Business Fit Magazine October 2019 Issue 1 | Page 16

Interview
How do you see the role of
women?
That they take the lead and own the responsibility
of working together to fight for our children’s
future. Speaking up and doing their part to
contribute to reimagining the current systems
which are currently hurting people and families
socially, and economically. That they advocate
and work to replace the status quo with proven
models which work for the vast majority of people
in their time of need and help them get on a path
to pursue their dreams of independence, self-
sufficiency and wealth. It is every mothers and
fathers dream to take care of and to provide for
themselves and their children, with dignity. There
has never been a more meaningful time to get
involved, our children and our future generations,
depend on us getting this right.
As a visionary, what has been
your greatest challenge?
The biggest challenge for me was understanding
25 years ago that the system was broken and
getting others to see that the issues of addiction
and alcoholism were spreading. Getting them
to see that the growing prison population due
to ‘manageable and fixable problems’ was going
to not only affect individual lives, but the lives
of families and communities. In fact, the ripple
effects would be felt by all of us both financially
and by society at large. The consequences
of this would not only affect us now, but also
for generations to come in the form of costly
entrenched issues like police protection, criminal
justice systems, an overburdened healthcare
system and crime and violence.
What is your hope for the
future?
My hope is that regardless of age, sex, race
or family make up, we step up as a collective
society to help those facing challenges get their
lives back on track. Making it simple for people
to have access to the right sort of help before
things become catastrophic and more costly for
everyone. Today, we are at a pivotal time in our
World’s history where poverty and hunger are
prevalent even in the richest nations in the world.
Yet we have the resources needed to fix this
imbalance. Not by taking away from the rich
to give to the poor, necessarily, but by holding
our public funding accountable for allocating
resources based on objective ‘performance
metrics and best practices’. Donors and investors
should be incentivised to give and invest in
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systems which actually get results, foster better
outcomes and can even potentially provide a
good return on their investment over time, too.
It does not have to be a zero-sum game.
I am excited to know we are now at a time
where we are considered ‘WOKE”. We are more
enlightened and aware of the challenges and
consequences of unmitigated poverty and the
violence and social unrest which surely follow
when a group of society is oppressed and
chronically disadvantaged. Whether you live in
Syria or Chicago, the trajectory always leads to
violence when people are desperate and have
nothing left to lose to feed and protect their
families.
What led you to become a serial
social entrepreneur?
I didn’t start out being an advocate and a serial
social entrepreneur, but the demands of the
problem led me to become one. With every
barrier people faced, it required us to create,
invest and develop a solution. Transitional
housing and wrap around support systems alone
were not enough as people faced barriers to
employment and affordable housing. To combat
this, we started social enterprise businesses like
the landscaping company, catering business and
staffing business which today help us get almost
1,000 people a year out of homelessness and
out of the vicious cycle of incarceration into jobs.
Next, we expanded our affordable and senior
housing real estate portfolio to include over 40
real estate developments that range from 35 to
170 units with more investments on the way as
demand continues to surge and the scarcity of
affordable housing has become more prevalent.
All of this has happened in the last two decades,
prior to that the topic of helping the homeless,
substance abusers and the incarcerated get back
on track, remained in the shadows. It was not
widely recognised as a mental health ‘disease’
as it is today, due to the lack of understanding
compassion, and the stigma associated with these
issues affecting these impacted populations.
Tell us about A Safe Haven.
This year marks a very special milestone. I am
celebrating the 25 year anniversary of having
co-founded A Safe Haven LLC and A Safe Haven
Foundation a multiple award winning model that
is literally transforming the lives of over 5,000
people a year from poverty and homelessness
to independence and self-sufficiency in a
sustainable manner, with their pride and purpose
Poverty,
apartheid and
slavery are not
natural
restored. Every day I get the opportunity to lead
a team of over 250 dedicated professionals who
are helping adults, youth, children and military
veterans in crisis reinvent themselves so that
they can get back on their feet with jobs and
housing. If they say happiness is derived from
the joy of helping others, then I believe I must be
among the happiest people on the planet.
How do you see the future of A
Safe Haven?
I was the visionary and the pioneering architect
of one of the most holistic and comprehensive
models designed to identify the complex root
causes of poverty and homelessness. It offers
an individualised multi-disciplinary integrated
team approach to solving these issues. My
goal is to continue to scale our brand like an A
Safe Haven franchise concept so we may help
influence a paradigm shift on how public and
private partnerships can align our resources and
our efforts to foster predictable and sustainable
success. Ultimately, we want to provide people
with a trusted brand offering the highest and
most consistent standards of care. Somewhere
they can refer to immediately and check
themselves in if required instead of waiting until
their problems become catastrophic.
Fame has never motivated me, but we are
grateful for the attention which has catapulted us
to into the spotlight. We are traveling a lot more
to share our story because we need to make
sure we shout our work from the mountaintops,
so people know that proven and scalable
solutions exist and all we need to do is replicate
it, everywhere.
Where did the idea of A Safe
Haven come from?
When my husband and I started to have children,
we have two sons, Devin and Dylan, we wanted
to be good role models so decided we should
Interview by Jacqueline Camacho-Ruiz
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