FINDING FUNDS FOR SCHOOL ASSEMBLY PROGRAMS One Individual's Journey

Read my interview with Dr. Corey James, who succeeding in finding the funds to bring -- not just one or two performances – but nine performances to three Hartford, CT elementary schools!

(This interview has been edited for length and clarity.)

Dave Moreland

Today I'm speaking with Dr. Corey James, the Senior Pastor of the Liberty Christian Center of Hartford, Connecticut. In September 2025, Dr. James succeeded in making a remarkable thing happen. He arranged to bring my 45-minute school assembly program, ‘Stop Bullying Now!’, to three Hartford, Connecticut elementary schools over three consecutive days, a total of nine performances.

What was remarkable about it is that Dr. James is not an employee of the Hartford Public Schools, nor is he an employee of the YMCA of Greater Hartford, the entity that Dr. James arranged to fund the performances.

Now, getting things done in a large organization with all its bureaucracy can be challenging when you're within the organization. But getting it done when you are outside of the organization, that is Herculean!

I know that others might be interested in doing the same thing in their communities. Dr. James is going to talk with us today about he did just that.

Originally from rural Texas, Corey James has many degrees, among them a Doctor of Religious Education from Destiny Christian University, a Master of Social Work from the University of Michigan. (We have that in common; I, too, studied at the University of Michigan.) His professional career spans residential treatment for abused and neglected children, substance abuse prevention, and school-based social work. In addition to his work as a senior pastor, he works as a licensed clinical social worker and senior program director, assisting youth impacted by trauma to overcome behavioral and mental health challenges.

Welcome, Dr. James. Did I get it all there in that little blurb?

Dr. Corey James

I was like, I need to meet that guy! Whoever you were introducing, I need to meet that guy! Great & Powerful Dave, it is so wonderful to be on the program with you.

Dave Moreland

Thank you, Doctor. What prompted you to bring a bullying prevention program to the Hartford, Connecticut public schools?

Dr. Corey James

We were having a service at our church, and I just began to talk about the vision and the passion that I have for working with young people and how I wanted to adopt the local schools or at least one or two of the local schools. We have one that is on the same street as our church.

At this event, there was one of our state senators that was in the congregation. And afterwards, the senator came up to me and said, “I want to help. I want to help with what you want to do with the young people.” And they informed me of a grant that was available through the Greater Hartford YMCA. We applied for the grant. We got it. And here we are.

Dave Moreland

It was certainly a great help having a senator in your court. That was your ‘in’ with the YMCA of Greater Hartford. Did you have any relationship with the Hartford's public schools before you set out to do this?

Dr. Corey James

Absolutely. And I would say anyone who's trying to get into the schools and trying to work with the schools, you have to have an inside contact. And I had met a year before with one of the schools. I met with the principal. I met with the assistant principals. And talked about how I would like to collaborate, how our church wanted to adopt that particular school. And we were able to do some collaboration. We took candy during the Halloween season for the school and some other things.

It is imperative that you have a contact. Now that particular contact wasn't what I used to get into the schools to do your presentations. I actually had a lady that goes to our church who is an assistant principal at another school. And that was the contact that really got the ball rolling. You must have an inside contact who will help you navigate throughout the bureaucracy, if you will, of some of these larger organizations like the Hartford Public Schools. And that made all the difference.

Dave Moreland

Now, you're a social worker. And so obviously, you see the bullying and how it effects young people. Was there something in particular that said, oh, a bullying prevention program, I'm seeing the need for this?

Dr. Corey James

I think that with the increase in use of technology by young people, the advances in technology, I think that bullying is just becoming a larger and larger problem. And the reason why I say that, Dave, is because when I was growing up, we did not have access to social media. We did not have access to cell phones. And so any bullying that went on just happened either in the neighborhood or happened at school. Now you have what we call cyberbullying, how children are being bullied outside of an in-person setting. They are literally being bullied through social media. For me, I know that it's a significant problem.

One of the caveats of the grant was it wanted you to provide or put on a program that addresses bullying with young people in the city of Hartford. So it just happened to work out that while that is something that I'm passionate about is addressing bullying among young people, this particular grant, the focus was on providing anti-bullying education.

Dave Moreland

I see. How long did it take you from the time you got this idea until this September when we did the performances?

Dr. Corey James

So that is the problem. I had no idea how long it would take to be able to bring the presentations into the school. I was a little naive about that part. The grant was supposed to be completed by June of 2025. We did not apply for the grant until January of 2025. So I was a little late getting the grant because when I found out, the grant had already been halfway through the grant cycle. And so from January to June, it was impossible, first of all, to align all of the different schedules. Trying to meet with the people in the school system proved challenging.

And then the Great & Powerful Dave, who was the only person that I wanted to do the presentations, was booked. Talk about devastating! It just shows that you were the right person for the job because your schedule was already full and I didn't want to do anything in the summer. So thankfully, the grant allowed us an extension to where we could do it this September. So it took literally almost half a year or more in order for us to bring the program to fruition.

Dave Moreland

Now, you, of course, are a pastor with the Liberty Christian Center and public schools generally want to stay separate from churches. Was there any pushback within the schools?

Dr. Corey James

Absolutely not, and the reason why, Dave, is because I kept it separate, we were an entity that is a faith-based entity, but we were not providing any faith-based services. The services that we were providing had nothing to do with faith, God. We're an organization that happens to be faith-based providing a program that is germane to all schools and young people. So, no, we didn't cross the those boundaries at all.

Dave Moreland

Yes, and in my dealings with you, it was very clear that you weren't crossing those boundaries. I was just wondering if there was a perception within the schools or concern within the schools that there might be a boundary-cross there.

You know, when I created my show, ‘Stop Bullying Now!’, I wanted to emphasize the importance of kindness and respect, but also recognize that that won't always happen. And that's why there can be bullying. And I tried to provide in the show tools to young people to empower them to safely and effectively deal with a bullying situation. My show, though, is based on reading and talking with educators. But as a social worker, you are in the trenches in a way that I'm not. What did you think of the messaging in the show and how it might align with the messaging that you would give young people if you were talking on the subject of bullying?

Dr. Corey James

I like the message that you presented, Dave. As adults, we can remember someone who was bullied or perhaps being bullied ourselves as a young person. You engage the young people, the adults. You literally have people captivated from the very moment you start to talk and then get them pulled in and, even with the elementary students, how you break down the message. I just can't say enough about the program and the presentation and just how compelling it is, how engaging it is, and how you're able to weave in the magic to pull them in because, you know, the attention span has decreased.

At some point, it was seven minutes for adults. And every seven minutes you have to break it up with a story or something that will reset people's mind and bring them back in. And your presentation does exactly that with the magic. It resets their mind. And then you're able to come in with a powerful truth. You're able to come in with something powerful as it relates to the bullying message that you are so eloquent at teaching.

Dave Moreland

Oh, thank you, thank you! Have you received feedback from the schools about the programs?

Dr. Corey James

Absolutely. Wanting to know if we'll be back next year. And it's ironic that you ask that question, Dave, because I'm literally now waiting for YMCA to see if they're going to have another round of grant funding.

I'm talking to one of our local banks to see if they will sponsor it because they will provide grants of up to ten thousand dollars. And that is exactly how much the grant was for the YMCA. And for anyone that is listening, it does not take a whole lot of money. We did not have a lot of staff. I had two staff people with me and myself and you. And we were able to do this at three different schools, three presentations at each school. And my desire is to keep this going. And no matter where I have to find the funding, we'll find it. But absolutely. They are wanting the program back. They have been talking to other schools who did not participate, but also want to participate. And so now it's up to me to find the funding so that we can make sure that this anti-bullying message is getting out to all of the young people in the Hartford School District.

Dave Moreland

Well, that's wonderful. For anyone considering doing something similar in their community, I would offer up this: that that within bureaucracies and big institutions -- and no doubt the Hartford Public Schools is a big bureaucracy -- there is inertia. And the law of inertia says that an object at rest is going to remain at rest. That's a hard thing to overcome.

But the law of inertia also states that once an object is in motion, it tends to want to stay in motion.

So once you get a bureaucracy moving, an institution moving, doing it the second time or the third time is far easier. There's an expectation: “Oh, the bullying show is coming back this year, right?” Because the inertia is now an inertia of movement.

Dr. James, you talked a little bit about not realizing how long it would take. Anything else that you wish you'd known at the outset, or that you would have done differently in setting this up, just in terms of the thinking for someone who's wanting to do this for the first time?

Dr. Corey James

Absolutely, Dave, I would not be naive and so excited about my passion to provide this program that I did not ask pertinent questions.

For example, I was unaware that we had to have a ‘Memorandum of Understanding’ (from the Hartford Public Schools). We needed background checks for all of the people coming into the school. We want to protect our children and make sure that the people coming into our schools are safe, but I did not know. I thought that I could just contact the individual principals at the schools, schedule it, and we're good to go. No, I did not know.

We had to have this ‘Memorandum of Understanding’ in place before the first program happened on Tuesday at 9am, and it was not until 8:30am that we got it.

This memorandum I found out later usually takes months because it has to go before the lawyers and some other higher ups in the school district to be approved. I really believe that my prayers and talking to God helped them to expedite this processing of this memorandum, because had we not had it in place, we would not have been able to go on with the show, which would have been catastrophic because you were already been booked, you were already in Hartford.

Dave Moreland

Well, I think that is maybe just evidence that you truly are ‘The Great & Powerful Corey James’ for pulling that off!

This talk has been amazing, Dr. James. Anything more you'd like to tell us or share with folks about the process or about the outcomes or anything at all that we just haven't touched on?

Dr. Corey James

I think more people need to get involved with our school systems. The schools cannot do it all. They cannot do it alone. They don't have the financial resources to do it. And anything that we can do as outside entities, whether you're faith-based, whether you are a Fortune 500 company, whether you're a small business, there is programming and activities and events that we can do to help supplement what the schools are doing.

I want to give a shout out to all of the administrators. I want to give a shout out to all of the teachers who show up every day and are working in what are now becoming combat zones because of the terror of mass shootings that we never had to worry about when I was growing up as a student.

I would encourage anyone listening, if you have an idea that can help support our students and help support our administrators and teachers, don't take ‘no’ for an answer. Have your information together. I was very concise and articulate with what we wanted to do in the schools. I was sharing the vision with people before the money even came. And because of sharing that vision and that passion, the money found me. I believe that money is attracted to people with a purpose.

And because we had a purpose, then the money came. So I would implore anyone who has a desire to help our young people, help this younger generation, to please do it and to find people like The Great & Powerful Dave who was simply amazing.

And it again was divine connection because, Dave, you were the epitome of what I was looking for when I wrote the grant. And I didn't know you. I had never met you. I had never heard of you. I did a Google search and you came up. I read your website. And what I really liked most about you was how responsive you were to me. You were very responsive to my communication. And we found out we had this connection with the University of Michigan, Go Blue! And so, Dave, now I feel like our church has a friend for life and that we're going to continue this relationship going.

Dave Moreland

I would love that. Dr. Corey James, you are a gift to the people of Hartford and you have been a gift to me. Thank you so much for speaking with me this morning, and all the best to you and your four children and your wife and everything that you're doing for the community. Thank you, sir.

Dr. Corey James

Likewise, Dave. Thank you for this opportunity and I'll see you next year!