business, but I didn’t. I wasn’t going to leave my, my true heart, so I started a workforce company myself, right in Washington, DC. Interestingly enough, I haven’t been new to the business, I didn’t really know how really to do it, but ultimately, as we launched off, we ended up working with a lot of young men and women right from the city, and a lot of them were ex offenders. It wasn’t our strategy, but that’s John told Mike, who told Kenny, who told Debbie, and that’s what their connection was so and so we were working a lot with, with these individuals, and we were primarily, we didn’t have a lot, we didn’t have the training part of it. We got you soft skill work ready as a human: “Yes, sir, No, sir, Thank you very much.” You know we were working with that part of the human, part of people, and then we allow the companies to take that next step. And so that’s how I got my feet wet in this arena. But in the recent years, just being introduced to Eckerd Connect and all the real world of of this and what you guys do, of course, it’s just blown, blown me away, but it’s but I’m not way out there, because it’s where I’ve been, you know, from my own childhood to working with youth and throughout my career, and then what I what, I learned. So, I really kicked myself because I didn’t know. It’s so much that I didn’t know, even though, when I was a kid, kids went to Job Corps. I remember that. I remember that right of course, I had a chance to emcee the 60th anniversary of Job Corps and so but I just, I’m still kicking myself like, Man, this is so mean, this is what I want to do. This is what. I want to be involved with. And of course, here at this symposium, it’s the youth symposium where we’re talking, you know, you talk at 16 to 24 primarily, that’s my world, absolutely. So, no, it’s been great, but the journey was, this is part of my life. It’s just who I, Yeah, it’s who I am.
ALEXIS FRANKS: Yeah, I love that. I love that connection for our youth today. It’s we just talked about it earlier this week. There’s so many challenges they’re facing that maybe we didn’t face when we were their age, and now we’re coming up with new ways to approach them and make it more than just about work, but really impacting their life. And I see that in the structure that you brought in your own world and from your own perspective and experience for our youth to take, take advantage of. So that’s awesome. So what really inspired you to start focusing on empowering young men and women, now?
DARRELL GREEN: As I said, I think that my life was it’s one continuation of one life, you know. So whether it was someone doing something for us as children, or my mom making us do something for others, you know, if you if you serve as a child, or you see it as a child, you’ll do it as an adult. And so I did get that from my mom, I think, really sincerely, but no, I think for me, and I make no apologies for this. I’m not, I don’t apologize for the fact that business and service can marry each other. So I’m a non profit, and I’m a for profit. And within the context of that, we do all of it. We do it all. Sometimes I get paid, sometime I don’t, and I don’t, I don’t apologize for that. I think that that’s the way I’ve approached it all along, because at the end of the day, you have to know, you have to know who’s on the inside, what’s on the inside of you, and the integrity that you live with and the commitment that you live with every day, I think, is always on display. And so for me, I’m just more, I’m in many ways, I’m behind the eight ball, and I’m behind, meaning just meeting the Eckerd Connect and what they were doing with all the workforce side as well as the job course side. I’m like, what I mean? I dream of this. I didn’t understand this. I didn’t know this that exists. Why are you telling me that exists? Yeah, and so it’s exciting to have gotten up have the opportunity to get in it where the people, the real people, and doing the real stuff. When you talk about the National Association of Workforce Development Professionals. I never heard that conversation. I never was in that. They never invited me to that. But so to be here now, I’m like, Yeah, I’m like a kid in the candy store and seeing this sea of people. And this is not the whole world. This is one conference, and it just, it was, it’s, it’s really impacted me. It’s really impacted me even more. But no, so I’m really excited about it. And for me, you know people, of course, they identify me, I guess they probably, probably should. I played 2020, years in NFL, had a great career, but thank you very much. But I’m interested in more things this work.
ALEXIS FRANKS: Yes, absolutely, absolutely. And they, we hear it all the time. Workforce is one of the best kept secrets. That’s that’s the way to put it. You’re bringing the light to it. And I think the more that we have the opportunity and the environment and the space to come to say we’re doing, we’re here and doing this work, so we appreciate you.
DARRELL GREEN: I’m the Eckerd ambassador, so I’m about to get out there and Ambassador, that’s right, I’m about to be the diplomat. Okay, get it out there.
ALEXIS FRANKS: You are taking me right to my last question for you. So in your with your role with Eckerd Connects their first National Ambassador, how does that align with your passion for workforce development?
DARRELL GREEN: Yeah, so as you said earlier, I said first that I didn’t know. Well, guess what? They didn’t know and they don’t know, and they don’t know and they don’t know. And those “theys” are not just workforce professionals. Those “theys” are the students. So it’s both, and fortunately, I am positioned where I do have influence, I have access, you know, I have resources, and so I can, I can access people who we’re looking for, both on the workforce side, on the training side. So that’s going to be, really what I’m going to be taught in my horn for for Eckerd. And we do, we do a number of things. You know, we have our fun Hall of Fame, and our and our job corps Hall of Fame, and we go back and find those young people who have done really well. And we talked about in our session today, the last piece was, second to last was impact. And the next one was next steps. But just to touch on this whole idea of impact, that’s the whole key. How big of an impact, how big of a visibility do we have? And I’m excited to say, good or bad, there’s a lot of room up there. Still lots of room we can still reach absolutely but yet we’re doing we’ve done a lot. You guys have done a lot. Should I say they’ve done a lot? So I can’t own it, but I’m gonna be, I’m gonna be an owner. One day, I feel like I’m gonna have a bigger piece in this. And even though I’ve had my own work and done done a lot of great things, but I’m not you all, you guys. I’m proud of what you all are doing and the leadership that you’re bringing.
ALEXIS FRANKS: Well, we definitely, as a workforce community, appreciate your support and everything that you’re bringing to help impact youth and workforce programs. And here at workforce on the mic, presented by not up, we always have mic drop moments, so I think you gave us ours for today. We’ve got room to grow. We’ve got to be visible and make that impact. And if there’s anything, all of our workforce development professionals, our listeners from today’s episode can take from this conversation with you. The Darrell green is we’ve got room to grow. Let’s grow. Let’s make that impact on these young people. Darrell, thank you so much for taking just a few minutes away from the conference, away from your busy schedule, to be with us, to share your experience and how you’ve come into the workforce arena. Welcome to the family the workforce family.
DARRELL GREEN: Thank you, I’m officially welcomed in.
ALEXIS FRANKS: Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Thank you. And we are looking forward to future conversations with you and enjoy the rest of the conference.
DARRELL GREEN: I certainly will. I look forward. You’re exactly right. Let’s do this again. Yes, definitely. Thank you.
