Samino Scott Leading the Way with Pontiac Collective Impact Partnership
(Terry Lakins, Aug. 12, 2024)
Pontiac, MI – The Pontiac Collective Impact Partnership is an initiative in Pontiac that looks to address complex social challenges that impact the community. This three and half year-old collective is made up of a cross sector of local leaders looking at ways to uplift the community.
Executive Director Samino Scott II, the man leading this collective, is particularly interested in increasing cradle to career education. Born and raised in Pontiac, Scott has experienced many of the complex social challenges of the city and stressed the importance of education, especially in the context of upward mobility.
Education is important to many, but for Scott it was life changing.
“For me college wasn’t just about a degree, it was about saving my life,” Scott said. “Education was my way out of poverty, a crime infested neighborhood where many of my peers were going to prison or losing their life.”
Cradle to career education is to find ways to get students eased in on kindergarten readiness so by the time they reach post-secondary education enrollment, they are much more prepared for what’s ahead. While helping the youngest Pontiac residents with things like reading and mentoring are important, there’s also a focus on continuing education.
One goal is to encourage adults have their first credential by age 25. What this means is not necessarily a full degree at a college (but it could be), but perhaps a certification for a trade or enough credits to have official proficiency in a program.
The Partnership works with places such as Oakland County University and Oakland Community College that have occupational training, apprenticeships and skill trade opportunities to aid in this.
The state of Michigan has the “60 by 30” goal, meaning that they want 60% of all adults aged 25 or older to have degrees or certifications by 2030. Pontiac’s adults for first credential attainment sits at 20%, so their own goal is to double that by 2030, or 40 by 30. Oakland County has exceeded this goal, now aiming to hit 80 by 30, so Pontiac is aligned with the county to up its game.
One of the unique challenges to this approach is changing the mindset of the community. Poverty and crime have largely stayed the same since Scott was a kid growing up in Pontiac, and drugs continue to be a problem. It is often thought that financial barriers were the biggest obstacle to post-secondary education. This also means that educational opportunities were more appreciated. There are things in place to help lighten the load, such as the Pontiac Promise Zone, which helps with some tuition for high school graduates of the city. The general consensus now is that college isn’t for everyone, with trade schools being a respectable route to a solid financial future. Though college is still a good option for many as well, with future teachers, doctors, scientists, and business professionals still in great demand.
Scott said in his time growing up to reach the same standard of living as his parents’ generation getting a job at an automotive company was the goal of many. But too much has changed since then and to keep up the same standard of living more is required, hence the focus on credentials and certifications. To keep up with a global economy everyone must step up their game. Scott also said that the gig economy, while very popular right now, is not a solid replacement for credentials and that it won’t last.
“Having to deal with the reality of our school district, you can’t put all the blame on the school. We must have some accountability from our parents, and the rust belt community who at one time there were aspirations to just work for Ford.” Scott said. “They’ve had to grapple with a global economy, a more technologically based economy, where our kids and our parents must reach the level of expectations the world has. We’re still playing catch up in the school districts.”
When it comes to leading the collective, Scott’s experience for this position comes two-fold.
On the educational side he got his Bachelor of Science and his master’s degree in business administration at Oakland University. His PHD in Urban Education and Leadership is from Eastern Michigan.
His prior experience with United Way as a community affairs director, and a college and career readiness specialist at Pontiac school district certainly provided some practical experience.
On the social side Scott is from Pontiac and as a youth was struggling to finish school, was involved in street life, and had even been incarcerated as a teenager. Both these things, seemingly contradicting, make Scott uniquely qualified for this position. If his educational chops give him the knowledge to lead, his past as a troubled youth gives him the perspective to relate to what others are going through.
Scott’s experience as a Pontiac youth was tumultuous. It was the 1980s and the height of the crack epidemic. Drugs were rampant in the neighborhood and Scott himself was a drug dealer, not because he meant to become a criminal, but only because that was the environment he was in. These choices caught up with him and at age 16 when he was arrested, facing a stint in Oakland County Children’s Village, the correctional facility for youth.
The situation was even more bleak than that.
One of his friends at that time had recently been killed due to his involvement in drugs. Another friend was facing a double life sentence on a drug charge. Scott’s own father, who was murdered when he was a baby, was taken by the same drug trade that now held him incarcerated.
You see the pattern here? The drug trade here was ready to claim another victim and Scott could have easily succumbed to it. A juvenile facility could have just been baby steps to prison or perhaps even to death.
The hopelessness of the environment around him could have crushed his spirits but ultimately this served as a wake-up call for Scott.
Scott also credits his mother for helping him through it all, with some tough love.
Scott was in Children’s Village waiting for trial, and his friends from the neighborhood tried to give his mother the money to get him out on bail.
His mother refused the help, and stood her ground, saying that “he’s going to learn his lesson.”
Had his friends been able to pay his bail everything may have turned out differently. Going back to the siren’s call of the street life might have been harder to resist, and being in debt to those friends may have pulled him back in anyway. Though Scott was upset his mother let him stay in jail, understandable for a teenager, with time he realized it not only was the right thing, but it may have saved his life.
“The worst thing that happened to me at the time ended up being the best thing that ever happened to me,” Scott said. “I never blamed anyone else, not the school, nor law enforcement. I knowingly did what I did because everyone else was doing it in my neighborhood.”
When Scott served his time at Oakland County Children’s Village he got out with a new perspective. He would focus deeper on his education and would reevaluate his surroundings, both of which were not easy. Educationally Scott would still struggle to keep up, especially with English, as a lack of a core foundation made it an uphill battle. When it came to the neighborhood it became very clear that leaving it, at least for a while, was the only way to not risk his progress and fall back into the street life. So, when graduation came and college was the next step, Scott left the state to start his next step at Alabama State University.
Due to having low proficiency in Math and English his first college year was filled with remedial courses, granted to him because he tested low. Scott remembers having his essays filled with red marks but being able to self-correct. While the consensus on remedial courses is that they widely disliked or seen as a waste of time, Scott welcomed them with open arms because he knew he needed it.
After diving 60 credits deep at Alabama State (half of bachelor’s degree) Scott decided it was time to transfer back to Michigan, this time at Oakland University. Scott was back with a renewed purpose and drive, ready to reach for the light at the end of the tunnel. The return home, however, was not as warm as he had hoped.
Scott is the first and only one in his immediate family to attend college. His peers looked at and treated him differently. They now give him the moniker of college boy, accusing him of being better than them for sounding too intelligent or sounding too white. This strained his relationship with his siblings, which led them to inherit his old friend group. Scott had hoped his example would influence his siblings positively but seemed to do the opposite. School was also going to keep getting tougher the farther he got. His new experience and education made him alien to those he knew closely, though he acknowledges that distance was also needed so he would risk falling back into old habits. That distance and higher education, while saving his life and cementing his resolve, made for a lonely journey. But Scott had no regrets.
In 2023 Scott’s journey back to Pontiac came full circle when he returned to Oakland County Children’s Village. He came there as a guest speaker, not only as a former resident but as a college educated individual with a doctorate. He was able to engage with the current residents, even in the building he was originally housed in, to tell his story in hopes that it would uplift and inspire.
One of things that Scott said to the children was it is a good thing that they are in a juvenile facility because it is not the same as being in prison, and they still have a chance.
The hard part is when you get out and how you deal with your surroundings, Scott said. How do you navigate the neighborhood, the friends, the family members, and other things that caused you trouble in the first place? Scott calls this the dilemma some will face successfully, and others won’t. Scott also believes that many troubled youth situations carry nuance and that the idea of just “bad kids” is a limited moniker. On that note, Scott said this:
“It’s easy to have that perception that kids that get involved with crime are bad kids. But most of us weren’t bad kids, we were just doing what everyone else was doing in our neighborhood. To survive that you had to be willing to protect your friends and unfortunately good kids got caught up in the wrong environment and ended up losing their life or going to prison. If they had just been able to find a different group of friends that would have never been involved.”
Some may say that Scott was built for this position. Kaino Phillips, President of the Clarence E. Phillips Ascend Foundation and on the executive board for the Pontiac collective, would strongly argue that point. Before the Pontiac Collective many non-profits had tried to do something similar in Pontiac before, but it never quite came together. The actual implementation was a struggle with so many trying to do something at once. When about 30 community leaders came together and carefully planned it all out, the Pontiac collective was born. They had the structure, they had the direction, but all they need one somebody to lead it.
Phillips described the process as rigorous, a six-week gauntlet of interviews that also required a full presentation, blueprints, and a structured budget, among other things. 26 applied for the job and Scott managed to come out on top. He hit all the boxes on what they were looking for in a leader, but one thing stood out the most: the Pontiac angle. The collective really wanted someone with a true connection to Pontiac as that extra ingredient. On its own Scott’s story would already make him a strong contender but Phillips knew this better than most.
Phillips is a Pontiac native himself and was involved with street life as a youth. His own story had him facing real danger on two fronts: an assault charge with the promise of hard time and a death threat from the person he attacked, another Pontiac youth involved in the same street life. But Phillips would get an unexpected second chance when his would be assassin was arrested for another crime, and the charges against him were dropped. Phillips took that as a sign and turned his life around. Since he has his own story of strife and revival, Scott’s story resonated deeply with him, and endorsing him for the position became that much easier.
However, Phillips had this to say on the power of Scott’s story and that it means something, not only to the collective, but to people in general: “The biggest superpower I’ve ever seen with him is his willingness to be vulnerable and share his story. If you’re from cities like Troy or Birmingham, you’re financially astute, but that is not what happens in Pontiac. A lot of success stories might not be true or realistic for a kid in Pontiac. A lot of kids who can relate to Samino’s story and his ability to bring himself and pull people into his world, to make them understand that he is flawed, and was wrote off as a lost cause but was still able to overcome all these obstacles and become successful.”
In addition to the focus on education, Pontiac Collective Impact Partnership has done work to increase “thriving neighborhoods,” with an emphasis on safety, blight, housing, parks and public spaces. While Scott provides leadership, the effort takes many people, businesses, and organizations in the area to make the good work happen. Learn more about the Partnership at https://pontiaccollectiveimpact.org
