(upbeat music) - Recently on our sister series "Lessons in Leadership, my colleague and co-anchor, Mary Gamba and I, sat down and spoke with Kim Guadagno, who's former Lieutenant Governor in the great state of New Jersey, and also President and Chief Executive Officer of Mercy Center, a terrific organization based in Monmouth County, making a difference every day in the lives of those who are struggling, struggling to figure out where their next meal's gonna be, struggling because they're in a domestically dangerous situation at home, violence, trauma.

They're there every day.

Kim talks about the work of Mercy Center in this conversation with Mary Gamba and myself.

Check it out.

- Kim, good to see you again.

- Good to see you, Steve.

Always.

- You got it, the website's up.

Tell everyone what Mercy Center is and more important now than ever.

- Well, you know, it's a really simple thing.

We're just trying to end generational poverty, not some little small project.

So it's in the greater Asbury Park area.

We feed people in 24 different cities in Monmouth County, six different counties in the state of New Jersey.

We feed them, we get their trust, and then we help them live a full life, whatever that is.

We speak English, Spanish, Creole, and Arabic.

And then we get the kids outta the worst academic system in the state of New Jersey in Asbury Park by giving 'em a great education, girls a great education for fourth to eighth grade.

Get 'em into good high schools, get 'em on to college.

So it ends the generational cycle of it all.

- Incredibly important.

Again, go on the website to find out more and to our good friend, Larry Downes, who's the Chairman of the Board at Mercy Center.

Larry and I have had these conversations about Mercy Center for years and also your leadership.

And to that end, you've been a leader in corporate America as a lawyer, you've been a leader in government and government as well, a variety of capacities including Lieutenant Governor and now leader of this nonprofit.

From your perspective, Kim, is there any significant difference, and if so, what is it between leading in those different arenas?

- Oh, it's night and day.

You cannot just hop from being the Lieutenant Governor where you're policy-driven.

You are a leader.

You walk in the room like you know everything, even if you don't, especially if you were the Lieutenant Governor to Chris Christie.

So that's politics.

You have to exude fearlessness, if you will, even if you are, you know, not sure about what you're about to say, but on the nonprofit side, completely different.

It's mission-driven.

People have a vision of what they wanna do and where they wanna go.

They wanna make sure that you go with them and that you are as committed as they are.

You walk in and you do a lot of listening, a lot of looking people straight in the eye, and you're not, and I find it's often the case, the smartest person in the room.

And so you do a lot of trust building.

If you leave, I like to say I did eight years in hell and now I try to earn my way back into heaven.

But you have to earn people's trust as a, I like to say, a completely rehabilitated politician.

You have to earn their trust again.

And you do that by just simply working hard and look 'em straight in the eye and listening.

- And in addition to that, as Mary jumps in, as a not-for-profit leader, Kim and I, and all of us who are leaders of not-for-profit organizations know that no money, no mission.

We raised at least half of our, you roll your eyes, you know, at least half of our time raising money.

Fair to say?

- You know, I like to say, Mary, you know this already.

I like to, my husband, you know, never used to be able to go with me to any political events 'cause he was a judge.

He now gets to go to events with me.

However, when the time for begging starts, I literally walk over to him, tap him on the shoulder, and I said, "The begging is about to begin.

"You might wanna leave."

- I love it.

- And inevitably, he gets up and leaves 'cause it's horrifying to him.

But it's the job, right?

- It is.

- It really is.

- It is.

- And it's well worth every effort.

I'm not asking for money for myself.

You don't ask for money for yourself.

And it's, you know, if I get to keep somebody off the street at night because they don't have a home, I'm good with that.

- Well said, Mary.

- I'm 100% confident that you have earned your way back into heaven officially.

So keep doing the good work over there.

Part of earning your way back into heaven, in my opinion, has to do with partnerships, right?

Everything that you're doing cannot happen without donors, without volunteers.

Talk about the keys, from your opinion, obviously, is it the same, is it different, the keys to building partnerships?

You talked a little bit about trust, but what is another key to building these strong partnerships that get people to buy into the mission of Mercy Center?

- Well, and we have a lot of different partners on every level, whether it's a volunteer, I'll give you one simple, we were doing Christmas gift distributions last year, and then we found somebody here in Asbury Park who did it much better, much smarter, much less abuse of the system.

And so now they're using our new building and they're doing all the gift giving and what does that do, that makes us stronger all the way around.

Did it happen overnight?

No.

You had to reach out to people.

You had to accept that you can't be everything to everyone and you don't wanna be, that you have a limited, well, I don't wanna say limited, but you don't have unlimited resources and you can't do it all by yourself.

So when it comes to volunteers and getting stuff done, you just have to know what your limitations are.

Like I try very hard not to duplicate somebody else's efforts in our area, but when it comes to donors, donors is care and feeding.

You spend a lot of time with donors, a lot of time talking to donors, a lot of time thanking them for all of their gifts, whether it's their gift of time or gift of treasure.

Either way, it's a very different conversation.

I don't go out to dinner a lot, but as I would as a politician.

But I certainly go out to coffee, have a lot of coffee, have a lot of tours, have a lot of, you know what?

I try to tell a story that will make them cry so that they feel, my donors feel like they're a part of it.

And if I don't make them, cry then I'm not doing my job.

And quite frankly, there is something to cry about every day here where we work, there is a sad, one more sad story than another.

So my goal is to engage them that way.

- And along those lines, the Sisters Academy.

What is Sisters Academy and how is it connected to making a difference, Kim?

- Well it ends the circle, the Sisters Academy is a school for four to eighth grade girls.

What many people don't know is that in Asbury Park, Asbury Park is the worst school system in the state.

I'll say that again.

Asbury Park is the worst school system in the state.

Objectively New Jersey, DOE numbers show worse than Camden, worse than Trenton, worse than Paterson, you name it, we are the worst.

It's nothing to be proud of.

- The Department of Education says that?

- Yeah, worst math and science scores for the third to eighth graders.

So if you go to the public school system in Asbury Park, you will not be able to get into a decent high school or a decent college, which means you will get back on my line at the pantry here in Asbury Park.

And that is not the goal.

The goal is to end that line by getting you a great education and getting you that out of this school system while they try to fix it.

Look, I don't wanna get into the politics of why it is the way it is, but while they're trying to fix it, we take girls out of the system, get them educated enough so they can get into good high schools and from there, go on to great colleges or some kind of advanced degree so they can support themselves and have a full life.

- Good stuff.

Last question, Mary.

- So many people want to help, myself included, but don't know how to help.

How can someone that's watching right now get involved and help to end this cycle that you're talking about?

- Well, it's pretty easy.

If you don't have my cell phone number, it's the same one I've had for 15 years.

You just call me or you find someplace local 'cause you are a statewide organization.

We are based in Asbury Park and we serve all of Monmouth County, and in sexual assault and DV cases, we serve six counties.

But go to your local pantries.

You can find them very easily.

Just type into AI , and go give your time, give your treasure.

We just opened a warming center.

So we are our shelter for families that are homeless overnight.

And we found it, you know, surprisingly easy to find some volunteers to come and help people with comfort and warmth overnight.

So there is always somebody and who needs help and there's always somebody you can go to to help them help them.

If that makes any sense.

- Kim Guadagno, former Lieutenant Governor, but now as she continues to work her way into heaven, as she said, the President and Chief Executive Officer of a terrific organization.

I've had the honor of being down there and just watching a little bit of the work that goes on at Mercy Center.

Kim, our good friend, thank you so much for joining us.

We appreciate it.

- Thanks for having me.

Thanks for raising awareness.

It's great.

- You got it.

Stay with us, we'll be right back.

- [Narrator] One-On-One with Steve Adubato is a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

Funding has been provided by The Russell Berrie Foundation.

RWJBarnabas Health.

Learn More at RWJBH.org.

The North Ward Center.

The Fund for New Jersey.

Community FoodBank of New Jersey.

PSEG Foundation.

Newark Board of Education.

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

And by Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey.

Promotional support provided by ROI-NJ.

And by NJ.Com.

The North Ward Center continues to expand their services and outreach in Newark, from the childhood years to the golden years, Offering programs like preschool, youth leadership development, Casa Israel Adult Medical Day program our Family Success center, as well as a gymnasium.

And most recently Hope House, a permanent home for adults with autism, supporting and nurturing our autism community with Hope House 2 coming soon.

The North Ward Center.

We’re here when you need us.