Designing Dignity: Social Entrepreneur Veronika Scott
Veronika Scott is the founder and CEO of The Empowerment Plan. Her organization provides sleeping bag coats for the homeless, and a training and employment system that empowers them to gain back their independence, and create a better future for themselves and their families. Veronika is one of Forbes 30 Under 30, and has been named one of CNN’s 10 Visionary Women.
Show Notes
- Studying industrial design at College for Creative Studies (CCS)
- Class project around needs in Detroit
- The decision to start Empowerment Plan
- “I don’t need a coat. I need a job.”
- Making connections
- On taking risks
- How to build rapport with the people you serve
- The transition to systemic impact
- How Veronika stays driven and focused on the solution
- What’s required for transformation to occur
- Ways for individuals to give back
- Seamstress to title company – a success story
Connect With Veronika Scott
Website: https://www.empowermentplan.org/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EmpowermentPlan/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/empowermentplan
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/empowermentplan/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/empowermentplan
Summary
Veronika Scott is the founder and CEO of The Empowerment Plan. What started as a college project – designing a coat that transforms into a sleeping bag for the homeless – has evolved into a movement that empowers homeless individuals to gain back their independence, and have their dignity restored. Veronika shares her amazing story, and the impact on those she serves.
Full Transcript
Brian
Welcome to another episode of LifeExcellence with Brian Bartes. Join me as I talk with amazing athletes, entrepreneurs, authors, entertainers, and others who have achieved excellence in their chosen field so you can learn their tools, techniques and strategies for improving performance and achieving greater success. Veronica Scott is the founder and CEO of the Empowerment Plan. What started as a college project designing a coat that transforms into a sleeping bag for the homeless has evolved into a movement that empowers homeless individuals to gain back their independence and have their dignity restored. Veronica is the youngest recipient of the John F. Kennedy New Frontier Award from the JFK Library Foundation and Harvard University. She has also received an IDEA Gold Award from the Industrial Design Society of America and the People’s Voice Award from Diane Von Furstenberg. Veronica is one of Forbes 30 Under 30, and has been named one of CNN’s Ten Visionary Women. The Empowerment Plan story has been told around the world and shared at events such as the World Summit On Innovation and Entrepreneurship and the Forbes 400 Philanthropy Summit. Welcome, Veronica, and thanks for joining us on LifeExcellence.
Veronica
Thanks for having me.
Brian
Veronica, your educational background is in industrial design and you attended one of the top ranked private art schools in the country – College for Creative Studies here in Detroit. Graduates of CCS go on to work in product design, transportation design, the apparel industry, visual arts, advertising firms, and the like. You were headed down one of those paths too and then your plans changed. What did you think you were going to do after college? Tell us about the project that caused you to change course.
Veronica
It’s a good question. I definitely thought I was…that’s why I signed up for CCS and that’s also why I signed up for industrial design because while I enjoyed doing creative things – painting, drawing, all of that – this was a way to not be the starving artist – in my mind. I wanted to be able to make a living and take care of myself and also my family. I did that because both of my parents struggled with unemployment and addiction and that constant instability of poverty and not knowing where you’re going to be next. So the reason why I studied industrial design was, well, I can marry business and art. These are the things that I didn’t know enough about but I was excited about the potential there. Going into CCS and designing shoes and cell phones and appliances; it was an amazing experience. So I thought, when I was at CCS, that that’s really what I was going to do; that that was the pathway. I was going to go work in New York, I was going to work for a design firm and work at Smart or IDEO or one of the amazing places out there. It was wild to me that when – I think it was about 2008, 2009 – we got the class project that was around designing to fill a need in your community. It was sponsored by a design team that was touring the US in an Airstream, trying to get designers and creatives to think about some of the world’s biggest challenges. Who knew I’d fall in love with something that had nothing to do with making money on making commercial products, but making a difference.
Brian
So you jumped into this project and the project ended. Why don’t you tell us a little bit about the project specifically; what that ended up being for you.
Veronica
For me, personally, it ended up being about homelessness and being displaced in Detroit. My family’s from Detroit, I’m from Detroit, spent most of my life there and generations of my family [did]. I think a lot of people…and specifically when I was doing research for this class project around needs in Detroit – and in 2008, that was quite a lot of needs – there was a lot going on in the world; the global economy had collapsed, and also at the same time, Detroit was about to go through bankruptcy. So there was a lot of things that Detroit was struggling with. When you talk to somebody, when you talk to a student at Cass tech or you talk to another college student or you talk to somebody that drove into work every day in Detroit, they would always talk about the person that they saw on their way to work or their way to school who was out in the worst weather and they wanted to do something to help this person that was displaced, that was homeless, but they had no idea what to do. They felt kind of trapped. So that was the premise, the thing that I focused in on was, okay, so if this is something that a lot of people seem to struggle with – and since then realized it’s not just a Detroit thing, that this is a global thing that people struggle with – how do I start doing that? Initially, I just Googled shelters across the city, and I spent a lot of time at NSO, Neighborhood Service Organization – actually three days a week, Monday, Wednesday and Friday nights at 8pm – for about five months doing research on if there was a product to meet that need, if there was a way to answer what does that individual really need in that moment; what can we give somebody that would help them? So that was the initial premise of the project for me. What happened after that? You had this idea; the basis for the project was something that made a difference in the community, you knew that you wanted to do something around the homeless population. So you go into the shelter. How did it get from that idea – this general idea that you wanted to do something to help – to designing first and then [manufacturing]? It was interesting. In the beginning it was just spending time there, spending time at this one warming center. There were about 50 to 100 people there on a given night, pretty full every night and there were hundreds of people waiting for a room – not even a room – an opportunity to be able to sit and stay warm in this warming center in winter. So for every one chair that they had, there were multiple people waiting for it on the other side, waiting for the shift to change, hoping to get a slot to stay alive in some of this cold, in Michigan’s worst winter weather. Initially, what inspired the coat was actually a playground across the street from the shelter. There was a playground that was covered in tarps and cloths and two people were living inside of it and it’s 20 feet away from this warming center. I remember walking by making note of it, talking to a lot of people, spending a lot of time, and then coming back a week later; this kind of makeshift shelter had been torn apart and burned to the ground in a turf war, basically. So what ended up happening is those two people narrowly made it through that incident only to pass away shortly after; after just having been out in the elements for so long. They had been out on the streets, I think, over 15 years is what I found out. What struck me was why would you build something for yourself when somebody is trying to give it to you for free, 20 feet away? It’s not as if you don’t have access, it’s not as if you don’t know it’s there. It’s right there and you end up paying the ultimate price to [not] do it. That was the thing that inspired the coat itself, was how can we address that. What I realized after spending so much time in a shelter and in this warming center, and through my own experience growing up, was just watching how people treated others in this warming center – especially volunteers, individuals even, that work there, or people that were just popping in for a moment – they treated the individuals there as if they’d done something horribly wrong, as if they were dangerous, as if they were something to be afraid of, or not even like really human, as if they were less than human. So you realize that people want to be able to take care of themselves, they want to be able to build a place for themselves. That’s what that couple was doing across the street. Because can you imagine living your life where you are told every second of every day, where you can sleep, where you can sit, what you can eat, when you can do this; it’s very hard. So really giving people that sense of independence back and how do we give people that autonomy, independence and, hopefully, confidence and encouragement. So the coat was like my initial trying to grasp that; it’s very hard to figure that out as a product designer. I was like, I don’t know if a product is the right answer, but it’s the start, and one, I’ve got to pass this class; two, I want to actually be able to help some of the people I’ve met here. I have been talking with the same group over and over again for months so can I design something that will hopefully help them if they cannot get into a shelter, if they are on the step waiting for hours, or if they don’t want to or don’t have any other place – what can, hopefully, help them in that moment. So that’s where the sleeping bag coat – part of Empowerment Plan now – started, it was just how to address that immediate need, and hopefully protect people from frostbite; one of the biggest things, actually.
Brian
It’s amazing to me that as a college student – and you are obviously much more mature than I was as a college student, and maybe we’ll get into some of those differences – to have the foresight and the thinking and also just to step into that environment, I think, takes courage. It’s just so interesting to me that with your design background and your artistic and creative background, that you were able to find this solution, again, through observation, through conversation. Did the light bulb just go off at some point that, aha, like a coat that turns into a sleeping bag or did that come through ongoing dialogue? You mentioned that you were at the shelter several times a week for quite a while, how did the product idea come about?
Veronica
Definitely ongoing dialogue, for sure. But the initial one…the first iteration was really rough, let’s just say that. So it was, one, seeing people walking around the neighborhood and spending time there – and I only lived a few blocks away so it wasn’t as if this was a whole different area, it was at the end of the Cass corridor – I spent time just kind of walking around with a couple people I had gotten to know and they were showing me places to meet people and talk to people that were displaced and didn’t have an opportunity in this warming center. You’d see people with hand-me-downs of hand-me-downs – coats that were…I mean I met a guy who’s coat was like rotting off of him; he had a bungee cord holding multiple coats together. So that was the initial concept; okay, well, there needs to be a better, warmer winter coat, step one. Then we saw a lot of people that had frostbite; lot of people would lose toes and fingers come January, February. It was really devastating to see people [like that], it just was very hard. So how can we protect all of that if you cannot get into a shelter, if you cannot get a bed? What can we do to, hopefully, protect a little bit more? So that was where I was trying to cover up feet, trying to cover up the rest of the body. How do we keep somebody warm? Initially, I wanted it to be a coat/tent thing; that tent part never panned out, it immediately collapsed when I brought it back to the shelter to show people. In the beginning it wasn’t the warmest welcome. I remember going the first night and getting told by the night manager, Mr. Spratt, to introduce myself; I thought I was going with a bunch of other classmates and I was the only one that showed up. And he said, alright, you want to talk to some people? Here you go. He clicks off the television everyone was watching and it was “Cheers”. Everyone just stood up and started swearing at me, like I completely ruined their evening. I’m holding a bag of stuff that I was going to do some design research [with], like post-it notes and disposable cameras. But after that moment [it] was, if you want to help us, turn our television back on, [that] was the most direct feedback I got and that was just the beginning of it, which was really interesting. People have been so burned by individuals coming in there and saying they’re going to do all this and never really doing anything. So I felt very lucky to just get to spend time with people. All I said was, look, I’m broke. I live with my grandparents and I need your help passing this class – which is not super inspirational – but definitely got people to talk to me because I wasn’t coming in there saying I’m going to save you or help you; like who am I left to do any of that. I need your help. I have no idea what I’m doing. It was really amazing how many people stepped forward and wanted to work on a creative project. It was so exciting. I still have pictures that I look at all the time from those days.
Brian
That is exciting. I bet you’re inspired by those early day pictures. So the project ended and the semester was over and you were finished with the assignment. Yet, obviously, that was just the beginning for you. What was it that caused you to continue, to make serving the homeless community your mission, rather than simply getting a good grade on the project, and then moving on. Which again, is sort of, I think what most college students do – I was going to say what I would have done – I think it’s what most college students do with term papers or semester long projects like that.
Veronica
Absolutely, and I think for a lot of my classmates, same thing. For me, I didn’t realize at the time what I was doing was deeply personal. It didn’t connect for me for a while which is fascinating to think about. But it came from a place of trying to solve for what I went through, what my parents went through, growing up. How can I create something, how can I deal with this? Also, at the same time, it was just amazing to engage with other people in this design process. Up until then most of my work was on the computer, everything I had done over four years – if my computer had died – would have gone poof. That was very hard. So for me, it was exciting to be out in the world, be creating something and actually engaging with people in that process. Where it wasn’t…I’m not good; I can do it but I’m really not the type of designer that can sit in a room and draw for weeks and weeks and come up with something brilliant. I love working with people and I think some of the best ideas come from working together with individuals. That was really exciting for me. When it became about the class project is over, even then I’m still going back to the shelter – while the class project is over, grades come out, I’m still going back, I have these relationships. I didn’t even think about it being weird that I kept going. I didn’t even think about it. It was just something I was doing and people that I enjoyed being around and something that was exciting to me. I tried to make it another class project for the next semester. I was like, I need to get money somehow to make coats because if we’re going to…a couple people had come up to me, they were like, oh, I hear you’re the coat lady, you’re making these coats, can I get one? I was like, I guess, it takes me two weeks to make a prototype but we’ll put your name on a list. So it was exciting in that moment to realize a product that didn’t just exist on the screen somewhere, that somebody is coming up to you asking for this thing, and wanting to be a part of it was huge. That’s why I continued. Then what really made Empowerment Plan not about a product but something much bigger, was actually after that. Starting in that next semester, I was coming out of the shelter with my newest prototype – number 20 something – and a woman started screaming at me. She was yelling at me. She’s like, look, I don’t need a coat, I need a job, what you’re doing is pointless. I went up to her, had a conversation for a minute. I was like, you know, I hear you, that totally makes sense. I remember I was going out to a bar with a friend after that and sitting there and [thinking] yeah, she’s absolutely right. That’s when I tried to figure out like, can I hire somebody? How do you even do that? What does that even look like? I’ve barely had a job myself, what is this thought of this idea of hiring other people? Because I was in college it gave me the freedom to continue pushing it. So it still, in my mind, was a class project for a while, until graduation came around and I realized this was what I was going to do.
Brian
It’s clear today that you’ve made the right decision and I’m truly grateful for the difference that you make in the world. I can’t help but wonder though, what it was like when you were still in college and contemplating the direction of your life. You talked about you had this freedom to be able to move forward with that idea but I know, I’m sure then – it was true when I was in school, I think it’s true today – that there’s so much pressure and there’s so many expectations regarding economic return on educational investment. Certainly that had to have crossed your mind too as you were thinking about all these possibilities for the coat and for employment and for what would eventually become Empowerment Plan. Tell us about that thought process. What ultimately caused you to forego other opportunities that probably would have been more lucrative financially, maybe a lot more lucrative financially, in order to start the Empowerment Plan.
Veronica
So, one, I’m very lucky, I had financial aid and scholarship that allowed me to go to college without debt, really. I want to preface that because I think a lot of people in my generation want to be able to do this, but can’t because they’re kind of saddled with college loans and student loans. If I had to pay back…I couldn’t make the decision I made had I been saddled with student loan debt, I don’t think. I think it would have been much harder, because for me, I didn’t make an income for years. Initially, like the first year of Empowerment Plan [I] didn’t make anything; whatever donations we got in went to hiring people. I was able to live with my grandparents and do this. Then when graduation rolled around, it was a very difficult decision because, like I said, the reason I picked the college I was going to – picked the major – was that I wanted economic mobility and stability for myself and for my own family. It was something that I saw that other people had; they had homes, they could take vacations, they had this stability, they could buy whatever groceries they wanted to buy and not worry about whether it was covered by WIC. There were so many things that I wanted to have and I wanted to do. So for me it was a very tough decision leading up to graduating from CCS. I remember interviewing – because we were all showing our portfolios, and I was still doing Empowerment Plan, still moonlighting doing this – I remember interviewing at different companies, because that’s what our college wants to see. We’re pushing to do work at different firms. Everybody I interviewed with was like, this project is amazing. A couple of people that interviewed me [said] why do you want to come work with us; this is way more exciting. [I was] like, well, are you going to fund this thing? I remember sitting down with one of my grandparents’ friends – so I didn’t find this out until very recently – but my grandparents’ friend was told – by my grandparents – please try to convince her out of this so she can move out of the house eventually. [Laughter.]
Brian
That’s the pressure that I was talking about.
Veronica
That was the pressure, I didn’t know that they had put that message out there, that my grandparents’ friend had tried to convince me out of it. But I remember sitting down with them and they said, look, you have a couple options, you can go work somewhere and come back and do this later. Get more experience, go out and get the real world work experience, come back in ten years or so and then do it. I remember going – that was option one – I knew myself well enough to say that that wasn’t going to happen. In ten years, who knows who I will be at that point. There was already so much momentum behind the coats; not a lot of money but a ton of momentum so I knew that that really wasn’t feasible. The second option; she was like, well, you can sell it to another company. I’m like, what is there to sell, there are a couple of people who are making a coat a week; there’s nothing to sell. Then a third option being you can do this and commit to doing this and figure it out but you really have to be all in; you can do this and try to make it work and if it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work, but at least you tried. So she was like, well, first you’ve got to graduate college so at least, worst case scenario, if it does fail and fall apart, at least you have a college degree. It took me months to make the choice and once I did, I felt like well, worst case scenario, I’m already broke, I already live with my grandparents, I have family to lean on. I’m very lucky. I’ll be okay. If this doesn’t work, I will be okay. So it was worth trying and it’s been ever since, I guess is the best way to describe it.
Brian
What kind of external feedback were you getting around that? You talked about your grandparents friend, you came around to your option three. It took a long time to come to that decision so obviously it was a very thoughtful one and you knew the fallback, you knew what would happen if it didn’t work, you saw at least some about the possibilities for it working. What kind of feedback were you getting from people around you; fellow students, maybe the school, other people who were pouring into you besides your grandparents at that time – just out of curiosity.
Veronica
It’s really interesting. There was the dean of CCS that I worked very hard to get a meeting with because I was like, I’m writing this business plan, I’ve never written one before and I need money to do this. I don’t know how to get money, no idea of where to get funding. So I thought, well, I give money to this entity of CCS every year, they should give me money to start this thing. Not at all how it works, but that’s how I thought at the time. I met with so many CCS administrators – still a lot of them great friends of mine – they looked through the business plan and then they would let me go to the next level and next level. I finally got a meeting with the dean of CCS who had been the design director for Patagonia, of all people. His feedback was the one that really shaped it, and Empowerment Plan wouldn’t exist today without him taking the risk he took. So he was like, look, we can’t give you money but I can maybe connect you with somebody that can help in more ways than just this financial way. He was the first person – he actually connected me with Carhartt – the other teachers at that time were like, this is cute, this is adorable, good for you wanting to help people but we want you to get back into consumer electronics. So he was like, well, I think they’re wrong, I think this is much bigger than that and can be much bigger than just this product, so I will teach you as an independent study and I’ll help give you direction wherever I can. It was a game changer. I remember also talking to board members of other nonprofits that I had been working with and spending time with, and they’re like, look, this is cute, again, this is adorable, but you’re never going to get a homeless person to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich let alone a coat, was some of the feedback I got. Or this is going to fail because you can’t…you’re not going to be able to hire anybody or this is going to be the problem. It was amazing, the list of reasons why people said it was going to fail, and not for the ways that I expected. I am like, I am a 21 year old that has no…I’m still in college and I’m trying to set up a sewing facility and I don’t know how to sew myself, and set up a nonprofit with this much working experience. So it was very interesting.
Brian
So what’s the lesson in that for high school and college students who might be listening to or watching the show and really, for anybody else who might be at a crossroads in life, either they’re facing a similar career decision, or an important life decision, like the one you had to make?
Veronica
So my advice to high school, college or even anybody – it doesn’t matter the age – at the precipice of that kind of decision. Like I said, I like to think about the worst case scenario. For me, it was well, I will still be broke and I’ll still be living with my grandparents if I take this risk. Sometimes that’s a very tough decision for people to make, because there’s a lot more at stake if you have kids and a mortgage; it makes it very hard – damn near impossible – to do something like that. I think what’s a gift of being a student – high school or college – you have this ability to take those risks and have people around you that can support you, but also you can learn from. So for me, it’s about taking the risks of the first couple steps. It’s not about looking at this whole thing of I want to save the world or I want to end homelessness; that’s a very big thing to try to take a bite out of or even make an impact on, even a small dent. I know a lot of people that don’t start something for fear of not being able to do the big, big thing. Maybe why do it if I can’t, or I’m never going to be able to achieve that or I’m never going to get the amount of money or I’m never going to be able to do this big, big thing. When I started it was about impacting the ten people I had gotten to know and then 12 people, and then it became 14 people. It was about this small thing right around the corner from where I lived, that was about impacting that small number of people and seeing if it worked. Doing a pilot, to me, is the biggest thing ever. I love doing that even now at work. We do pilots of stuff all the time. It’s a way to see can I do this? Do I feel comfortable doing this? You also may realize, oh, my god, I don’t personally want to be doing this. So I recommend not looking at this massive big project. But taking it down to a very bite size thing and say, how can I do ten of this, or make this one event or make this one thing and see if it’s good, see if it works, let me work out the kinks. Then take the next step. Because I didn’t even know what the steps would be after the first ten coats. I had no clue what they were; it was like one thing at a time. I realized, after making the first ten coats, it was like okay, how am I going to hire people, then do I need insurance, and every step of the way the list would get a little longer. But it was so much easier than had I known all of it in the beginning and was presented with this massive list of things. I don’t think I would have done this. I think I would have been terrified or daunted by the big magnitude of it.
Brian
Veronica, you had mentioned when you first showed up at the shelter – and I was kind of smiling, because I’ve been in that setting so I know exactly how that must have felt; the intimidation and especially when you were at the front of the room and they turned off the television, which is very important to people in the shelter to be able to watch a television show – obviously, over time, you’ve developed relationships and rapport with the clients that you serve. Tell us about that now; how the relationship with your constituency, your clients changed over time. How did you win them over? Maybe you haven’t even done that completely yet with everybody but you’ve obviously had success on some level with that. I’m curious about your thoughts on that?
Veronica
That’s it’s a good question. I think it applies to anybody that wants to get into this kind of impact work or even who wants to go volunteer in a shelter, like you did, and engage with people of – for me, it was actually – similar backgrounds. For me, it was like spending time with members of my own family. I was way more comfortable with it than a lot of my other classmates or anybody else. That’s how I fell in love with it. I think it’s all about asking questions, the humility, and then also being open to not knowing. I think a lot of people go into those situations – especially with giving back – and they’re like, well, I know what you need. I am not in the situation – you are – obviously you’ve done something wrong and I’ve done something right. So there is that idea of “otherness” when you go into these situations. It’s our bias; it’s an unconscious bias that we have. I think when you go into a shelter or spend time with somebody – with the team that I work with now – it’s about building trust, it’s about building rapport, like you would with any person in any company. But also understanding that you don’t know the answers and being open and asking questions; asking how people are doing, what their day was like, what their weekend was like, talking about their kids. There’s all these same passions. It’s just finding that mutual pattern whether it’s you both like iced lattes from Starbucks – who knew? You don’t know those amazing similarities and I think it’s that humanity piece that I’ve seen, sadly, when it comes to doing charitable work, people lose sight that this is just another person that they’re talking to, rather than this other person that they have to serve or give something to. I’ve seen it when I was in NSO, there was a sandwich drive-by where a group was in charge of handing out food around NSO. And that area had a really terrible reputation as a very dangerous part of the city. So the group – packed with baloney sandwiches – is in a white van. They roll up to the building, instead of stopping, they slow down to a crawl, all the windows get rolled down, and people start tossing sandwiches out the window at people and then they speed off. I always wonder, did the people in the car end up patting themselves on the back and saying, well, people were hungry and we fed them. If you look at this work and serving others and all that as a math equation: people + hungry = sandwiches, there’s a lot that can get lost. So it’s about understanding, having the empathy, the humanity piece, and also just constantly being open to being wrong and to finding similarities and asking those questions and just getting to know people. I think that curiosity too, is something; I was shocked by how shocked others were in the shelter that I was curious about their life and family and kids and all that. They hadn’t been asked about, hey, how are your kids doing? What do they like? Oh, have they seen this new movie? All of those things, just treating them like you would your friend or family member or any other person.
Brian
Being human goes a long way, doesn’t it?
Veronica
Yeah, it does. I don’t even think people think that’s it. I think a lot of places don’t do that well, no matter who they’re serving. You’re very right about that. Veronica, I love the coat. Not just because of the practicality of keeping people warm when it’s freezing cold outside, I mean, that would be enough, but also because you’ve created something that gives them pride and you talked about this a little bit earlier. When I think about what I see people on the street dressed in, they’re usually wearing, covered with, and protected by whatever’s available to them. You mentioned tarps, things like trash bags, cardboard and odd clothing that, I’m sure especially in the winter, doesn’t even begin to keep them warm. But at some point, you realized that there was an opportunity to make a much larger societal impact, that it wasn’t just about providing coats. What triggered that transition? You mentioned this earlier. What triggered the transition from manufacturing sleeping bag coats for those in need to also providing employment and job readiness training and support because those are two very different things. I can totally see even a student from CCS, a product designer and industrial designer, making a product, but that’s very different than training and employment and life skills and manufacturing skills and all of those other things that weren’t really your background or your skill set necessarily. How did you make that leap? Like I said, there was the one woman that one day said, look, I don’t need a coat, I need a job, what you’re doing isn’t what’s going to help me, basically. So talking to her and then trying to digest what it’s like to hire people, that was a big thing and realizing – she’s right – on its own, the coat is a band-aid. What has a systemic impact is hiring the people that would need it in the first place. So wrapping my head around that; it became complicated. It was really exciting, the puzzle of how can I impact the people that would need the coat so that they never have to use the coat; which is a very interesting thing as a product designer of how do I make my product obsolete, even just for a few people, or unnecessary for even these few people. Then I was able to partner with another amazing shelter in work as they were my fiduciary, so I was fiscally sponsored by them because I really had no idea how nonprofits ran or how to do any of that. So I was underneath their umbrella, I was a project underneath their programming. That allowed me to see a lot of what it would take to actually run a nonprofit and what it would entail, which was amazing. I highly recommend that for anybody that is looking to go down that route, filing one piece of paper, it’s pretty amazing. What I was able to do while I was there was actually hire the first few people from their shelter and seeing what they accomplished without any other things than just a paycheck from me – the things that they were able to do – they were moving out of the shelter, they were buying a car, they were getting their kids enrolled in these different schools and incredible programs and all these things, and it was amazing to see that. That’s when I realized, obviously, the check is part of that and income, immediate income, is so important, but also just being flexible for people so that if they had to go to an appointment to get their driver’s license back or if they had to go deal with getting child care or to try to figure out a new place to live outside of the shelter; a lot of jobs do not have the tolerance for that. They’re like, look, if you’re not here at work, you’re fired. So just [providing] that kind of flexibility, saying, of course you have to go deal with that. That became part of our core principles, understanding that the income is part of it but you have to look at the whole person and the whole person requires a lot of complex things coming in at once. Then slowly, based on the people that were employed, one person wanted to go back and get their GED. So I and my team were googling…okay, so do we teach GED classes, should we try to do that? Like, I don’t know anything about the GED. I don’t think I could pass the GED. We looked at each other like, there’s got to be a place that we can send somebody; there’s one across town at 9pm. Okay, well, how is this person going to get there at 9pm when they take the bus and they have three kids? Where are their kids going to go? It was this process of understanding that this system is really broken and really scattered and a lot of these nonprofit organizations, we’re all in these different silos. You have to bounce from place to place to place to place to place to get to stability, even. So how can we prevent that crazy navigating the entire city of Detroit, plus some, just to get some of those basic needs met? How can we bring those things on site? So that’s when it began to evolve [by] listening to each person along the way, and let’s help you figure out how to get your GED. We’re going to partner with this other nonprofit that’s really good at doing GED prep and we’ll work with them, because we don’t know anything about the GED. What that allowed us to do is now we have a network of other providers and other partners, other organizations that are really good at what they are good at and they get to be good at that. Then we get to be good at the employment piece. We get to provide a network of care around somebody.
Brian
I love your attitude toward the whole thing. Obviously, you’re making a huge difference but I don’t think I have to tell you how big the problems are that you’re trying to address. I thought about that as I approached the show, you’re fighting systemic and intergenerational poverty, a rise in mental health and substance abuse issues and record levels of domestic violence, all while you’re trying to manufacture coats and employ people and train people. Certainly any positive impact that you can make – you talked about the small steps to reduce homelessness and poverty and, of course, to bring dignity to those affected, I think that’s one of the main things is certainly worth doing – but I have to be honest, the challenge, to me, seems almost insurmountable. I’m sure at times it does to you, too. You have capacity constraints on the number of coats you can produce, the number of people that you can employ and train. How do you – and again, I love your attitude around it – how do you stay driven and focused and inspired on the solution, even in the midst of some challenges that are probably getting worse, and that certainly aren’t even within your control?
Veronica
It’s an easy thing to get disheartened by. Also it’s just kind of the state of the world right now; for a lot of people it feels very helpless and hopeless; that idea of these things being broken beyond us fixing them. But for me, I have to look at it in the way that I don’t think there is a silver bullet or a cream that fixes everything. My personal belief is that there are things in each community – the community action, the grassroots things – those have very profound and deep impact on the area that they’re located in. What works in Detroit may not work even in Pontiac, let alone LA or New York. So understanding that, the problem – again, it’s based on what you’re trying to bite off – the problem that you’re trying to make an impact on. Had I known when I started that we were going to impact 80,000 people around the globe with the coats, I wouldn’t believe you. That’s an astronomical number to me. And then hundreds of people we’ve employed, and all of that. I think, to keep that hope, is seeing that direct impact, and seeing that one person. To be able to impact positively the trajectory of one person is huge, in my mind, and I think you cannot – and there’s been these great Harvard case studies that have come out – we can’t just sit around and wait for the one big solution that’s going to fix it all. We have to do as individuals and small groups, and as a person, the little things that we can know that will impact our scope. Because if enough people do that, then that’s when the big change happens. But I think we’ve gotten into this place where we’re waiting for that one thing, that person that’s going to come in and make the big, big changes, fix all the big, big problems. So my attitude, and my thought, is well, a lot of people can make a lot of impact and that’s in very small ways.
Brian
Are there things that can be done on a macro level to improve the state of homelessness and poverty? Or do you really think that in order for transformation to occur, it has to occur at the grassroots level?
Veronica
I don’t think it has to occur. I think it’s both, I think it all plays a role. I don’t want to discount grassroots, I think that’s when people get overwhelmed. They’re like, oh, I can’t do anything because the problem is too big. Well, it’s like if you can make a change here, and then it can start to have a ripple effect. That’s what I’ve seen with Empowerment Plan is [that] there are a lot of people that want to create other empowerment plans, which is interesting. They have now copied the model, they now want the model in their cities. Other businesses are now hiring people from shelters and from housing programs. I think that’s exciting to see because it’s like proof of concept. Then you see all these other organizations pick up. What I’ve even seen locally is that there are companies – whether it’s a small bakery or business – hiring somebody and doing more training and more support than they normally would have but then they get a very incredible employee out of it. Henry Ford Health Systems, we’ve partnered with them; they do a lot of interesting and amazing hiring and recruiting. I think now, more than ever, in this after the pandemic and COVID situation, a lot of employers are looking at things differently. They’re looking at maybe this person doesn’t have to have a four year college degree, maybe we can train them. That allows for a lot more people to get that opportunity, to get that call, to get that chance to get that mobility. Those are some of the things that I see even on a macro level that can have very powerful ripple effects. And that’s just from the employment space but there’s a lot there.
Brian
Sure. Where is your focus right now? You have an opportunity to make more coats, you have an opportunity to employ more people. You talked about other people, other communities, taking the idea and running with it so there are scale opportunities. What are you focused on right now?
Veronica
I think our biggest thing right now is systematizing a lot. We’re growing exponentially. We’ve just hired 20 people over the last few months and we’re growing quite a bit. For me, that’s risky with a culture like ours – very close, very tight knit – we want to make sure we’re not growing too quickly that we lose that kind of magic thing that we’re doing and people don’t get lost in the shuffle. That’s very important. As we’re growing to try to reach the demand for employment opportunities and for the coats is making sure that we’re capturing and packaging up all the work that we do and making sure that it is a process, a ritual, a habit that we have in place as part of the culture of Empowerment Plan. That’s a big thing. On top of that is really scaling and looking at – for us – potential government funding, because that’s how nonprofits really grow. Traditional philanthropy can only get you so far for so long; once you hit a certain age or certain size that needs to come into play, and then looking at how we scale. We are in high demand; what would another city look like? What would that be and where do we go first and why? So those are some of the big things that we’re focused on right now. We’re building the strategic plan for the next couple of years right now.
Brian
You have lots of exciting opportunities.
Veronica
Yeah, it’s more like, what are we not doing? What are we doing? It’s even tougher to say nope, we’re not…the boundary systems are really important.
Brian
Veronica, I know there are people listening to the show, or watching it on our YouTube channel whose hearts are broken for the clients you serve. What can people as individuals do to help? I appreciate you sharing that. Can you share a story about a specific person you’ve impacted along the way to help personalize this for us? Someone who you think of whenever you need a reminder of how important the work is that you’re doing? There are a lot of ways to give and to give back, whether it’s to us or even other organizations. At Empowerment Plan, we rely very heavily on our donors and partners; they can go to empowermentplan.org. We’ve seen an uptick in a lot of needs; transportation needs have gone through the roof, we’ve seen a lot of domestic violence, so mental health wrap-around services, all those things are so important. There are ways for people to get involved, a couple of different opportunities, even with Empowerment Plan’s site. We also run a food pantry and this idea of being able to give…we get a lot of food from Focus Hope and Gleaners, so there are a lot of things that even as individuals, sitting at home right now, looking at your kitchen, what are the things that can I give – some food? Or can I give some business casual clothes away that I wore before the pandemic, but I’m not going to wear now. That can do a lot for a lot of people. So there are many different ways to get involved.
Veronica
What’s awesome with my job is there are always new people getting added to the list. So there…it’s very cool…I’ll go for one of the first stories that I think about, the one that really solidified for me, oh, this is bigger than a class project, okay, wait, this is actually…this is real. One of the first five people I ever hired, we’re in this tiny incubator in Corktown. She had been sleeping in her car with her six year old son at the time and then had finally gotten into a shelter and then we hired her. She had never had a traditional employment opportunity before. She had been in survival sex work for a very long time and this was very different. This was also something outside of what she had grown up with, and all of these things. She was with us for about two years. She was also one of the most talented seamstresses ever – so fast – who could sew circles around anybody within a few weeks, and so young. She had a saying, she had a catchphrase, she was this very bright, bubbly, fun, light in our office. After a few years she actually moved out, she was one of the first few people to move on into another job. She started working for a title company. She now works making mortgages, which is amazing to think about her journey. Then she surprised us one day when the company was doing this – the new company she was working for – did a volunteer day with Empowerment Plan. She didn’t tell anybody, she just showed up in the new company’s swag and everyone was screaming and excited – and she’s still there. This was seven years ago. It’s those stories that still make me relate…brings me a lot of joy just to think about her, just all of those things. That impact of that one person but also the family, like how her son is doing, and all of these things. That’s, for me, the real one.
Brian
So that gives you hope.
Veronica
Oh yeah, I can tell you dozens of other stories like that; they’re all unique. Everyone’s story is very different but that’s the first one that came to mind.
Brian
I love that and I appreciate you sharing that, Veronica. Thanks so much for being on the show. It’s been great getting to know you, learning about the Empowerment Plan, and I really truly appreciate the difference that you make in the world. Thanks for being on the show and hopefully we can talk again soon.
Veronica
Thank you for having me, loved it.
Brian
Me too. To our listeners and viewers, thanks for tuning into LifeExcellence. Please support the show by subscribing, sharing it with others, posting about today’s show with Veronica Scott on social media, and leaving a rating and review. You can also learn more about me at BrianBartes.com. Until next time, dream big dreams and make each day your masterpiece.