this is "news 4 your sunday." morning. i'm pat lawson muse. some consider the anacostia river as socioeconomic dividing line. one side, fine housg, boutique hotels and crafts fairs. the other side of the rivers neighborhoods where redevelopment is coming but much more slowly. son communi where most residents are still renters. buildingthe non-profit bridges across the river is working to level the playing d and improve the quality of life. sass bernard, president of building bridges across the river.

you are doing such exciting things. you are addressing the quality of life is fronts and you have several wonderful projects in the works. tell us how bbar g started. >> it began with the wc smith company, an orgization that purchased the properties, villages and parkland back in the '90s and saw a place for families to go. because of that they created what i cona humanitarian mall right now at the arc, the town hall arts and recreation d it really was for residents to have a place to go in a very difficult neighborhood. so your programs and projects very creatively address social health, environmental, and economic disparities primarily in wards 7 and 8? >> yes. >> and in recent years you have expanded your footprint by leadin and partnerships in education and the artsre and rion campus,

which we know as the arc. so tell us about some of these. >> let me give you our vision. so our vision is really for resif nts easte river to create a community that's thriving, a community that is charactezed by social cultural and economic equity. our mission is reall to provide access to the best in class programs and partnershipsit w economic opportunity, arts and culture, and health and well being. and our campus is really emblematic of that. we have 14 monday profits with the partnerships there in five sect e, health, education, arts, and recreation and workforce development, and that value propositio to the community has been really, it's a vital piece t fabric of community. and we've seen the benefit of that. we have seen families walk on our campus, and it's really changed their lives just how easily mobility gets multiplied

by having access to all ofhose services. >> and you have so much on one campus. >> that's right. that's right. it's a richness that i think over the my years we have beener th we celebrate 15 years next year, that people really, it's a hidden gem in our community.d we've grown beyond wae built with bridge with the campus, but we have now built bridgesxpanding outside of those walls. our economic development bridge with the work force center e we are doing work force bring. we have our bridge to food access. we have branded our theater. we have the largest theater of the an coast a river. and when we o ranut ofic metaphoral bridges, we are literally building the first elevated bridge park in the nation's capital. we are really looking at putting, stitching together two communities, the navy yard a

his inanacostia and our equity work around that brid park thae embarked upon has received national attention by putting people first. s come from and who are for all your partners? >> greatou question. funding is variated. we have, obviously we have funding from the government for our bridge park projectt tha we have secured moneyre the corporations, individual partners, people who are reallyn invested i our work and see and have the conviction that we have about having people thrive in place and providing in class for a community that deserves. it. it really, reallys deser. >> a ct many that feel for too long is forgotten. >> indeed. >> and left of d.c.'s magnificent >> absolutely. and another project that we are really proud of that has really taken this up a notch is w have a building -- building bridges

for better life program that we have partnered with the city to house 91 homelessamilies that the last 91 from d.c. general, we have plugged them into t resources a arc. so now those families have access to services like the washington ballet, t wasn school for girls, d.c. central kitchen, boyd gir clubs. we have a charter school on us camp we have five schools on campus. george washington un and trinity university arees reprted on our campus. again, 14 nonprofit working together to impact the community. and our programs, ouridheater, the p we are going to talk about all those. that's great. i'm glad. >> i am going to interrupt you to take a commercial break and let you talk about those inil deta. we are talking about building bridges ac anacostia.

we are continuing our theersation about building river. joinoyg us now, j milford, program manager for thearc douglas, and kimberly and her son bernard is with us. kimberly, thearc theatrt is a for a and culture east of the river and the recipient of a $10,000 project,annnovation gr from news4 and telemundo 44. so congratulat>>ns to you. thank you. >> so tell us how -- well, it's good news? we have. >> we have amazing training to study the production arts. with the nbc universal grant we will be able to ensure that they continue to wk with us and expand their knowledge in

robotics, in video and lloduction, as well as, yeah, getting soft s training. so thank you. >> you are going to put it to good use? >> yes. >> and joyce, youre going to run the program.i can? >> yes, the i can technicalpr ram where they study heavily in technical production. it's audio, lights, sound, arts administration, which includes hospitality, stage management, and then they also have the opportunity to study in scenic design. ec have special proj. >> they do what we do. a lot of folks around here do? >> exactly. >> it makest really exciting. wh are some of your theater productions? >> we havehe d.c. black tater festival that has taken over the campus for about three weeks now. july 7th will end the fesval time. yeah, we have over 150 artists that have represented and brought their productions to thearc and black box and are doing concert spaces. >> this is exciting for

students. sideoung people on that of -- in that part of the city to get exposed like that. >> absolutely. i'd say over and over again it's a humanitarian mall. it's an oasis of ouortunity. yoan come there and have your hope realized. it's magical. absolutely magical. >> so, joyce, you mentioned video production, front of hous ho ratotics. wh else? >> we study lighting design. there are many different opportunities to do it. so we're not only in the te thea but we also go to different production houses around the city where we have a few partnerships with our local high schools and theaters as well. >> these are year-long paid internships? >> exactly. students between the ages of 15 and 22 have the opportunity to earn money while leaing an art. >> yeah. kimberly, how do they get in? >> they have to do two intervie. one during the sumr for the initial intake and the second part for fall for the year-round

program. they have to submit a resume, r letter of interest, maintain a gp of 2.0. we don't want it to be a deterrent to kids kbho may not have the gpa but express a genuine interest in learning. >> it's pretty competitive? y>> it is. >> are preparing them for higher education a for careers? >>lu absoly. >> for jobs that telemundo 44 at news4, to replace us? >> absolutely. yes. e of the gre things we do we every year whe culminate our year round program, we take them on a college tour. th th e toses them careers behind the scenes as well as higher education. opportunities it's exciting especially for me iny time a youth decides to pursue a career reward to go s are bene the exposure. >> that's a great skill to have.

how much for the internship? >> $14 an hour. >> that's pretty decent money. >> i'd say. >> so the grant goes totally to this incertain sh program? >> that's correct the program is pretty robust given it's year round. we have periods throughout the year, summer being tt intensive time, and then the year-round perio in the fall and the spring for 12 weeks. we will be making sure that the funding gets spread out throughout the year. >> how many are in your -- in an average typical class? >> yeah. so this summer we have 30 interns that are studying. ten of those have either graduated from high school and they are going off to college in the fall,r they are returning home and they are on their summer break. so they still have the opportunity to return. and that's generally those who d and 18 and up until 22. the hope is that they can return

ss professional contractors working with u and the city as well. >> this is really fantastic. congratulas to you. the i can technical theater internship program is wonderful. it's one of the things that we are all about. so we're so happy to support that. joyce milford and kimberly douglas, thank you so much. >> thank you. >> and next we are going to talk about the 11th street bridge park. really e.

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the 11th street bridge park coects communities across t anacostia river. this is such a wonderful and cool concept. joining us, she is deputy director of the 11th street bridge p and rahsaan bernard is still here with us. tell us about this bridg park across the river. >> it's g to be the nation's, the capitol's first elevated bridge park. it's going to connect historic anacostia and the capitol hill neighborhoods. it will literally be a park tha sits over the anacostia river. >> what are people going to find

in this structure over the river? >> we ha been working with residents for the last five years on developing all of the programming and the plans for the park. so it will ilude an environmental education center, a kayak and canoe launch, an amphitheaterr for outdoo performances, a cafe and restaurant. lots of public art spaces all gether over the river. >> yeah. over the river. i mean, we are not talking about the banks. we are talking about over the river. this is f ast. it's very unique and it will be a huge tracti for the two communities that it's designed for, but also for tourists? >> absolutely. i know we have had some studies done and we know it will drima ybe 1.2 million new people to this area. what we are really excited about is that it's reallyle embmatic of our mission. we a building bridges, and this to me connecting those two neighborhoods together to have people from both sides convene,

share laughter, share coffee together, and enjoy the environment together, i think it's a dream come true. we are reallyxcited about the project. >> it's really going to be a bridge, not just be a bridge. >> that's right. >>iat is for pedestrns only? >> it is. it's for pedestrians only. the idea is that some of the planning and then desig work has put more activated spaces on the ward 8 side, whie to park.tia and the more passive natural spaces are closer to the navy yard side to really help bring people across the bridges on both sides of e river. now, construction hasn't started. so tell us where we are with construction, funding, and all that. >> ss scheduled to start in 2021. so we will break down the earliest we will open is 2023. it is a project we are doing in collaboration with the district of columbia. so our funding is coming from both public sources and private sources. the capital campaign for the project is $139 million, and 50%

of that is pfor ourquitable development plan and the implementation of this work around affordable housing, work s rce, small busin investments, and cultural equity. the other 50% of that is9 million capital campaign for direct investment into the bricks and mortar for the park. >> that'd to hear because this is the kind of thing, gentrification is an issue, and this kind of development will drivefi gentrition. so what you are describing with that campaign would help to mitigate some of those concerns? >> the thoughtful nature of this project and the team that's working on the bridge park project to put equity first, it's leading conversations in the nation. we have had people all over the ountry come and ask u questions about our equitable development plan. for that reason we have actually developed a video about this work. so you are absolutely right. t displacement is key, andesting this team a really good job of thoughtfully thinking

through that. >> what canrs viewe do to speed things along or support you? >> this work is really a collaboration with the whole city, and particularly with residents that are living in the communities nearby. tell your city council member at you love this project, you want to see it happen. we are also raising funds for the capital of the project and we do a whole bunch of programming. we produce the anacostia river festival. we have got our farm programs at thearc. there are opportunit volunteeri those projects. >> we can't wait for this park. >> thank you. >> thank you so much. and you mentioned a farm. so next we are going to take you to the farm.

joining us now is rahsaan bernard, who is still with us. one o the other great projects

by building bridges across the river is thearc farm.k before we tal about the farm, i want to talk about one other thing regarding the bridge itself. >> ye >> so that bri wei talked about in the last segment across the river will actually be located on the old pilings, the old 11th street bridge? >> absolutely. eee old 11th strt bridge, the superstructure was remov. load tested those pilings, got approval that they are good to rego. weoing to build a new superstructure on those pilings for a non-vehicular bridge. so again we will have people convening there and, yeah, exactly. >> i just wanted to -- >> absolutely. >> point that out now to the farm, which started as an organic farm. it's on your campus? >> yes. you actually have several farms? >> yes. let me give you a little bit of context. we are on 6 1/2 acres there on mississippi h is thearc campus. we build on about 8 1/2 of that. so we have about 203,000 square

feet of space. housing these 14 non-profit partners. the other eig is floodplain. in order to steward that appropriately, we thought, well, let's farm it. and so it started out as an y it's 1 1/2 acres. it's one of eight farms. we have seven plots across ward 8. collectively, we pduce 3,000 pounds of produce for ward 8 families. >> whi you t pass outo families? >> yes. >> and who are your rmers? >>his is a great story. our farmers come from the community. we have a couple of guys that we met. they walked across to ourca us. as i mentioned to you before, hope gets real at thearc. they come over. they have seen. insights about we get them trained. they start to work in the organic garden. today they are hired farmers for e development?ol

>> aely. farming workforce developmen engine has taken off. the young man who farms our space often says he had no i ha that would be a farmer in ward 8. but now he is pretty much evangalized others. y we see m more coming to find out about the farm. >> obviously, this is a great sewaice in rd 8. >> which we know is a food desert. >> it is. we h se one groceryre for 85,000es rents. and so the fact that we can provide this food. and not only that, but provide the education to cook the food. weartnered with our partners on campus d.c. central kitchen to look inside thed use of the food in a w creative. so that we have seen a lot of attraction with that. so, yeah, i think again it's an oasis of opportunity for residents as a right to food access. >> and are they excited about it? e they happy t have it there? >> so we've seen -- we havees 1

famili that year for our community support in agriculture, and we have the rgest beehive and just recently harvested honey onmp that local residents cannot only eat, but can sell. and so excitement is palpable. absolutely a you got workshops, ongoing workshops there? >> absolutely. a big part of our work isn. educatio so we have paired not only the farm with farmers, but also with teaching perm culture, horticulture, composting. we are doing that, and teaching you how to cook the food. so education is a big piece of our work the farm. >> and to take a of these, does it cost money? do the residents get it for free? >> yeah, that's great question. because of really good partners, foundation partners individual donors, we he to su provide free food for our residents. so it comes free, a for those who have the ability to pay, they pay a subsidized cost.

>> again this again is part of the overall mission of building bridges across the river? >> that's exactly right. again we exist -- to pursue and create a thriving community for east of the river residents boun and rooted in economic cultural and social equity, this is how we do it. this is how we move the ouneedl >> yre doing some really exciting work. >> taufatofua. you have a lot . you have the bridge, the farm, the theater. yes, yes. and as we have grown, we haved responde to the needs of the residents. all these projects and programs have creflecktively because residents have driven our decision-making about that. >> what a wonderful way to serve the community. doing a greatan job. thyou, rahsaan bernard. >> thank you. and for more information about building bridges across the river go to bbardc.org.

that's news4 for sunday. i'm pat loosen moose. thanks.

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>> saturday night shutdown. thousands of d.c. residents and businesses were left without power in the summer heat. this morning some are waking one electricity, while others are stillwaiting. tweeting into the night, president trump kept up his attacks on representative elijah cummings and his maryland congressional district late into the night. we will have more on that backlash with the prest's latest set of controversial tweets. and remember this? now months later officials say they know how this car got on the train tracks and nhow to isp iom happening again